I see all sorts of threads either asking for help and getting directed to the wiki, or people saying the game is easy to get huge hits on. I can’t get hits, and I’ve played through 30 years 8 times now. I can barely keep myself and one other employee up (Though I have tried as few as zero and as many as 3 others). I’ve tried pretty much all combinations of topics, genres, and systems. I’ve tried all sorts of combinations of the Tech to Display ratio. I’ve tried following the wiki guide, the raw data, intuition, and just randomly putting sliders everywhere, and never get higher than a 6/7/6/6 (Other than once, in my basement, on a Medieval RPG where I just set all the sliders to max). It takes forever just to get out of my garage. I’ve created everything from the simplest Engine, to one with everything I have researched (Which normally drains my remaining money).
My biggest hint is GO SLOW!! At least in the beginning. Don’t go on to the small office with only 1M, wait till you have at least 3M so you can immediately hire 2 more employees and make medium games. Then don’t go on to the large office until you have like say 30M so you can again hire 2 more employees and make large games. Also, research research research (and train too). Always try to have something going even if you’re just waiting for reviews/sales/etc. I also have found it a good idea to make two different engines in the beginning. One for Action/Sim/Strategy since these need things like high2D/3D graphics, good engines and AI. Dump all of the upgrades for those categories into that engine. Another for RPG/Adventure games where you can put medium/2D graphics, story, dialogues, and world design. Then try to get upgrades for gameplay/sound/level design when you can as these can go in both. With two different engines you can crank out games with one while you are researching upgrades for the other. Hope this helps.
Howdy, there’s definitely a few places to get this information from. The wiki gives some great combinations and slider settings so that’s a great resource. There’s also the Game Balance Mega-Thread, which has a post by Patrick with some help on how to succeed further in the game.
Thanks for the info and responses guys! However, I have done all of the above.
@matt_serpent_do Yeah, the first time I made that mistake. Then I tried moving at 3 mil. Then 5. Then 8. I’ve never managed to get above 8.7 mil. I didn’t even know there WAS a large office. I’m lucky to ship 35k of any game I make. I haven’t tried making 2 engines side by side, but I’ll give it a try.
@mynameisvlad Yeah, I’ve read that wiki many times, and nothing on there is accurate (at least for my copy of the game). Their slider settings always result in me getting 5 or below, and what they tell me to focus on always gets my lower and lower results. I’ve actually done better ignoring the wiki, because it bankrupts me with terrible games pretty much right away. I’ve read the thread you linked earlier today, and didn’t see any info that helped me - I’ll give it another read though.
Basically, I’ve tried every suggestion I’ve seen on the wiki and the forums, and none of it comes close to producing any results for me. Fast, slow, simple, complicated, everything results in bankruptcy. I’ve even gone bankrupt in the garage, as I made 6 games in a row that sold less than 10k.
A game dev I know has this saying:
“If the player is frustrated over themselves it is good, as it makes them want to try again.
If the player on the other hand is frustrated with the game, there is something we need to fix”
This game is frustrating…
There is little to no hint on what went wrong.
It is like a one-shot kill in a game:
No challenge, as the game is a black-box not telling the player how to better themselves, it just kills them.
The wiki not helping either as has been pointed out.
As I experience it this is a
"What games have been popular?" - trivia game.
The player simply has to remember what games have been popular in time and guess the genre and Dialogue/Engine/AI parameters the makers of this game thought they had.
Please have some feedback to the players of the game.
As it is now it is a random guessing, where players are punished for guessing wrong / not thinking the same way the devs have.
Too much black box for my taste, not a game I will recommend in it’s current state.
I wouldn’t say punished is the correct term. In most cases, having a game flop is A. part of the experience (game studios see this all the time, especially in their infancy) and B. recoverable.
I’ll touch upon A a bit. This is supposed to be a realistic simulation of the life of a game dev studio. And in that sense, it nails it. It’s not easy. You have to think about what your target audience would want, and you have the ability to actually know who the target audience is since the game consoles are based on real life. In that sense, it will be hard to be successful when you’re starting out. That’s how it is in the real world. Not all game studios survive, many don’t. But once you become popular, you ride on your fans, just like in the real world.
