Ideas beyond micromanagement for GDT2

Game Dev Tycoon ideas
#1

I played this game all day and while I think the game has it’s charm it really missed out on a few details that makes the game “over” a little too fast.

I’m aware that GDT draws inspiration from GDS but some things I feel were lost in that as well.

As GDT stands, it’s a little too easy to manipulate once you’ve unlocked all the hints, but in doing so, several cues are also missed like:

  • If you only develop the 2D graphics and never do 3D, you can’t really go back and do 3D without your fans crying foul over it
  • Sequels delete the first game. This shouldn’t be done, and I almost feel this is a bug
  • Likewise Expansions to MMO delete the previous game.
  • And when an MMO is taken off the market, it’s deleted entirely.

For the research there’s not much indication of what benefit a research item does, like when you add “stereo sound” and “soundtrack” but later try to add surround sound, it deselects stereo without indicating why. (Also if you remove one feature and later add it back, it’s in the wrong order.)

Later it’s also not evident why you can’t add all the researched items (you just see a percentage above it indicating what? That you should drop some of the researched items?)

Now going beyond the micromanagement…
GDS has staff automatically leave and come back where as GDT you have to implicitly send them on vacation. I think this should have been an automatic function “send all staff on vacation upon game completion” somewhere.

The limited number of consoles doesn’t really work in any way like the real world and maybe in a sequel they could expand on this by:
a) List the system’s geographic area (eg Asia, Europe/Australia, America, ROW) and region locking feature
b) Selling Price for games on this console in this region (eg the PS is more popular in Japan and the games cost more, while the PC is more popular in KOR but they prefer cheaper games)
c) System RAM size capacity (eg this limits the size of the game engine)
d) System Disc size capacity (eg this limits the design assets) this is only partly reflected in GDT with “Large Game” support not available on the portable device

And if you really want to take it up a notch for realism
e) Game lifetime on this console (PC is “indefinite”) which is a decay time from release to “widely pirated”

As a real world example using all of the above is the Xbox 360, having worldwide reach, but is unpopular in Japan, but very popular in Australia due to piracy. So releasing a game worldwide simultaneously means less piracy, but if you release only in America, then the decay time until pirated is shortened.

Likewise many games aren’t released in America but only come out in Japan, regardless of the console. So let’s say for example a certain game does really well in “Japan” that there is demand to release it in America. You pay a localization cost and the “time till pirated” becomes longer.

Lastly:
I think, related to “sequel” there should also be a “remake/update” where you take a previous game and release it on a new console. New scenarios can be developed around putting games back on the market (ala GOG/STEAM/Virtual Console in real life) or revising them (risky, but sometimes there’s a pent-up demand for it if the original technology was weak (see FF7 in real life.)

The “MMO” part of the game needs work and also doesn’t in any way reflect reality, however this is probably an opportunity to make a different game entirely since MMO’s have paralleled history of only being on the PC.

IMO, GDT does a fairly good job up until you get near the “endgame” point, even if you miss the cue points for a lot of things. However once you get near the end, there’s no way to add researched features any more, so your review scores start to flat line, and so do sales since there’s no more technical improvements to be had.

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#2

No, they only delete the first game while youre in the sequels menu. The game history is still fine.

#3

Yes, but the point I was making is that you can’t make a sequel to a MMO game.

Like if I were to re-engineer this game (this would require going beyond modding, so I’m not going to):

  • I’d take it one step past GDS (I went and bought GDS after GDT to see where it compares) and start at 1977
  • Make the player go through the Video game crash before the introduction of the C64/NES
  • Add the missing computer hardware ( The Apple II was very successful and ran on the same CPU as the C64 and similar to the NES), Atari, Commodore Amiga 500, and various Japanese console/computers of the time.

At the MMO stage, this needs to have a ARPU type of metric, not a “constantly escalating costs” one, because that actually does not reflect the real world at all. MMO’s are terminated when ARPU goes negative, and ARPU will stay constant as long as the developer expands the game every 6-12 months. Since the game engine and platforms can’t really change for the same game (I think only FFXI and FFXIV have more than one platform) there should be no additional tech cost unless features are added. It’s mostly about adding assets and scenario.

regarding the “invent your own hardware” this should start at 1977 as well and either use specific off-the-shelf parts (eg 6502, Z80 CPU’s, or “create your own” at high costs), but the costs should also reflect the possibility of third party’s wanting to license/devkit your console, which wasn’t even touched in GDT.

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#4

You have a point.

#5

I agree with this. Some of my personal ideas are that there should be an Arcade stage. (OR take it a step further and do a very small Pinball stage. (I know it’s not necessarily video games but screw it, it’d make a cool feature.) There should also be a feature similar to SimCity 2000’s “SCURK” in which you can edit the office and consoles. Possibly a description box and cover art section for games. Also when your not working on games and game engines you can move around and chat with NPC’s during events and in the office while keeping the art style and sky view.

