Game Dev Story Tips

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by diffusion8r, Oct 25, 2010.

  1. diffusion8r

    diffusion8r Well-Known Member

    Dec 21, 2008
    1,648
    2
    0
    Termina
    Spread your GDS tips here, for any of those who need help.

    My two tips:

    1) use sequels like crazy. When they automatically start with like 50 or so fun it gives you a head start and you're virtually guaranteed to get the game back into the hall of fame. On my second playthrough when I was winning GOTY every year from about year 9 by year 15 I had about 15 action + martial art sequels, about 10 movie sequels and about 3 sequels for online RPGs, music dancing games etc.

    2) If there's someone expensive you want to hire with a massive sign on fee, just make sure you don't fire anyone before doing a recruiting search and just REPLACE a staff member. This avoids the extra signing on fee and for the hackers/special characters can save around 8 million!

    3) You can seriously rewrite history. I managed to keep the Virtual Boy equivalent that in my first playthough went to about 5% in a matter of months to stay at 16% when all other consoles like Game Boy and PS went below that.

    4) The earlier you win the GOTY the better. I got my only 40/40 game around year 8 of my second playthrough which I have never been able to replicate even with 8 hackers, and that year didn't win the GOTY somehow. But later years for some reason although I won it every year it wasn't always my highest rated game. Try and get out 3 37+ games and you're guaranteed it.

    But that's not the point. The Jupiter 512, although looking like something from a 1900 sci-fi theatre production has a ridiculous market share, matched only by a self-made console (but that gets rid of the fun IMO). With 32% of the market share at around year 12 it is a money maker to get 50,000,000 sales figures. I assume you get the toilet console at 5 GOTY (because it didn't come at 2,3 or 4) and I can only imagine what that would have at year 16...)
    For lols, here is my full list of Kung Fu sequels:

    Kung-FU! (Game Kid)
    Kung-FU Xtreme (Game Kid)
    Kung-FU Insane (Game Swan)
    Kung-FU Ultra (Super IES)
    Kung-Fu MEGA!! (Super IES)
    Kung-Fu 3D (Virtual Kid)
    Kung-FU! 4D (Virtual Kid)
    Kung-Fooey! (Platstatus)
    Kung-FU REVO (Game Box)
    Kung-FU! OMG (Jupiter 512)
    Kung-FU! WTF (Jupiter 512)
    Kung-FU!!!!!!! (Intendro DM)
    Kung-FU! HD (Platstatus 2)
    Kung-FU 1080p (Pogo Popo?)
     
  2. csklimowski

    csklimowski Well-Known Member

    Dec 30, 2009
    525
    0
    16
    #2 csklimowski, Oct 26, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2010
    Hmm, that's weird. I never win GOTY, even though all of my games in the past 3 years are 36+ and they all make it into the hall of fame.

    I do agree that sequels are the best way to make money, but if you put out three sequels in the same franchise in a row, your fan base will decrease rapidly.

    By the way, Mystery Adventure games have always been the most successful with me. My first one, which I named Phoenix Wright for obvious reasons, was my first game to sell over 3,000,000 copies. The sequel, Phoenix Wrong, sold 5,900,000. The next game (Phoenix Lefte), because it was a third sequel in a row, only sold 4,600,000, but two years later, I made another sequel which I named Phoenix North, and it was my first 10,000,000 copy selling game!

    Also, hackers may be productive, but they don't seem to be as creative as producers or writers, so don't use them for boosts, proposals, or graphics, or sound jobs.
     
  3. da shiz wiz 19

    da shiz wiz 19 Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
    7,318
    9
    0
    These are combos and tips I've used:

    Board-reversi (1 GOTY)
    Simulation-game co.
    Ninja-action
    Detective-adventure (1 GOTY)
    Robot-shooter (I have 6 GOTY from this combo)
    Fantasy-RPG (1 GOTY)

    I missed a bunch.

    When I'm using those combos I go for Quality. Sequels from the Shooter-robot get me over 120 million copies sold everytime (as long as there isn't a blackout or something). I use the boosts a lot while debugging. Usually one per area, unless it gets me +20 on the first try, then I do it twice on that area. The hackers are ridiculous, I've hired all of them. Boosting with the directors works better than boosting with the hackers, for some reason.

    When making games I choose 3 outside people to do music, sound, and design one game. Then the next game I use all in-house people to do music, sound and design. That way no one does two in a row and they always perform 100%.
     
  4. Cilo

    Cilo Well-Known Member

    Feb 2, 2010
    2,277
    0
    36
    Los Angeles
    #4 Cilo, Oct 26, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2010
    Is Mister X secretly a hacker? I just hired him:confused:

    Also I started utilizing Boosts and it's helped a lot, finally won some awards :D

    My top sellers:

    1. Kitten Butt - RPG/Animal
    2. Boom Dead - Shooter/War
    3. Terminate! - Action/Robot
    4. Back Dat Ass - Sim RPG/Pop Star
    5. HS Meh! - Sim RPG/High School
    photo.PNG

    Edit: 1st game to break the 10million sales mark is Serve It! 3D, my Sim/Convenience Store title - seems to be pretty popular lol
     
  5. camihq

    camihq Well-Known Member

    May 2, 2010
    1,722
    1
    0
    Finland
    When/ any tips to get new office?
     
