Hey guys, so i been playing Game Dev for a while now.
keep on restarting the game due to fails in development (im a perfectionist)
and I was wondering, at what stage do you decide to create a new engine?
like how many new futures do you usually add into an engine?
Do you guys have a specialized engines? like 3d RPG engine and 2d strategy engine?
I couls use some tips on that topic 
The best time to build a new engine is either when you existing best engine just wont cut it any more, or when youâve run out of Research Points (engines generate a lot of RPs) and need to implement the features that you spent your RPs on.
I personally have a selection of engines going all at once. I have engines for PC, engines for consoles and engines for my own console - and this engine is also licensed.
I use to have engines for different genres but it wasnât cost efficient.
I tend to specalize right from the beginning. So if i decide to make an adventure/rpg-company then i will only make these two genres. Apart from the beginning where i may want to exploit the other topics/genres to get the experience-bonus.
Anyway, i therefore only have one branch of engines. For the next iteration i want to include the next gen graphics (i switch to 3d as soon as possible) and at least one additional feature from every major-area. (For RPG/Adv that would be Story, Dialouge, World Design and to lesser Extent Gameplay and Level Design)
Once i unlocked new options in all these areas, i will research everything and make a new engine.
After hitting 3Dv3 i will usually not upgrade the engine that fast anymore. Instead i will focus my RP on new topics and training.
If i start to generate RP way faster during game development than one or two rounds of training can burn, i start thinking about the next engine upgrade. But a 3Dv5-Engine will only be made in the last office - i find medium games are to small for that and large games with only 5 people in total seems also a bit overambitious.
When do you know your engine isnât cutting it anymore? Does that have to do with the Percentage numbers you start seeing in areas during the build phases?
Your engine doesnât cut it anymore when reviews say your game sucks technically
Ahhh⌠I have not seen of those kinds of reviews, yet. I have noticed that with an âolderâ engine, my development stages can show percentages of the different factors, like engine, sound, etc even at max settings and bar fiddling. I was just curious if this was an indicator of an older engine showing its age.
The percentages are nothing to do with the age of the engine. They represent trying to add too many features whilst allocating too little time. As cool as a feature might be, if you canât actually complete it, then itâs pointless.
Instead, you must pick and choose which features you want to include in a given game.
OK. That makes sense. DâOH!
I have completed the game. well not completed since you can go on forever. But i was not able to go bankrupt. i had over 5k billion. and all the best things. When i created new engines was when my âsafety creation gameâ was not getting 10s anymore.
Then i created new ones and made sequels of the games and got plenty of money.
I just started over now and only have one achiv left to go! get the 10 10 10 10 game 
had plenty of 10 10 10 9, but never the perfect score for some reason.
When i realised i had almost infinite money tough i just created one big engine with everything. 
I suggest when you have enough new technology researched and people start to give your games bad reviews consistently. Or your HYPE is not going up enough these are signs that you should replace your Engine with a newer version.
Especially pay attention to the Reviews they are the key point in this. If you know your game is good and the reviews suck time to get the research team going and make a new Engine!
I personally make my engine with the latest technology this means that I do not waste money on the expense of making a new Engine I just deselect the items I do not want in the create phase.
I create an engine right after i researched all the engine parts available
That also works! That is the best time to create an Engine because then your game will be the most High Tech.
On my runthrough, I created engines when I had at least 3 pieces of new engine gear, had more than sufficient funding to complete the task, was low on research points, and had a game selling at that moment.
Alternatively, if I was low on RP and needed it now, Iâd burn an engine because itâs safer than burning a game.
Otherwise, if I could still get at least 7âs on my games, I considered the engine good enough.
Bit of a bump⌠but I usually wait until the next graphics engine comes out along with a few new updates.
Generally speaking, I tend to use an Engine until it wonât cut it on the Generation the Graphics is intended for it.
Until they add a requirement for Features, honestly they are pointless to research or put in the Engine until the Xbox Next gets released.
For me it tends to go: Graphics 2D V1 > V2 > Graphics 3D V1 (SNES) > V2 (PlayStation) > V3 (N64) > V4 (PS2) > V5 (GameCube) > V6 (Xbox Next)
What tends to be more important is actually team and project size for each engine.
As once you hit PlayStation (V2/V3) you want a team of 3 People doing Medium Games, V4 you want 5 people doing Large Games and V5 you want 7 people doing Large games.
Try to keep your old engines about so that you use them on smaller projects on less capable platforms; but when youâre doing large games as the development period is 12months at that point you can survive off of 2-3 Series that have been successful.
Also very important is matching platform and target audience.
RPG - Young (Gameling) > RPG - Everyone (PlayStation > PlayStation 2) > RPG - Mature / Everyone (PlayStation 3)
Usually these games will get scored higher because of matching it with a platform good for them. PC works for almost everything just fine, but you will not see major success until relatively mid-late game.
Getting Multi-Genre and Casual is also a pretty good idea ASAP, because often you can combine a random ânewâ Genre and/or Topic that works together with say RPG (which youâve decided to specialise in) and this also will extend the life of your engines quite well.
This is all dependant however on spending Research Points and Profit on âTrainingâ for your people.
2-3 Rounds of Training between Projects, a) makes sure that your games are far enough apart that youâre not penalised for doing the same thing and b) will increase your âhigh scoreâ regardless of if you even change anything.
Thus extending the life of your engines.
Generally speaking I tend to rush to 3D V4 (tend to get it by Y10) use that until Y20 (even if I have V5 unlocked) then use V5 until the end of the game⌠for the most part find the Custom Console, AAA, and such generally a waste of time unless you can research all of the tech for them (donât need low-end just the specific 150-300k tech for each aspect)
Doing this I can usually average 9+ games from Y10 on-wards; in-fact most Large Titles (as soon as they can be unlocked) will happily net 50-100million with marketing and a good fan base which will grow considerably quicker than trying to wait for AAA or such. This said it actually irritates me AAA is locked behind expensive arbitrary research, instead of being naturally unlocked once you have the final Office and a full staff of 7 Employees like the other project sizes⌠feels like some force mechanic to make the Research aspect feel justified when for the moment really it isnât a very fun part of the game.
I make a new one every time I unlock a new graphics system (2D Engines 1-4 and 3D Engines 1-7). I load each down with all of the features Iâve researched up to that point. In some cases when I need a new engine for sequel purposes but canât afford a graphics update, Iâll make another engine with the same graphics as the last. I try to balance 2D and 3D until I have everything unlocked.
Once I hit the third office and unlock the SDK ability, I start giving new engines more creative names. At this point in the game, I make a new engine when I want to make a new console.
Usually after Iâve researched a bunch of stuff is when I make a new engine.