How to succeed in the Biz'

After messing around quite a bit with GB3, I think I have the basic strategic elements down for the game.

Key Concepts

• Do not start with a factory or even a research lab; they cost more money than you can spare to maintain.
• Low-quality games won't sell. Not even a little. Your best bet is to make something that is at least a '5'.
• Research knowledge before even trying a game. It is incredibly important that your releases be of good quality, especially your first ones.
• A little bit of debt is necessary; a lot of debt and you're going to be playing a short game.
• Office space is the key to success. Expand as much, as early, and as often as you are able.
• Staff have strength in numbers. Two programmers with 3 points that make $5000 a month are much more economical than 1 programmer who has 6 points but makes $30,000 a month or more. With more office space, you are better off with lots of cheap employees; at the very beginning its better to hire the best; later on you will want a only a few talented people on each team, with the rest of the people only filling ranks.
• Think of Games as commodities; we love games and want to make games that WE like, but in reality they are a product like shoes or clothing or any consumer good. You want to maximise the sales value, while absolutely minimising the cost of making it.
• Publishing houses make more money publishing other people's games, but you have to use it to publish at least a couple hit games first, and upgrade its production capacity. Always 'cancel' the opportunity if its only a 3-star game, and later even if its a 4-star game. Always choose the option to take a cut of the profits, and try to hold out for the offer of 30% or more of them.

Walkthrough

When I start a game, I begin with either nothing, or you can have a publisher (and probably warehouse) if you like. You want to hurry this as much as you dare, probably to at least 26 weeks, if you don't mind the debt than go to 6. If you have started with a publisher, then you may be able to put this off longer and save a bit more since you already have 10 offices to start.

After this, hire your staff; for the first five you'll want a lot more programming than graphics or design to increase your knowledge. IF you are really ruthless, fire the extra coders after the first couple research bits, and replace them with a graphic artist and designer.

Quickly increase your knowledge in one platform: Apple II seems best, but the Atari 2600 could be okay. This console only needs to keep you flying for a couple years, and perhaps into a third year (the apple II can serve its purpose decently into 1983, the atari perhaps less). as soon as it is on the list of options, you want to start researching skill in Commodore 64 instead (Are you keeping up with the Commodore? Because the Commodore is keeping up with you!) Do one or two bouts of 'improving knowledge' in your first system, once you're at 6 or so in 2D pixels, you can probably do something somewhat decent that will sell well. make an adventure game, and maximise the engine to the best of your ability: probably you'll only be able to fit on a simple 2d map. If you make a martial arts game, you should be able to get on some special effects or sprites. Then when you finalize the engine, adjust your sliders and checkboxes until you reach "extreme" or better (when 'extreme' vanishes, you are at the "above extreme" level...something I presume Nino will fix later on). In the early game, it is better to choose options that lengthen development time, then to choose the options that increase the cost of production; they are not cost effective at the start, and won't be for at least a couple more years. For early games, basic options only add 1-2 weeks each, or less, and add a lot of value to your game. Be thinking of games as commodities to succeed: maximise the product value while minimising the production cost

Start releasing games, keep adding office space. Sell decent games and by the end 1981 you should be able to expand your HQ and build a research center. By this point you should have very very good knowledge in at least one system, and by 1984 at the latest be expanding past the c64 into something newer that will sell well: at this point its up to you, but we all know that DOS is king for some years in PCs, and Nintendo NES will carry you until the 90's for consoles.

I cannot emphasize how important it is to keep expanding office space as much as you can possible spare the money, and hurry as much as you can too. The exception being to reserve finances for the building of your factory and research center and peripheral factory, etc. Don't be afraid to go into a little bit of debt, but in GB3 too much debt too early in the game can really sink you.

Eventually, you will want to have at least 2 software development teams that have good code and development levels, and quite a lot of graphics design skill. In addition to this, you may find it wise to have one team that is nothing bot programmers, for the sole purpose of researching knowledge of systems (developing core libraries). This will allow you to stay ahead of the tech curve.

by early 1982, you should have produced at least 1-2 really big hit games that have a lot of fans. At this point you may find that you can produce sequels that sell even better than the earlier games. If you are in need of quick cash, in producing a sequel (of a very popular game) is the one instance where it can pay off to cut corners and make a cheap game; but if you do this the consumers might no longer trust your company.

