I just want to share how I train my employees in my games. I’ve found a lot of success from this method, but it is by no means the only way to do your trainings, this is just how I always do it.
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Make the very first training any employee receives research training (Make me Think).
After your employees (and your character) have recovered their lost efficiency from the new hires, give the whole team research training. This is because you have new blood that is going to be adding new bubbles anyway to your game making capacity, so you don’t need to boost their tech/design bubble output from what they made with their last game, since they haven’t made a ‘last game’. Whenever you hire additional employees, give the whole team (old and new) research training once everyone’s efficiency has recovered. -
Do exactly 1 training for all your employees in between each game.
There is an invisible cooldown timer on trainings that make 2nd trainings less effective if you do them in rapid succession. By making a game in between each round of training, you let that training penalty ease a bit, getting you more points for the training. By boosting your employee’s game-making skills a little each time, you will ensure gradual and even improvement. Even if you don’t hit your target score, your next game will probably be a 8.0+ rather than a 7.0+ simply because of the training. Combine this training with new engine features and you can have yourself a 9.0+ hit without having to resort to using a sequel. -
Alternate training between Employee’s main skill, and speed.
That same timer in #2 also impacts trainings for the same stat. By alternating which stat you boost, you decrease the chance of running afoul of diminishing returns. This also amplifies the boost the employee receives since speed and tech/design have a multiplicative effect with each other. -
If your employees have unbalanced speed values, make the faster employee train research when they would be due to train speed until the slower employee catches up. Unbalanced speeds can wreak havoc on your bubble balance, especially if your two employees are each hyper-specializing in design or tech. Note: This does not apply to your character’s 300 speed. It is OK if your character’s speed is higher than your employees, as your character starts out pretty well balanced, so the faster speed won’t skew the bubble balance. Once the employees are within ~20-30 points of speed of each other, you can resume full speed training for both. There is no harm in having unbalanced research skills.
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When training a primary skill (design or tech) focus on training only one or the other until the employee reaches 500 so they can qualify for boost. To keep your team’s bubble balance healthy, I like to have two employees train one statistic (whichever skill matches the kind of games I want to make) and one train the opposite, to maintain balance.
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Have a specialization in mind for each employee from day 1, and work to that goal.
Having a specialist working on your game will boost its ratings. The sooner you have two specialists, the sooner you can qualify for a perfect 10 score. The sooner you have 3 specialists, the sooner you can begin making AAA games. -
Once you qualify for boost, train it. Only use your boosts for training.
Firing off a boost when your employee is training will cause them to tic up skill increases MUCH faster, thus getting a lot more points out of the training. It is also less likely to unbalance your bubble ratio the way firing off a boost during game development can. The best way to use this is to start the training, and THEN hit the boost button (not the other way around). -
Keep an eye on your bubble ratio and adjust trainings as needed.
As your employees get more and more skilled, and especially as you hire more and more employees, there is a natural tendency for your tech/design bubble ratio to drift to a 1:1 ratio. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as there are plenty of multi-genre games that LIKE a 1:1 ratio (Action-Adventure, for example). However, if you are specializing in a certain game type, use your trainings to keep your bubble ratio where you want it. If you are making action games and you notice the ratio of design bubbles starting to creep up, make your next primary training all-tech for the whole team to give the ratio a push back to tech. Alternatively, if you don’t mind the new ratio, adjust the genre(s) of games you are making to match the new ratio. -
Always do the best training when you do train. When the G3 “Practice Practice Practice” trainings unlock, there is really no reason to bother with the “Book Learning” trainings unless you are starved for research points. Once you get to the 2nd office, the University trainings are VERY powerful, especially when combined with a boost.
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To avoid research point problems, limit the number of sequels you do.
You generate double the number of research points whenever you make a “new combo” game. If you do too many sequels, you’ll soon find yourself starved for research points, even if your employees have healthy research skills.
By making about 90% of my games as new combo games, I always have enough research points to train my employees AND research new components for my new engines. -
Don’t train an employee who is at less than 100% efficiency.
The penalty will apply to their skill gains, and thus they’ll get much less out of their training, wasting the money, RP and time that went into it. If they start to need a vacation in the middle of a training…there isn’t much you can do…but having the vacation bar appear halfway through isn’t the end of the world and they’ll still get most of the benefit.