For the first time, I strongly agree with your ideas 
.
Nice organized list. It’ll be nice if the devs could add some of these ideas. Good Job :3
Thank you very much. :]
Interesting read, I’d say OP is about adding features in the game to make it more realistic by adding other possibilities coming from real life. Fun to read but it makes me wonder how the dev could transform it in a gameplay design.
An example is adding more consoles and computers, there’s big names of both that aren’t in the game but currently the game is overloaded by consoles release popup, with the 42Y setup it’s a bit more viable but still a bit overloaded. So yeah more consoles and computers would be cool but in my opinion it would decrease the gameplay quality.
Another example is Deadlines, Interestingly the current evolution is no more deadlines ever, too much risks and negative reactions about that. How could it be implemented in the game and not just be an obscure frustrating feature for the players is a difficult question.
OP applies no gameplay thinking, after all it’s more the responsibility of developers of the game, and it’s a sort of list reminder of real life features about Game developing that aren’t yet in the game. That’s cool to read and could be a good base to keep in mind to design a sequel to the game, or even an expansion.
Forgive me but what is OP? Would this be Original Poster? Me? Odd way to write a post in my experience but as you will.
So to tackle some of your thoughts. The addition of these features would need more though put into them, this is correct, however GHG Dev’s successfully made GDT so I have faith they could implement these things. If they are like me, I am also a developer, adding features and solving the problem of how to make them work is the fun of developing.
Consoles
For those that see flaws, perhaps some ideas could be that, when adding more consoles. News bulletins may be transformed to no longer be abrupt popups but more of a news bubble, notification that grasps the users attention but may not halt the game unless it is of dire importance.
Also, extending the timeframe is a possibility however to maintain realism, the dev’s may simply add a game pacing. This would give the user the option to say how fast the playthrough is. If a week takes longer to process, console releases ‘appear’ to take longer to come out. Since the game can be played in a matter of hours, extending the time for more features makes the gameplay longer and more functional. This also keeps users playing the game, a simple goal of all games I believe.
When a game adds more features, the replay ability increases. If you have the ability to develop for 3 game consoles, you have 3 replay options with small variances, if you have 20 consoles, you cannot possibly make a successful career developing for every single one. You’d go bankrupt, according to the currently way of playing.
Deadlines
I have no idea where the understanding of no deadlines ever is. Every single game company has deadlines. Recent examples, Game Dev Tycoon, announced the release of their game to Steam. Then announced a ‘deadline’ as to when it would happen. I read the comments on Steam, if it did not come out the day that it did, people would have been pissed = negative feedback. Part of reality. Second, I am a Mac user. Recent game release in the Mac world was SimCity. EA/Maxis delayed the launch of SimCity to Mac, twice. Now, for the users of Mac this created many back lashings. Later when the final announcement was released and followed through, many of these same irritated people got a sense of relief and were glad to see it. Fluctuating benefit.
Adding deadlines would increase gameplay difficulty for the player. It is not a necessity but for those that like a challenge this could be awesome. Achievements follow along with doing good or bad on the deadlines someone sets. The dev’s could restrict this so that you of course don’t announce a game that will release in 20 years or that you will release in 1 day (and have yet to begin on it). Deadlines could be announced at the start of or during development. Just another addition to Marketing. Would you agree that GDT has a good base on how Marketing is handled? Deadlines would slip into that mechanic.
So, simply there are some gameplay ideas. Now, these ideas could be entirely unused by the dev’s as, after all, as mentioned the GHG dev’s have control over their game.
Again, I’d like to restate that these things would be better seen in an update to the game rather than an expansion or sequel. Would anyone rather the developers improve a great game to incredible greatness or would you like to see a sequel that is, while great, comes off as expected. If these ideas or maybe just one idea appear in an update and we can’t fathom how they could improve the game. We become more impressed when they blow us away with unexpected content in an expansion or sequel.
Food for thought readers!
