Firstly I’d like to say well done to the devs - for the price the game gave me several hours of fun. I’m looking forward to a couple more playthroughs, and trying some more ideas.
However in playing it myself, and watching some other people play, I couldn’t help feeling that the balance of the game just isn’t quite… right. Twenty years in, when 3D technology surround sound and the like is established in consoles and the software market, you can still make a LOT of money by releasing a medium game with relatively primitive technology. So long as it’s of similar quality, slightly better, to what you’ve been releasing before.
This just doesn’t make sense. While small/medium games should still be an option in the late game, the profitability of such games should be lower, as you would be releasing them as ‘indie’ titles. To make the same margin per game in years 16-23 that you did making small games in your garage at the start, you should have to be making large games (at least), and in the final years they should be AAA titles. That reflects the changing expectations of the market and rising standards.
I know such a change would make the game less forgiving on new users, but it would really improve the challenge and interest for people who want to replay the game. To trade that off for newer players you could have difficulty settings, where the market is more forgiving and rewarding.
It would also be great if there were competing developers releasing their own games so you could compare (and then a sales chart would make some sense), although coming up with the names would be quite a chore even with community contributions. Even better would be if there was an element where you were competing for a market with saturation and niches, although that might well be too complex.
Another idea, less important but more for immersion, there should be some more selection as to what can be included, and what can’t be included, in terms of features. For one example, older platforms should be limited in terms of what graphics they can use. For another example, no point including steering wheel support for a RPG, but it should be important for a racing game.
Everything else about the game though… I like. I didn’t experiment with MMOs (Heard they’re broken for now, and that means I’m not interested) or console development - that will be for a future playthrough. I do hope that there is more balancing and maybe expansion to come for this game, because there is unrealised potential here. Maybe a Game Dev Tycoon 2 in the future - or perhaps a Game Dev Tycoon Enhanced?