Touching upon B, if you are not rushing (as you should not be doing), you should have enough money saved up to live through one or two complete flops in a row. Don’t over-invest, don’t go crazy on the technology. If you’re in deep trouble financially, scale back. Make a simple game instead of choosing all the options.
That is one aspect of the game, yes. This is deliberate, @PatrickKlug has come on here saying that using real-world events to base your games off of you (like having Pokemon for the Gameling) is a good idea. You know they succeeded in the real world, so they’ll probably succeed in the virtual world too.
Yeah, you need to be focused.
The sliders are not “rubbish” at the bottom and “Best in class” at the top. YOu can’t just set all sliders to max and get a great game. they are a division of a finite amount of time. You need to decide what will make a game great.
Does world of warcraft have excellent graphics?
Does Forza Motorsport have a deep backstory and quests? It’s not even open world!
Does Pokomon have a really high tech game engine?
Did elite have great sound?
Basically, I’ve got to year 60 and developed my second in house console through making:
Racing Sims.
Something Strategy
Military Action
A random combination like pirate action, dance casual, or whatever to mix it up.
The first three generally get 8-9 on scores, the last one oftne goes middling or flops and costs me some fans.
Think back through history and remeber what games were massive, then take your chance to make them!
The wiki actually tells you exactly how to set you sliders to NEVER get a bad score, so long as you have a game engine that’s up to speed and people with talken in the right areas.
Protip: Note that Action, Strategy and Sim need exactly the same combinations of sliders, and therefore the same combinations of specialist staff, be it 3 total for medium games, or 6 total for large/AAA games. You don’t even have to reallocate sliders much, or move staff around between games!
I really appreciate your time taken to answer this, but it just points out the error in game design:
If someone needs to come and explain things, if EVE Online is more accessible, then you have done something wrong.
You mention that this “is supposed to be a realistic simulation of the life of a game dev studio”
When I bought it I thought it was a game, something supposed to be fun.
I can only recommend you and the devs to watch: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits
You are of cause welcomed to make a “game dev simulator” that is 100% realistic, but why not make a game that is fun?
One that gives challenges in a way where the user is able (without going using the forum) to overcome them?
Progress is an important factor, you see the leveling scheme in the game too.
Making the same thing over and over again is tireing, having a “play it safe, do the same thing over and over, grind the game”
Should -not- be how a game is played, have a look at this episode:
Again that is just my, and apparently quite a few other people’s feedback:
They were expecting a challenge they could overcome with aid from the interface/software itself.
They were expecting a game.
You are 100% in your right to make a simulation that does not give feedback to the user.
But then you should also expect people to tell that to their peers and in reviews.
and in my opinion it should also be a bit more visible on the front page, that it is intended that people know all the trivia of people published the last 3 decades and should not expect any assistance via game mechanics if they do not have that knowledge ready.
A Tycoon game, by definition, is a simulator of something in real life. If you come into the genre not expecting realism, then you’ll be shocked, no matter which game you play.
There is a demo, and it shows you what you can expect from the game. You weren’t forced to buy the game at gunpoint; you were given a trial run to see what it’s like. If you found that it wasn’t for you, you didn’t have to buy it.
You don’t need to make the same thing over and over again. There’s specific aspects of the game which actively discourage this. Making the same genre/type combo twice in a row will net you horrible reviews, and new combinations will give you extra experience. The game is meant to have you try out new combinations and see what works and what doesn’t.
You also don’t need to know what happens in the real world, but it doesn’t harm you to know things. It’s useful to think about the general userbase of the Xbox 360, for example, if you want to develop a game for the mBox 360. I did fine without using explicit knowledge of what games did well.
So, all in all, I think you’re overreacting to the whole thing. The game isn’t easy, and I’m sorry if you came into the game expecting it to be served on an open platter, but that’s not how most games work. There’s inherent difficulty in all Tycoon games as you get used to the mechanics of the game.
PS: I’m not a dev, I’m just another user who happens to also have moderating powers. I don’t speak for the devs, but my own opinions.
I would expect someone playing a game about game development to know a little bit about computer games.
You don’t need a 30 year overview (I’m only 30 myself). Think back in the last 5 years: Minecraft, CoD:14-MW10, Angry Birds, Gran Turismo, Fallout, Half Life… Just games any gamer will have head about, played, know about what makes them work. Thinking about why games were sucessful or what you’d like to play is the challenge.
