Okay… That’s it. I give up. I hate games that I suck in. But I hate games more that I suck in without telling me why or where my mistake was. I hate games where you make one mistake and 2 years later because of that mistake it’s game over. You did a great job with that game. Or at first I thought that. Now I think it’s good at the beginning but sucks in during the midgame. I allways get a game over between years 12-14 an never reach the endgame until now and I think I never will. Btw: I have 150k fans, and good staff to work with. But I will not spent my time any longer with a game that doesn’t want me to win. I even tried the wiki and did everything according to plan. But why do you give me the possibility to research that much topics if I can only reach the engame if I use the same combinations over and over again? And why do my ratings suddenly change so fast? In one game I get a rating of 7-8 and after the next one I only get 1-3 without telling me why… This sucks… I think I will give it a try in 2-3 weeks again. If there is no patch that fixes that or I still lose the game at year 12-14, than I will deinstall your game and never buy one of your games again… Why? Let me explain it with the ratings I get… Disappointing… Boring… I can spent my time with better things to do (like eating earthworms or so…)
Either you’re doing something wrong or your frustration or lack of patience prevents you to win.
I don’t think you should blast the developers of this game with your fury in any case. They did a good job and it’s only a matter of catching the trick of the game, I assure you.
I can blame the developers when a game is buggy or poorly designed, but not when it’s difficult to me.
Making one mistake that is causing you to lose without telling you where the mistake was is bad designe 
Hi Jamy!
If you manage to get ratings below 7 after the garage it is because you made a game that was worse than your previous best game - after the garage you are only ever competing against this previous “high score”.
To be posting 1-3s normally means you are messing up the slider allocations. Check the wiki site for specific instructions for each game type, or follow this -
For “tech” based games (action, strategy, simulation) -
- max engine, leave gamplay at 50%, minimise story
- minimise dialogue, leave levels at 50%, max AI
- minimise world, maximise graphics, leave sound at 50%
For “dev” based games (RPG, Adventure) -
- minimise engine, leave gameplay at 50%, maximise story
- maximise dialogue, leave levels at 50%, minimise AI
- maximise world, leave graphics at 50%, minimise sound
For casual games -
- minimise engine, maximise gameplay, minimise story
- minimise dialogue, maximise levels, minimise AI
- minimise world, maximise graphics, maximise sound
These sliders - adjusted slightly for employee time and features as required - will work for every game from the garage to your last AAA.
we will work on game balance and difficulty. maybe give it a break and come back after the balance patch.
I already did what you said. I worked with the wiki so much that I can remember most of the stuff without looking it up. I also land some pretty good games in the second office. So I ended up with 15 mil, and after one or two top games I only get ratings between 2-4. And seriously…Why the heck am I ever going to buy a game again that I need a wiki to play through or to play it without making me feel that I am wasting my time here because I know that I can not win without it. I have no problems with difficult games either (Monster Hunter > G-Rank, other simulations, strategy…), but this one is getting to a point where it stops being funny and starts being annoying.
@PatrickKlug: Thx for working on a balance patch. I will give it a try again after this. I think I’ll give it a try in a few hours with the savegame editor, but that is not the way this should be played…
I have to say that I managed to finish the game on my first attempt, but still the “beat your previous highscore” mechanics is quite frustrating, because you have to create games to get alive and… the score looks random, like ten points less on the overall tech+design stuff gives you a 6 instead of a 9. Now I have a six-employee company with around $4700M, all researched but some topics, six specialists, 4 developed consoles, close to 9M fans and… still no 10/10 game. my best is 9.75 in the garage, which doesn’t allow you to get to 10/10, and I don’t know what to do to get that achievement… pretty frustrating.
Hi Vivant!
A 10/10/10/10 game requires at least one specialist (e.g. graphics specialist) and a new high score that beats your previous high score by at least the amount that your previous high score beat the high score before it, capped at 12.5% (low) and 20% (high). So if you want to be sure of a chance at 10/10/10/10 you need only make a game 20% better than your previous game with at least one specialist in a slider that was focused (more than 40% of that development phase was spent there).
