Is it possible to work as Blizzard does?

[76561198132828173]

Hi guys,

Sorry if the similar thread was created before. Anyway, I bought the game already on Windows Market, but I purchased it on Steam also, and I was experimenting with the gameplay.

So, my question is, is it possible to have a studio which works as Blizzard does? I.e, release "StarCraft", and cautiously work on gameplay, engine, whatever, and release the sequel, dunno, 5 years from the original title?

I tried that, but I had to wait to research sequels and proper technology... In the end I realized it was practically impossible since I always end-up bankrupt, unless I use cheats.

Did you try something similar?

[Cracktus Jack]

From what I know of, Blizzard scrapped entire games to restart them from scratch. The Game Dev Tycoon version of their behavior could be that you work on a game, trash it, re-do it, aover and over for your crew to gain additional experience and plenty of Research Points for training and new technology, until some time down the line you do what you feel is the perfect version of your game and release a perfect 10 to make all that time worth your while.

Of course, Blizzard didn't start off this way, and weren't 5+ years into development when they released their first games like Blake Thorne, Lost Vikings or WarCraft 1 to build up their first capital and early fan base.

I'd say there are three realities about Blizzard that can't relly be emulated into Game Dev Tycoon: the hype (scrapping and re-starting a game over doesn't carry over the hype), working on multiple projects (while Blizzard was slowly working on a StarCraft sequel, they also had teams developping games in the Diablo and WarCraft franchises) and Expension Sets (with the possible exception of the Beyond the Dark Portal expension for WarCraft II, pretty much everyone who bought one of their later games also bought the expensions sets, stretching the sales cycle of their games to years, way beyond the longevity of games in Game Dev Tycoon).

[76561198132828173]

Yeah, this concept shows some limitations Game Dev Tycoon has. Imho, it can get pretty tiresome to constantly release new games and/or sequels.

Then again, that's how the industry currently works if you want to get "big", but I'd really like to slow down and release fewer big games on longer release schedule. I.e., every three years or so.
But as far as I noticed, it's impossible since you need a constant stream of revenue in order to satisfy your studio's expenses.

[That Wun Wabbit]

This is something that has plagued the pokemon industry from the start. They were working on character development way too long, but Nintendo released the games and they were a smash hit, and continuing series. ANYWAYS, sorry if that was off-topic. This idea of yours simply exceeds the capacity of the game. Other kinds of connections and funding I mean.

Originally posted by P-Lah:

So, my question is, is it possible to have a studio which works as Blizzard does? I.e, release "StarCraft", and cautiously work on gameplay, engine, whatever, and release the sequel, dunno, 5 years from the original title?

[MEMPHIS]

During my current playthrough, I held off like 3 or 4 years before I released a particular game because I kept rebuilding the Engine to accumulate Research Points. I had like 75m in the bank, and rebuilt it something like 5 times for 1.1m a pop. Basically, my plan was to release a sequel to an earlier game, but wanted to wait until I had 2D Graphics V5 in the engine. But to do that, I had to save like 180 RP.

After I built the engine over and over, I researched the new Graphics Engine, and then rebuilt it one last time with it installed. I then built the game and released it to a 9.75 with something like 40m in sales for a total 35m profit. I forget the exact figures, but you get the picture. I also did a lot of Developer Training during this time as well just to make sure my team was improving.

I think this idea you're thinking of could potentially work once you have a sizable bank account to fall back on. As long as you're building new tech and you're keeping your devs trained up, this could theoretically work. If you get the sliders right, and do well on the actual development - the game should give you a respectable profit.

I've noticed that I have moved into a situation where every game I release takes about 2 years of time, but always comes back with a huge success.

I don't think this is feasable in the early stages, but once you get into the 50-60m range, you can afford the loss of a single game and do okay. Something to tinker with anyway...

[76561198132828173]

Interesting. How did you manage to keep this 75m, if you take basic studio expenses into an account?

[Ricardo]

I think your idea of how Blizzard works is quite unrealistic. Think that they didn't started in that way, they can take several years to release a game now because after decades in the industry they are super-rich, they have a huge fanbase, and they receive a constant flow of money from World of Warcraft among other sources of income.

To take several years to release a single game is not the normal thing to do, neither in this game nor in real life.

[EnderWツ]

Blizzard isnt a normal publisher I agree, they are the Apple of GameDevs/Publishers. They can build semi good/ bad stuff and still all the fanboys and all the people who fall for a hype (which sometimes I believe must be 99% of the population) will buy it