Game Dev Story: how to succeed on the App Store without even bothering to resize the graphics

this is just a management grind with a shitty interface.

― antexit, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 8:08 PM (9 minutes ago)

i said this upthread or perhaps on another thread but feel a lil "umad" @ the people repping this game!

shitty pretzel covered in shitty chocolate makes a delicious treat beloved by all. one of the mysterious alchemies of taste. Like my VirtualBoy flight simulator, WTC Smackdown! Still probably fetching big money on eBay

You prob hate simcity too rite shasta?

sure, if you hate a resource management game with a sucky backwards interface and lazy backend production values throughout, you must hate a gamechanging classic resource management game with one with one of the best user interfaces ever in history

http://www.google.ca/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008DP2R.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg&sa=X&ei=6iP3TOPWJoKC8gaSvdm9Bw&ved=0CAQQ8wc4PA&usg=AFQjCNFB8ij5XgjAbXrRidiqjeBHChzd6A

spake the indignant internet nerd

i don't hate simcity, i do think that gamedev hype is a lil OTT on ilx, #jussayin

i think it's kind of cool that rather than a game with a shitty interface (and obviously rushed and lazy production) being successful because its audience doesn't know better, it's a game whose audience is exclusively people who screech like they got acid in their face whenever they encounter a menu that's not totally intuitive, but everybody gives it a pass bc it's fun and cheap and disposable and it's not worth crying about

GDS' redeeming feature is the ability to title your games (and to a vastly lesser extent the 16-bit charm). if you (a) have any gift whatsoever for amusing yourself 14 characters at a time and (b) have ever - I mean like even once or twice - lulzed at the ridiculousness of the game industry, then there is an incandescently good time to be had in watching the Famitsu critics debating the merits of your new action spy game Dildo Anvil.

it is also a RIDICULOUSLY fun game to explain to people, hence the OTT hyping

Is it? I tell people it's a game where you run an office, which sounds boring and it mostly is but you get to engage in videogame nostalgia and make up funny titles. See? It says Fat Fuck Guy is popular with 12-13 year olds!

if you're as entertained as I am by giving profane, offensive, obscene or ridiculous titles to mundane objects, it's a godsend. this is basically a little bit of game holding a mechanic together which allows me to make myself laugh with my tourettey jokes- without alienating my loved ones by telling them something objectively unfunny that i can't get out from laughter-- or appearing insane by saying it to myself in public sotto voce--sign for Ed's car wash = "ed's cock swabs!" Diane Von Furstenberg's Book of Beauty? Diane Von Furstenberg's Book of Buggery!--, often multiple times, and then chortling for a long while for no reason.

This is shitting me. I threw loads of money at Smoo Quest and it picked up average scores, so I rushed the Cunt! robot board game out the door and it got 3s. Really sucking at this game.

Although I did get a fan letter from some kid who borrowed his Cunt! from a friend and liked it, so perhaps that will help expand my fan base. Or fanny base.

Ach, I wasn't at all implying GDS was anything like SC in regards to depth. just genre.

(hardcore SC4 fan here fwiw)

you're taking huge risks that i don't know how you make them pay off when you put together game types and subjects incongrously like that, for one thing. Robot board game don't make sense to computer mind. I don't know if there's a set number of risky bets that are programmed in to pay off or if it's some random odds throw, but it's not how you play your opening game.

I dunno, it seemed to like that combo. It also liked that Gnome Rimming was a fantasy adventure but that got shit scores too.

Set up a wheelhouse of genre titles that hit the core gamer demographic, don't age much, and have room to expand with technology. Once you have that you're always gonna eat and you can do whatever wacky experimenting you want. Just a little friendly advice from a guy who's been in this business 40 years

i think it thinks "adventure" is something different than what i think it is. Every time I try to put together a nice sure-shot space adventure or something people furrow their brows at the announcement.

Well that's it, I thought sticking with genre would make sense but Smoo Quest was not received well xp

I assumed by adventure it meant point n click. I did ask Nick about that one and he frowned and said "no one agrees on what adventure means, dammit". And this is a guy who works for EA mobile o_0

I thought it meant like an action game with a story. Maybe it means Zork. Anyway, no mistaking a good dungeoncrawler rpg.

I tried to stick to sims and RPGS and simRPGs and action RPGS and then the fucking game bitched at me that I was releasing too many games of the same genre.

Also what the heck is "harbour" as a game type!?

Probably a game a lot like Game Dev Story. Shipping and receiving, managing stock, nice boats, etc.

