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Saturday, January 01, 2011

Game Dev Story hints, tips, cheats, secrets and tricks for video game Updated - iPhone iPod iPad

If you're like me - addicted to Game Dev Story video game on iOS then this guide is for you. Just one more turn...


You own your own video game development company, my company's called gamezplay (surprised?). Try and create a million selling No 1 game. game development takes around 5 minutes (3 months game time).


From the start you will be hooked, and the cycle continues - just one more turn - please! The cash you gain for the first games makes you want more then you want to save enough for a console licence. All your money is then gone and you start again. Looking after staff can be expensive and troublesome.

Spend money to create money:
- The money you spend should make you money.
- At the start it may not be best to go with the cheap option.
- Hire the best staff you can afford.
- Move to the largest office you can afford.
- Spend £3.5m on a Hollywood agent.
- Hire some hackers.
- 999 is the limit of Research Data
- No limit for money
gamezplay
Contract work:
 - Gains development points that you can use to 'level up' your staff.
- Undertake one between game development at the start.
- Don't take on work with less than 10 weeks - under this and you may not complete it!
- Best tip: release games at Christmas month 11/12. Games take around 4 months to develop so start them in 5/12 (May) - you may want to take on development work to fill the gap to May.
- Check the offer as similar paying jobs can take different times to complete.
- Once you gain some money you should choose less contract work.
- Taking too many contract jobs can lose you fanbase.

CHEAT - Hire new workers for FREE:
- Use 'Word of Mouth' hiring.
- When all your spots are filled, get the best possible hiring you have.
- When going to hire someone it tells you that you have to fire someone, fire whoever and pay nothing!
- No money will come out of your account; perfect for new games.
gamezplay
Salesman:
- He comes in every year in the second week of May.
- Prices rise as you progress game, cheaper in early game
- You can purchase a maximum of 3 things from him each visit
- Store up some career change manual or dead bull early if you want to max characters out
More on the salesman below...

Game genres and types:
- At the start of the game your choice is limited but more will be added as you progress.
- Stick to combinations that you know like RPG/Fantasy and Puzzle/Reversi.
- Genres and type have popularity rating of A, B or C but don't just whacking two (A)s together.
- Fun factor of a game is the main factor in getting good reviews

Office Moving:
- Year 4 and Year 6. Save your money!

Direction Points:
- Get 2 extra Direction Points whenever your Genre reaches Level 5
Workers - Hackers:
- Need to be in third office to hire
1 - Francoise Bloom - Best employee stats wise Max salary $44000K
2 - Walt Sidney - Second Best employee stat wise Max salary $28500K (Walt Sidney has level 5 hardware engineer skill, he's initially a Hacker. Use the career change item on him and voila)
3 - Dexter McPhee - Has a small energy bar. Max salary $22000K

Good employees:
- Cokie Bottleson: Max salary $57000K (highest) Stats total similar to Francoise- Stephen Jobson: Max salary $14000K Good salary to stat ratio.
- Mindy Crawford: Use this person until you get a special character to replace
- Sophie Kario: Use this person until you get a special character to replace
HINT: If your have the maximum number of people hired for your office size you
will not pay the contract fee for new employees

Hackers:
- Hackers do great in ANY job because of high stats
- All games are Hall of Fame material if you use hackers
gamezplay
Secret Characters:
1 - Mister X (Appears when you get 2nd office) Max salary $6000K
2 - King Ackbar (Appears when you get 2nd or 3rd office) Max salary $8000K
3 - The Grizzly bear (Appears after you win the grand prize) Max salary $30000K
4 - Chapman Z-Force (unlock over 60 game types) Max salary 40000K He's a hardware engineer
5 - Kairobot - Max salary 10000K

How to get the Grand Prize:
Grand Prizes are about Sequels. Once you have enough hall of famers pick your 5 or 6 best performers and make sequels.
You'll get the other three prizes after 10years.

