I basically made the pokemon of game in the game and it sold like crazy, went from 10k to 2 million. But somehow later when I try to make sequels to successful games they sell meh just because they get less review score (7s or 8s). How exactly is this realistic? You should be able to milk franchises but the game doesn’t let you do that.
I just made Maretroid for the Master System, because I already had the license and couldn’t afford the NES one, and it was my biggest hit ever. So, since the Gameboy had already come out I decided to make Maretroid II for it and added in all of my game engine’s advanced features that I kept forgetting to use like saving, linear plots, and gamepad support. Now, you would think that a portable sequel to my biggest hit game would sell like hotcakes, but no, it got a score of 5 in all the reviews and it barely made any money. Even after I added saving! 
This was the demo though, because I have to wait till next week to buy the game, but I hope they fix this. It was very annoying.
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It is NOT fixed in the final release.
I dont think its been stated yet whether each engine upgrade actually has an effect depending on which genre it goes into or if it’s just whichever one costs the most is the best one to use.
i’d LIKE to see each upgrade be more or less effective depending on the genre. VR headset for space simulation? Yes please.
all a sequel does it give more hype. It’s basically like free marketing if you do a sequel to a successfull game. it’s not a guaranteed bestseller.
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Then I propose they change the mechanic.
First make sequels available more early, I don’t believe a person couldn’t normally think up how to make a sequel.
2nd make the sequel sell a minimum percentage of the old game like 25% then add the hype, review calculations and then add another calculation for sales to account for the new features added to the sequel.
3rd, sequels should remember the gameplay/ story percentages in addition to the genre.
I think doing those things will make the game for fun, you can try having established Ip’s to fall back on while making new Ip’s. But they aren’t gonna be guaranteed successes if you don’t add new features, if you constantly make sequels with less features the review scores will drop, people will stop buying, etc.
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Also, how the heck did I manage to make a Master System game without gamepad support? Did I release it only in Japan?
Yes, the sequel mechanic should be available MUCH earlier. I was playing for a while and getting the message of “I can’t wait for the sequel” in my reviews, and I thought it was just idle text. Sure, I made “sequels” to my games - similar products with new engines, etc - but I didn’t even know there was and actual sequel mechanic built in for the longest time.
My suggestion would be to make that mechanic available after your first big hit.
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I agree with earlier sequels. Final Fantasy 1 for NES had dequels and Breath of Fire for the SNES had sequels too.
oh and Ring world for PC had Return to Ringworld as a sequel. (old dos game)
However, those games were made by big time developers with huge publishing options. Do remember that the setting of the game is that you’re starting out as a small-time indie developer. Once you get the sequel option, you’re basically at a medium-level game company, where it’s more expected that you have the fanbase to support game franchises.
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my suggestions for prequels sequels remakes and spinoffs
to start you select an older game and tell it if it’s a remake or a sequel.
some of the options would have the game coppied with II or III for sequel or 0 for prequel or what ever attached to the name. This option would remember the settings you had for the game and let you change all of them other than theme. The Remake option will have most of the settings grayed out because it has to be the same type and style of game but can be made for different consoles.
having options for expansions would be cool too because a % of people that own the game would want the expansion and people who don’t yet own the game but want the expansion would have to buy both the main game and expansion which would bring up the number of sales for the main game.
with naming it could be [game name]: expansion name.
All of my sequels do really well 
in fact it’s how I make easy bank. I loaded up my first save just do to you an example now:
[Game Dev Tycoon][1]
http://imgur.com/hkQY0xQ “Game Dev Tycoon”
I remember from somewhere that the company that made Final Fantasy was almost bankrupt and that’s why they called it “Final Fantasy” because it was going to be their final, fantasy game.
(Source)
In the mid-1980s, Square entered the Japanese video game industry with simple RPGs, racing games, and platformers for Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System. In 1987, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create a new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix’s Dragon Quest, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda, and Origin Systems’s Ultima series. Though often attributed to the company allegedly facing bankruptcy, Sakaguchi explained that the game was his personal last-ditch effort in the game industry and that its title, Final Fantasy, stemmed from his feelings at the time
The extra hype does boost sales (and damages your reputation - fanbase - if it sucks).
going from my last post maybe your first big hit game should be granted rights to become a sequal. I had one game make almost 1 mill before the first 5 years.
best to wait at least 25 months before releasing a sequel. And best have a super new Game Engine too.
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I thought the sequals mechanic was fine. Earlier in the game they scored badly but later on they made millions. You have to treat sequals as huge releases. I always released sequals after developing a new engine and put huge campaigns behind them.
According to the wiki, sequels actually get better review scores than normal games, and from my observations that seems correct. However, they do have to run on a better engine than the original game. If they don’t, they get significantly worse reviews. So, I would suggest writing down which engine you used for each game, or at least, when you switched engines, so that you don’t make this mistake.