Early Access Copies Competition

[BPW]

12 days to go!!

With launch getting close, we thought we’d mark it by offering a few free early access copies to people who genuinely can’t wait to get stuck in.

This isn’t a random giveaway. I’m looking for players who:

Actually play booking sims.
Care about systems, balance, and long-term saves
Aren’t afraid to call out what works and what doesn’t.

If you’d like to be considered, comment below with one of the following:

Why you should be one of the chosen
What you think should be the most important feature BPW focuses on post-launch
Or what booking sims usually get fundamentally wrong.

I’ll pick a few people from the replies and DM details.

Closing date for entries is Thursday 22nd January.
Feedback from this will directly influence Early Access priorities.

[jcgoat]

• I’m really interested in fantasy booking and I am really excited about the genre seemingly being on the verge of changing. I’d be glad to give honest feedback on what the game does well and poorly and help it evolve so it raises the bar for the whole genre.
• The main thing that lacks in wrestling sims, to me, is that they don’t really feel like a game, and most of the time I could get away with the same fun by simply running a spreadsheet. I think having more goals, difficulties regarding money, network demands, fan criticism etc.. would really make booking sims feel more like a game and make the players actually feel like they’re running a promotion rather than simply fantasy booking things. So focusing on interactions between the player and the networks/the backstage environment/the fans would really be cool and make the game feel alive !

[ForgottenLights]

I’ve been playing booking sims since the early EWR days and still play them almost daily while playing games like JOW, TEW, & PWS!

One thing I feel most booking sims are missing is full freedom. Sometimes I want to be able to control every aspect of the the company that I’m booking.

-I want to be able to talk to agents to let them know what I’m looking for when it comes to the way they help put together matches

-If my company has a training facility, I want the ability to have camps/try outs where I can send invites out to Indy wrestlers to come participate and offer them contracts based on how well they do.

-plus many other features that I can’t think of off the top of my head.

Very excited for this and can’t wait to play!

[DericBiscoffCookies]

I have been a lover of fantasy booking games for ages, however I always found the barrier of entry for titles like TEW to be too high to really get any enjoyment out of it. From the clunky UI, the fact that it felt entirely up to me how much fun I was having, to when all was said and done, the most memorable things about it were of my own creation. So the majority of my experience has been with PWS, the WWE Smackdown vs Raw games, WWE 2K games, Wrestling Empire, and Fire Pro Wrestling World’s Fire Promoter.

Then you have games like Fire Pro Wrestling World which have all the excitement of watching Wrestling IRL but the actual booking mechanics were so limited that I had to make my own complex spreadsheet just to scratch the itch of what games like BPW are offering.

What I find to be lacking from current booking simulators are:

• The lack of interplay between companies. These promotions should be at war. While a small upstart will never take down a juggernaut like WWE, as a video game there should at least be a sense that you could if you were smart enough. Maybe it’s a degree of public opinion, yearly awards, or just the excitement generated by the talent, that give you some sense that you’re crushing it. Seeing the viewership and rating of the competition is fine, but it doesn’t do much to add to the drama that would keep someone coming back for more. There should be more sniping, more undercutting deals, just something to feel like you’re existing in the same world. Maybe even an espionage angle where a rival company sours your relationships through back alley deals and whatnot. You should hate your competition and want to band together to take them down (like in real Wrestling storylines ).
• The next note is less defined but no less important, but finding some way to make watching your product feel just as exciting as the real thing. As I mentioned earlier, I could watch FPWW matches all day (even when I dislike actually controlling the gameplay). However we can simulate matches so that you can still derive excitement from it. Whether its a: “who’s gonna win this shoot match” to “getting emotional over the blowoff of a longterm rivarly” there needs to be something in there to make hitting “start” on your weekly show get yourblood pumping. At the end of the day you should feel as much a fan, as the millions of CPU you’re putting this show on for.
• Lastly (for now) when I think of management simulations (Rimworld being my personal GOAT in all of gaming) excitement and “just one more turn” comes from having the CPUs feel alive. They have needs and opinions, they can be a little unpredictable, a little fickle, but at the end of the day, but when all is said and done will do anything for your company. Timeless storytelling all harkens to the human experience, and the interplay between wrestlers, staff, fans and competition can create unforgettable moments. Booking sims always rely on the player to make the fun for the CPU fans, but as a game the focus should be on providing the player with fun as they put together their shows week-by-week.