Early Game Combos:
Cheap cost games
- Table + Reversi
- History + Trivia

At the start only make games, alternate between the combos above making a PC game then Game Kid game and use the hiring glitch.
Make your own PS3 the most expensive console at $91000K around year 10.
gamezplay
Office Expansion:
- Three offices are available during the game
- Each office will unlock new training options, hiring options, advertising options and develop options
- 1st office: Maximum 4 employee
- 2nd office: Maximum 6 employees. Need this to develop sequels
- 3rd office: Maximum 8 employees. Need this to develop your own console

Your own console:
- Don't start making your own console until after pay day M3 W4
- You need one hardware engineer
- You need to be in the third office
- You can hire a hardware engineer after you have been awarded 2 or 3 Game of the Year awards
- You get access to the "potato chip" cpu if you have four hardware engineers
- You get access to the "punch card" storage device if you have six hardware engineers
- It will take you almost a year to make with now income during that time
- Developing a console with a 64-bit CPU, BD-ROM requries 650 in each category and $91000K
- Developing a console with a potato chip CPU, punch card requires 799 in each category and around $190000K.
gamezplay
Game Type and Genre Levels:
- Training unlocks Genres and Types
- These don't have to match.
- Read the text each levels when they match direction points. Your game will sell even if you have bizzare combination like Reversi + Card Game
- Each genre and type has a popularity rating (A, B and C) plus cost
- Popularity ratings can change from console to console
- Costs will rise the more advanced the platform.

Budget
Consists of the base cost to develop for the console plus the cost of the genre and type
There are four types of budgets:
- Normal, Speed +20% cost
- Quality +30% cost
- Budget +100% cost (adds speed and quality)
gamezplay
Good game combinations:
Amazing
- RPG + Fantasy
- Simulation + Romance
- Simulation + Movies
- Simulation + Game Co.
- Simulation + Architecture
- Action + Ninja
- Adventure + Mystery
- Adventure + Cartoon
- Shooter + Robot
- Shoter + War
- Life + Animal
- Puzzle+ Reversi
- Audio Novel + Romance
- Motion + Volleyball
- Table + Mahjong

OK
 - RPG + Dungeon
 - RPG + Medieval
- Simulation + Stocks
- Simulation + Dating
- Simulation + Basketball
- Table + Checkers
- Action + Samurai
- Action + Robot
- Adventure + Fantasy
- Adventure + Romance
gamezplay
- Shooter - Ninja
- Racing + Marathon
- Racing + F1 Racing
- Online RPG + Fantasy
- Online RPG + Dungeon
- Trivia + Movies
-  Board + Checkers
- Music + Pop Star
- Music + Movies
- Audio Novel + Mystery
- Puzzle + Word

To try
- Music + Dating 
- Adventure + Mushroom = Mario!
- Action + RPG
- Fantasy + Dungeon
- Online + RPG
- Simulation + Animal
- Highschool + Romance
- Highschool + Dating
- Table(and/or Board) + Chess or Reversi
- Racing + motosport
- Animal + Shooter
- Robot + Spy
Genre list:
Popularity Rating - Genre Name - Job title - Earn at level
A - Action RPG - Producer - 3
A - Card Game - Hardware Engineer - 3
A - Motion - Hardware Engineer - 5
A - Online RPG - Producer - 5
A - Online Sim - Hacker - 5
A - RPG - Writer - 5
A - Sim RPG - Producer - 1
A - Simulation - Coder -4
B - Action - Writer - 3
B - Audio Novel - Director - 2
B - Board - Producer - 1
B - Educational - default
B - Life - Designer - 3
B - Puzzle - default
B - Racing - Sound Engineer - 3
B - Music - Director - 5
C - Adventure - default
C - Shooter - Writer - 3
C - Table - default
C - Trivia - default

