Game Dev Tycoon Gameplay Tips

[valkeryan]

hey, i just wondering about the engines and sequels.
as you said:

Using your new engine, create a brand new, non-sequel game. Ideally use a brand new category with a ‘good’ topic/genre combination, ideally with a genre your team is familiar with, and good at making. Make the ONLY new thing about your engine be the upgrade to the graphics. Leave ALL the other new bells and whistles of your engine unused (if you had features that were used by an older engine, keep using those).

If you did your sliders right, your new game should be a hit, if not at least a very well scored 8.0+ game.
Afterwards… make another game. This time make a sequel. Remember those games I told you to make back in the garage era? This is where they become important. They are sequel fodder. Using the EXACT same engine, with the EXACT same features as your last game, and the EXACT same slider positions and genre… make your sequel.

You’ll find that, despite the fact that you failed to innovate at all from your previous game, this game will do just as well. This is because of the ‘proper sequel’ bonus. Your score is boosted by 20% for sequels that are made from games that had an older engine and that were more than 40 weeks ago. Your garage-era PC and G64 titles are perfect for that.

Now…simply make another NEW non-sequel game, turning on a few more of your engine’s features this time. This game should be a hit too. After that, follow up with another sequel using the same features/sliders.

can i do the rest of the sequels and when i finished the sequels turn on another new feature from the same engine and repeat the process, or every time i do new sequel from a game it must be a new and improved engine?

Thank you

[pinstar]

It needs to be a brand new engine. Even if your sequel is using an engine feature that was turned off in the original, the game won’t recognize it as a technical improvement.

[valkeryan]

so… i have another doubt right now.
I explain detailed:

i am on the garage or in the office better.
i make 2 games: final fantasy and… star Ocean.
i do an engineX with graphics2 and sound2, do a new game named TV Show with new combo with the engineX turning on graphics2, and do a sequel for final fantasy with the same engineX and graphics2 on.
¿can i do star ocean sequel with the same engineX having only graphics2 or do i have to make a new engineZ to get bonus on star ocean sequel?

And another tihng:

¿it is worth to make an engine with lots of features for bonus of technical improvements on “brand new games” and Specific engines less powerfull just to update the sequels (obviously improving the features from the last sequel of that serie)? ¿or will this not get bonus because the sequels are less powerfull than the “brand new games”?

[pinstar]

I don’t quite understand your first question… and I sort of understand your 2nd. Let me give you my advice on sequels.

What I normally do with sequels is a two-game step-up.

So I make a game with a new topic that is original and not a sequel.
Then, using the exact same engine, engine components, employees and sliders, I make a sequel to a game that has the same genre as the original.
After this 2nd game is made, I work on improving my game making abilities. I give all my employees training. If I have turned on all the available features of my current engine, I’ll research and make a new engine. (If I haven’t turned on all the features yet, I can re-use the same engine for my next two games, turning on more features rather than researching a whole new engine).

In order for a sequel to get the bonus, it needs to be made 40+ weeks after the original, and with a new engine. It is the name of the engine that is important for this distinction, not which features the new and old engine uses. If you are looking for games to make into sequels, there is no shame in using your old garage-era titles as sequel fodder, as you always be on a newer engine by the time you can make sequels.

[pinstar]

Got a bad crop of publisher contracts and don’t want to wait 6 months for them to refresh? Save your game, then load from it. Loading your game will cause the publisher contracts to re-randomize, potentially giving you a better offer. This can be called “Gamey” but sometimes you really are at a loss for something to do if all four offers are junk.

On the flip side, if you find a really good contract (Any topic, Any genre, any platform… or a platform you like anyway with a good royalty rate) After finishing a game under that contract, immediately check the contracts page again…there is a chance that they haven’t had their 6-month refresh yet. This will allow you to make a 2nd game with the same contract. This shouldn’t be done with contracts that demand a specific topic + genre combo as making two games in a row with the same exact combo gives you a BIG penalty.

[JayCheetah]

When using ( abusing ) the sequel bonus there is always a chance some trend pops up, going along with your current game Topic/Genre/Audience.
Meaning you will recieve another bonus on top of your sequel bonus.
This will cause problems for your next game(s), As you have to use either too many Engine Features or Staff Training in order to make the next game have a good score aswell.

To counter this, use bugs to lower your Game Score ( do not confuse with review score )
This i a tricky method which does not be taken lightly, there is however a simple calculation to know how much bugs you can leave in the game,

Taken from the wiki, since it a good explaination.

Bug_Ratio = 1 - 0,008 for every (Design + Tech / 100) Bugs

The best way to calculate this is to divide your sum of Design and Tech by 20, and assume that you lose 1% of Game Score for quarter that many bugs.

For example, if your Design + Tech = 200, then 200/20 = 10 and 10/4 = 2.5, so every 2.5 bugs reduce your Game Score by 1%. All calculations here are not truncated, so, in the previous example 4 bugs would be exactly 1.6% off your Game Score.