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ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR GAME DEV TYCOON

By KANKERSCEP

This guide covers every single aspect of Game Dev Tycoon; the Achievements, Unlocks, Combinations and Tips.

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Created by

KANKERSCEP
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Category: Achievements, Gameplay Basics, Secrets, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

15 Jan, 2014 @ 3:04am

23 Jan, 2014 @ 5:41am

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Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

Things you should NOT do

Best Game Combinations

Topics/Genres Charts.

System/Genre Chart

Genre/Stages Charts (Single Genre)

Genre/Stages Charts (Multi-Genre)

Unlocks

Tips

Achievements

Helpful?

Comments

Introduction

This guide will cover all of the parts of Game Dev Tycoon (Game Combinations, Unlocks and Achievements).
The first time I played the game I kept going bankrupt in the basement stage, mainly because I didn't know what aspects were important with what genres.
If you want to get all of the achievements I recommend you reading the part about achievements first.

Things you should NOT do

1. Creating two or more games in a row which have the same genre/topic.
2. Developing a sequel/expansion within a year.
3. Developing large games with 2D Graphics V3 or lower or 3D Graphics V2.
4. Developing a AAA game without having 3D V6.
5. Developing a AAA game without having all of your employees specialized.

Best Game Combinations

A good game has to have a good combination of Genre, Topic, Audience and Gaming System.
Try to find combinations which have a ++ average.
The ~ means that it doesn't really matter.
In the charts I've added in the images you can see which combinations work.

Topics/Genres Charts.

System/Genre Chart

Genre/Stages Charts (Single Genre)

Genre/Stages Charts (Multi-Genre)

Unlocks

You will start out in your Garage.
To unlock the next office you need 1M.
In that office you get an upgrade and for that you need to be in Year 11 Month 6 Week 2 with 2 employees and 5M.
To get the next office you have to be in Y13 M9 W2, have 4 employees and have 16M.
To unlock the R&D Lab you need to have a Design Specialist.
To unlock the Hardware Lab you have to (after you unlock the R&D lab) get a Technology Specialist.

Research Unlocks;
Target Audience - Y3 M1 W1
Casual Games - Y3 M11 - W1
Marketing - Y4 M5 W2
Sequels - Y8 M6
Multi Genre - Y12 M8
Expansion Pack - Research MMO and have an MMO in sale

R&D Lab Unlocks;
Hardware - After opening
Internet Opportunities - After opening
MMO - After Internet Opportunities
Codename : Grid - After Internet Opportunities
Own Convention - 1M fans or Y23
3D Graphics v6 - 3D Graphics V5 lvl. 4
3D Graphics v7 - 3D Graphics v6 lvl. 4
License Game Engines - After making 10 custom engines
AAA Games - Get a large game with a score of 10
Custom Hardware - Have a Tech Specialist
Marketing Campaign - Develop a AAA game

Tips

When you can accept an interview, always do.
Have balanced Tech and Design employees, 2 Full Design, 2 Full Tech and 2 Balanced and balance your own character.
Always decline the 'investment' because it's scam.
Patch your games.
Always give your fans the source code for your old game engine.
Train all of your employees but don't forget yourself.
Always develop a console (If 200M +).
If you have about 300M just keep creating the same game engines to boost Research Points.
Specialize all of your employees.
Create a company named Activision, get the achievement, make a new game and Create Greenheart and then make your own.

Achievements

You will get all the achievements which I don't explain by just playing the game.

Diversity - Have male and female staff
Famous - Hire someone 'famous' (happens by chance)
Perfect Game - Get a clean score of 10 (try this with Medium/Large games because the bigger the games get the harder it is)
Versatile - Release a successful game in all main genres
Writer's Block - Create a game and wait 1 minute before typing in a name
Eat Cake - When you'll be asked to add barrels to a game add them in an action game
Turn it up to 11 - Get a reviewer to give a 11/10 (Don't try it with AAA)
Treasure Hunter - Create a game named "Pong" in Garage
Bluehair reporting for space duty - Create a game named "Wing Commander" in 2nd building before upgrading it
Welcome to Mars - Create a game named "Doom" in 2nd building before upgrading it
Welcome to your Hospital - Create a game named "Theme Hospital" in 2nd building after upgrading it
Best ride to work ever - Create a game named "Half-Life" in 2nd building after upgrading it
The sky is not the limit - Create a game named "Star Citizen" after unlocking R&D lab
Welcome Chief - Create a game named "Halo" after unlocking R&D lab
Painting with nature - Create a game named "Okami" after unlocking R&D lab (Has to be on a Playsystem)
Inception - Create a Game Dev/Simulation game named "Game Dev Tycoon"
Admirer - Call your company "Greenheart Games"
Fan - Call your company "Activision" (or another known gaming company)
Unobtainium - Get 100M sales on a single game (Possibly the hardest, you can't use expansion packs)

Tips for Unobtainium;
SAVE BEFORE YOU DO THIS.
Get a lot of money (1000M or something) and develop a good AAA game, give it the best marketing and develop it around the G3 (M6)
Bring out a really good game (Average 9-10) and keep it on the market even if it's not making profit.
Keep going to G3's and making your own game conventions to bring attention to it and do contract work to make extra money and just keep that up till you have it.