Console licences:
- PC games are OK to start but as soon as you have enough cash upgrade
- Use your knowledge in real life as you'll some consoles don't last long - 3D!
- Best stick with IES, DM, GameKid from 'Intendro' and 'Sonny' PlayStatus.
- Checkout the market share and cost of licence as some can be expensive for the market they reach
- Once a console has been discontinued (happens all the time) you can't develop for - so choose carefully.
- You can develop your own console but this is expensive and a 'Hardware engineer'
- If you build your own console only develop for it as this will keep market share.
- Don't develop a console unless you have lots of spare cash to develop games.
- Use one main licence on which you develop your games
- Develop on two consoles at the same time.
- But once your console becomes old or loses market share you should consider a change.
- Save up the money to buy the new licence.
gamezplay
How to get a hardware engineer (20 year +):
- Level up a staff member to the maximum in every role.
- Use the career change manual (from the salesman) to swap jobs to something they are not level 5 in.
- Level them up and do the same again until the Hardware Engineer option is available
- 4 Hardware engineers equal console higher then BD-Rom
- 6 Hardware Engineers equal the best console
- Can be hired through booths or hollywood agent
- Booth hiring method is almost the same as Hollywood but cheaper

Write - Design and Music:
- Fill all the seat however large your office.
- Buy the best you can afford and fire under performers
- Levelling up staff is more expensive than replacing with higher stat staff.
- Start with 1 writer, 1 designer and 2 coders.
- Script your game with writers.
- Designers for graphics and sound engineers for music - simple!
- Don't use the same person twice in a row ('Prev' will appear next to their name)
- Try and have two for each discipline.
- Choose your workforce with care and they will meet all your needs.
- Better staff cost, wages are removed once a year so make sure you have cash to pay them.
- Check for staff between projects.
- After 10 years your staff should be on 100+ stats.
- Staff wages are paid in March (3/12)
- Research points (floppy disk) can be used to level up staff get them up to level 5 asap.
gamezplay
Specific tasks:
- As you develop games you'll be asked 3 times about tasks.
- Write a scenario, Graphics, Sound - Remember not to pick the same employee twice in a row.
- Try if you can to avoid using outside help but sometimes it will pay off.
- Be careful that the cost of help will not be clawed back.

Making sequels:
- Only 'Hall of Fame' games (review score of 35 or over)
- That means they're already a success and will make lots of money.
- Use them to bump up your cash when you're a successful developer.

Hackers:
- Hackers appear when you're looking for staff.
- They have great stats but fail to deliver when you employ them.
- You shouldn't discount them as with the career change manual (from the salesman) you can give them a 'proper job'.
- Hackers can make games go up to like 100+ every catagory.
gamezplay
The Salesman:
- During each year the salesman will visit offering you tempting items.
- His boosts will get more expensive as the game continues.
- Buy Creativity, Fun, Graphics and Sound boosts when you can afford them.
- He also sells the career change manual buy them if you want a hardware engineer (see earlier)

Advertising:
- The best time to buy advertising is during game development and debugging.
- Pick the best you can afford as this will make the biggest difference (only spend what you can afford).
- If have loads of cash spend until your hype is 100 your games will sell regardless.
- Advertising will increase hype and fame of the game as well as increase the fan base
- Wait a short period of time between advertisments to get the bonus for the second ad, say 10% dev time.



Bad events:
- Power Outage: Reduces development points by a lot
- Hardware Fail: Reduces development points by a lot
- Competing Similar Game: Cuts sales in half roughly
- Some increase your hype and fame,
- Some increase sales and development points
gamezplay
Good Events:
- Magazine Coverage
- Television Coverage
- Random event that boost your development points

Gamedex:
- Only buy what you can afford.
- Later in the game the crowd will increase even if you spend less.

Staff wanting to help:
- Early in the game be careful as failure will add bugs to your games.
- Don't let them help during development work.
- When you have lots of experience let them help ever time as success will be more forthcoming.
- The salesman boosts make it possible to accept every offer of help as bug cleaning earns development points that can be used to level up staff.
- You can choose to let them try by assign a certain amount of
research points that will determine the success rate which falls between
20 and 80%.
- The employees stats will determine how many research points will be required to
achieve a certain % of success.
- Succeed and your game will get additional points for that specific area of the game, you can also benefit from bonus hype and fame.
- Fail and your game will recieve bugs and lose hype and fame

Game of the year award:
- Pick one project (a sequel) get a review over 36 points.
- Check all staff are NOT tired.
- Pick staff with the highest level and use the salesman boosts.
- You need Fun - 300 points and over 100 points for the others.
- Then hype and advertise your game to the max.
gamezplay
Icons:
- PREV - employee used before to development the PREVious game - they'll not give you their best.
- IN - your workers and they're FREE (except for their salary)
- OUT - contractors they will cost but sometimes using them will pay off.

