Paid. Reviews.
Would add realism.
Oh and MMOs are terribly broken right now. I made over a trillion in ‘sales’ (subs?) by just running an MMO for something like ten years and constantly adding expansions. Compared to my traditional games which maybe got me 2 billion for a 10/10/10/10 AAA game the MMO sales are just ridiculous. I like running a successful MMO for an extended period of time but I don’t want it to break the game.
debugging is not the same as beta testing.
it would cost more money, has to be “special” ordered and would drastically decrease the likelyhood of hidden bugs in the game and hence, decrease the need for patches.
at the same time, hidden bugs likelyhood should be increased, especially with bigger games.
right now, out of 50 games you probably get 1-3 “hidden bugs” messages. for small games this is acceptable, for medium games a bit optimistic, for large or AAA games definately not enough.
thus forcing the player to have beta tests, at least later in the game when developing bigger games - or live with unhappy customers and suffer the consequences…
there is already some kind of mechanism at work that will decrease the ratings of buggy games, but this could be enhanced a bit as well…
this would add realism and give the player more options to handle his business.
additionally, beta tests could be conducted in house, keeping your staff (or part of it) busy but have no impact on hype, fans and/or sales (except for the obvious, buggy games dont sell too well)
then there could be public beta tests, costing some money and only keeping one of your staff busy for a short time, but raising hype for “good” games, lowering it for “bad” games.
after the beta test have your staff fix the bugs (or not) and release. maybe even have an option to “raise” the quality of the game a bit, lets call it balancing (through money and coding time)
depending on the quality (time/money) thrown at the beta test more bugs will be found, more balancing “problems” will be found. throw too much money at it, it is wasted, too little, not everything will be found.
keep a base chance of hidden bugs, no matter how much you test.
have balancing raise the review scores a little, depending on how much/good you balanced.
which reminds me of another two points I would like to “suggest”
additionately, with the previously proposed idea to scrap projects during development, this would make sense. screwed up phase 1 (red), tried fixing in phase 2 (still red), scrap, start again.
pay with time and money. or try getting yellow and recover some costs by releasing…
however, how about deciding how long you will be developing each phase. if we say the current game is always 100%, if we could shorten the time, the quality would suffer, lower ratings, possibly cost fans and sale. but i can crank out more games.
if we raise the time, the quality will get better, raise the ratings, get more sales, more fans, but developing the game gets more expensive and I can make less.
of course there is a minimum time (somewhere between 50-80%, could be different for different game sizes) and a maximum time (maybe 150? 200% 300%)
the effects of the time manipulation should not be linear. only spending half the time on the game could possibly cause a 9.0 game to come in as a 2, but spending 300% on a 5 game will not turn it into a 9.0 game.
but it should be possible to turn a 8.x game into a 9.x game or crank out three 5.x games instead of two 6.x games…
Ok, I see your point about beta testing and I now think that this is cool.
All the other propositions you have are quite good. Especially the part about the indicators. It adds a lot of strategic value in the game without breaking its mechanisms. Even if someone could achieve a perfect 10/10 with this mechanism, it could also be at the grave cost of bankruptcy because he used a lot of time and money to create and then scrap games. I like this idea.
I would really enjoy seeing emails from fans. Like what you are doing here.
You release a game get your praise from the fans you have and then also get the hate mail from the ones you lost, and then maybe some suggestions about how to make the game better. Kinda of what this post is about. I just feel like the game would be more Immersive. I just think it’d be cool to have started out talking to my core group of fans and then having a more dedicated fan base for when you move beyond your garage.
thanks
for now, I will raise one more very important point…
all those ideas and suggestions, well implemented, would make the game way more awesome but would also take considerable time and brain to implement.
I perfectly understand that this may not feasable for a 2 man team and an already sold ~$7 game.
However, I really would love to see those features implemented and would be willing to shell out more bucks for either an addon or game dev tycoon 2 
An alternate route to take would be to allow modding of the game, let the players add those/more features. This may not be feasable for engine/source code reasons. But it could be?
If all else fails and you guys have to move on to your new project, at least give us a small patch that doesnt add new features or changes them, but at least addresses my issues with the time it takes to wait for the review numbers, the visitors at the conventions and lets us disable each-game-recurring messages (console xy coming/going etc)
This cant be too much work.
And then make your next game more awesome, maybe with a few of our ideas that can be translated over to the next project.
one last thought. I am a pretty busy guy and have no real java programming experience. But I definately would be willing to help with brainstorming ideas, tackling the math/logic parts and/or testing if the need should arise. (for free)
Being redirected here, i’ll repost my other thread. This forum isn’t easy to navigate xD :
Well after playing the game for like 100+ hours, i feel that a few things should be updated.
These suggestions may have already been posted, but i like to keep things in a single thread. If possible, i will edit this thread when and if i have more suggestions!
Allow for tripple genre picking.
Allow for Engine Upgrades (just like in the real world, most engine developers create an engine, and then upgrades it along the way, before releasing a whole new engine).