Helpful?

I hope this guide was helpful for you guys, if it was please rate, comment and maybe favorite.
If you don't understand something just add me and I'll explain in personally.

Thanks for reading.

505 Comments

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MrFisse 16 Aug @ 5:32am

This guide is accurate but setting sliders are a hoot and a half. If you have issues with scores, make a game and when it is finished with all the stages (and you think you have set it right) just take all your Tech points (the green/teal circle) and divide them with your design points (red circle). Look at the " Genre/Stages Charts " and see if you are close to the T/D number in the column for the genre you are developing for. You are probably way of there. And need to learn to adjust the slider during the dev phases to reach the right RATIO

panda 4 Aug @ 7:39pm

is this guide no longer accurate? i use it but im still flopping almost every game

Cpt Taylor 12 Jul @ 10:52am

why are my games getting 5 and 6s even though im following the chart exactly and getting high numbers

Easypoll 8 Jul @ 8:20am

You can use expansion packs to get the Unobtainium achievement, the guide is wrong

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:48am

Last thing, if you can start the process and have the game in development a couple months before the G3 convention, it will significantly boost your hype. I average 500 hype in the mid game for games that are built during convention.

once i self publish large games towards the mid-late game, I get 500 hype and can easily selll a million copies in the first week. once you hit the milestone of 500k/1 million copies sold, it will boost sales further the following couple of weeks. so there are thresholds you are trying to get to.

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:42am

a second note about the + and - situation. in the medium and large and AAA games, you get to allocate specific people to those categories. you will see a "percent" for the person you allocate and that represents how much "time" they will spend on it.

This is what you should aim for
Medium games

+++= 50%
++ = 40%
- or minuses = as low as you can go

Large games:
+++ = 85%
++ = 65%
- = as low as you can go

AAA:
+++ = 100%-120% (this is based on the selections you make on the right side where you put in specific functions of the category, each function costs money and time, you have to pick and choose. make sure that the category is always at 100% completion otherwise you have a "incomplete" game.

++ = 80%

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:36am

In addition, a 7 star game is still a good game but a 9 or 10 star is nearly infinitely better, sometimes you can get stuck in a state of mediocrity where to many 7 stars come out and it feels like you are treading water. the best way to handle this is to pump out alot of games in quick succession, the reason for this is that you generally make profit for anything about a 5, even if its not alot of profit, you have to flood the market game after game to build up enough funds to then crank out a new game engine and then dump a bunch of money into marketing and hype building for the next game post new game engine, this is set up to where you build small games but alot of them, in order to put all the money you make from those into a larger game and put all the marketing budget behind it in order to sell as much as possible, this should pull you out of the hole.

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:36am

In regards to furthering your money goals in the mid game, you need to market (this is done after researching marketing) and build hype. small medium and large all have different price points, but that isnt told to the player, but selling a million of a small game will not net you as much profit as selling a million of a large game (just like real world, 60$ game vs $20 game)

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:35am

To earn money easy you need to change up the game genre/topic every time. I notice that you tend to be able to do 1 action then 1 rpg and repeat. sometimes in early game because the small games only take about 4 months of development, you should do 1 of a genre, then another, then a third genre then repeat.

Always do your game reports because thats how you get the hints for future games about which categories are important for that genre. it also gives research points which are the most important aspect of the game(E.G. engine and graphics are exceedingly important for action games, hence the above graphs)

RESEARCH: make sure you do not use the same game engine for sequals as you did for the original game, make sure you research new game engine "parts" in order to build better engines and then that will factor in to how good a game is.

Kalev 9 Jun @ 7:35am

To try to help some of you out, as I have reviewed this game and follow this guide from time to time when I want to try to get new high scores, here you go.

The +'s and -'s represent how much allocated "time" (otherwise known as the big bars for the stages of development) If a category has +++ that means you want to max that bar out as much as possible because that type of game will require alot of time for that category (e.g. an action game's engine needs to be really good, hence the graph)

The t/d represents the spread of technology and design points that will occur, that isnt all that important but if you have alot of design heavy people and not alot of tech, the game may not turn out as well, its very important to hire a mix of people.

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