After several reboots and failures, here are some tips for winning on Hard Mode Guide for Mad Games Tycoon 2. I won $ 20 million in 1981.
Hard Mode Guide
The Create
Headquarters - I love Australia for games of skill. Your main profession is Game Designer, Star Designer, Inexhaustible and, most importantly, Error Free. Pick another trait that you like.
The Build
Create 4 (and ultimately 5) rooms in the first building:
- bathroom (4x3).
- Living room (4x3).
- Research (4x3).
- And once researched - Quality Assurance (4x3).
- Development (the rest of the space).
The beginning
Employ 2 additional people initially who will be part of the development team. At the start, move everyone (me plus the other 2) into the research room, to find the hot topic of the moment and the first 2 game features.
Do not start making a game until you have unlocked all 4 game features (2 given by game and 2 wanted) otherwise your games will lose money in the long run. The first games are in English only to make the games profitable.
Add more people to the development team (I work with 5 people in the initial development team, 1 game designer (me), 1 sound, 1 graphics, 2 programmers, all with an error-free stroke. error is the best trait for all employees in the development room.
The games factory
Keep developing games and as the stars improve so will your score.
Add 2 researchers to the research room to find other topics that complement the trending genre.
Vary the topics of the games, but with the same genre as the trending genre. Occasionally look for topics that you think will work well with the trending genre.
Choose developers who have a higher market base, even if they pay less (for example, $ 7 with 3 stars is better than $ 8 with 1 star) - in the long run you will sell more copies and earn more silver.
Create paid add-ons with maximum content for games over 10 weeks on the market.
Create sequels when older games hit the market.
Look for QA and build it in the first building, hire two game testers, then upgrade the gameplay to max.
For the second building, rinse and repeat the above with a 2nd development unit and a 2nd QA team of 2.
No need for marketing - the publisher does it for you.
What to look for
I have 2 researchers and focus on updating the engine functionality, getting all the gameplay functionality, and a variety of compatible topics to use.
Create a best-in-show engine with the trending genre as soon as the genre trend changes. Stick to the trending genre, then switch genders once a new genre starts trending.
The big thing
The big thing that helps is not to go too big, too fast.
For example, I stuck with the size of the game "B" (10 game features) until 1981 ($ 20 million in the bank). The faster the games are created, the more money comes in. Most of my game scores were 70% to 90%.
The last idea
Once you get a 4 or 5 star rating with a publisher (don't forget to cultivate the publisher with the highest market share) then lock in an exclusive contract. You get paid more per game.