Tips in mid-late game please

[Alshina]

Around 1987+ I'm having trouble making my games more profitable. Even with 90-100 game rating, I only make 400k profit average per game (I never reach 1 mil). I make sure they are on trend and have correct slider values. They also sell very slowly so they usually only get to the positives at the end of the game lifetime. Making addons aren't worth it because the costs are too high. The only thing keeping me from going under is my console sales and game production of my past games. Tips would be appreciated.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

This is the very first question I make to anyone having problems profiting from 90%+ games:

How many people do you have in each of your "game development" rooms?

If the answer is "less than ten," then that's one of the issues. And if they're still basic, 30-ish employees, that's another issue - you need to go for the skill 70+ employees by the 2000. Either that, or train your employees (developing A/AAA contract games and small contracts in other rooms, to stay alive in the meantime,) until they hit 70.

Anyhow, more people in a room get things done faster and can polish/debug games faster, adding to the overall quality while decreasing costs added to games by monthly expenses. I can get an AAA game "done" in a couple months in normal speed, with teams of 20 people at 70+ skill in all development-related rooms (except for MoCap, that for some reason works at double speed than the rest,) and these games bring back millions even in Legendary difficulty. I can even survive Legendary without self-publishing or console development, just by releasing one game every three months.

Other things to consider: IP and studio popularity affects sales. If you have two dozen IPs, none of them will be popular enough by the late nineties. I've tested this out: Even with the popularity gain debuff from launching games of the same IP too close to each other, I can get one single IP to five stars before 1985... And that IP's sales allow me to then diversify into other IPs if I want to.

As for studio popularity... If you try to self-publish too early, you'll only be hurting your finances. I would say get at least three stars for your studio rating before you try that. Publisher Exclusive contracts can help you get there.

[Alshina]

Originally posted by Kyouko Tsukino:

This is the very first question I make to anyone having problems profiting from 90%+ games:

How many people do you have in each of your "game development" rooms?

If the answer is "less than ten," then that's one of the issues. And if they're still basic, 30-ish employees, that's another issue - you need to go for the skill 70+ employees by the 2000. Either that, or train your employees (developing A/AAA contract games and small contracts in other rooms, to stay alive in the meantime,) until they hit 70.

Anyhow, more people in a room get things done faster and can polish/debug games faster, adding to the overall quality while decreasing costs added to games by monthly expenses. I can get an AAA game "done" in a couple months in normal speed, with teams of 20 people at 70+ skill in all development-related rooms (except for MoCap, that for some reason works at double speed than the rest,) and these games bring back millions even in Legendary difficulty. I can even survive Legendary without self-publishing or console development, just by releasing one game every three months.

Other things to consider: IP and studio popularity affects sales. If you have two dozen IPs, none of them will be popular enough by the late nineties. I've tested this out: Even with the popularity gain debuff from launching games of the same IP too close to each other, I can get one single IP to five stars before 1985... And that IP's sales allow me to then diversify into other IPs if I want to.

As for studio popularity... If you try to self-publish too early, you'll only be hurting your finances. I would say get at least three stars for your studio rating before you try that. Publisher Exclusive contracts can help you get there.

Thanks for the tips! I have a lot of people in my rooms 15-30 people usually, they are only at 35-50 skill so I guess that's a sign I really should've trained them.

I never knew IP made so much of a difference. I usually just follow trends and release brand new games. I make sequels/remasters/spinoffs once in awhile. Should I prioritize getting IP? By the time I'm self publishing, I'm usually a 4 star studio.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

IP popularity boost your sales a lot more than trends can, I tend to ignore trends altogether and just focus on my special genre and at most two other genres, and as few topics as possible, only branching out if all of the topics I use are over-saturated. I tend to not self-publish until one (or more) of my IP(s) and studio are at 4 stars.

Heck, I made one run where I had an IP with 20 spin-off games, releasing one game every three months. The Main game? RPG/Action. All the Spin-offs? RPG/Action. Game tells you "you can change your main genre" but you don't really need to.

Another small trick: Don't give your employees "idle time." My development rooms are usually never resting, I start developing the next game as soon as I'm done with the last one. Motivation decays a lot faster when people are idle, which makes them work slower when you get them back to work.

[GrenadesAndHamm]

The best thing you could ever do is produce your own games.

Even bad games will make you money if you produce them yourself.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Originally posted by GrenadesAndHamm:

The best thing you could ever do is produce your own games.

Even bad games will make you money if you produce them yourself.

Very Easy, Easy, Medium, and even Hard? Indeed, yes, yeah, and probably.

Above that, there are many factors (some of which I already listed) which can make your game not sell as much as possible, or have too high development costs.

So no, self-publishing isn't the One And Only Answer To Selling. Not in all difficulties, and not with all development team sizes/skill ranges/IP and studio popularities.

[D3s7ruc7or]

Hi,

here you may find your solution.

@yutterh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTA7nbztw2s&t=10s

My game save:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586050375

He has the same playstyle like me. I play little bit different, though.
With my actual save game i´am in 1990 and almost unlocked the last building.
He has many tips you can use for your playing style.

