First post here, just want to say I love the game.
I didn’t finish the game, so if this is already in, I apologize.
My suggestion though: Licensed games. You can buy licences from (for example) in-game versions of FIFA or F1, the game would sell through that company’s shop too and they would take a certain amount of money. You would be obligated by contract to make a game every X amount of time, and a penalty would be applied if you don’t.
how about new systems? like the atari 2600 and jaguar, or the CD-i and the 3DO, or the recent Ouya!
Awesome Patrick, i am very curious which lucky community member has their idea in the steam release 
After having 4 or more employees, one of the employee (for some reason) will demand that can he/she can go on vacation (whether the employee’s stamina meter is full or not is irrelevant). The reason of the employee’s demand on vacation may be serious or unimportant at all.
Choice 1: let he/she go
Exactly what happen if you send someone on vacation. This also makes his/her stamina full when returning to the office. But will cost a few thousand dollars.
Choice 2: Decline the permission
The employee’s efficiency rate will reduce 10% for 6 months. But this won’t cost a single penny.
e.g.: A message pops up, “Hey boss. Um, how do I say this. Yesterday my grandmother died and my whole family is holding a ceremony. Would you kindly let me take 2 weeks off and meet them?”
Nivento upgrades the Gameling with a new design and a color screen (year 8 or so?). The Gameling’s market share rises and its image changes to resemble the Gameboy Color.
A prank war with another company
I was thinking it would be cool to have some type of story event around another company either making a game that is to close to your game or something like that and a full on prank war being started.
Could have a an option to take be nice to them and avoid it if you are just starting out or a branched out story that could be short or just go the entire game where the pranks just keep getting worse and worse.How good the pranks could be are related to the creativity of your team and would get you fans and hype for your game if you win if you lose you could end up with your games name being changed to something funny and goofy and things like that.
If you added it the story line would mostly be for humor you could even have a post like this for future ideas on the pranks in new updates if you really got into it.
EDIT:Depending on what type of future games Greenheart makes if they make a game like GDT the company in that game could be the ones you are pulling pranks on and you could see what happens through their eyes.It would build up both games and most of the story would already be created in Game Dev Tycoon so it wouldn’t be as much work on your next game you could possibly keep it for all of your future games and just keep building on it for each one increasing the quality of all of them with a lot less work.
Smoke! Smoke Everywhere!
Similar to the patch, can randomly trigger when running a custom console (even at max Quality Assurance). Unlike the patch, it will not trigger while you’re making a game, but instead just after a game has gone off of the market.
“Hey, Boss! I don’t know how to tell you this, but, well, a lot of our custom consoles are being returned with some of the hardware fried. I know there was that big storm a week ago, but I didn’t think it would do this much damage to us. What should we do?”
Options:
1: Compensate the users of the consoles with new hardware (Costs large amount of money, gains large amount of fans, event does not trigger again)
“Well, we could just replace the consoles with the new boxed ones we have in the Lab.”
2: Compensate with repaired hardware (Costs moderate amount of money, no fan gain (after all, who wants refurbished when you bought new?), chance of event reoccurring)
“Let’s try to fix them. It’s sure to be cheaper than new consoles, and given our QA department, they’ll run just fine.”
3: Refund purchase price (costs less than Option 1, chance of market share decrease, mild fan gain, event does not trigger again)
“Let’s give them a refund. We can’t justify the expense to replace [Number] of consoles, and we can’t give some of them new ones, some rebuilt ones, and others get nothing. Everyone gets a refund.”
4: Ignore damages (Event ends, chance of reoccurring, severe loss of fans, severe market share decrease)
“It’s not our fault. It says in the user manual, “In event of storm, disconnect power and network cables.” That’s that.”
Ergonomics
“Hey, Boss, I’ve been having problems with my wrist lately. Can we get some new ergonomic hardware? I’ve heard it might help.”
Options:
1: Get new hardware (pay moderate amount of money): All employees gain 10% to Speed, office updates to show new keyboards, mice, chairs, and desks. News article in favor of company.
“Sure. Let me fill out these forms and call the delivery company.”
“In a bold move, [Player], Owner and CEO of [Company], upgraded all of their office equipment in favor of more ergonomic supplies, increasing productivity and comfort.” (causes mild gain of fans)
2: Refuse to get new hardware (free): All employees lose 10% of speed, potential for notifying employee to quit citing medical reasons, News article against company, potential for lawsuit. Player will be sued if they fire anyone from this point on, seeking compensation for medical problems.
“In a surprising act of greed, [Player], Owner and CEO of [Company], refused to update their office equipment when an employee inquired about ergonomic hardware. Employee [Employee] told us that s/he is now in touch with both a doctor and a lawyer regarding medical problems.” (article causes major loss of fans)
“Hey, Boss, um, [Employee] didn’t show up for work today. What are you going to do?”
