Actually pre-orders do not sell the game before release but you can estimate how many players you can count on (of the dedicated/hardcore fans).
Pretty sure this has been mentioned before, but I want to reiterate:
I think it would be really useful if there was some kind of description on the in-game features you can include, so we can know exactly what they are.
For instance, I can guess what āDialog Treeā and āOpen Worldā are, but for things like āVideo Playbackā I have no clue. Is it an instant-replay feature, as in a Sports/Simulation game, or is it a cutscene that uses use non-gameplay footage, like those between levels in a Strategy game?
I think if each feature had a description attached, either as sub-text or as a pop-up tooltip, it would make development decisions easier. This might also apply to the genres and topics, since I had to google the difference between an Adventure game and an RPG.
a few ideas/ suggestions i can think of from the few hours of playing threw.
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the stages of making a game. put a percentage number on it not just a bar. so like you could see that youāre indeed putting 40 percent 40 percent 20 percent
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Sequels either need to be a starting featureā¦or something that comes out very quickly, (it wasnt untill year 9 that i could make them. seemed abit weird to me)
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id love to see an option to rename an employee. not the most realistic i know. but its some times more fun to see a name you actually know like a friend or something
4.a difficulty setting. (sandbox mode, (lets you cheat but not get achievements or things like that) easy (very loving critics. easy to gain hype) normal (the way it is nowā¦ish?) hard (unless you make a perfect game its going to be extremely hard to sell)
5. and the final idea i had. many have said itā¦upgradable engines, for small things i dont understand why we would have to make a entirely new engine just to add a game padā¦how ever making a new graphic that i can understand.
I didnāt read the thread, sorry (5 am) so some of these may have already been mentioned:
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Allow us to upgrade/rename/delete engines;
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Multi-platform development for the same game;
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Add a few job slots in the final office so we could specialize in every aspect of game developing (gameplay/sound/graphics etc);
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A list of all games created, maybe some graphs for each game type;
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Why not add First Person Shooters, Third Person Shooters and more popular topics?
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I think piracy and DRM would be a great aspect to manage while developing games;
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Add other companies so there is competition; I still donāt understand what happens if you sabotage other people;
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Put technical limitations on the platforms depending on age; for example I donāt think a āTESā could run 3D games;
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Let us stop the development/research of anything with the possibility to trash/save the progress for later. Just yesterday I accidentally created a 1M dollars engine (which was the same as the one I used) because I double clicked. It was pretty annoying.
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If you have a console out on the market with 2M units sold and you publish a hit game that sells 10M copies, it just seems far-fetched. Maybe limit the number of games you can sell depending on how many consoles are in the world? It is a bit ridiculous if you ask me
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Also, the thing that annoys me the most and I would LOVE to see get fixed: the long times the workers stand around scratching their heads. What kind of scratch is that?! 1 month spent scratching instead of scoring that final 1 Technology point for the contract.
Quite a list, maybe they have been mentioned.
Great job on your game by the way! Bought my copy because of your ballsy move with the piracy thing
Would love to see the game updated or an add-on/sequel with more details in it.`
EDIT: And I almost forgot; when you go bankrupt, make the game calculate the score please 
1 Like
I really do not like your idea about DRM.
The reason for this is that itās a game you are playing. This is not the real world.
A game some times needs to take liberties to make it fun to play. I donāt like DRM in the real world, so why would I like it in the game? No one likes DRM!
And Piracy does exist already. Just not to a bankruptcy scenario.
At one point I stopped a group of pirates for pirating my game. It resulted in me losing almost every single fan I had in one swoop which can be pretty crushing in itself.
You donāt see Basket Ball games simulate drug-abuse, prostitute cases or fixed games.
Because itās not fun even though it would add to the ārealismā.
It would be a feature for people to use it. You donāt have to use it if you donāt like it. I just like more diversification in my tycoon games, so it would be something nice to have.
The game as it is doesnāt have all that much replay value - it goes on basically the same, and you try to get a bigger score at the end of the 30 years, you try perfecting your techniques. But thatās about it.
And if word gets out, you lose a lot of fans 
Thatās a very good idea!
Suggestion:
-Add āPlatformingā genre. Even in the game they make reference to āDonkey Kongā which is a platforming game.
2 Likes
This. Please add Platformer so I can make āSuper Maria Sistersā :<
A mobil version of the game could be good (apple store, play store) ! My computer canāt suport the game but i want to play it! I think itās a great idea for people who donāt have a good computerā¦
PS: Sorry for my english, iām french
It has already been said in another post, but you might want to change the price view on your website to include the VAT. Seeing 6.49ā¬ at the beginning to finally have to pay 7.85ā¬ (thank you, dear 21% VAT) is a bit disappointing. I postponed my purchase by a few days when I saw thatā¦ Letās agree : itās still a fair price, but it sounds a bit like āfalse advertisingā. :-/
Iām not making accusations and Iām not angry. I wouldnāt bother to point that out if I didnāt know that these details can be important for āgood guysā game developpers which, Iām sure, you are 
Tweak some of the Console Affinitiesā¦why is Playsystem specialized to Young? Mature games have always been the Playstationās main stay, they deliberately chose to release more mature themed games for that system since they needed a foot in the door and knew Nintendo had a stranglehold on the games for kiddies but was very reluctant to tarnish itās family friendly image.