#6

Yeah I was thinking about maybe going back a bit further than 1977, but the main challenge there is that you’d have to start with the Arcade and non-microprocessor video game units (think about how many pong-clones there were.) Basically GDT starts at what is approximately 1984, but in GDS it would be 1981. Using the NES as the basis for the start of Video Games GDT and GDS both start at the third generation.

In parallel, computers were pricey in 1977 eg 1300$ for the 4K Apple II, 800$ for the Commodore PET, 600$ for the Tandy TRS-80, 200$ for the Atari 2600. Around the launch time of the Famicom/NES in 1983 it was more like Apple IIe 1400$, TRS-80 130$, Sinclair ZX 100$, IBM PC 1565$, IBM PCjr $700, C64 595$ (1983 200$), Commodore VIC20 100$, Atari 400 550$ (1983 200$), Tandy 1000 (around 1200-2000$), Atari 5200 270$, Colecovision 175$.

So those 100-200$ models were around price parity with the NES 300$ US launch price in 1985, after the video game crash. The computer systems (PC, Tandy, Apple II, and C64) were still viable port targets then. The NES has a sale lifespan of about 10 years. Nintendo has public data on how many consoles they sold going back to the NES.

Like if you were to re-engineer GDT/GDS I think the very first option would be:
"It is 1977, dawn of the video game age. Which market do you want to try and enter:"
a) Home Console
b) Home Computer
c) Portable game console
d) Arcade
e) Pinball
etc
The second question would then be
"Do you wish to start by building your own hardware?"
a) Yes, l can build the best design myself
b) Yes, but license a design
c) Yes, but attempt to clone a competitor’s design
d) No, I will build games for hardware that is available now
e) No, I will partner exclusivity with a hardware vendor (only one target device will be available)
f) No, I will partner with a publisher who will decide which hardware to target.

If you pick A, you get to pick the chassis, controller/joystick/mouse design, CPU, GPU, APU, RAM and Storage medium. (Additional options will become available later) but you have to submit the design to the FCC and can be denied if the build quality isn’t good enough.
B lets you pick designs that are essentially clones of what was available in that year that will automatically pass FCC, but may not be the best designs. C lets you produce a “knock off” device that is compatible with a competitors device which has some legal ramifications if you copy the design too closely.
D operates as GDT does now, except Sequels are available after the first game is sold.
E same as D, but you’re paid to produce the games, and can’t make ports or sequels to them for other hardware
F same as D, but you can’t make ports or sequels without the same publisher asking for it
For A/B/C the computer/console would remain on sale indefinitely with no support costs, but there’s the possibility of legal shutdown for designs that are identical to a competitor (it will be possible to “clone” a system up to the PS1/N64 era, but a PC clone will always be possible after 1982.)

If you picked Arcade or Pinball in the first question, you actually get sent down a different play style, because for Arcade machines, you always have to use off-the-shelf parts, which includes monitors/displays, lights, and coin-op parts in addition to the computer/console-like parts. Since the game you are producing will be married to this hardware (you can reuse the hardware like you can reuse the game engine in GDT) the competition will primarily be from knock-offs. You can also “convert” your existing arcade cabinets with new games. Then you have the option of licencing it (or producing it yourself) for the home consoles/computers as well.

(For a real-life reference of the relationship between Arcade and console games, look at Donkey Kong for early systems, and DDR(Dance Dance Revolution) for later ones. In the case of DDR, the arcade’s computer hardware was similar to the PS1, but the arcade had dance pads that required maintenance while the PS1 version required buying pads. The later PS2 and Xbox 360 versions also added Camera/Kinect versions. There’s also licensing issues for the music (most DDR arcade machines in the US were actually the JP or KOR version, since the US version had poor music selections.))

Like I can think of a thousand ways that GDT could be improved on micromangement levels (adding additional hardware, or more research features) but I think some of the ideas beyond micromanagement directions in GDT or a GDT sequel could go, would have to be another game entirely. Like a MMO GDT or an Arcade GDT would require a completely new game IMO, as the existing game engine is designed around making single player console games (the home computer’s seem to be an afterthought.) A multiplayer GDT probably is unworkable simply because the game is written in Javascript and there’s no code checking/signing available in the game executable to check for tampering. If you look at GDS’s appstore top scores you can see leaderboards are all hacked scores as well. I could see maybe a turned-based PBEM-type of GDT that is run from a server that actually checks the game logic in a turn-based mode (a la Civilization) so that any invalid options are thrown away, but I think the pace of the game would then be too slow.