I do agree, it should be made more obvious that there is a compromise to be struck in the sliders, and that putting them all to the top will not make the best possible game, because lifting one slider actually harms the quality of output on another slider. Go by the bar at the bottom, not the sliders themselves.
But even now - Fallout does not have best in class graphics, The story of Gears of War is forgettable, and Forza 4 does not ahve a storyline. Forza horizons tried to do open world/MMO, and guess what? It sucks! Use bits of knowledge like that to help you be successful in the game.
Or go find something else to spend $8 on, like a sandwich and a bottle of coke.
It’s $8 at the end of the day. I’ve played it for 10 hours or so. I’ve spent a lot more to have a really crappy 90 minutes at the cinema.
Yes the key is to take it real slow. i had like 5 million when left the garage. In the end taking time and playing out when to make games helped. I made 150.3 Million in the End I how this helps sorta.
I have this problem as well. I usually leave the garage around 2-5M,and I do good for a short while. But eventually, My games get lower scores for some reason. I eventually go bankrupt by the time the playsystem 2 comes out.
in my first 3 games i had the same problem. i had 2-3 good games wich boosted my credits wich i lost due to mediocre ones that gave me little profit wich was wasted on research.
now i’m insanly rich. what really helped me in office stage was doing one publishing contract work. the game sold 44M.
i didn’t get rich through that but it gave me a huge fanbase wich helped boosting my future profits.
the real money (talking about Billions per week) is in the broken MMO mechanics. but that feels like cheating
Sorry that didn’t help me at all. I created games with the help of the wiki guides, other guides and lots of advice from other users… but it’s frustrating.
Only every 3rd game I can avoid the contract penalty cause I get such low or mediocre scores and I just don’t know why…
A simulation that was incredibly successful in the first year of Game Dev Tycoon was a terrible flop in the 13th year, with the exact same slider settings…
This game is really frustrating, I’m sorry that I have to say that. The monthly costs really “eat you up” when you don’t know what the game wants from you… And I had 8M when I switched to the office…
I think a reason for this is an “old” engine, but I just don’t have the money and the time for researching every new technical aspect of the research possibilities, how should I survive that???
Alright, my mental checklist when starting up Stage 2 is:
Get two employees - can be level 1 each to save money
Have spent enough time in Stage 1 to research a few engine mechanics without the added monthly cost
Immedately take the financial hit to build said new engine
Research ‘Medium Games’ ASAP - preferably with the Research points from developing the engine
Take publishing deals that you know should work for that system (i.e. a dance sim on gameling with an expected 6 review… I’m not joking that’s what UmbiSoft had the 'nads to try and have me make…), the new engine should be enough to wow enough fans for the first two or three
During the money making phase research a new engine part, preferably a new topic, and do so misc contracts
Get another publishing deal - if none look profitable take contracts and make a small game (you will see enough money to reach new Publishing deals).
Rinse and repeat until you have excess of 100K fans, enough engine mechanics to outstrip your current one and the money to develop new engine.
Thank you again for the advice, it indeed helps.
But the problem as noted is that this is outside of the game.
When you play the game, you get the popup saying that you goal is to move at 1 million in the garage.
and you get messages about moving ever so often.
That game mechanic makes people move too early compared to all the guides here.
It is in my opinion a very bad game design that the in-game information is so “wrong” that all guides recommends doing something other than what is shown in-game.
More tool tips on the sliders, more feedback from the critics
…or to those saying “this is a real simulation critics will not help you” then have a “beta-tester” or “focus group” mechanic giving the player feedback on what is missing.
You have a stage where you can trash or publish the game.
That would be a great pace for that user-feedback.
It would make the gameplay experience so much better.
Also explaining why you get more competition when you hire an extra person (and again at 3) in the office, as that is not explained anywhere.
Without reading forum guides, players just fail.
Game design on the side of informing players on the mechanics is up for improvement.
for me, the trick is:
don’t make custom game engins everytime you finish a game
don’t hire too many staff- get only 2 and stay like that until you move to the HQ
think about the sliders during the dev stages. don’t just move them around without any thought.
use boosts effectively
You don’t even have to reallocate sliders much, or move staff around between games!