There is no global solution for anything. Everyone has it´s own style of playing the game.
But with time you will find out how everything works.

One Tip is that you should move from building to building as soon as you can.
When you have enough space, build Training rooms for 4 to 5 people and train your best staff (quick learners). With the Marketing start searching for Specialists (50) and switch the staff. As soon as you get the first publisher contract you almost done. Belongs to your playstyle. Be sure to have the numbers even between, Developer, Game Designer to create enough technique points. If you dont have music or grafic studio use grafic designer and music designer, too.
e.g. Room with 20 Developer i would suggest 8 Game Designer, 8 Developer, 2 Music and 2 Grafic.
Be sure to unlock Quality Assurance as soon as possible.
If you have that then my recommondation is:
e.g. Skill Game 40,10,10,40
Do not use that when you dont have music and grafic studio.
Instead use: 10,20,20,50 to create enough technique points.
It is the same for puzzle when you have 50,10,10,30 scale the points:
10,20,20,50
This is, because with the Quality assurance you can generate the points for gameplay.
The features you put to the game create gamplay points, too.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Originally posted by D3s7ruc7or:

Be sure to unlock Quality Assurance as soon as possible.
If you have that then my recommondation is:
e.g. Skill Game 40,10,10,40
Do not use that when you dont have music and grafic studio.
Instead use: 10,20,20,50 to create enough technique points.
It is the same for puzzle when you have 50,10,10,30 scale the points:
10,20,20,50
This is, because with the Quality assurance you can generate the points for gameplay.
The features you put to the game create gamplay points, too.

Hope that helps a bit.

I never understood the deal with the "don't use the best possible sliders" strategy.

I stick to "perfect" sliders at the start of the game, get five stars skill in both the genre and topic I want to use (relatively easy to do with a good enough RNG roll and unlocking B+ games to actually make money,) polish the game for a couple months after it's 100% done, still get 90%+ reviews, usually above 95%. I don't really think the "percentage" of the review sliders really means what some people think it means. Developer's keeping it mystical, but as long as you have enough points in all four stats (how much is enough seems to rise with time,) and the fact you're producing more of one of them than the rest doesn't seem to matter at all.

Heck, I've gotten a 95% score game with 10 Game Designers without needing to move any sliders off their mark. Just kept it polishing for four months.

[Alshina]

Originally posted by Kyouko Tsukino:

Originally posted by D3s7ruc7or:

Be sure to unlock Quality Assurance as soon as possible.
If you have that then my recommondation is:
e.g. Skill Game 40,10,10,40
Do not use that when you dont have music and grafic studio.
Instead use: 10,20,20,50 to create enough technique points.
It is the same for puzzle when you have 50,10,10,30 scale the points:
10,20,20,50
This is, because with the Quality assurance you can generate the points for gameplay.
The features you put to the game create gamplay points, too.

Hope that helps a bit.

I never understood the deal with the "don't use the best possible sliders" strategy.

I stick to "perfect" sliders at the start of the game, get five stars skill in both the genre and topic I want to use (relatively easy to do with a good enough RNG roll and unlocking B+ games to actually make money,) polish the game for a couple months after it's 100% done, still get 90%+ reviews, usually above 95%. I don't really think the "percentage" of the review sliders really means what some people think it means. Developer's keeping it mystical, but as long as you have enough points in all four stats (how much is enough seems to rise with time,) and the fact you're producing more of one of them than the rest doesn't seem to matter at all.

Heck, I've gotten a 95% score game with 10 Game Designers without needing to move any sliders off their mark. Just kept it polishing for four months.

May I ask what game designers affect in this game? Is it just how well they do as a lead developer? Do they affect any of the game rating in gameplay, etc.?

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Each employee has a "specialized" room (or two in the case of Technicians) they should be placed in as soon as possible. Sound Artists go to the Sound Room, Game Testers to the QA room, and so on. Game Designers have the Development Room, so I leave them there. As Programmers do a lot better at the Motion Capture room (the last unlock for "core" game development elements,) then I put all the programmers I have in MoCap, and leave the development room for designers.

Game Designers provide a bit of all four stats for a game when placed in the Development room, and the most skilled designer should *always* be placed as your lead designer, as they affect the overall growth rate of the stats, and they *seem to* affect even rooms they're not in but that are involved in game development.

[navyboyslocum]

Originally posted by Kyouko Tsukino:

Originally posted by GrenadesAndHamm:

The best thing you could ever do is produce your own games.

Even bad games will make you money if you produce them yourself.

Very Easy, Easy, Medium, and even Hard? Indeed, yes, yeah, and probably.

Above that, there are many factors (some of which I already listed) which can make your game not sell as much as possible, or have too high development costs.

So no, self-publishing isn't the One And Only Answer To Selling. Not in all difficulties, and not with all development team sizes/skill ranges/IP and studio popularities.

I only find it necessary to self publish games that are exclusive to my console otherwise I just find it to be a hassle.