I hope this also adds some understanding of how the gameplay could potentially work! More support of these ideas may get the developers attention! More support of the developers makes them produce more awesome games/updates!!!
~Shade
Can’t they have news reports in the left side of the game screen? I believe that’s not used as much as the right side
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And I think budget sliders should be on the main screen aswell.
Huge awesome ideas…But that would be hard, since the game left in large unfinished state…With a lot missing and unrealistic features…
[quote=“Shade, post:13, topic:7530, full:true”]
Forgive me but what is OP? Would this be Original Poster? Me? Odd way to write a post in my experience but as you will. …[/quote]
OP is both Original Post (first post) and Original Poster poster of first post) depending of the context, it’s a forums classical, well I read it so often that for me it’s a classic.
Ok but do they need you to get a description of reality? I’m very used to quote some players request just list of reality elements as if the dev had no clues about reality. Well perhaps it’s the problem and they focus too much on developping and lost contact with reality. But I’m less sure it’s a problem for a developer involved in sim games. That said your OP is quite extensive so I bet it could be used as a useful reminder.
Just appear, ie it won’t change that most consoles will be pointless because of a too short life span.
The only way to change that would be to use false life span or to lower development time of games and in my opinion it is already lower than reality.
For the other points ok, yeah non modal popup event could allow more consoles releases, still pointless for those with short life span but more diversity for more consoles with a span life long enough. For me there’s already too many consoles but I can see why other players would like some of their favorite consoles of their childhood to be included in the game. Myself I’d like see Amiga computers, Atari computers, Apple computers, 3DO, Vertrex and more.
Well how long before Steam release Greenhart mentioned a release date on Steam? I bet less than a month I don’t name that deadline. Now deadlines are “probably in ‘a month, often a quarter of year’”. See Dragon Age 3 and compare to Dragon Age 2. You certainly could find some exception but it’s the general trend and evolution.
I didn’t mean deadline couldn’t be a point to include but more that for me they are becoming uncertain and zero engagement stuff and even they are disappearing.
Well, we are each entitled to our opinions.
No sir. The dev’s know what they are doing, these are merely ideas and request for things that may have been truly overlooked or purposely left out that I would like to see in game. The second post stating ‘So to tackle some of your thoughts’ was directed as a better understanding for you on my position.
By changing the pace of the game, on the timeline, yes a console may be out for less than a year, for user gameplay, the console could appear to be out for longer. If it takes let’s say 1.5 minutes, real time, (It’s probably more/less shorter) for an entire in game week to complete and they expand that 3-5 minutes. The user experience would be that there is more time available to produce games. Again, to each his/her own though.
Agree to Disagree on these ideas.
Well I could think of a couple ways for them to improve the game, even though I like it pretty well as is. Though a lot of your ideas, in my opinion, would simply add unnecessary complexity.
As someone said, there are demos available in marketing, though I don’t think they mentioned that they are also available in the annual booths. To me giving more control over it would simply make it more complex without making it more fun.
Same for deadlines, as the “hype” you have acquired for a game decreases after a certain amount of time.
DLC/Expansion, they do have sequels and for the MMO’s there are expansions. Again, simple is better
Adding more platforms, I already find it irritating to figure out what works best for each platform/ topic. Really wish you could invest in research to have you R&D figure it out or have a worker do it. Especially for you own console. By the time I figure out what works well on it, it is already costing me more in upkeep than it is bringing in.
Release Exclusives Reissue/Special Edition Sales Mods Leaks Cheats Title Rights More In-Depth Interviews: nothing specific to say except that I, and I’m sure at least some others, would find this more irritating than interesting and would again distract from the smooth gameplay it already has. – I take back “leaks” that should again be included under “hype” and ways to generate it and would not need to be added as it is already in the game.
I haven’t had trouble with sequels so I don’t know what to tell you. Seems that all they do is add a lot of hype to my games but nothing more.