  6. da shiz wiz 19

    da shiz wiz 19 Well-Known Member

    Sep 24, 2009
    7,318
    9
    0
    Year 10 or so
     
  7. Jack Belmont

    Jack Belmont Well-Known Member

    Nov 14, 2010
    53
    0
    0
    Software Programmer
    Hawaii
    is there anything else after developing own consoles? i found tht thing become repetitive when the time developing the consoles ?
     
  8. ZeroAT

    ZeroAT Well-Known Member

    Apr 5, 2010
    105
    0
    0
    Thanks for the tips!
     
  9. VisceriousZERO

    VisceriousZERO Well-Known Member

    Aug 9, 2010
    61
    0
    0
    I'm having trouble finding the hardware engineer. Help?
     
  10. Scaramoosh

    Scaramoosh Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2010
    288
    0
    0
    I think you have to take an existing dev and when the guy comes to offer to sell stuff, you then change a dev's job to each one and then you can change him to hardware eng.

    Don't take my word for it though.
     
  11. Qordobo

    Qordobo Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2010
    1,609
    0
    0
    Well partially, I made a full career on PC only, releasing all Final Fantasy series on PC :D And since some year making all top 1 and Hall of Fame, this didn't drag the PC from the limbs where the game put it.

    It's not a guaranty, in my last career I got series of successive 37 and 38 without to get the GOTY.

    Mister X isn't special apart that he brings with him an even giving some more fans. And his power level is probably from far the higher, at least from all characters I checked.

    In fact you get the third and last office at beginning of year 6 and you need have more than 2M.

    The merchant sold an item to allow change the job of a dev. You need buy some.

    To have a dev become a Hardware engineer you need level up all his 6 first jobs to level 5. Each time a job is at level 5 change the dev job with the merchant item you bought.

    Then if you change again the dev job after he has all first 6 jobs are at level 5, then you see a new job, Hardware engineer.
     
  12. Trusty Mutsi

    Trusty Mutsi Member

    Apr 5, 2010
    22
    0
    0
    How do you make a game with lots of creativity? I'm not sure which parameters/game direction affects it.

    Thanks for any help!
     
  13. Qordobo

    Qordobo Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2010
    1,609
    0
    0
    I'm not sure that the game direction parameters can affect this, I didn't noticed anything obvious but also haven't made deep tests to evaluate game direction influences.

    But it would not be so difficult (but long and tedious) to test it through the save/load by replaying multiple times a same game creation with different game direction parameters.

    For employees point of view my feeling is that it's the writing skill level which is the most important for the creativity. So if you setup a whole team that all have writing at level 5 and at high level, plus ensure at least two skilled writers in your team you should have in average games with higher creativity. But it's a feeling I have, I don't have any clear evidence/testing showing this.

    There's an in game hint mentioning the Creativity is important for reviewers but I don't think it needs to be the best feature of your games. It just needs be good enough and you should focus more on Graphics or Sounds for critics, and Fun for players. Again just a vague feeling I have.
     
  14. Uberblake

    Uberblake Well-Known Member

    Jan 4, 2010
    337
    0
    0
    How do you unlock the monkey for a job?
     
  15. hkiphone

    hkiphone Well-Known Member

    Oct 7, 2008
    894
    3
    0
    I'm not sure about the game parameters either, but you can boost them through afew things:
    1) Get your most experienced coder/writer to design the game. I managed to bag Shigero Minamoto early in the game and just kept training and leveling him up so he's got great scores across the board. When I kickstart a new game, I usually get him to start designing and boost the fun and creativity with some decent pts.
    2) Sometimes your staff will approach you asking to see if they can try to boost creativity or whatever. There's a gamble on it, helped by increasing the number of research pts, but not always guaranteed. Which staff requesting also helps decide on success rate.
    3) When the travelling salesman comes along, buy the boosters for Fun, Creativity, Graphics or Sound. They have unlimited use, only dependent on the number of research points.
     
  16. Qordobo

    Qordobo Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2010
    1,609
    0
    0
    Well I didn't quote the order and don't remember either. You get very special events by achieving successive GOTY:
    • At 1st GOTY: You get an event about a bear dev (Grizzly Bearington).
    • At 2nd GOTY: You get an event about a chimp dev (Chimpan Z-Force).
    • At 3rd GOTY: You get an event about Kairobot dev.
    • At 4th GOTY: You get an event about the first Kairo console.
    • At 5th GOTY: You get an event about the second Kairo console (The toilet).

    There's also those rare dev, I'm not sure if something trigger them and what does it: Walt Sidney and Sophie Kairo perhaps unlocked with one of the two Kairo consoles.
    What? Coder do good game designers? I don't think it's a general rule, Writers do it well, and probably Hackers too if they are Writer level 5.

    Coders are the best to exploit the fun boost with directors and probably hackers with Coder job at level 5.

    Well that's what I felt, it's in fact not that simple.
     
  17. Qordobo

    Qordobo Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2010
    1,609
    0
    0
    And I have a question, I remember have read in one thread that you could have a Simulation Game Studio. I tried various tricks, through studio name and games developed but didn't succeed get anything special. Is someone can explain the trick?
     

Share This Page