I don’t have any of the coding know-how, but I’ve made art and videos professionally in the world of advertising for nearly 20 years so if there are any ways we can collaborate I’d be happy to help (even if its just beta testing your build now). I’ve had my own dreams of making a similar game for American Football one day, but alas maybe I’ll have time one day…

Also, if it helps: I have developed (though never completed) my own Wrestling Management Card Game, so this is definitely a topic I have given countless hours of consideration to.

[NeverEnd]

• I like to play in sims, actually. I played like 128 hours in Pro Wrestling Sim, and love Universe Mode in WWE games
• I dont think, that it’s gonna be a problem for me to care about everything.
• I dont afraid said that i don’t like in game or what can be changed!

[Bronan]

I have only playing booking sims for the last year or so but one key feature that I have not seen (or is limited) is being able to mod actual game mechanics. I mainly play tew but check on pws from time to time.

Databases are great, but if there was the ability to add or change various mechanics, that could vastly increase longevity of the player base. What comes to mind is something akin to Rimworld or other games with bustling modding communities.

Some examples: having more in-depth marketing and sponsorship contracts (must have x product appear in a promo n times or something), wrestling gear systems that tie into characters/gimmicks and fan perception of said gear, being able to reference and hype other things than just workers like titles/events/etc, greater depth to logistics like buying or renting rings/moving the ring to venues/Pyro or special effect costs…

It may seem like I’m just talking about game features but what I’m trying to say is that having the ability for others to help develop and build a dedicated community could be novel.

Having said all that, I understand that may not be possible, comes with new challenges, or something you dont envision for your game. I just think it would be cool.

Looking forward to the game and hope it does well. Peace

[emoney]

I started playing booking sims mid last year and it has now pretty much taken up all of my spare time. Starting with JOW then PWS and now mainly TEW. However there are a few features in these games that I feel are heavily missing. One is a feature that is being included in your new game, which is proper agent notes where you can actually tell the agents the intent for the match.
Another feature I think would be great for wrestling games is to have wrestler’s get over without having to have too high of a popularity rating. And then being penalised by the fans if we don’t give them a proper push.
Getting the chance to explore what this game has to offer would be a pleasure, and to maybe start making my own real world historical mod. However I still don’t have a system for doing the wrestler’s skill ratings.

[BrandonDesign]

I want to preface this by saying I don’t have a lot of free time anymore. That may make me not the best candidate for an early copy, I’d happy play it when I have time, if I received one though. I mostly just wanted to share my thoughts and ideas.

About My Booker Sim History

I’ve been playing Booker sims since the days of eFeds, TNM7 and EWR/Promotion Wars. I’ve primarily loved the idea of taking a real world sim and trying to make my own promotion. Sometimes I try local to global, sometimes I like to pretend I won the lottery and put some real money into building a promotion (like AEW).

I’ve had some recent plays though where I do historical mods. A few years back I had a lot of fun with a 2008 Mod, but once again built my own promotion to do so. However, just now I’ve been playing a 2001 Here Come the Money where I kept WCW alive and played out what that would be like…and have been having so much fun.

However, often wanted to play completely fantasy games, but the lack of being able to actually mod the world (would love to play a game in the Fallout universe for example, but can’t chance countries etc). I really think there’s a market for a total sandbox style game.

The Main Concept

All of that was just setup to understand my play style and my evolution at looking at things. One thing I’ve noticed in all of these years of playing, of different styles and and game world setups is that it’s all just a formula.

The wrestlers don’t matter. They could be Seth Rollins or Wrestler 432297 and it doesn’t matter. They’re just a collection of stats that can be somewhat manipulated to whatever outcome you want. I could have Sting become a tooth fairy character and as long as I didn’t play him like a total comedy act, there’d be no backlash.

The wrestlers should have personalities, personas, lives etc. Things like Mick Foley distancing himself from WWE due to political issues doesn’t really happen in sims. Zack Ryder getting over organically, on his own and making the booker make a choice (push him and benefit, but potentially open flood gates for workers getting themselves over and going into business for themselves…or stay in charge and keep the business in your hands alone but upset some IWC fans).

