Virtual Pet/Casual Broken?

[WildKarrde]

I can't figure out what the deal is, but every time I try to make this game combo it's utter trash. I balance all my categories, boost up the ones that are important, get at least 98% in everything, and yet I CANNOT release a Virtual Pet.Casual game that gets about a 2 or 3 rating. The most recent one I released for the iPhone got a 1,1,3,1. I don't get it. Anyone else have any luck with this combo? I thought it was supposed to be a good one? The game tells me it's great.

[Greifenstolz]

Is the T/D-Ratio of your game maybe off? Is the sum of T/D points smaller then in your last games? Have you put to much developement time into unimportant Sliders? How about target audience? There are way more things to calculate with for a good game/score then "it's a great combo".

[HotGirlPoopin]

Think Pokemon and you should do well.

My 1st Million $ game was a pokemon spoof virtual pet/casual for gameboy that made 7 million in the garage.

[WildKarrde]

I never played Pokemon, lol.

Originally posted by Kaurus:

Is the T/D-Ratio of your game maybe off? Is the sum of T/D points smaller then in your last games? Have you put to much developement time into unimportant Sliders? How about target audience? There are way more things to calculate with for a good game/score then "it's a great combo".

I'm not sure what the T/D ratio's should be, but mine are pretty equal. I have two companies, one is slightly higher T, other slightly higher D, but the game scores are comperable in both my companies.

The sliders... does it help to put additional time in the sliders even if you already have enough time in them to fully develop the features you want in your game? Generally speaking, +++'s get the most time, ++'s get the second most time, but I only put juuuust enough time into them to develope the game featues, and whatever's left over I put into developing the last category. Is this a bad strategy?

My target audience has always been Young for this game type. This is also the only game type I've attempted that I haven't been able to produce at least a "7" game in.

[Bumbling Henchman]

I know this post is old, but just to prove it's not "broken":
http://i.imgur.com/25AIXhw.png

10/10/10/11 :D

You just need to have a crazy high design. Like double the design to technology.

[WildKarrde]

Ok. My design to tech ratio is usually pretty equal... so I guess casual games just aren't a good fit for my team style.

[Greifenstolz]

Well, the thing with Casual games is that they need no engine, storywriting, dialogues, AI and world design at all. If you put more then 40% developement time in those fields (40% of the dev time overall, not 40% of the slider), you will get bad results. Equally, if you put less then 20% of the time into essential areas, it will effect your ratings negatively. And you should put more then 40% time in at least 2 of the important fields, because that will rise the game quality.

As for ratio, you should produce for every 2 design points 1 tech points for the optimal ratio for casual games. This should be reachable with a balanced team since during the Gameplay implementation your team produces much more design points than tech points. Level Design, Graphics and Sound should be pretty much equal in point generation.

[darkstormyrain]

I've spent quite a few hours in game, made 1bil plus so far in my only finsihed game and I still have not figured out what people meant by make sure this or that is no higher/lower than whatever % does that mean the sliders, the bottom bar or to the right where you pick whatever features.

[WildKarrde]

Even while focusing all my time on the needed categories, with absolutely zero time on the unnecessary categories, with a staff that's pretty equal in both design and technology... the best I can get is a 3,4,4,3 rating. This was in the Life/Casual category. I dunno, casual gameplay still seems pretty busted to me.

[Greifenstolz]

Well, if everything fails, maybe the wiki can help you.

http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_on_Experience/1.4.3

[Azuwi]

Originally posted by Mango is in Denmark lel:

I know this post is old, but just to prove it's not "broken":
http://i.imgur.com/25AIXhw.png

10/10/10/11 :D

You just need to have a crazy high design. Like double the design to technology.

how did u make a 5 million dollar game in year 6? -.-

[Azuwi]

well the game cost and license cost for Gameling (gameboy) is like 100k max, and with all the research features u have by year 6, it can max cost 1 million to develop. so how did it cost 5 million to make a gameboy game on year 6 is my question. o.O

i never even had 5 million in my wallet by year 6, i had like 2 million $ on year 7 at max.

but i made a game during year 25-30 however that only got 4,5,6s from reviews, but when i sold it i earned 80 Million $ (it cost 2M to develop)

[WildKarrde]

Originally posted by Kaurus:

Well, if everything fails, maybe the wiki can help you.

http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_on_Experience/1.4.3

I've read that before. All my employees are specialized in their fields... and I utilize them in those fields. Maybe it's because my current game is on year 72. Seems good ratings are harder and harder to get the longer you play. I should probably start a new game, but I've been having fun piddling around on this one for 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there as I have time. I havent' seen a 10,10,10,9 game in forever, used to get them all the time. But in other game types I still get mostly 7's... except for casual.

[WildKarrde]

Wow, ok. So I finally did it. Not sure what changed. I did have a fully rested staff (usually do), and used the booster button every time it became available (usually wait till 3rd development stage for that). My staff was still almost exhausted right before the release of the game, that usually doesn't happen, but I got my first solid 10 rating in years! I did set new records for both design and technology, I'm sure that helped. I guess they just got excited about the game and worked really hard on it. I never did try Airplane/Casual before... must say I got the idea from the above link though.

http://s1227.photobucket.com/user/jkarrde/media/PrincessLost_zpsd32a330d.jpg.html

Probably gonna retire that company now, I've really only kept it around to try to get good ratings in the last gametype I didn't do well in. The only thing I haven't accomplished is 100 million sales of a game, and not sure I'm gonna do it with such an old team.