Ignore: Employee doesn’t show up tomorrow, either. This continues for a week before they quit.
Call: Employee mentions they’re in pain, then hangs up.
Fire: Lawsuit.
“Hey, Boss, we’ve got a letter here from [Insert lawyer name here] seeking compensation for medical injuries sustained at work.” (Goes to court, no option, lose large sum of cash)
More powerful computers
“Hey, Boss, seeing as how hardware’s getting cheaper, should we upgrade our computers one last time? I know someone who might be able to get us some lightly used server hardware.”
Accept: pay moderate amount of money, office remodel to show new computers next to desk, major productivity increase, but monthly cost rises due to electrical consumption. News article mentioning company.
“[Company], a business not afraid of bold moves, has taken a surprising leap of faith on new hardware. Trading out their worn desktops, they have chosen to rescue some retired server hardware, a computing system more powerful than all of the desktops they once ran combined. [Player], CEO and owner, commented “I felt the extra power could give us the edge over the competition, allowing us to create more games and better games in less time.” We will have to wait and see if that holds true or not, but in the meantime, keep your eyes on [Company]” (mild gain of fans)
Decline: keep current desktop systems. No penalty.
I know, I’ve made a mess, but I think of some of my best ideas when I’m half asleep. I just can’t word them in such a way to be short and compressed. Hopefully there’s some idea in there that someone likes.
What about OSHA stepping in and giving the company a fine.
Another safety related event is OSHA requiring you to do office safety training. If you don’t do it, one of your employeese gets hurt falling of a ladder or something.
Office Microwave Mess
Boss, the microwave is nasty. Do something.
-Call a meeting
-Send an email
-Clean it yourself
-Do nothing
Academic Reader
Boss, a Professor is editing a reader on video games and he’s asked us to write an article to include in it. What should we do?
-Write about video game violence (+1000 fans, news picks it up)
-Write about project management (+15-25 speed training)
-Write about player reaction to the world and level (+15-20 design)
-Write about programming (15-20 tech)
-Write about new technology (+15-20 research)
There should be some negatives in there because if all the choices give you something very good someone could just choose randomly.
Basic gameplay enhancement ideas
Here I have a though I read in another topic which I think was a really nice thought about enhancing the basic gameplay mechanics,
It would be nice to have a more detailed review, so that is says for instance: “Sound is brilliant, but the graphics are laughable, Physics are awesome nevertheless!”
Furthermore it would be nice to have more feedback to the sliders when producing a game, so that you have a feel which game needs which criteria(world design, sound, graphics, story etc.) the most.
And the same counts for researchable objects like the controller, joystick etc… Will it enhance the gameplay experience on the PC or only on console for instance, and will MMO’s thrive better on PC or console ?
Let me answer the last question. Yes the joystick and stuff do enchance the gameplay and get you better reviews.
Would be cool if a company offers a contract that you could develop games for her and their respective platforms for a time determined by the contract, per a amount of money obvious.
I wouldn’t mind being able to contract out making games for the custom consoles. You know, pay a small signing fee, set up what you want in return, regarding topic, genre, rating, wait a little time, then have a game added to market that you don’t have to make yourself.
Boss, another company is making a port of our game to their own console, should we
Ignore the third and fourth option.
No Extra Options Added
Happens when you have no to little extra options added to your game (surround sound, better AI, level editor) for the time the game is released. The game must have a score of between 4 - 6. The game must have been released in the last 3 months. You must have at least 15,000 fans and have 3 employees.
Boss, it seems like our fans is upset with our latest game, [game name here], as it had hardly any features on it. They think it would’ve gotten a better score with more features included. They are demanding that we remake the game with more features. Should we remake the game or ignore them?
Option A: Ignore
(News) Many fans of [your company name here] are disappointed when the CEO, [player name here] announced that they are not going to remake [game name here]. This was a bad move for [your company name here].
Lose moderate - large amount of fans. Game continues.
Option B: Remake
(News) The fans of [your company name here] are excited as the company replied that they are going to remake [game name here]. Yet another reason why [your company name here] is one of the most beloved companies around.
Small fan boost. Opens game management bar.
Remade Game gets score of 6.75 or below.
(News) Fans of [your company name here] were shocked as the remake of [game name here] was just as bad as the last. It seems as if the company didn’t care about the production of it.
Large fan lost. Game sells half as normally it would. Game continues.
Remade game gets score of 7 or above.
Fans of [your company name here] around the world are happy as the remake of the featureless game, [your game name here], has more features and got great reviews. [your company name here] has a huge reason why its fans love the company so much.
Major fan boost. Game sells twice as good as normally. Game continues.