Can dev's please sticky this topic for an easier accesses for newbies

There is freaking guide section to the Hub for all games, use it. Discussion is for discussion, guide is for guides.

Sikeman214, I can certainly understand why you have played as Trollmaster T.

He has a point. This is why the Guides section exists for games.

Once you find out how, the game is really easy to beat on hard difficulty also. For hard diffiuculty what worked for me was :

- At start of game, hire a second employee and develop a game without engine. This game is not meant to make money, so keep it as cheap as possible. You just need it to get the research department unlocked.

- Now have a development and a research department. In research, put all guys with high stats in game design, as game design only influences research speed. The other employees go to development.

- Development now keeps doing contract work for quick money.

- Research department (better to have two research departments if you can afford it) only researches any new feature which is enabled with time.

- If there is no feature left to research, check which engines have been published. Keep the genres these engines are specialized on in memory and research a genre which there is no engine for yet.

- When there is no contract work left for development department, develop an engine for the previously researched genre. Set it to sell engine, around 100 to 150k and 10-15 % profit share worked well for me.

Now basically repeat this a few times until you got like 5-8 engines published for sale - you will quickly have more money than necessary to move to a bigger office.

Don't bother developing games until there is 16 color graphics available, and only use your own engines to develop games with (with bought engines you almost always make a loss, no matter how good the game ratings are).

As soon as own production becomes available, go for it. At a certain point in the game (I believe it was 256 color graphics), all of your developed games will get 91% ratings (as long as you dont use a completely outdated engine). Publish one of these games yourself, aim at around 1 to 1.5 million sold copies (your factory and storage should be able to handle this). Take care not to go bankrupt while producing the copies, if necessary cancel production and start it again after first sales came in. You will make about 10-15 million $ with this game and from now on, it is just a boring repetition. Every game makes millions of money which you won't be able to spend for the rest of the game.

Why isn't there a tutorial?

@oldebuy:
Later, a tutorial will be added.

Whan i start in Garage, thare no door in development room, so i cant enter or exit

Is this guide still up to date? I'm having trouble playing this game, need to take a lot of loans all the time..

Well heres a sort of revised version based off his original post:

Set up your character to be good at Arcade and dump points into game design/askii text
(askii text or PC speaker sound, as long as its a skill thats useful here and now, its not entirely critical to your success)

Select Easy Difficulty (anything else is optional)

Build a small bathroom

Build good sized development room that will fit four desks (the first garage is sized in such a way that you should be able to wedge in a decent research room/development room + bathroom, or you can go cheap on the research room to leave space for a lounge)

Add at least 1 heater to the development room, a trashcan in the bathroom, a fire extinguisher in the bathroom

Hire two other people.

**Always do any contracts you feel you can accomplish...you'll need this money**

Build a arcade game, 90% Optics, 90% Length, 100% Atmosphere, 70% Beginner, 70% Hardcore.

Publish with a publisher that is good for Arcade. Build a second game the exact same way.

Assuming your first 2 games sold decently, Buy Copy Protection.

**Keep doing those contracts**

When Scrolling and PC Speaker both become available research them.

If Joystick isn't available yet make games until it becomes available. Research Joystick.

Make a new Engine with 4 color, PC Speaker Music/Sound, Joystick and any other options you got available, sell the engine for $39995/10% of earnings, money should start coming in over time as more studios buy into it.

Don't do any conventions until your well off (at least $1,000,000)

At this point in time start making games using the new engine, you should be stable financially at this point, and the only direction should be up, you'll want to get a bigger building eventually since customer service will become a big deal as you amass fans.

does this guide still work? started playing a new game after the patch and not seen a single game go about 12% overall everyone is saying its the worst game of the year

Do you start in the garage or do you pick the small office building to start out with?

this guide still works :)

Originally posted by Agodin:

does this guide still work? started playing a new game after the patch and not seen a single game go about 12% overall everyone is saying its the worst game of the year

In the beginning on hard or normal it is expected to get a low pct on your first game. I always try to lose as little money as possible on the first game. On hard mode there is a little luck involved on whether you get contract jobs or sell engines. If you save on week 4 then reload the game you might get a contract job. If you keep doing it you will definately get a contract job but sometimes it takes many efforts. This also will work if you have a low paying job. You can save and restart and get a higher priced job. With the recent updates hard is getting harder which is good.

OK new thoughts after playing on hard.

Build your toilets and big development room. Borrow from the bank and get four of the best desks. Make the place nice.

Hire 3 people so 4 including you.

Do a contract to get cash.

Make a skill game. Gameplay +4, Length +5, Function +5, Friendly +5, Casual +5
Push Gameplay and then Control very high, Graphic and Sound an be at 10%

Build Research room.

More Contracts.

Research Sprites.

Build Engine. Price at $0 and 50%. I said 20% earlier but as mentioned later in this thread 50% works just fine.

Research RPG to open sub-genre.

Do contracts.

Reseach more tech stuff until you have PC Speaker Music researched.

Update Engine with latest tech still keeping $0 and 20%.

Make Skill / Arcade game with new engine and 5 techs. Use your concept from the first game.

Do 2 patches.

Have best selling game and you are on your own.