Autograph signings, wrestlers leaving for Hollywood, for good, streaming and podcasts (and you having to make policies about that). Wrestlers making tweets or comments about the state of things…

I know that’s a lot and I know that would be really really hard to accomplish, but it would really make the world feel more alive. There’s fragments of that stuff, but much of it feels incredibly scripted. Having the world, through the workers in it, feeling more organic, would make each game feel unique.

Also, to be clear, this stuff should probably be on a slider setting of some kind. From almost no outside life/personality to organic realism to maybe even “off the wall cartoony antics.”

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Some Other Ideas

That’s my biggest wish/thought that could change a sim. Some other items that often come up:

Freebird Tag Team style rules (any combo of a trio or even stable can defend tag or trios titles). To that point, it would be cool if rules could be written that tag titles could be defended as two or three man teams at any time.

In-match angles. Often you can say “by flash pinfall” or “distraction finish” but that’s empty detail. What if you could have it fill in “John slides the belt into the ring and distracts his friend Bill and the referee while Bob uses it to hit Bill and secure the win.” A lot of angles and big moments happen in the matches, things that should have a weight on the match rating and outcomes.

Import/Export options. Make it easier to share your gameplay by exporting results, news or even your game world to a database or even just straight HTML…or any other way to share it quickly.

I mentioned being able to modify the world. Change the name of countries or regions etc. Being able to modify the name and symbol of currency and the “value scales” could be cool. For example, the Fallout World would now pay in Bottle Caps or Caps even. A top superstar at a major company would make maybe 200 Caps. Again, a pipe dream but the mods would amazing. Imagine a wrestling league set in the universe of the Expanse (Mars Colonies, Asteroid Belt etc).

A “Prompt” generator. Many people use it will use AI generators for worker images etc. While it would be ideal if you could connect to an API and pull them straight into the game, when a worker is generated, it would be great if a little bit of text could be generated to help accurately get their look generated properly. It would be up to the user to prompt the style but descriptions about their hair, eyes, skin etc could help.

[DizzyMan]

I’ve been playing wrestling games for over 25 years, and at some point I realized that text-based booking sims offer the purest wrestling experience. Pro wrestling lives on long-term storytelling, surprise, momentum shifts, and emotional investment — things that action-oriented wrestling games almost never capture

I remember spending evenings in Zeus Pro and Pro Wrestling Nexus in my student years, building rosters and fantasy cards. Today, I actively play Journey of Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Sim, and Total Extreme Wrestling 2020. I don’t see them as “better or worse” than each other — they’re different interpretations of the same idea, each excelling in some areas and struggling in others. Because of that, I approach new booking sims not as a casual player, but as someone who understands the genre’s strengths, limitations, and long-term needs.

I still spend a large portion of my free time booking shows, testing systems, and imagining better ways these games could simulate wrestling as a living world. That makes me the kind of player who will actively engage with BPW, test its systems, and appreciate what it’s trying to do.

For me, the most important post-launch focus should be match flow and world dynamics.

Match results shouldn’t feel like static calculations — they should feel like moments in an ongoing narrative. Wrestler stats, styles, traits, and momentum should meaningfully affect how matches play out. A match should tell a story on its own, not simply resolve into a predictable outcome.

At the same time, the world around the ring matters just as much. A great booking sim should simulate backstage politics, locker room relationships, morale, rival promotions, and long-term consequences. Wrestling isn’t just in-ring action — it’s egos, alliances, pressure, and opportunity colliding over time. When those systems interact naturally, the game becomes something you can live in for years.

The ideal booking sim isn’t the most complex or the simplest — it’s the one where every mechanic feels meaningful and connected. Where learning the systems is rewarding, not exhausting, and where creativity is encouraged rather than constrained.

That’s why Believr Pro Wrestling caught my attention. I don’t expect perfection at launch (this genre is too complex for that), but BPW already shows signs of understanding what makes booking sims special. If the focus stays on meaningful match storytelling and a dynamic, reactive world, it has the potential to become a truly worthy addition to the booking sim family.

Good luck with the game. I’m genuinely looking forward to playing it.

[Ricnaitch]

So lately I’ve been on a PWS kick but I hate how you can’t control the flow or pace of the match, I’m looking for a complete booking game from style to ending to false finishes I’m into long term booking where everyone works together to get the best result possible. The screenshots look like this could scratch that itch I’m so excited