Allow user to pick company lifetime, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 years seems like good intervals, and makes for great community challenges.
Create challenging game modes, for example no bank loans, no bank credit, AI competitor etc.
Add multiplayer, so that 2-4 players can compete against eachother in a race towards a set goal (can be most games within timeframe, best game within timeframe, most cash within timeframe, first to set cash amount, first to tripple A, first to get a 10-rated game etc).
Add a “bug specialist” to specialist training, that will alert you if you’re trying to release a game with bugs if you have it on your team.
Level out the cost of running an MMO. Currently creating expansions for your MMO is not only costly to create, but also costly to maintain. Running an MMO at 50-100 million cash per month is just not feasible.
Add description to certain research items, like the Boost, so that people know that it’s a “one time” research that you can activate at will.
Allow “Game History” to show genre and what not, about earlier games, to make it more clear what you have already developed.
This is about what i have for now, i hope that i am able to edit this post after i’ve posted it.
Keep up the good work, i’ll definitely recommend this game!
/ Primus
I didn’t see this up above, but I would like a page where I can view the stats of my console(s). The cost to make and maintain, as well as sales, current market share, and highest market share.
Extra space to name your game
I really want to give my sequals awesome sub-titles
Needs better sorting for “Game History” list. I should be able to hide games that did not perform well, show only profitable games, show games and their sequels separately, and sort games by rank, budget and profit.
Scrolling huge list left and right is just ridiculous.
Being able to sort the Game History would be great! Agreed! I also like the competing companies idea (espicially if we can BUY them once they fail). It would also be interesting if the game kept track of your previous games and mentioned them as you went through a new playthrough (kind of like a ghost in a car game, let you know how you were doing back then in comparison.)
And I brought this up in my review, but it bears rementioning: MAKE THAT GAME TITLE BOX BIGGER! (and yes, the sub-title)
In the office #2 (after the garage), when I train an employee the stats of that employee are standing over the green training progress bar and I can’t see if the training will be over soon.
The thing the employees do where they scratch the back of their heads or drink coffee is really annoying because when they do that they don’t generate Design and Technology points, thus reduce the quality of the game and sometimes I fail a contract because of that.
When I press the ESC button to save or load or whatever the image of the game zooms in and zooms back out which looks very sluggish and you should fix that.
The part where the percentage of Engine, Graphics, AI, Story etc. shrinks if I put too much stuff such as advanced cutscenes or other expensive stuff is really useless and I really don’t see why that should lower the game’s quality. Please, please get rid of that.
The game gets extremely sluggish in office #3 when developing a game. I think it’s because there are too much bubbles floating around or something. Could there be an option to disable the bubble animations?
There should be a warning pop-up if we are about to finish a game that has bugs because sometimes I have 0 bugs but just before I’m about to press the finish button an employee makes a bug and it ruins my reviews.
Remove the constant pop-ups that the players get each time they cross the 500K, 1M or 5M milestone of unit sales.
Very good game though. Congrats.
This is some stuff that maybe is better for a sequel or expansion pack.
All the Research Lab to have an option for Sport Licenses (parody of NFL, FIFA, NBA, etc) that give a huge bonus in sales for sport games.
Allow the Research lab to have an option to be able to hire 2-3 extra employees so that you can have the chance to have a 1 Specialist for every category,(right now you can’t)
Allow the Research Lab to have an option for BETA Access for MMO’s in that similar to magazines players give you reviews before you launch the game and have the ability to rearrange sliders + or - 25 % again before you launch the game ,(for a cost and some time of course).
Collector’s Editions that increase first month’s sale extremely and add some Hype.
New Custom Hardware like Toy Gun, Guitar, Fitness Gear (wii sports), Arcade
Huge Campaign option (game gets in store promotion and midnight release party 5 million)
Research Lab Option that unlocks after Convention called Electronic Gaming League ,(similiar to league of legends/starcraft aka a game tournament for your game)
Research Lab Option for a GRID 2.0 to make more passive income, and can be based on an App Store.
A screen that allows you to see the Top Games 20 of the year (similiar to GameBiz), and compete for Game of the Year
Hardware Lab allows more customization similar to gameBiz that is still user friendly. You have to select from each screen a Processor, Graphics Card, Sound system, Memory, etc.
for user simplicity you can can make it easy on the users by listing making better stuff cost more :
C.P.U
900 MHZ Generico Chip (3 million)
1.7 Ghz Intelco Celebro (7 million)
2.3 Ghz Amada Qubix (19 million)
Graphics
64 MB Retro Uno (9 million)
128 MB Mvidia 700 (21 million)
256 MB Megaforce 8000 (32 million)
512 MB Cellcore Xtreme (43 million)
and up to 16 GB of video memory.
In the beginning you only have 3 choices but you can unlock better stuck by researching Blueprints or something.
1 2. Maybe new Reaserch Lab option unlocked after AAA called Animated Series or TV Show that allows you to make television shows on your game (like Pokemon), that earns you more people at G3 and allows passive growth of fans.
