Game Impressions Just wanted to pitch in that this is a very fun game. I can see myself burning out on it eventually but in the meantime, it's got front page of my iPod and I play it whenever I get the chance. Great job to the devs!
when i read reviews about a game where people say how addicting the game is i rarely get sucked in, but holy crap this game is so addicting its not even funny. i found myself playing my iphone for about 3 hrs while stitting in front of my comp doing nothing saying to myself, ok 1 more game then ill quit. wow this game is awesome!
OK, I finally caved in and bought this game at full price, instead of waiting for a sale. Hope I like it as much as everyone else seems to! UPDATE: Ok, yeah, the gameplay is great fun. Very addictive and charming. I do like it. But the implementation is pretty horrible. This could be sooooooo much better if it had been redesigned FOR the iPhone/Touch instead of just ported. I would pay twice as much for a sequel actually designed for this platform. Good game, but you do have to actively ignore the clunky port to enjoy it. The "music" is particularly grating. After 10 minutes I set the music volume to zero, and will probably leave it there forever. Good game, just a shame it's such a plain port.
To be fair this port is honestly very good. Of course it goes without saying I'd like a designed-for-iOS version too. However as a port, they brought the game over from feature phone and managed to keep everything intact, while improving the controls, not losing performance, and including platform-appropriate autosave functionality. PS: anyone else play exclusively in FF?
Can someone help me out and/or give me suggestions as to what i'm doing wrong? Without making this too lengthy, the problem is simply that even after 10 years of my business being open, I don't have more than $4,000 in my account at any given time. Here's what I do: 1. Game start - 3 employees, hire one more (1 is a Writer, 1 is a Designer, 1 is into Audio, 1 is the Programmer) 2. Eventually put out a couple of PC games which manage to sell anywhere in between 100k - 200k copies 3. Spend the incoming money on a) training and the 'floppy disks' on leveling up my staff to level 2-3 each 4. Get licenses for newer consoles (snes for example) and put out some games for it. 5. Try and hire new, higher level people and kick out old ones No matter what I do though - the money I earn is usually spent on training or buying those power ups from the merchant fella. Another problem is, even though i'm 10 years into the game, NONE of my games have managed to get over a '7' from the reviewers or a total score of 26-27 collectively from the reviewers. 90% of the time, my score ends up around 22'ish which just doesn't cut it. The game goes on to sell (maximum) anywhere between 250k - 500k copies (this is the highest i've gotten) and after that, i'm broke after training my guys! I've gone through the thread but am still at a loss for what i'm doing wrong - any help would be appreciated
I'm on my 3rd play through and found the following really helps for the first 10 years if you are trying to save money: 1) Don't level your initial hires, each level up increases their salary and if you don't have surplus, don't do it. 2) I always replaced hires until I got the third office, then started to level up only two employees, until one gets to hardware engineer. Then I hire hackers to replace the rest of the staff. 3) When hiring staff, I look at high stats, but more importantly high energy bar. This way they work longer and games finish faster... I think so anyways. 4) When making new games, use low cost genres and low cost sub-genres. Use +20% if you have surplus, but don't do +100%. 5) Try not to invest in every new system. Stay with one that is over 18% of the market until you can build your own console. 6) So what do you use money on? Training employees during game developments. This I found was the best way to unlock new genres. You won't get great reviews until you have a group of hackers in the third office. Focus on leveling up genres and on your subsequent plays you will have an easier time during the first 10 years.
@kiranb28 Could it be that you are using the same employee to perform the same task constantly? All right, maybe you know this, but being in your tenth year and still struggling like that then something is seriously off... this could be an easy thing to miss that makes one hell of a difference You have to alternate between who performs the tasks (taking care of writing the script in the beginning, handling graphics and then sound). If you give the task to the same lady or gentleman again and again they will start to seriously underperform. Could that be it?
Toast and Vansinne - thanks for your replies. My comments are in bold below: So you mean each of my employees should be at least dual skilled? For example if Peraon A writes the script for one game, someone else should write it for the second one, and i keep alternating henceforth? Will give it a go. Thanks again for the tips. And to the devs: you are the reason why my wife is sleeping right now (its nighttime here) and why im not in bed with her... damn this game
Game is so good that I actually took the time to write a review on it. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=70609 edit: Ugh, nothing worse than having a game on its way to the top and then having a power outage
@kiranb28 No worries, happy to help. Yeah, never use the same one to perform the same task twice in a row (sometimes you get away with it, but never three times, at least not for me). You can tell from their replies how good a job they will do. The "Another .... not sure i can do my best on this one..." means that youre in for a crappy result. But as soon as you get more money coming in you get an offer to move to a bigger office and then you can hire more ppl (6 in the 2nd one, 8 in the third). Then it's easy to have more staff skilled at the same thing. That's also when you get the possability to hire hackers. The hardware engineer you get by leveling one of your employees to five in all professions (once you hit five in one you buy the job switching thingie from the salesman). I've actually gone for a different approach than toast and not hesitated to level up the first batch of employees, and I don't replace anyone until I've got all 8 seats full. That way you save money and time by just replacing them once, instead of spending time, money and skill points on staff inbetween. The salary increase isnt really a bother when you get the money pouring in. You'll be selling those 75 million copies per game in notime.