Hahahah =)

how exactly do you market a poncho game is the real mystery of this game. how can you put those ponchos in the perfect gameplay environment to really maximize the pleasure poncho fans can take in them?

So I rush-developed Minge Wars and Super Sperm and got average reviews, then chucked a load of money at Paul Hogan II and also got average reviews. Nothing I do or change influences anything, and now my funds are dwindling. Not sure how much longer I want to keep at this.

Paul Hogan! I was just thinking about him while playing World's Shortest Lists. (it's lonesome at the top on the Funny Australians list)

Boring Shit and Get Fucked got 4s and Suck My Nuts got 3s. This game is not fun.

maybe there's something about the way you're branding your IPs that makes people wary?

oh god its daytime in australia

When I was still playing the game, I released the "Cuntkicker!" series to great acclaim, even crossing over thru multiple consoles. Unmatched success until I brought out the dating sim "A Child Sharts"

Got well into my second concerted effort tonight, and things are going much better. I made it my mission to have a hardware engineer on staff asap, and to advertise more, and to fire more people rather than training people up so much. All are working well as strategies.

shasta games?!

OT (only on iphone these days dawgggggg

i grabbed Driver yesterday, that was legendary on my ps1, along with GT1 and HotShots1)

if u have any doubt make an animal action game

i dunno, i'm '9 years in' and i've had like 8 hall-of-famers, this game is kinda easy no?

how do i get a hardware engineer?

you fuckers are making me want an ipad now

as soon as you get the first hall of fame game you pretty much have to try to fuck up. hardware engineer gets unlocked as when you have one employee who's levelled up in all the regular jobs... which i think is dumb. I guess being able to compose a top-notch soundtrack for a golf game on Game Gear wouldn't hurt as a console developer but it's hard to see it being necessary

wait, you have to level them up, then switch them to the other jobs, then level them up again?

i just keep firing dudes and hiring fancy new ones

that sounds like classic shortsighted management strategy! a common mistake companies make who get early success and a cash infusion!

how exactly do you market a poncho game is the real mystery of this game

Poncho lovers go for Action RPGs. Herpes Enclave worked on this a little, but decided not to pursue the Poncho Action RPG past a single research title: Poncho only has a 'C' popularity rating, HE is built on the Pubic Stroker cutie simulator franchise and Violated Fox virtual pet online sims.

Thx ilx. hate this game. 4am last night. But I think yeah I'll be bored of it by this evening.

wait, you have to level them up, then switch them to the other jobs, then level them up again?

Yeah, but imo it's prob best to do it with the fancy sorts you get later – they're often a little closer to the goal thanks to filled out job histories, and they'll end up with mad stats as they get levelled. (Though Mr X, who doesn't look that impressive, is apparently a common choice for Hardware Engineer training.)

I don't really get it, though. If I've got say a L.5 designer with 246 graphic skill, and a L.3 hacker with 260 (+ he/she used to be a L.5 designer), is it better to set the designer or the hacker on the post-alpha character design, ie do job titles matter or is it just stats?

because you see, mark, it's easy to throw money at your staff pool and stack your workforce with a lot of young hotshots, but where does that get you? You've got a staff of young hotshots all earning top dollar with no dynamic between them, on salary so you're paying them for their off days rather than just contracting them in--all of whom are used to calling the shots creatively because they're accustomed to the deference that comes with being the best in their field! how do you expect to manage those people effectively as a team?

Now if you take a loyal workforce and train them up to that level, you get to where you want to be professionally a little slower, but when you get there you know how to work together!

i predict one shiny overdesigned gears of war type of game that wows everyone for a second and then nothing but a big fizzle and a bunch of overpaid whizkids draining your working capital dry.

not playing this but u guys are killing me w/the lols on this thread so thx

ok guys, i haven't looked at this since i played through it once a few weeks ago but you're making me want to play again and livepost all of our companies updates

i just booted it up and founded Bloody Stool Studios and then immediately upon zeroeing in and aiming for one of the tiny little buttons to start hiring it jut seemed like a huge drag

livepost all of our companies updates

ILXors who don't own iPhones could just post scatological studio/game names?

Just what we needed on ilx, a place you can go to spout vulgar nonsequiturs!

Hot Carl XTreme

That sounds fun! What popped into my mind was a 16-bit bobsled kart racer

SPACE

more like game dev / grand prix, or more like spas / stupid building games?

You build shit, but there's not the heavy reliance on combos and co-location like the onsen/schooling ones. You bump up the stats and kit out your dudes to go hunt for monster/mob fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWRWXGhP8EQ