PS2 should work with any audience, it had a relatively balanced spectrum of content for all ages to enjoy (similar to the how you have the Vena Oasis currently, albeit with mature being 1 instead of young).
PS3 though feels about right in terms of affinity though.
Add the ability to hire a test audience to review a game before you release it with more detailed feed back on areas itās lacking (with more detailed feedback depending on how big a test group you hired), and then allows you to tweak your game, depending on how much you want to pay (last stage is costs 10% of total price, stage 2 and 3 cost 20%, and basically re-doing the whole game costs 40%), but also generates substantially more bugs for each phase you tweak).
I love this idea. As it is, the review process leaves much to be desired. It only occasionally tells you what youāre doing right/wrong, and I think more detailed feedback would not only be more realistic, but also more helpful.
Making multi-subject games. Like if I wanted to do a Pirate/Ninja Adventure.
The ability to skip pop-ups. (Failing repeatedly on level 2 and having to go through the 8 pop-ups about the Playstation is damned annoying.)
Ability to shelve games for later release.
More genre choices. I mean, yes, Fighting and FPS COULD be called Action, but Iād like those choices as well.
Ability to specialize in a type of game. If you release the same type of game one after the other, yur reviews tank. Well, tell that to Sid Meier, Will Wright, or anyone at EA Sports.
They All ready Do have mmos but its some thing you get in the R&D Labs
(Moved to different topic)
I know this is very late to the reply, but I donāt think this has ever been brought up, soā¦
Regarding the platforms, I noticed the devoid of a lot of other significant platforms of the 80s and 90s.
May I suggest adding the following platforms to the game?
Assuming Year 1 is 1980:
- Grapple 2000 (Apple II): Available at start of the game, discontinues at year 10 (in real life, the Apple II was manufactured well into the mid-90s). Popular genres: Action, Adventure, RPG, Simulation, Casual
- Arch 4000XL (Atari 400): Available at start of the game, discontinues at year 5. Popular genres: Action, Adventure, Casual.
- Grapple Washington (Apple Macintosh): Introduce around year 5 and available indefinitely. Popular genres: Adventure, RPG, Strategy, Casual
- Godovore Caramna (Commodore Amiga): introduce after the discontinuation of the Godovore G64 and discontinues at year 15. Because of this, the demise of Godovore should be extended to year 15. (in real life, Commodore died in the mid-90s due to severe mismanagement of the company). Popular Genres: Action, Adventure, Simulation
- Arch Z+ (Atari ST): Introduce after the discontinuation of the Arch 4000XL, and discontinues at year 16 when Arch Crop goes bankrupt. Popular Genres: Action, Adventure, Strategy
- Hand Navigator (Palm Pilot): Introduce around Year 12 and discontinues about a year before the GrPhone. Popular genres: Strategy, Casual
- Bazillion CyborgPad and CyborgPhone (Google Android): Introduce after GrPad and GrPhone but before mPad. Popular genres: Action, Adventure, Strategy, Casual
- Tap Vessel (Valve Piston): Introduce after Mbox Next. Popular genres: Action, Adventure, RPG, Simulation, Strategy. Imo good platform to represent Linux, since PCs in this game means DOS (1980-1992), or Windows (1992-present). Granted that this is artistic license since Linux gaming has been around since the early 2000s, but wellā¦
(Pre-TES consoles can be ruled out of licensing since in real life, in the PRE-NES era, the companies who make the consoles will insist on making the games and ports themselves as well).
Thatās a too long thread, I never believed in those zombies threads with a too long duration or a too long size. But itās really cool, I havenāt yet read more than some posts and will read more and perhaps even all if the whole thread is cool to read.
I have 30+ hours in Game Dev Tycoon and about 20+ hours in Game Dev Story but that was 3 years ago. GDT is definitely the sequel I was expected from GDS developers but stopped hope anymore.
GDT is lacking a little bit of polishing so my first contribution (that will certainly double or triple some other posts) is just about improving interface design, not about gameplay additions or changes, and itās mainly a copy from a post in another thread:
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Real pause command: Iād like be able to pause to quietly check everything and not lost some weeks between the various menus open and close.
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No click to close menus: Itās rather tedious to have to close a menu when you want open another menu.
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Allows skip animations: Animations are Popup text drawing, menu drawing, G3 visitors counter, reviews drawing. Iād like an option to have none of them, all are tedious after a short time.