One thing I agree with you on in a BIG way is the Online Fee for MMO’s. That is one of the main reasons I came back to this site. The MMO’s are completely useless right now. I developed several games with and without MMO and found that the money you make from each unit is the same with or without that game size being MMO. The only difference is that you have a massive monthly cost (tried to think of an “o” word to make an MMO joke, but failed) that keeps getting larger and it increases the production cost 4X. After a year you (or at least I) don’t make money from the game because the upkeep outpaces the sales. The tutorials say to make expansions to offset the high price of making them, but if you look on the first screen an expansion actually costs about 2X as much to start making, and you keep the maintenance cost the original game already has. Then you have to keep in mind that it looks like you lose fans when you discontinue an MMO without having another one on the market. So right now you are simply ruining your company by making MMO’s
I have a couple other ideas for how they could improve the game, but it might be better for me not to put them here since I don’t agree with most of your ideas… I’ll look at the other threads and maybe be back.
Nice ideas bro
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Sigh. Alright, thank you for your opinion.
Simple contradiction in your reply. My ideas would add too much complexity to the game and you like the game pretty well as is. While discussing the ideas of DLC/Expansion, you state that you already find it irritating to figure things out within the game. I strongly believe that is the foundation of the game…trying to figure out what works, not always getting it right makes you try again…maybe that’s just me.
One of the ideas mentioned is also the ability to change difficulty of the game. Perhaps with an update that adds complexity, this may be beneficial to players, like yourself and player like me who seem to want two different gameplay difficulty.
These are just simple ideas that may or may not make it into the game, as it depends on if the dev’s and other users like them, or even see them. I am just a fellow player that enjoys the game and would like to see somethings that seem to make sense within the game world and would make things more modern towards today’s world. Along with the history of it, which is partially created within the current game.
Remember also that some of these ideas do not necessarily have to be added as a complex item. Giving more control could perhaps make things easier, as the more control you have, potentially the more money or understanding you could gain. I tried to list things so that they may be neutral, in that they could have a positive or negative effect on the game.
Now, as for your own ideas that you have mentioned in the beginning and the end of your reply. State them. State them here, state them in another post (assuming it doesn’t tick off another user), state them in both places, or make your own idea topic. It does not matter to me if your ideas contradict my ideas in every way or you just have different ideas and do not agree with mine. If you do not share your ideas, the developer’s and other users will NEVER know what you want or request. So by all means, share them!
How to modernize Game Dev Tycoon:
Replace the entire game with a message that reads: “kk go get a bunch of capital, make a game, and sell it. Post on the forums if you manage to make millions, so as to /stroke your /epeen.”
About slowing the game and consoles with short life span, it’s not a matter of opinion, it’s pure simple math and decide if the GAME TIME duration to make games should be shorten more.
I won’t use real game time examples but for example, dev a small game requires 6 months, GAME TIME not real time. It’s already a bit unrealistic and a too short time. So the game real time is slow down. It won’t change that the GAME TIME to make a small game should requires 6 months. Now apply this to bigger games, a medium game requires 1 year GAME TIME, you slow down the game but this game time won’t change or will be too far from reality.
Now you take a console that last 5 years at best you’ll have the time to release 2 perhaps 3 games on it and less for bigger games. Slow down the game real time won’t change this. Consoles with short life span will still be pointless for the real gameplay. Slow down the game change nothing to this problem.
The only way to change this is to use fake longer consoles life span or shorter (unrealistic) GAME TIME duration to make games like few months for big games.
I think we should make a huge compilation of ideas and suggestions because a lot of them are they same for everyone.
This will be easier to check for the devs, maybe they will implement some mentioned features.
Fixed that for you.
Well looking back, it seems I did list a half of them indirectly.
The ability to use research in one way or another to unlock all the platform/topic matches was one idea. I say I find that irritating because when I pass Y35 I end up making a lot of small games to try to unlock all of them. I’m not sure exactly how many topics there are, but lets say 30 since it seems like there are many more than that, and this would be 10 rows x 3 columns. Then you have 6 Genres, so there are at least 180 matches, and you have to make at least that many games to unlock them. (I say at least because it does not always unlock information you need/want when you do a game report) That isn’t difficult at all, just takes a long time. I find that irritating, especially since there are some topics that I haven’t unlocked any of the target audience matches for even though I have made several games in that topic.