When you have a research center, you will want to have at least 10-15 office spaces. When research center is nearly done, start your factory and immediately hurry the factory at least 1-2 times. This is so that by the time you've researched a decent amount of stuff, your factory will be completed and ready to develop your first system. Also, at da7 26 left before factory completion, start an office and hurry it up to 26 days left: You'll want a lot of office space for your hardware deve team. Your target for factory completion might be as early as 1984, allowing you to market your first system by 1986. To start with, 10-15 members will be enough for research, but actual console development is going to be better if you get a good 30+ people on the team. (obviously, hire a leader specialist for this role). IT pays to produce a high-quality controller and case; a high-quality circuit board and overclocking to 25-50%, as well as about level-3 miniaturization is a good point to be. Don't forget, the last thing: researching all three chips less than 1 year before console development. This will allow you to produce an "ultimate" system. Since your factory starts small, your best move will be to produce a great system, even if it costs 1000 to make; hype it and people will buy all of them that you can make. Don't forget 3 publisher deals for 100 games each. You'll have to pay them millions for these deals, but it'll pay off a hundred fold in the end. For a small company, you don't have the economy of scale to produce massive numbers of well-selling but cheap consoles. Your better business model is a very very good console system that will sell solidly at levels that you are able to produce it at.

Developing a circuit board can be tricky. With level-3 miniaturization and luxury-level mobo, and A LOT of practice, I managed to get every single possible component crammed onto the circuit board, including max memory, and also to overclock the main processor by +50%. This made a system that was light years ahead of anything else on the market for a long time to come. It does really pay to make the best system that you can make. Forget if it costs a ridiculous amount, as I said before. As to whether you make a console or PC, that will be based on consumer demand. There is a handy pie chart to tell you which of the two people want more. IF you make a PC, be sure to bundle good software with it.

Actually making the console can take a long time. If you have a good team of 30+ members, a really high-quality console in the mid-late 80's will take about 1 year to develop. The more and better hardware people on your team, the faster they get that console ready for production. In the mean time, work out publisher deals, and pay for some advertising to generate good hype. shortly before release, go all out with a massive ad campaign. You will have to develop your own core libraries for your system, and at some point you should have your software people researching that too. When you start producing it, let your assembly lines produce for a few weeks first. Check the sale price. You will sell well and make a lot of money, if you try to maintain a profit margin of 15-20% of the sale price. This means that as the system is cheaper (and older), you have to lower the price accordingly. You can rest on your laurels for a year, maybe a bit longer at this point.

One thing to note: it can easily cost $100 million or more to produce the first units of a console system, before you sell it. You may go into debt severely; don't be alarmed. As long as sales pick up right away, you will make that money back and then some before your company is bankrupt, and be pulling in hundreds of millions before you know it. Final Caveat: be alarmed if it doesn't start selling well very quickly (within a month). If it doesn't, ur doing it wrong.

Once you've got a good console going, your company has 'made it'. That's right, you're a BIG part of video game history! Then its time to ask yourself: What next? The answer, you have to produce the next generation system. So, after a year or two, four at maximum, its time to start working on the next gen system. don't forget to make sure that your in-house tech is up to date as well. You might experiment with having a couple systems out at once. Try a 'budget' model, etc. At this point, there are lots of viable options for the direction of your company, and that direction is for you to steer.

Thanks for the info Ironlion! These kinds of strategic experiences and overviews are always very helpful when approaching a new game like this. I also am of the opinion that GB3 is much harder overall than GB2, anyone else feel this?

Regarding your actual points:
I have been having great trouble staying out of debt and this is particularly related to my troubles getting top charting games. The highest I've ever gotten was I think 15.

I don't understand how you get enough cash to expand HQ and build a research center by 1981, I'm not even releasing my first game till Holidays of '81. Are your early games not that good and do you just churn out and sell a bunch of 5/10 games? I've been trying to use the old GB2 tactics, building up system knowledge then making an 8 or 9 game and releasing before holidays. My attempts at this though have led to me being in severe debt (especially from hurrying the first office and game distribution costs) and always playing catchup from '83 onward.

Do you utilize porting at all? I have found it to be useless given that it essentially doubles the dev time and you still take a quality hit on top of that. Better to make two different games, one for each platform.

What category of company knowledge do you upgrade on your second system? I think I'm making a mistake in jumping into the 3D graphics era too early. Have you had better success sticking with 2D engines for the first several years?

A couple more general strategy questions for Nino or anyone else out there with an opinion:
-The "gameplay level" for genres; does this just affect how much work has to be put into development to make a higher rated game? Or does this also affect how saturated the market is with that genre and therefore how difficult it is to have high selling games? It seems to me that the Action genre has been nerfd this time around, maybe I'm wrong though.

-For options in the game core creation stage as well as the development slider stage, do the specific options affect the success of the game or is the overall rating the only thing that matters? For instance, if I can achieve the same level of Extreme with medium music/sound and high scope as I can with best music/sound and medium scope, and they both end up being 8 or 9, do they both sell the same or do people "appreciate" different aspects of games differently.

-Related to the question above, is a Good 3D core better than a Good 2D core? How do these choices, apart from the final overall rating, affect sales?

