[Newbie] Not sure I quite understand this game yet

Game Dev Tycoon
#1

I bought this game this morning, and I’ve played it for maybe 3-4 hours or so, so far.

I’ve just moved out of the Garage, after doing fairly well making a variety of Adventure Games for the PC. I made maybe 8-9 games in the Garage. The most successful of which were ‘Space Bastards’, A Sci-Fi Adventure on the PC, and my first ‘Mature’ game, which got a 9.75 review, and ‘Little Bastards’, a Medieval RPG for the TES aimed at a ‘Young Crowd’, which got a 9.0. (My only game on console so far, except a poorly reviewed ‘Little Bastards: On The Move’ for the Gameling)

To get a grasp on how I should develop games, I had a brief look at this (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=216784744) page to help. I got 8-9 scores on nearly all of my early games, by just focusing my sliders on one thing each time. (100% Story, Dialogue, World for my Adventure Games etc.)

Now that I’ve moved to the office, I made another Adventure Game to get me started (And get Research Points for training) and it got a 6.0. It was A Law/Adventure, aimed at Everyone, on The PC, Called ‘Legal Bastards’. I did everything the same as I did before, but for some reason it tanked.
After this, I took a Publishing Deal, Asking me to make a School Simulation game. I made it for the Super TES, aimed it at a Young crowd, used my newest engine and put the sliders on 100% Gameplay, AI and Graphics, as per the page I linked earlier. ‘Little Bastards: Schooldays’ was rated a 4.5.

I tried another Indie game, but tried to go outside my comfort zone of PC Adventures, and made a UFO Action game for the Vena Oasis, aimed at Everyone. I decided to try putting a little of the sliders into the 2nd most important subject for each this time, (100% Engine, 20% Gameplay / 100% AI, 20% Level Design / 100% Graphics, 20% Sound) or something similar. ‘Unidentified Flying Bastards’ got around a 5.0 review score.

I clearly haven’t grasped the concept of how to make games yet, despite me thinking I had because of my early success.

Can anyone shed some light as to why my games are failing now? Does it have to do with the sliders, or something to do with my Staff and their allocation? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.

#2

@Tobast the way i think it works (although i think it’s chnaged/ not 100% accurate) is that your design / tech total has to be a little higher than your last, not alot but not too much over. there is also some randomness to it aswell, along with other factor factors like is there the right amount of tech for the type of game, genre / audience combo (wouldn’t imagine Law/Adventure is a very good combo). also you must make sure the Platform/genre/audience combo is right.

the first part is inacurrate, but you have to think about all the factors
hope this helps

#3

How do I affect my design/tech total? That’s another thing that’s really unclear to me.

Also, If I hire a guy who is very specialised on tech, how do I know what to use him for?

Thanks.

#4

@Tobast look at this wiki page, it’s what I use but it’s a bit outdated.