More R&D Lab uses. Long Post! Might contain spoilers

Game Dev Tycoon ideas
#1

First of all, i demand that all the idea’s below will be implented before the end of the month!

Joking of course :wink:

But let’s get serious.
All though this idea will work better in a sandbox mode, i still believe it will add value in the story mode.
At the moment, the R&D Lab is a second half/endgame feature. The amount of research that is available falls a bit short in my opinion.
I think it would be a huge game improvement, if the R&D Lab would be available sooner in the game.
The end game research option like, Hardware, Internet oppertunities, Codename Grid etc etc, should stay end game.

I am thinking of having the R&D Lab available in the first office ( no slide screen needed ) and having some new research options, which i will list below.
The requirements for the R&D Lab could be:

  1. First Office
  2. Two Employees
  3. 20M available cash ( not the cost to open R&D )

R&D Lab Features:

  1. Topic Research
  2. Platform/Console Research
  3. Analysing Released Games
  4. Engine Research

And after having a Design Specialist in the Second Office, all other features will be available too.

Now having a lot of work taken of the hands of your Development Team, everything in the R&D lab needs to come at a price, otherwise it would be too easy to have your R&D Lab just keep on going as long as there is cash available.
Everything you want to research will cost Research Points and of course Cash.

Topic Research

Research new topics

Costs:

  • 10 Rp ( same as it is now )
  • 25K Cash
  • 3 weeks to complete

For extra cash and time, research will be done about which genre goes well with the researched topic.

Platform/Console Research

Research and analyse a specific platform/console
Gives you information about matching genre/topic/audience

Costs:

  • 25 Rp
  • 150K Cash
  • 8 weeks to complete

Released Game Research

Instead of adding beta testing to the game, and have players tinker with their games for ages before release, a way to have detailed information about the games you already released.
Telling you why a certain game was either Good, Bad or a absolute hit.
In a matter that it is not telling you how to play the game, but giving more hints and tips to improve or maintain your game quality.

Costs:
Medium games

  • 75 Rp
  • 250K

Large Games

  • 150 Rp
  • 500K

AAA Games/MMO

  • 200 Rp
  • 1M

Engine Research

Simply taking away the research from your development team, so they can focus on development/training.

Costs:

  • Same Rp costs as the engine feature are now.
  • Same price as now
  • 4 weeks to complete

I hope everyone or anyone likes my idea, and of course it would be great if people could add or suggest anything that might make this work better.

If Greenheart Games like the idea and needs help on giving it a place in the game, i would be more then happy to help :smiley:

6 Likes
#2

I agree with nearly everything. All I want is the topic to stay only 10 RP because there are so many I dont want to continuesly pay 25k I would be ok with 5k do. The reason is because at the begining when you need new topics and are going bankrupt (maybe) you wont have the 25k to offer and lose.

#3

The 25K will only be introduced after you have the R&D lab, before that it will be only the 10 RP like it is now.
Would only be fair.

#4

Yeah I agree on that, so the best strategy is to spam all your RP on the topics just before you move xD that saves a lot of money.

#5

Who agrees with this? Please say aye.

Aye!

#6

It will actually cost you probably a lot of money you can’t miss while being in th garage, since busy on research = not busy making game = no income :wink:

#7

Good ideas man :slight_smile: They are very creative.

#8

I’d personally vote to reduce the Research Point cost on Game Research. If you’re really doing bad and you’re making a bunch of crap games, you need to be able to fix that, and quick. I’ve found from my experience that the second office is the make-or-break for the game. Do well and you can consider the round won by the time you reach the big office with the twin labs. Do poorly, and prepare to kiss your garage floor again.

Alternatively, it could be that you research a Genre, and it tells you what to focus on, one piece at a time, for diminishing returns.

For example, let’s have it be a Medium Game, what you suggest should be 75 RP.
Instead of getting all the information for the hefty sum of 75 RP all at once, maybe instead, it does this:

Say, it tells you that in Dev Stage 1, focus on this and this, not on this, and costs 25 RP.
In Dev Stage 2, focus on this and that, but not this other thing, and costs 50 RP.
In Dev stage 3, focus these two and reduce that one a little, and costs 75 RP.

Total cost to learn all three stages for One Genre (RPG for example): 150 RP. For 150 RP you can learn everything to do in One Genre.

So for all 6 Genres, you’d need to spend 900 RP just to learn every dev stage.

Then have it be 20 RP to learn what Genre is best for the topic. That way if you get massive RP by endgame, you can at least learn everything.

I don’t believe it should cost each time you fire up the lab to do something, but instead should work like it is in Endgame: you set a budget, and that budget controls the research speed, and also the quality.

What do I mean by Research Quality? Say you’re paying your R&D lab the minimum per month. They might tell you that “In the first stage of development, for an RPG you need to focus on Story/Quests”. For the maximum, they might tell you instead “In the first stage of development, allocate most of your points to Story/Quests, some to Gameplay, and the least to Engine.”

Thereby, at worst you get some information, which is better than nothing, and at best, you get all the information for a hefty price.

#9

All costs are debateable, of course it all needs to be balanced. But there needs to be a price to paid for it not making it too easy and everyone just goes for it without considering.

With ‘Research Quality’ I meant giving you subtle hints and tips about the gam you have ‘analysed’.
For example:
You have scored a 7.5 for a Strategy game, what could have been a 8.5+ or more if you had a better balance in Tech and Design.
So the game will tell you: "All though the game looked amazing, our research indicates that it would be better if our next Strategy game would have more Technology features"
On the how to achieve this, in my opinion the game should not tell you anything.
Players should have the oppertunity to be able and figure stuff out for themselves.
It would be too easy if the game just said: “Add more A.I. and Engine, lower the Gameplay and make sure your staff has more training in Tech” Sorry for the spoiler hehe.

1 Like
#10

Could i get some more votes for this idea :panda_face:

#11

Does Discourse support a Poll Option?
What i mean is, the Topic poster can add a poll or two to the post and the repliers get to vote.
Or you could make it so we could all get poll options.

#12

Well i can’t edit a poll into my orginal post.
Perhaps i could make a mirror post with a poll, if possible.

#13

A shameless bump :blush:

Like this awesome idea ^^

#14

Should make R&D more actual and give it more use time through gameplay.
My like is here already.

#15

May contain nuts? :smiley: Awesome post jay!