Another was the MMO fees, which you covered in the beginning and I agreed with already.
A few more were related to the custom consoles. First related to the idea above, that the platform matches for your own platform should be unlocked to begin with or as something you can research without making games for it. By the time I figure out what Genres and Audience’s work well for it, it is no longer profitable and I have to take it off the market.
The second one carries on that thought, that the repair/maintenance for you platform should be lower. I always put in the max 30M for the QA department to make sure it is high quality, but it still costs about half a million a month to fix the broken ones. Why is it so high?? I shudder to think how much it would be if you did not put a lot of money into Quality Assurance.
A third idea for the consoles is to have a “Console History” screen like you have for the games. Then I would know if I’m even making any money off of the ones I make. It doesn’t seem like I am when I put over 100M into starting the construction, 3M a month for several months to design/build it, + the half million a month to maintain the one’s I sold.
Have workers gain skill points when they gain a level. If you have to pay them more, their tech/ design should go up too, right?
Then a tweak to the marketing options. It seems like they add a set amount of hype whether you do them at the end of the games production or anytime earlier. The tutorial claims the effect will vary and that you have to experiment with them to find what works best. (Which supports your belief that figuring out what matches what is the foundation of the game, I think) However my main point is that the most expensive Large Campaign only seems to double the hype of the cheapest Magazine Campaign. Maybe I just haven’t experimented enough with it, but the large one never seems to add more than 50 Hype. (It is difficult to tell sometimes since I’m getting hype from the annual G3 booth and interviews.)
Then I had a question rather than an idea: What does the Custom Hardware do? I didn’t take the time to see if it raises the price per unit sold on your MMO games, but it does not show up on sales so that and extra Hype are the only two things I can think of that it would do.
As for your ideas being “just simple” ones from a fellow player that may or not make it; I know. If my earlier post sounded like I thought you were demanding them or being rude or bossy in any way then I apologize. Not my intent!
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Very nice ideas. No, I do not take any offense. I try to view posts in as light a sense I can, being that I do not necessarily know the tone or who it is that is posting.
Glad you came back to mention that though as well as post your ideas!
As [quote=“laczko_istvan, post:24, topic:7530, full:true”]
I think we should make a huge compilation of ideas and suggestions because a lot of them are they same for everyone.
This will be easier to check for the devs, maybe they will implement some mentioned features.
[/quote]
(Shout out to @laczko_istvan, great idea!)
@RealKleiner thank you for the specificity. I only worded it as PC, Mac, & Linux as we do not see an operating system in the game, we only see the hardware.
Love to read the comments, support, opinions & everyone’s own ideas! Keep 'em coming!
[quote=“Shade, post:1, topic:7530, full:true”]
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Sponsors: Tying into the Title Rights, there should be sponsors with an actual name and goal. Example: Movie of The Amazing Spider-Man comes out, asks company to make a game based on the Movie (falls under superhero/adventure-action category etc)
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[/quote]Just to add to this, it could also be the other way around, getting offers from film producers who want to buy rights to make a film from a successful game, although this might have to be restricted to certain topics/genres, as I can’t really imagine a one being based on a casual virtual pet game for the Gameling (then again, everything’s possible).
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Very simplistic graphics again, but this is a solid game dev sim. This one has a little more micromanaging than Game Dev Story, but I found that aspect to be quite fun. You can develop multiple games at a time (though I forget if you can make consoles or not).
If you really like micromanaging, another good game is Mad Games Tycoon.
MGT starts relatively simple, but eventually you’re making/selling consoles, you have like, 40 employees, you’re making games, you’re creating copies of games, and you’re the publisher which means you’re the one selling as well. Usually those things are automatic in game dev sims, but in MGT, you get to control that aspect. You don’t have to, but if you do it right, you can make a lot more money.