Can't Add Features

Game Dev Tycoon
#1

I started playing Game Dev Tycoon on my mom’s laptop until I could upgrade the OS on my own computer (solely for the purpose of playing Game Dev Tycoon, I had no other reason to upgrade). It runs fine on her laptop, no issues to speak of.

My computer is a bit older, though. The game is painfully slow, which I can deal with. What bothers me more, though, is that I can’t add features. The side-panel with features doen’t show up for me. It pops up briefly as soon as I click to move on to the next phase, but it’s impossible for me to summon it beforehand so that I can add new features to a game.

All I have unlocked so far is linear storyline and savegame. I haven’t researched joystick or gamepad yet, because it just seems pointless. I tried reducing my display resolution, and the game runs noticeably faster, but I still can’t add features to anything.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? Unless I’m vastly overestimating the importance of features, the game is borderline unplayable on this computer.

#2

Try to make a game engine. Then make a game.

#3

Yeah, did that. My first engine has all the default features (2D graphics v2, linear storyline, savegame, mono sound). The problem is, the features window won’t appear until I hit the next button, making it impossible to actually add any of these features to the games I make, even when using my engine.

To clarify, I’ve beaten the game on my mom’s laptop and have played far into the postgame. I didn’t have this problem on her computer, only on mine. I know how the game is played, I’m just having a weird problem on my Mac Mini that I didn’t have on her MacBook Air.

#4

I am not sure if this is gameplay or bug related. If @pinstar is around he can confirm if its gameplay.
Are you using the same version of game dev tycoon on both machines? you can check the version number on the main menu, hit escape.

#5

I double checked, and it is indeed the same version on both machines. I collected some info that may help.

Macbook Air
Gam Dev Tycoon: 1.3.13
Mac OS: 10.8.4
Processor: 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Mac Mini
Game Dev Tycoon: 1.3.13
Mac OS: 10.7.5
Processor: 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2

Additionally, while playing on the Mac Mini I recently advanced to the second stage (technology park office). I hired two employees and started making medium games. Said employees take incredibly long vacations. Long enough that I can solo 2 medium games (they still count for job assignments, but don’t contribute any design or tech points) before they return. Are vacations based on frames, not time? I don’t remember vacations lasting that long on the Macbook Air.

Edit: I played GDT on the Mac Mini for around an hour just now. My employees needed a vacation, so I recorded the departure/return date. They left year 10, month 9, week 3. They returned year 11, month 6, week 3. That’s a nine month vacation. I have yet to time the vacations on the Macbook Air, but I don’t think that’s normal.

Edit 2: Played on the Macbook Air some more. I sent two employees on a vacation at the same time (year 10, month 10, week 3). One came back year 10, month 11, week 3. The other came back year 10, month 12, week 3. Massive discrepancy.

Also, after assigning jobs on a medium game for the first time, the employee selection panel disappears and remains hidden just like the features panel. I can get it to come back if I drag a person off of one assignment and onto another, but it’s still a little inconvenient and unnerving that it isn’t there like it should be.

Does my Mac Mini not have enough RAM to open the entire menu at once, or something?

#6

You can send us your save games from the mini to support@greenheartgames and we can test them.
2gb DDR 2 ram is extremely low these days and i don’t know how much of that your Mac Mini OS uses, but im guessing a vast majority.

Our min spec is;

  • Windows 7+
  • Mac 10.7.5 +
  • Linux
    System Requirements: ~2GB RAM, graphics hardware acceleration, minimum resolution of 1024x768

As you can see, your mac mini just hits the minimum but i’m guessing it fails on the “graphics hardware acceleration”.
(This means a dedicated gaming GPU of some kind. Integrated’s can scrape by and even offer quite good performance if they are designed for gaming)

the entry level mac mini’s aren’t designed for gaming at all so i would guess that is standard behaviour.

#7

I would love to, but I can’t find them. The directions I found online said Library/Application Support/Game Dev Tycoon/Local Storage, but I don’t have a Game Dev Tycoon folder under Application Support. Does the most recent version of the game place the save files elsewhere, or…?

Is there anything I can do, short of just buying a new computer?

#8

Save games on mac are;
On Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/{app}/Local Storage

I am not a mac user, but on windows if the user cannot see the files its because they need to show all files, even the hidden ones.

My only suggestions for low end machines is to disconnect from the internet, turn off your AV and any other programs which are “always on” and basically streamline your pc as much as possible. But if your struggling from the first office, its likely you will experience severe lag in the third office. So your best off playing on the Mac Book Air.

#9

All right, I finally found it. Sorry that took so long, I’m not the most tech-saavy guy. I found two files, both file 0, but one with a .localstorage extension and one with a .localstorage-journal extension. I don’t know which one you need, so I’m linking to both on my dropbox.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28002388/Local%20Storage/file__0.localstorage

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28002388/Local%20Storage/file__0.localstorage-journal

I was looking at some other games today and found out just how much the video card in this Mac Mini sucks. It’s integrated, as well, so I can’t upgrade it. I will just have to play GDT on the Macbook Air, when mom lets me use it. I did find that The Movies works on this computer. It’s not the same, but it’s something.