K, I think that's it for now, I don't have any good strategy input to add on my part since I haven't been doing that well in the game so any feedback would be appreciated!

In some ways, it definately is...other aspects I've found easier. Its greater complexity may be daunting for some people at first.

Well, I should have said, I'm buying the first expansion after the holidays of 81; starting construction about that time, not having it built. It may not be possible to go that early. If you're playing on a hard difficulty level, definitely not. Its important to get that expansion for the office space though. The HQ gives a lot, and after a certain amount of office expansions it's the most economic way to get more office.

As to game quality; Releasing at 6/10 quality is good enough. there's no point in researching more for that first system because it will be obsolete by 1983. Spend that time making games and getting income from them.

In GB2, you were keeping your company afloat during that research/engine development/training phase by licensing said engine out to developers for cash. This money you received was enough to keep the company afloat, allowing you to wait before the first release, and making that release a really great one. In GB3, you do not have an equivalent means of income at the very beginning (Though Nino has said that he might add engine licensing back in in a future update, which would change this). Thus, in GB3, you must sell GAMES to make money . I would suggest going crazy and making several. Forget the holiday season the first year, release them when they're done.

In short, research once or twice at most, and then start making games right away to get cash coming in, to build your studio--office space is the key to victory here. You don't need a 6-skill coder that costs $100k/month if you can have a lot of really cheap coders.

I do, sometimes. Its a judgement call. For my couple big "Flagship" franchise games, I will usually release them on a couple different systems...usually PC and a console of choice. You really have to have high knowledge in both to make it work though. It can be much more efficient to multi-platform release; for a somewhat lower cost [than releasing two different games] you significantly increase the potential number of people buying your game by porting it... if it is a decent port. You just have to plan ahead, knowing that it will increase development time by about 90%.

For the second system, research 2D up to 10. For the second system and onward, don't stop researching until you've got 10 points in that setup. HOWEVER, you can start releasing games by 6/7 points and you'll do just fine. Eventually, I have a room full of coders, one team that is only programmers, to do the engine development for me so that my prime talent can be totally directed to game-making. This method has worked really well in my experience.

And yes, i research 2d for starters on the second system. You can have some success with 3d, but the quality of game you can potentially make with 2d for early systems is so much better that it is really the best choice. One thing about 3d though, is that the development times for simple 3d vector games can be quite short relative to the quality produced when compared to 2D, which can lead to you being able to make more games if you focus on 3d games in the early years too... which could result in more profits (But few if any top rated/selling games).

About gameplay level, the only thing I've noticed is that it is much harder to meet minimum FPS when that standard is higher.

Action HAS been slightly nerfed for GB3.... but not all that much As in real-world video games, action games still are the most popular.

The overall rating of the game is what matters, but keep costs in mind: a really fancy 2d game with special effects and pixels and all that stuff will net you an awesome engine score... BUT will require a lot of manpower to develop. If you can make a DECENT game while reducing development time, you're making a game that will do fairly well, but cost A LOT less...thus earning you a good margin.

The issue of costs also applies to extras like 'deluxe packaging'. They do add quality, but cost an truckload of cash to do. If you pick something that adds development time, bu you have cheap devs, then the cost increase for something that increases development time could be less than something that takes money.

Sound is very expensive; but setting up a sound studio makes it affordable. For games produced after a certain point in time, good sound is not optional.

Not on paper, at least at first. IT may not be as possible to produce an engine of sufficient quality to entice consumers later on in 2d (as with how text-only games are well and truly worthless by 1982-3).

The biggest difference is in cost. I've noticed that 3d vector games tend to be A LOT faster to make at a given level than 2d games, but that could just be me and the specific strengths of my developers.

I didn't do so well either until I'd failed a lot. That's the nice thing about games- starting over again XD. I played out the first 3 years of the game about a dozen times before I really had figured out the system of how to get started in GB3.

One of the nice things about this game is definitely when you release a successful platform and change gaming history. My 'Kevo System 1' was so successful it caused the withdrawal of the Amiga and Atari ST, and Gensis/Megadrive from the market. What I found immensely satisfying was seeing great games like Lotus Turbo Challenge II, Mega-Lo-Mania and Lemmings come out for the platform. Even Anco's Kick Off 2 came out for it and displaced my platform exclusive KevoSoft Soccer 3. The main problem seems to be stopping rubbish games appearing for the platform - I've blocked rubbish for it that others have wanted to publish through me, but there is no other control. Maybe if we could license the cartridge technology like Nintendo.

Another thought was that its slightly odd that you can bundle application software with a games console...but what the hell, I did it anyway. Also I have to purchase my own development tools - surely I should research these and sell them to other software developers?

Yeah, these two questions bothered me a bit too, but given the way the engine is built it would probably much too troublesome to fix that.

Maybe that will be something in GB4?