1 3. After Animated Series/TV show is unlocked you get to unlock Merchandise which unlocks the Merchandise screen when you right click.
For an upfront fee you can sell Merchandise, and the more fans the more income you make.
Official Strategy Guide
Game Artbook
T-Shirts
Action Figures
Graphic Novel
Toys
Cereal Brand
We should be able to create game competitions
More Staff!
I have several ideas:
You should add such a thing, which you have added to the holders of illegal copies. My point is that we should bother with piracy.
This idea above, as well as a few others (I do not have a concrete idea) should be in a “hard mode”. It would be more difficult, more demanding knowledge of the game from the gamer.
You should add a normal year (e.g. 1998), not only 1Y 2M 3W.
Multi platform game releasing
Designing Games Cover
Keep doing great work, You are 2 person studio, but You made better games than Ubisoft!
Agree with everything mentioned above (haven’t read all the posts but from what I read there are some great ideas).
The game is really great and has plenty of potential but a few gripes/ideas I have are (sorry if they are already been mentioned):
Gripes (not major ones but worth mentioning)
Suggestions
Please don’t take the gripes the wrong way as it is only meant as constructive criticism, it is truly amazing with all things considered and better than 90% of the games I’ve played.
Ideas and Suggestions:
Programming Language:
In the beginning you have 1 or 2 languages that you can choose. In “Train” there’s a section “Programming” that have languages that you can learn. Over time you receive updates about them that they are unlockable. To train one, you need to spend research points and a lot of money to train them. The ones that are the hardest and excellent for game development are the most expensive (200K for example depending on the level of the dev.) and needs more time to learn (2 months). Every language has a downside and a good side, for example Language A is good for simulation games but can cause a lot of bugs while Language B is good for RPG games but it can only hold 1 gameplay feature. Each update of a Programming language that you know costs more research and money to update with the newer one IF YOU WANT. They also change over time the suitable Gender for a game but not too much. If you are making a game and developer A knows language X and developer B doesn’t, that means that the dev. B will make few progress. Each five levels in a dev. unlocks 1 language to learn (starting from 1-5 level knowing 1 language)
l know it seems confusing but I think it’s a great idea and I personally think it should be in the game to make the game more complex and fun!
Time Allocation for game development:
Sometimes in the beginning I make a game and it gets to 7 design and 6 tech. I think it’s pretty crappy and a time allocation would be awesome for people that have time and money.
How it would work you ask? Well I suggest that regular time allocation would be free. One month (I think) is the regular time to make a game. If you put more time into making a game you need to pay more (you know to balance the game) To allocate more time, these calculations are made:
l = level of a dev.
t = All the levels of all the developers summed. (l + l + l = t)
tan = time allocation number
100 = game balancing number to 2 months.
oam = optional and addiditional month = 50
t x 100 = tan = money required to pay for time allocation for 2 months.
for example I have 3 guys: dev A = level 5; dev B = level 5; dev C = level 4.
let’s sum all of their levels and that will give us: t = 1,4M
we do: t x 100 and that will give us tan=1,4.
Done! That’s pretty balanced I think. If he wants for example 3 months we do:
t x 150 = 14 x 100 + 1(oam) = 2,1M
Done! 2,1M Is needed to develop the game with 3 months.
I DON’T know how that would work with people that have sh**tons of money.
Years:
There should be an option that represents instead of Y5 to 1985.
Weeks:
Personally I think they are going too fast.
Game development:
There should be a cooldown at least of 3 weeks after publishing (not if trashing) a game. My brother suggests that it isn’t a good idea because most of the companies make games right after finishing one. 
Multi genre:
They should be optional.
Fans and Money:
There should be an option to represent the exact number of fans and numbers. F.E: 2,1M --> 2,119,542
Renaming:
Custom engines and games should be renameable while they are in development just like what happened in Minecraft (The Cave Game —> Minecraft)
Reason:
Forgot to put the name. Custom Engines #31203123; Game #23
Viewing custom engine’s features:
Did you want to know the features that an engines you made a while ago and you can’t?
What come to my mind, after spending several days playing and reading suggestions here:
-Trends. Which audience prefers what in games. 2D graphic, better soundtrack in strategies etc…
Different game genres. Hack&slash, FPS shooters etc… (action doesnt really says much)
Game preferences. Like: “People want FPS shooters on PC” or “More racing games for PS2”
More possibilites to reasearch instead constantly improving own engine. Make “internal research” on engine before making it.
Datadiscs. Sequels aren´t good option everytime.
MMO genre. With various payment options (microtransactions likely)
Remake the game topics., theres many which doesnt really make common sense to be sold. Well its a game anyway but well.
MORE SAVE SLOTS!
Sorting Game Engines by platform
For now.
Thats all
I think you should be able to make your Engine licensable to other companies in exchange for monthly royalties or something. Much like Epic do with their Unreal Engine, although I think you pay a lump sum and your company can use it however much they want. I just think monthly royalties would be easier to implement.
Maybe this would be too much to implement into this game but if you ever make a sequel.
Loving the game so far!