1) Keep your specializations

When developing games, keep the specializations you chose (Game World, Polish, Approachability, etc) for multiple games in a row. This will create a situation where your reputation starts to form and you will get significant increase in fans.  I tend to switch directions after I get this notice, to replicate it in another area.

2) Get multiple game types and styles to lvl 2 and lvl 5.

Every time you get a genre to level 2 and level 5, you gain an additional 2 points to assign in the game specialization.  This will help your over all scores, and fans.  Thus making you more money, which is the primary goal.

3) Do not skimp on your staff hiring.

Everything relies on your staff.  Always spend the extra money to hire the best, it will make you a ton more money in the long run as their skills will create better games, which will sell better.

4) Advertise

Building your fan base inside the game is very important in keeping your sales high.  Spending the money on advertising seems expensive at times, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run.

5) Time your releases around the end of the year.

Try and make sure one of your games per year come out in late November or early December.  This will help even a poorly made game gain significant sales due to the timing of the release.

6) Create your own hardware.

Eventually the game will unlock the ability for you to develop your own console.  This will cost you $90 million if you choose all the top end options.  This is a good idea, as it will save you money in dev costs and produce revenue for you.  The problem most people have is finding a Hardware Engineer.  The way you gain one is to train one of you employees to level 5 in all the roles.  This requires a lot of discs, change job manuals and time.  So start prepping an individual early for this role.  Also, purchase job change manuals early as this will also save you money when it comes time to train yourself an engineer.

7) Take contracts when needed.

At times it’s good to gain some extra fast income from doing contracts.  This can be done very quickly with a highly trained staff sometimes finishing a 10 week contract in 2 weeks.  If you put a couple of these together quickly, you can make up that extra cost hiring that marching band cost you last month.  As a side tip: Never accept someones offer to improve a contracts graphics,sound, etc.  Many times it will cause you a loss of money, delayed time and lost discs.  Don’t even consider it.

8 ) When assigning jobs watch fatigue levels.

When you are giving someone a job at the various stages of development, make sure to give it first to someone who has the highest stat, but you also need to make sure that the person is not tired, and has not been used multiple times in a row.  It is sometimes not a bad idea to hire an outsider to do the job for you to give your main employee a rest.

9) Sequels rule the gaming world.

Eventually you will start creating sequels.  It is good to have about 3 or so different franchises that you run through consistently, trying to never repeat a type/genre.  Any game that reaches the hall of fame will be eligible to have a sequel created.  These will also be your biggest sellers, and as a bonus you get a base start of stats, which will help your score.

10) Use obvious combinations

This one seems like a no brainer, but make sure you always pick types and genres that match.  No one wants to play Puzzle/Marathon, but I’m sure there are a ton that like Shooter/Robot.

11) New Game++

After you complete your 20 years of service to the slave driver known as GDS, you get to go at it again if you want.  Start a new game and you will gain a bonus of all your previously gained levels in each genre/style, as well as access to secret Monkey and Robot employees.

I’ll add to this post as I think of more, or come across any additional information.

What they appear to have done is turned you into the controller, and if it works half as good as the video, than I am impressed.  With menu navigation similar to the Minority Report, voice recognition, and Peter Molyneux presenting an AI that if it is 25% of what he claims, is really impressive (as he really doesn’t have the best track of delivering up to his promises).  If that wasn’t all enough, they have now integrated facebook, and twitter into Xbox Live, setup High Def streaming service, the ability to buy old 360 titles via an On Demand solution.  Oh and they happened to have the Beatles stop by to open things up.

Nintendo and Sony execs must be scrambling to out do Microsoft this year, cause if all Nintendo has is a new Mario game and Sony announcing a price cut than both are in big trouble.  It should be an interested few days ahead as we see where E3 goes from here.

See below for videos on the AI and the motion sensor.

One trend I’m following is the discussion around the iPhone and the games made for it.  Right now I believe the company I work for Sculpin QA is the premiere testing studio for iPhone games.  We’ve worked on such hits as Rolando, Super Monkey Ball, Topple, and Diner Dash and learned a lot in the process.  One year ago no one was talking about the iPhone as a legit gaming platform, now indy devs are making $600,000 creating games in their basement.  Just a couple weeks ago, Apple announced OS 3.0 where they will be integrating in app purchases, peripherals, bluetooth, P2P, cut and paste, and a ton more other features.  Their SDK has opened the doors for some crazy ideas, and it’s not going to stop, according Neil Young of ngmoco 148 apps a day are being released on the store.  There are some issues with the store at the moment, but that is an entirely different discussion.  Google is releasing a competing operating system called Android with an app store, but I just don’t think it’s going to be as big as the iPhone.. but that remains to be seen, perhaps i’ll be blogging about that in a year.

In addition this year Twitter has now exploded and a lot of the tech savvy crowed at GDC is twittering most of the events going on.  So by following the stream of things tagged with #GDC, I’m getting access to the latest news without having scour the internet for a good article here or there, it just gets fed right to my feedwatcher.

So, within the next few weeks at Sculpin we will be getting very busy.  I’ve learned a lot in the last year about the difference of between White and Black box testing, assumption that should never be made, questions that should always be asked and how to test to a calculator program

If you are looking for some high quality game testing, or some good discussion on technology and where it’s taking us… look me up. filsinger@gmail.com