"Game Dev Masters" Dev Plans / Road Map

Intro / Disclaimer

First off I want to thank everyone for there interest.  This game has really started to garner positive buzz, and the excitement level of tycoon fans has been a joy to see.  I decided to write this roadmap to shed a little light on my current plans / aspirations as I believe in transparency, and it can only help people give more accurate feedback/ suggestions.

First off medium games and the second office were recently added.  I am intending to add a 3rd office with 4 worker limit, this will go between 3 - 6 on the way to large games.  However large games are coming with some additional complexity and features.  I have a lot of ideas how I plan to expand on development of games as you move into large and then again into AAA and persistent online games.  I will however be shelving large games development for now until I tackle some other things that I will list below.  If you have any suggestions or ideas for large games / AAA I would very much love to hear them but that will be a future update.  At this point they are theoretical and I am taking all suggestions into account as I dream up the algorithms.

Currently Under Construction

As I am sure most of you reading this are aware games are a massive undertaking with a million different things to do.  As a solo dev I am responsible for all areas of the game and a such I don't have other people working in tandem, on other aspects of the game while I code.  Because of this you will see some areas of the game that are functional but not expanded on.  I try to create systems that I can easily expand and add to at a later date.  Many systems are working but very limit such as milestones / char selection.  These systems are fully working for small groups of milestones and characters, and it will be very easy to add 30 more milestones at a later date as well as many more mesh's to choose from.  Some of these systems will be more fleshed out before I move to large games / office 4, some will remain partial until later dates.

Incoming Features / ideas

the following are not in any particular order for development

Trends:  I am currently working to change trends from the static new trends every 6 months type system from other games that I used into a fully dynamic system that will force you to react.  This change will come in a few ways.  First trends will now be based off the games created by you and by the other 15 Ai companies in game.  A topic will no longer "trend" but instead all topics will have a trending percent ranging from 0-100.  As you and the Ai produce games pending quality you will trigger trends in topics / genres.  As more games get made in a trend eventually they will reach a market saturation and trend downward toward 0.  I am implementing a news feed type system that will recieve messages about Ai sales / trends.  Initially you will need to think about the news to know trends I am no longer going to show this to you.  The news feed will provide good info regarding trends as well as be used to remind the player about things such as new consoles coming soon and more.  I will be adding a manager only skill that will allow you to see the trend % when you mouse over topics, but this will be fairly expensive so its a mid game tier upgrade.

Finances:  I am going to be adding some financial info such as costs / gains per month per year..  I will also be adding a banking option that will allow you to take / pay loans to help keep you out of the red.

CPU Upgrades:  I want to add some more customization to your player / staff with some hardware customization.  I will likely use a this or that system so players have to choose a side in a group of upgrades, or we could go with a you just need to buy the best stuff on the list.  However I am big on forcing the player into critical decisions and having 2 very valid choices.  This can also help with replay-ability, but what do you guys think?

More Char Customization:  I am thinking  I should add in more char picks on creation such as what country your from, perhaps a special skill.  I could ask you 30 questions about your backstory I just don't know how I would fit that into the game-play but I am storming some ideas to add fun customization.

Tutorial:  This one is kind of tricky and I will explain why.  I will need to give the player some sort of arrow / click based tutorial.  Pointing to diff menu options and blurbing on how to play.  This is np but a lot of the HUD elements are WIP.  If I render tutorial animations for the HUD and then change the HUDS I will have to redo the tutorial.  I realize being confused about how to play is not fair to anyone and I can not expect everyone to read the guides I have written or watch my game-play walk-through on YouTube.  To this affect I will be adding a simple version of a tutorial that will at least give you the basics.  I can develop a proper full run down for a tutorial at a later stage.

Contract Work:  Contract work is currently trash.  Its totally unbalanced and pretty much un finish-able and that's my bad.  I personally dont use contract work in these types of games, but I knew people enjoy it so I had to develop a system for it.  I have created a nice algorithm that sets new contract every 6 months but the quantity of points they want you to generate is absurd.  This is due to massive changes in the games balance for designing games and then not re-balancing contract work.  This will be addressed very soon, I just need to run some math based on current possible outcomes and try to create a more reasonable system.  The idea is contracts are based off research, your speed of bubbles is depending on your speed, and your chance to make a bubble is based off your level and focus stat.  This isn't really conveyed as well that its research for this task not tech or design.  Ideally I would like some contract to be easy and some that you could do if you have trained your research / speed / focus but if you haven't leveled your character they would be to hard to reach.  This is a hard balance to find but with time and some of the testing programs I have written to test my algorithms I believe I can get it there.