How to remove the 'PREV' symbol and use an employee unlimited times
- Glitch removes 'PREV' symbol get  employee an unlimited number of times to do a certain job of game making (scenario, graphics, sound).
- When developing a game pick an employee pick a scenario, then press "back" bottom right.
- Tap "OK" on the "Game Direction" window and you'll be prompted to pick the employee again.
- No employee has the PREV symbol anymore.

Training:
- Improve your employee stats.
- Training costs but it also unlocks new game genres.
- Maximum level up is 5.
- Level up helps with game development but increases staff salaries.

Game direction:
- At the start choose NORMAL (no development cost)
- SPEED - faster games (doh!)
- QUALITY - better games (doh!)
- RESEARCH - gain research data to train staff.
- BUDGET - all of the above
- Speed, Quality and Research can reduce staff burden.
Stop development:
You can stop development of games before they reaches 100%.
- Staff will lose all their energy
- If the game was a sequel you can still make that sequel

Game Types:
- RPG
- Simulation
- Sim RPG
- Table
- Action
- Adventure
- Shooter
- Action RPG
- Racing
- Online RPG
- Trivia
- Life
- Board
- Puzzle
- Music
- Audio Novel
- Motion
- Educational
- Card Game

Game Genres:
- Sports - C
- Martial Arts - C
- Samurai - A
- Dungeon - A
- Pirate - B
- Comedy - C
- Horror - C
- Animal - B
- Robot - B
- Airplane - B
- Convenience Store - C
- Historical - C
- Movies - A
- Game Company - A
- Egypt - B
- Town - A
- Architecture - A
- Lawyer - A
- Monster - B
- Hunting - A
- High School - B
- War - B
- Ninja 0 B
- Cutie - A
- Ogre - C
- Cowboy - B
- President - A
- Cartoon - B
- Cosplay - A
- Pop Star - B
- Swimsuit - A
- Mushroom - C
- Poncho - C
- Chess - C
- Checkers - B
- Reversi - C
- Fitness - A
- Wrestling - C
- Snowboard - B
- Golf - B
- Swimming - B
- Motorsport - B
- Ping Pong - C
- Sumo - A
- Baseball - A
- Marathon - C
- F1 Racing - B
- Pinball - C
- Slots - C
- Dating - A
- Harbor - A
- Time Travel - B
- Spy - A
- Exploration - C
- Fantasy - B
- Virtual Pet - A
- Romance - A
- Word - A
- Junior High - C
- Fashion - B
- Detective - C
- Mystery - B
- Horseshoes - C
- Stocks - C
- Mini-Skirt - A
- Mahjohng - B
- Dance - B
- Drums - B
- Skiing - C
- Celebrity - B

Staff members:
- Coder
- Writer
- Designer
- Sound Engineer
- Director
- Producer
- Hardware Engineer (upgrade)
- Hacker (hired but cannot be trained)
gamezplay
What impacts the performance of project leads?
- Person's overall stats
- Primary stat for the job
- Job level pertaining to the job
- Did they do this job last tme? (pick someone else)
- Combination rating of genre and type
- Uncontrollable random element

Tips:
Doing consoles is a great way to rack up huge Dev Point gains to get every staff member to a level 5 hacker. To accomplish this don't buy anything but Career Change manuals from the salesman. Boosts are a waste in the long term... the minor gains early on aren't worth the cost to buy them, and having mostly or all hackers in the last few years will make you more money than anything prior.
gamezplay
If you can't increase any of your stats anymore and you've MAXED out EVERY job to level 5, PINBALL training still increases all parameters by +6 it requires a lot of $$$$.  It works 1/5 times and 2/5 times if lucky. To get the maximum usage out of this training spam it until the employee gets tired, rests, and then repeat. Just make sure you have the funds to do so.