Some of my ideas for GDT 2.
Content Sliders
Before development begins, you determine a game’s content using 6 sliders. Blood/gore, drugs/alcohol, violence, swearing, nudity/sexual themes, and educational value. All sliders except educational value add points that contribute to a higher content rating (and thus, narrower audience). A content rating is given before the end of a game’s development, based on slider positions. The player may choose to deny having their game rated, but unrated games cannot be published on consoles (except the custom console) after a story event.
Blood/gore and drugs/alcohol contribute more heavily than violence and swearing. A game in which a colorful cartoon character punches people until they explode into fireworks while shouting obscenities definitely isn’t for kids, but would more likely than not be viewed as acceptable for a teen audience. A game in which a colorful cartoon character snorts cocaine and cuts zombies in half with a chainsaw is destined for a mature rating (holy crap, that sounds awesome).
Nudity/sexual content is a special slider. It is the mildest contributor to content rating at low levels, but the most severe at high levels. Maximizing the nudity/sexual content slider will ensure an Adults Only rating, regardless of the other content sliders (because 100% nudity/sexual content is a porn game). Adults Only games cannot be published on consoles (except the custom console). If a game is developed for a console and then receives the Adults Only rating, it will be rejected and the player will have to either scrap it or re-write it for PC (which adds time to development).
Unrated games sell better than Adults Only games, but an Unrated game with high nudity/sexual content may spawn a story event in which the player’s company is sued by an angry parent (as Unrated PC games are not restricted). Unrated games can reach a wider audience than Mature or Adults Only games, but tend to sell less unless the player has accured enough fans to make the wider market worth the narrower sales channel.
Educational value is another special slider. It’s locked at the beginning of the game, and must be researched. On games with Mature or Adults Only content ratings, the slider has no effect beyond role-playing purposes (a Mature-rated military game may have realistic equipment and feature little tidbits of knowledge during loading screens). With lower content ratings, educational value improves sales for younger audiences. The effect is reduced with higher content ratings, though. High educational value combined with an Everyone rating will give the game a special content rating that vastly improves sales with the young audience (as parents and possibly even schools will buy the game for edutainment purposes, Letter Land being a real life example).
Targeted Marketing
Marketing to a specific demographic when advertising for a game. This is completely independent of content rating. You can market to multiple demographics at once, but this costs more than specialized marketing. You can market any game to any demographic, but some combinations will obviously be less effective than others (that cocaine chainsaw game I mentioned earlier isn’t going to be something a lot of parents will buy for their little ones, no matter how much you spend on marketing it to kids). This has two effects.
One, it gives the player more control over the games they make. A game can be designed for adult players without being filled with swear words and brutal violence. You can make an Everyone-rated game, but then market it as a serious game intended for adults. Or an Everyone-rated game with no educational value marketed to children.
Two, it allows the player to expand their fan base, or make something unusual compared to their usual fodder. Fan word of mouth is a big part of advertising, but a company that makes mostly Mature-rated games would have mostly adult fans. If that same company made a kids’ game at some point, it would need specialized marketing to sell well.
Restructured Development/Features
Game size and development time increase or decrease based on the selected features. Too many features can make you miss a release date or deadline (more on these later). Rather than a percentage-based system, each feature would have design and technology values assigned to it (each category will also have a base tech/design requirement that features add onto). The employee assigned to a development category must have at least as many points in their tech and design skills as the category and all chosen features require, or they will be overworked. An employee with very high stats can tackle more than one full-featured development category.
For example, employee has 800 tech and 800 design, and is assigned to both Engine and Dialogues. With the chosen features in each, engine needs 700 tech and 100 design, dialogues needs 100 tech and 700 design. This example employee would have just enough skill to handle both Engine and Dialogues without penalty.
The protagonist should start the game with high enough stats to handle all areas of game development with a few left over for one or two small features (game with no features/few features = small game). High-tier features should be very expensive so as to require more employees (lots of high-end features = AAA game). With a full crew of well-trained employees, it will be possible to make a game with all the best features implemented (and it will take forever to develop).
Release Dates and Deadlines
When developing a game, you have the option to either set a release date, or take on an “it’ll be finished when it’s finished” attitude. Working with no release date has neither benefits nor penalties. Setting a release date generates hype, but can backfire.
Selecting features will extend development time. Debugging at the end of development can vary in length. Other factors, like employee vacations during development (development should pause during vacations), can further extend dev time. Once a game is close to the release date, you can either extend the release date (lose hype), or release the game unfinished (high chance of low ratings and lost fans, will not be possible before the final dev stage or debugging stage) with the option to finish it and release a patch later.
Publishers set a deadline, which is similar to a release date. However, missing a publisher deadline results in a monetary penalty. Publishing contracts differ in how they penalize missed deadlines and how many missed deadlines they will allow before withdrawing the contract. A withdrawal refunds the initial payment, and also applies the penalty for not living up to expectations. At this point you can either finish the game and self-publish it (with no publisher benefits), or scrap it in whatever development phase you happen to be in.