Does anyone know if it really matters who you use to boost fun/creativity etc during a project? Also what is the program stat for? I assume "scenario" is when you write up a game, "graphics" for graphics and "sound" for sound (obviously). Could program affect how great someone writes their part? For example let's say I have a man who has 50 for Program and 200 for Graphics/Scenario/Sound and a woman with 150 for Program and 170 for Graphics/Scenario/Sound, would the fact that the woman has a better Program stat outweigh the fact the man has better Graphics or Scenario or whatever? (and make her a better choice) Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Haha
Just Wondering... Several other observations on the first and second playthroughs for me...: 1. During the first playthrough on this, I had Fantasy unlocked almost right at the beginning and it was a winner with several genres. Second playthrough, no unlock yet and I'm in the third office and have hackers and the like. 2. The person who said to go for workers with the highest energy is spot on. A worker with low energy has to stop constantly and refuel. This hurts, especially when you're at key points in development and you might need that particular skill at the 40, 60 or 80% marks. 3. When figuring out different genre/type combos, USE COMMON SENSE, and some gaming history, eh? GOOD: Motion+Fitness Motion+Sports Motion+Soccer Motion+Swimming Adventure+Pirate Sim+Game Co. Sim RPG+Pop Star Sim+Architecture Sim+Animal Sim+Romance Sim+Virtual Pet Sim+Movies Shooter+War Fantasy RPG+Dungeon Shooter+Robot Action+Ninja Action+Martial Arts Action+Samurai Audio Novel+Romance Racing+F1 Racing Educational+Historical Educational+Egypt Board+Checkers Board+Reversi (And yes the Sim RPG+, Action RPG+, are real genres and I THINK the Adventure RPG+ was a genre in my first playthrough. Can't remember for sure, though.) Anyway, you get the picture (I hope). Only had a few that my crew were like WTF?!?! But I digress... [Aside: First time through, my biggest seller (40+M was a Sim+BOOKSTORE. No kidding.)] 4. I am having a lot of fun trying to see right now how many "screens full" of each (genre and type) I can collect. First time through, I had 4 and 6. Second time through, I am at 3 and 8(!) now, and the eight screens are many that I didn't have the first time through, just by trying to spend my money on training different workers. Also, different types of people seem to unlock different types. I'm about to start trying to build a console, so I will be testing the "genre types increasing through leveling" theory I have read in the thread. I'll try to let you know what I find out. 5. Lastly, does anyone know WTF a "Poncho" type is? Wha? I'm at a total loss... Must be a Japanese, or at a minimum a "lost in translation" thing, maybe? Anyone have any input? On the Poncho thing for sure, but any others' experiences with this stuff would be cool too. -Jeff
Poncho may refer to Western (cowboy) type games but I haven't unlocked it in order to see what would mix well with it
Just read through this whole thread, watched a couple of videos, and have to say I'm still not convinced. The game looks fun enough, but I just can't quite bring myself to support a port as lazy as this one at this price.
When I first got the game, the first thing I noticed was the UI. It remended me of Phoenix Wright. Like it was taken from another console and shoved into the ipod with no refinements to make it ipod friendly. Looks like it is a port (judging from gabrien's post). But like Phoenix Wright I bit the bullet and got over the insulting UI. Glad I did. It's a fantastic, deep simulation game. Played it like 5 hours the past two days. Choose a game type (RPG, etc. (lots to choose from)) and a game theme (robot, animal, mystery, etc.(again lots of options)). If you pick a good choice, chances are your game will be better received. Then decide the direction of the game (cuteness, realism, polish, etc.). Then choose an employee to design the game, depending on his skill, fatigue, and luck he might add a lot of 'fun' and 'creativity' to your game. Then all your little employees get to work on it. 40% through the game, you choose another employee to intensively work on graphics. Then at 70% you make an employee intensively work on sound. Then ship it out when it's 100% and get scores from critics, watch your sales, buy shit. Oh and you can: -Hire and fire employees. Recruit them through different means. All have different attributes. -Make a console yourself -level up your employees up to level 5. This improved their stats -train employees to raise specfic stats -buy stuff from this salesman that comes by everynow and then. You can buy energy boosts for your employees or career change manuals or boosts to certain attributes in a game (graphics, etc.) -work on lots of different consoles, each with their own perks and consumer base -advertise to expand your fan base -go to game conferences -get awards! -take risky chances to improve your game risking your floppy disks. -move into bigger offices -hire outside help on your games. Some people charge 2 million to help (and sometimes they barely help -_-) -Your game can be talked about in magazines, TV, and prolly some more. The maker of the console can even promote your game There's more stuff. I mean that's a deep game. It truly is open worlded, something rarely seen in the app store.