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Better area definition for contexts menus: Thereās two menus depending on the context where the click is done, the menu for the developer is too vague and large, too often a click open this menu when you expect the general menu. Also I think the game should be consistent and use same menus even during Garage era.
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Time speed setup: I donāt mean the number of years, the current three choices are ok for me, well the 42Y setup is ok for me. I mean a 3 speed setup just to let player choose his favorite pace. The game is on purpose using a game management trick to constantly āharassā the player with events and stuff to do. Itās a design to increase the feeling of an action game and that thereās constantly something interesting that happens. The problem is the best pace is different for some players thatās why thereās speed setup in some games.
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Better lists: The game needs better lists, more spreadsheet like for: games history, staff list, hire list which should include staff list, engines list.
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Option to constantly show dev stats: When a dev is trained the stats are shown, players should have an option to let this constantly visible. If thereās problems with some other mechanisms like during developing then the list of dev and their stats could be shown optionally on a border like left or bottom. Or perhaps show stats on hoover would fine and enough.
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Bubbles produced is bubble counted: When you develop a contract thereās a strict time limit and thatās fine. But itās irritating when a bubble is produced and the animation time donāt let it reach the top before the time limit, just change the rule in any bubbles produced before the time limit is bubble counted, it would be a little detail less irritating, the tension is still here, itās a detail but itās pointless to include this irritating thing.
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Better deeper High score list: That list should allow see much more detail when you select an element, like top ten sells, top ten rates, top genre used, number of fans, and more, and even allow check games details for those in some top ten.
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Show dev affectations during development: Before each phase of non small games you affect a developer to each task. Iād like this is shown after during the development of this phase.
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Mods: EULA needs allows game modifications and the game needs facilitate them, a mod restoring all real names is really a requirement and I doubt some more publicity for publishers, editors, past games, developers, consoles, would hurt anybody. I think the game could even get paid to add real names.
But as it could be difficult then players should be allowed do it through mods.
I have other suggestions but they are more related to gameplay design and less concrete elements, and possibly many are more for a sequel, that list above is only related to interface design plus the mods thing which is also not a gameplay change.
Another point, I checked quickly the whole thread through search and quick read and failed notice anything developed about the developers characters.
In my opinion a superficial very cool and important element of the game is your developers in your team or that you can hire. Iād say itās one of the rare point less well developed than in Game Dev Story and itās a point that would worth a lot of development.
Before to list some ideas, Iād like explain quickly why. I think itās a very very special and rare point in simulation to have characters and something very close to a RPG party. Itās possibly less an element to develop the strategic depth but more to develop the player attachment to the game through the characters and to overall increase the immediate appeal level.
So in general developers should have more deep, more personality, need be more distinctive and identifiable. The tools to achieve it could be:
- Events related to developers, the list can be rather long. For example, some events mentioning a famous developer is available for hire. Some events that allow check some developers at concurrent and offer them hire. Some events about developers just to give them a bit more personality and the occasion to include hints about their specificity. Some events where a developer request a salary increase or leave.
- Bit of story backgrounds for each developer. They could include hints about the developer specificity.
- More distinctive looks which includes hairs, faces, clothes, different size some fat and some skeletal, obviously many gorgeous blond with big breasts ooops no wrong game but some could be close to ugly and some other cute and so on.
- More distinctive names and some or many with nick names.
- All should be unique but few would be more unique like with special features, for example one could have a small efficiency bonus to compensate but also could get mad sometimes when thereās too many bugs and for example start smash the screen with the keyboard and then lost development time. One should be a very cute girl/boy giving a bonus for G3. One would never use vacation but would have sometimes a small sleep on keyboard during development and perhaps a light efficiency bonus to compensate. Few would have a teaching ability to improve a current teaching if they do nothing, like in GDS the developer would move to the other developer. Some could have a skill bonus base not only at start but for training efficiency. And more.
- More special animations, and that will include a design change to have developers busy on a game only when they are affected to some task, meaning dev would have more free time to for example help another developer this allowing give distinctive behaviors to developers, or slowly train themselves or playing games, and so on.
- Companions like, the totally other level approach and probably too much would be to design developers as are companions in few RPG, deep, stories and events linked to developer, possibly a few short dialogs and more.
Iād like to add a few things I encountered and found them āstrangeā. Havenāt read everything, so excuse me if someone did it first - I wonāt claim copyright.
Reviews: I just release a game with 40+ bugs. Game received scores around 5. Not one review claimed it being pretty much unplayable. Bugs seems to have no influence on reviews, solely on needing to patch.
Hints / game reports: Hints from reviews should be unlocked without the need to research them. For example: I made a post apocalyptic RPG for young audience, with two hints in reviews. RPG working well on system X and post apocalyptic being horrible for young kids. Still I need to unlock those with game reports.
Researching new topics: stays available even if you already researched them all. Both with and without taking offers to steal / buy from shady sources.