Cannot figure out how to consistently get good reviews

Hey! I’ve gone bankrupt in the small company level four times now after being more or less successful for a while. The challenge is fun and I’ve done slightly better with some iterations than other. However, I still manage to run into a stone wall which I cannot figure out.

Sometimes I’ll break new quality records for a game (or even a sequel to a megahit), hype it up mid-development and release it, only to get consistent 2:s and 3:s and lose hundreds of thousands in the investment. Other times I’ll end up making something mediocre and have it be a mega-hit. I think I have a decent grasp on the sliders, and I always pick good combinations. Obviously I’m missing something, but what could it be?

It just seems random to me that one fantasy RPG would get almost straight 10:s where as its’ sequel with more polish and advanced game mechanics, higher overall quality scores and the same sliders gets wrecked. It probably isn’t random, but y’know, I’m yet to figure out where I’m failing. So, any tips & tricks? :smile:

One thing to watch out for, is that you should never release a sequel immediately after the original. Instead make something else, then come back to it. In fact, the longer you wait before creating a sequel, the more nostalgic the fans get and so the better it sells.

There’s been several threads talking about good combinations to create for your game, including:

This page contains good combos:

closed because duplicate thread