EXP Rework:  I plan to completely re-work exp.  My original thought was exp from games modded by using new genres to encourage you to spread out and make diff kinds of games.  Then the amount was based off your total tech / design.  The way the game works as you add features you start cranking bubbles and its basically just becomes a gain 1 level per game and no exp from everything else, this feels wrong to me and others based on feedback.  I will be re-writing this aspect to work from everything you do training, research in, making games.. everything..  This will also allow me to have a better handle on how to pace your levels so it always feels fun and rewarding.  I currently have stuff set at 1-20 but this could be 1-100 or 1-10000000  whatever ends up feeling like the most fun idea will always win out with me.  Fun is always number one.  I think this re-write will make gaining exp a lot more fluid and fun.

Conventions:  I plan to add a few diff convention ideas.  I'm currently thinking of giving the option of instant conventions where you just gain some hype for current game or something quick and basic.  The other option will be an involved convention where you do mini games and get rewarded with hype / fans / contacts some interesting and fun stuff.  Games like handing out business cards, quick fire answering questions about your games, QTE handshake events god I don't know (that's a yakuza mini game :P) .  Basically I would like to add some varied and fun mini games for this section if people are into it.  I personally think if you depart from your core game to far it needs to be optional though.  I don;t want to force mini-games on someone who just wants to gain fans and make new games, or speed run the game.  I like to try and cater to all play styles if possible.  I would def like feedback on ideas for convention mini games, mini games can be controversial.  Personally I love them but I know some people hate them what do you guys think?

Char Skills:   I want to add several skills for the character to use as well as the workers.  Some will be manager (you) only, others will be for all workers.  Some of the ideas I have for this are crunch which are already in the game and gives 100% bubble chance for 5seconds at lvl 1 8 secs at lvl 2 currently.  Pacify which will make a character generate no bubbles for period of time, this can be used when you are about to go to high on tech or design and wanna freeze a worker temporarily.  See trends, obvious description.  Slow time, change the time per week from 15s to 20 or 25s temporarily.  This will allow you to finish a game before the new month to meet a trend or get it out before the year and minimums shift on you or just get more training done this week etc etc..  I am also pondering the idea of a share knowledge skill where u can double train a worker in a stat provided the other worker is higher stat and has share knowledge unlocked??  Also a motivate workers skill only your manager can have.  This would make your manager stop producing bubbles during development but he would issue a half crunch to all workers of 60% bubble chance for period of time or something?  I don't know some of these are just ideas atm but wanted to share where my heads at.

Room upgrades:  I want to add some room upgrades to office 2 and office 3 when I add office 3.  The ideas I have come up with currently are.  add motivational posters 25k, this adds 10 speed to all workers.  Upgrade internet for 50k, this adds +5 or 10% research time.  Install some sort of energy efficient equipment for 100k, this cuts monthly bills by 10k / month.

Game Ports:  Im thinking of a shorter development time thing you can do to port games to other consoles post release.  I want to make this a little different I have some idea but nothing serious yet just an idea.

3 Reviewers:  I just got my script for WorthABuy review lines approved and added to the game that build is live.  I need 3 more and I will try to get notable personalities for the other 3 reviewers.  This will take some time and I may hit a wall of no thanks but I will do the best I can.

Conclusion

there is a long road ahead but I am very passionate and dedicated to this project.  It started for the simple reason that I wanted to play this game, and I hoped others might wanna check it out and give me a run on the leader-boards.  So far the response has been amazing and far beyond my expectations.  I hope you will keep an eye on the project as I continue to push versions to itch.  Eventually I will launch an EA on steam so I can tap into there leader-board systems but that is a far ways off.  For now please keep watching, keep playing, and please keep the feedback coming.  I need your help on this journey.  If you have an idea I wanna hear it, if you got an opinion I really want to hear it.  No comment is off limits, just be honest and constructive and I will appreciate it regardless of content.  Thank you so much for reading this your a legend, and If you are excited for this game I will not let you down.