Research Topics: Random or Pre-determined?

Game Dev Tycoon
#1

I’ve been lurking here and on the wiki for the past couple of days, and so if this has been answered already then sorry - and if so please flag - but is there any way to calculate what new topics you can research and in what specific order? I ask because on various play-throughs I’ve taken different approaches: being loyal to Nivtendo/Vonny, being a ValvE-esque computer company, even being a mooch off of casual gamers with the light-hearted platforms. Obviously, I can predict what topics go with what genres and to what platforms, and even have an element of quality control over how the game will be recieved provided I use the right perameters, but at times I come a bit more unstuck wasting a lot of time, money and reasearch points into that sink aka ‘New Topic’ and hoping for one that suits my game company’s style.

An awful lot of this game is capable of manipulation, so it strikes me as curious to think that the one factor that is random about this game is that one factor that irl is completely accessible to game devs from day 1: ‘What kind of game should I make?’

If it is an intentional mechanic to potentially stunt a players ability to make decent games relevant to time/system/preference etc then I’m cool with that, it adds a layer of difficulty, but with a lot of work being put into the game development and the review algorithm, I’d like to know if anyone has any ideas.

1 Like
#2

I’ve found that the topic available are pretty linear. You get them when you level up certain things I find.

#3

I kind of agree about linearity as far as some topics are concerned. In my previous 3 playthroughs I noticed I would get topics like ‘Fashion’, ‘Music’, ‘Business’, and ‘Dance’ consistently (the holy grails of core gamers, amirite?). At first I thought it was because I had a slight focus on simulators, but in other play-throughs the same topics would clog up my progress, regardless of favoured genre/platform/performance and engine research. So yeah, I kinda agree there.

However, on an earlier play-through I managed to research ‘School’, ‘Werewolf’, ‘Cyberpunk’ and ‘Apocalyptic’ in close order, with much the same methods I got the previous 4. So what I’m asking is how would that be? Is it just random then, or is there a specifc area that I need to level up in order to unlock a trend in topics?

#4

the order of the topics in the research menu is, except for the first eight, randomized for each game.

#5

Oh, I misunderstood the question. I thought you meant the topics of research (ie linear storyline). I’m not too sure about the game topics.

#6

No worries, and yeah you’re totally right on engine research (linear storyline -> branching storyline etc).

#7

Yeah, that was what I was thinking. But hey, worth throwing out there to see if there was something stupid I was missing.