Making perfect games

[Mezisophon]

So I understand there are lots of different factors that goes into the rating of the games you are producing. But of the things you can actually do something about, I have some questions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=216784744

This guide gives an indication of which things to emphasize when creating the "perfect game". For example, adventure games has three (+++) plusses on the PC, and the PC works optimally for mature audience (+++), the topic "fantasy" works optimally (+++) with the adventure genre and also optimally (+++) with the mature audience (and I assume using target audience is always preferable). So far it must be perfect right?

Does anyone know how much Im "losing" by picking a topic/genre combination that only has one +, or two ++ ?

Then there are the genre/stages charts where you slide the bars gradually. For the adventure games it has -- on engine, ~ on gameplay, and +++ on story/quests. What does this mean? Should you slide story/quests to the top, engine to the bottom and gameplay.. at almost bottom? or where?

What about simulation games that has +++ on gameplay, ++ on engine, and ~ on story/quests? Intuitively I have been giving engine 2/3 of the bar, gameplay full and story/quests nothing. But I don't know if that is optimal.

But anyway, even if you seem to get all this "correct", there are a bunch of other factors contributing to the overall score here. Most of which I assume is the tech and design points, and that this is mostly relative to my previous games? If my previous games got a score of lets say 25 tech and 25 design points on average, there is no way I will make a 9s and 10s by creating a game that only gets to 20 points in each of those. But do I neccesarily have to break new records to get the highest score?

Then of course there is the engine and all the things you can research to upgrade the games. Here again, I assume it's mostly relative to my previous games. So if you want a 9/10 game you are going to have to improve your engine too (in addition to getting everything else perfect).

This is basically how I conceptualize the game atm. It basically comes down to exceeding prior results in tech/design points and engine while also matching everything as according to the charts. But I still havent sold 100 million copies, gotten a 11/10 score or gotten to the third stage in pirat mode (although that's mostly because of financial issues), so Im still missing something.

Should you for example make bad games on purpose most of the time to lower your average and then jump in with some real gems every 5th game or something?

[Joseplh]

They are vauge, but my suggustion is that if +++ give 100% slider, if ++ give 50%, and + give 25%. If it is - anything, just minimize as much as possible. A lot of the score is random, so even if you have the right balance, it might knock a point for RNG, best way to avoid it I found was in training employees. High skill employees easily outweight the RNG.

For the sales and popularity, I do not know.

[Withinside]

I have been going by ~ as 0 the middle and + is 1/3 and - being -1/3 of the slider but ~ seems to be better -/+ depending on the actual topic+genre+platform and T/D I get lots of hits but no perfect games there is few games that all parameters have +++ adding multi-genre and multi-platform just makes more room for 1 to not be +++ superheroes and fantasy games work for all audiences
but all audiences dont work for all platforms so I've adjusted my target audience on a per platform basis as they are released but the randomness of where in the genre tree I'm dropped determines what genre I can target my audience with has yet to lead me to a perfect run
What level can boosts get too?

[Celebane]

I think part of the problem may be that the game has been updated a few times since these guides/wiki articles were written so they aren't as accurate as they once were.

[billy]

If a slider has +++ put it to max . If it has ++ then 50-70 % is fine , any minus can be from 0 to no more than 10%.

There is some leeway that allows you to tweak it to get more design or tech , which is the main thing

The tech/design balance is the main thing to get right , The sliders are easy as you can keep making the same genre and never touch them again.

Adventure i would say is the easiest as the slider settings naturally get you the T/D balance you need.

To get a 10/10 needs luck and it's not common , 9.75 is repeatable and i can get say 5-10 in a row , then a 8-9 and then back to 9.75's in a row again.

Once you get a 9.75 all you ahve to do is make the next one slightly better and you will get another 9.75 . Gradual improvement is how you keep making 9.75.

T/D balance all depends on your workers skills and sliders , when you hire a new worker or move the sldiers it will unblance it again , if you hire someone with 700 design when your balance was perfect you will need to adjust to that a bit.

It is far far easier to keep making the same genre over and over as you dont need to touch the sliders and controlling T/D is easier.

You make a game slightly better by either the natural levelling of skills , adding a new technology to the game , or training your workers , or using a new engine , or a new topic , or adding a new worker.

Think sensibly , if your struggling say when making an action game to get enough Tech , tweak the sliders to make more tech but stick within the rules , or tain workers in tech , or hire a worker with tech. Again do everything over time in improvements not leaps.

Once you make a 9.75 its fairly easy to keep repeating it. Constant slight steady progression is the key to making 9.75 very often.

I'm not sure if that guide tells you the T/D balance but thats the thing i have written down for each genre, There is leeway in it you dont have to be exact. So for example and Adventure game i aim for slighlt yless than twice as much D than T , an action game would be the other way round , i think you have about 20% either way leeway.

[Grace_bannister]

Originally posted by billy:

If a slider has +++ put it to max . If it has ++ then 50-70 % is fine , any minus can be from 0 to no more than 10%.

There is some leeway that allows you to tweak it to get more design or tech , which is the main thing

The tech/design balance is the main thing to get right , The sliders are easy as you can keep making the same genre and never touch them again.

Adventure i would say is the easiest as the slider settings naturally get you the T/D balance you need.

To get a 10/10 needs luck and it's not common , 9.75 is repeatable and i can get say 5-10 in a row , then a 8-9 and then back to 9.75's in a row again.

Once you get a 9.75 all you ahve to do is make the next one slightly better and you will get another 9.75 . Gradual improvement is how you keep making 9.75.

T/D balance all depends on your workers skills and sliders , when you hire a new worker or move the sldiers it will unblance it again , if you hire someone with 700 design when your balance was perfect you will need to adjust to that a bit.

It is far far easier to keep making the same genre over and over as you dont need to touch the sliders and controlling T/D is easier.

You make a game slightly better by either the natural levelling of skills , adding a new technology to the game , or training your workers , or using a new engine , or a new topic , or adding a new worker.

Think sensibly , if your struggling say when making an action game to get enough Tech , tweak the sliders to make more tech but stick within the rules , or tain workers in tech , or hire a worker with tech. Again do everything over time in improvements not leaps.

Once you make a 9.75 its fairly easy to keep repeating it. Constant slight steady progression is the key to making 9.75 very often.

I'm not sure if that guide tells you the T/D balance but thats the thing i have written down for each genre, There is leeway in it you dont have to be exact. So for example and Adventure game i aim for slighlt yless than twice as much D than T , an action game would be the other way round , i think you have about 20% either way leeway.

lol omg so thats what the plusses was on the bottom of sliders hahahaha i was going crazy and doing it wrong all time thanks for