This “percentage you beat the high score before it” mechanic is why it is critical to keep new high scoring games to only a 12.5 to 13% improvement when using the wiki / spreadsheets to try and post superhuge scores (100m+), else you run out of ways to improve too fast. I had to abandon a game last night after I messed up a couple of times (including a late in development trend match pop up on a game that was already too good). I ran out of ways to improve my games and was going to be stuck posting mostly 8 reviews.
I say a chance because there is some random factor in ratings. Not every game that can be 10/10/10/10 will be 10.0 - most of them will be 9.5-9.75.
so if you get a 9.75 it is impossible to get the 10… I think that at the level I am, where my games go like 2100 design - 1800 technology it is impossible to create a game 20% better… I have six specialists… I put them on the right sliders… correct amount of time… then i get a 9.75 so i realise that it is impossible to get a 10 for me in the next 2 or 3 games…
The algorithm they used for the scoring system is a little wonkey, but effective. It’s designed to reward players who are learning as they go, without any sort of out side assistance. It is designed after the garage level, to score your current game, based upon the last one. This works for learners because they’re improving how they make games, therefore the next game they make will score better, and encourage them into a certain patter of making games that corresponds with how they are in real life. It’s not designed for someone to go to the wiki and just do the 100% perfect tactics, because that’s unfair. I understand your frustration with all of this stuff, this game is genuinely hard to adjust to, and to work with. Just keep at it, and avoid using the wiki guides.
No, you probably have just capped out how high the scoring can go, on almost every game. You’re right when you say it may be impossible to get a 10/10, but only in that playthrough. You’ve already created the ‘perfect game’ before, but it only got a 9.75 because that was the stage you were in. You have to one up that, but the system doesn’t realize that the 9.75 is already as perfect as it gets. Just settle with the 9.75 for now, I think. That’s as good as it’s gonna get for that save.
I realy tried… But this game doesn’t want me to win. After some more hours I uninstalled this game and not going to try it again that fast. I’m frustrated, angry and if I had a CD copy I would propably break it in to pieces…
I “won” the game in my first try, so you must be doing something to hasty.
If it would be that, I would not have any problems. I tried it the fast way and the slow way. But always between the 12-14 th year my ratings drop to 1-4…
I rushed to the second office > Bam… Lost Year 12.
Stayed at the first office for as long as possible… Bam… Don’t know the year, but ratings dropped again and than I quit the game.
Did everything according to the wiki, to the 12th year everything went good, but after that the ratings droped. Also I’ve managed to get better points in design and tech that didn’t work.
Tried it countless times with different playing styles. According to my playing style and also the way that is described at the wiki. Always lost due to the same problem. Now I am to pissed to try it again because I can not reach the third office …
Please make the review algorithm sane! It’s so sad to see such a good game crippled by such a flaw.
So I have to start a new game to get the 10/10? frustrating at least… you can have the best company ever that can’t go and get 10/10…
I only present a theory. From what I’ve heard/witnessed of the algorithm, this is what I gather.
I’m not blaming you, but it is obvious that it has no sense from the point of view of the game itself.
@PatrickKlug: As a player who has a very good knowledge of the review mechanism, I think the lack of information in the game is a very legitimate complaint and more likely to be the culprit than actual game difficulty. The feedback the game provides is simply not enough to be able to figure out what you should do. Sure, there’s the occasional “focus on X hurt the game” or “helped the game” when you set a bad/good slider above 40%, but for that to really work as teaching tools for players, the review messages need be a lot more detailed. It should also be mentioned somewhere that, to get a high rating, you need to top your previous best score.
What I would suggest is creating a more detailed review section where you give players enough hints to figure out which slider settings work, which genre/topic combos work, which games work on which platform, etc. Most of this information is there to some extent (except for technology level and experts) but too little of it is shown in game. If you like I can make some more detailed suggestions later on (in German, if you prefer).
yes, we will improve this aspect. an announcement about this will follow in the next couple of days.