FAQ And Tips - Guide for Game Dev Story

After playing the game twice, I finally manage to get slightly better 
understanding of the game.
At the end of the 2nd game I manage to:
- Have more than $1,300,000K cash 
- Develop 3 consoles (24,000K++ market share)
- Win consecutive 8 grand prizes
- Get 4 best awards in a single year
- Get 40 review points
- Sold 80M+ units of one game
- Have 9900+ fans 
So that's just to set some credential.
(Not to boast, I'm sure there are players out there with better results)

My purpose of this review, is just to share some tips that I have learnt 
along the way. I think this is a great game that shows how indebted we are 
to the Japanese game developers for the advancement of video games. 
Now as the US, Korea, China and the rest of the world are coming in, 
I still find Japanese game to be some of the most original out there. 

Many of the tips that I shared contains spoiler for the secrets in this game.
So if this is your first time playing, I suggest to stop reading and enjoy 
discovering the secrets in this game yourself. This article is for those who 
is playing the second time and wanting to explore the possible corners in 
the game.

Let's get started. Here's my outline:
- Develop
- Staff
- Action
- Info

DEVELOP
-------
Q - Who to write game proposal, graphic and music?
I think it's all generated randomly, but certain traits have more influence 
other than the rest. As long your staff has experience, he can do it even if 
his job is no longer suitable. So this is my observation, with their minimal 
experience:
Game proposal - Writer - high Program & Scenario
Graphic - Designer - high Graphics
Music - Snd.Eng. - high Sound
After you have full-fledge staff, I found that this first boost matters less.

Q - What combination of Genre/Type works?
There are a few results: Amazing, Creative, Not Bad, Hmm..., Not Good, Nothing
I think this combination mainly influence the number of game units you will 
sell, not so much on the quality. You can get the listing from gamefaq or 
strategywiki or just google it. 

Q - Who to use Boost?
After playing the second time, I found that research unit is better used to 
level up. 

Q - What combination of direction works?
I have not figure this out, but simple common sense should work.
To be safe, you might want to put some point in all direction, and the rest 
to your liking. 

Q - How to get direction points?
Direction point is granted every time a genre reach lvl 2 and lvl 5. 
So you might want to keep on increasing different genres even if they're not 
popular. 
Tips: 
Genre and type normally start as New and move to Lvl 1 after first use. 
But if you use Back before confirming a new project, it will change to Lvl 1 
straight away. So you save one time of development. 

Q - Should I develop Contract?
Contract is good for instant money, and research point. 
It's also good to develop when you're not doing anything and your staff is 
bored. As you might have observed, the sale will drop week-by-week except for 
M12 W1, where it will jump up. So I normally start developing around M8 to 
complete around M11. Fill the time gap with contract, and you'll be quite 
effective. 

Q - What console should I develop my game with?
I normally update my license every two consoles.
Or simply choose your favorite consoles in the past. 
Mine was PC, IES, Super IES, and Playstatus. 
The main decision to get a new licence is their Market share. 
If you develop a game for a console with big Market share, you'll sell more 
units. So if your current console is dropping in market share, you might want 
to convert. 

Q - How can I develop Sequel?
The option opens after you move to the 3rd office (the one w/ 8 seats)
But you can only develop sequel for the game that enter Hall of Fame. 
Hall of Fame is basically for game that have more than 35 review points. 
If your game exceed 100 for each criteria, you will most likely get it. 
But again this reviews are also randomly generated. 
So you might get different results even for the same scores. 

Q - How can I win the grand prize?
This is also randomly generated, just make sure your game is so good that 
they will select you. When I got my first 40 review points, interestingly, 
the game that won the grand prize is my other game that only have 38 points. 
The game award event happens every M12 W3, so you can try to develop your 
best games befolIf you save the game before 

Q - When should I start console development?
When you have enough money, good staff and popularity.
I started mine at Y10, then around Y14, and Y18.
The idea of developing console is to get more money and control the market 
share. Because people would buy your console if you produce good game for it, 
so it's like double income. 

Q - Any other catch in console development?
Console development takes a very long time so you'll risk losing Fans and 
depleting your money. Make sure you develop console that cost only slightly 
more than half of your cash. Also make sure you have good popularity, because
it will determine your console sales. When your console is popular and 
dominating the market share above normal consoles, Karoisoft will start 
introducing their own consoles that will easily exceed yours.  
I encountered two: Jupiter 512 (18000K) and GameJohn (20000K)

STAFF
-----

Q - Who to hire?
I think the key of excelling in this game is having good Staff.
(Same as any corporation, actually. So the game developer got it right :))
One important stat that tend to be neglected in early game is Power. 
Other stats can be trained or leveled up, but not Power. 
So it's better to hire someone with longer power even their other traits 
are less.  

Q - Who is the ultimate staff?
I'm listing down my last staff setup after 20 years in my order of preference.
I've tried hiring more, but couldn't find better people. 
So if you happen to encounter them, try to get them.
- Stephen Jobson - you know who this resembles, he can do everything
- Francoise Bloom - max his hacker job first before changing
- Walt Sidney - great as director
- Cokie Bottleson - great as producer
- Sophie Kairo
- Mindy Crawford
- Bubbles Morgan
At my final 20 years, most of them are drawing more than 10000K each. 
And they have b/w 200-400 for each traits, some even reach 600++ (as hacker) 

Other fun characters: (mostly high power, but nothing much else)
- Mister X
- King Ackbar
- Grizzly Bearington
- Chimpan Z-Force
- Kairobot

Q - How to get the 600++ stats 
To get them most out of your staff, you should use combination of training, 
level ups, and job conversion. Train them when you got money and not in 
project urgency.
Level them up if you have some research unit and not worry about money.
(watch out their Salary increment though, 20% of 10000K is 2000K)
Switch job after you finish leveling up. 

Q - How to unlock the different jobs?
- Director - lv 5 Coder and Writer 
- Producer - Lv 5 Designer and Snd Eng. 
- Hard. Eng. - Lvl 5 Director and Producer
- Hacker - Lvl 5 Hard. Eng. 


ACTION
------

Q - How to advertise?
The purpose of advertising is to increase your fan base. 
This will impact the sale of your games, and the money.
Also when you're developing a game, Advertising will increase its Fame.
So it's good to advertise when you're in the midst of development.

Q - Which advertising should we use?
Depend on the size of your fans. The bigger, the harder to increase.
So based on your spare cash, use the most expensive one. 
At my late game, anything other than Lunar Writing will have no impact. 

Q - What to buy from Seller?
In the early game, I used one of the 4 main boost for every game. 
But later on I begin to find it as a waste of research point. 
Bug spray and motivation is only useful when you're in urgency to produce.
But if you choose your contract or game development time carefully, you won't
need it. 

I think it's good to stock some Dead Bull. 
It'll be useful when you're doing long contract or console development. 

The most useful and used many times would be Career Change Manual. 
So buy it every time you have spare cash. 

Also the price increases when you change office, so it's good to stock up 
early. 

Q - What does Move Seats do? 
It's to move seats, (duh..) haha, ok J/K.
I still don't know whether this plays any significant improvement. 
As far as I observed, it only helps to reduce the staff walking time. 
So you might want to put your less Power staff near to exit.
As for staff inter communication, I still don't see any pattern. I think 
it's all random.

Ok, that's all I have.

"Just a little bit more ..."

Thanks for reading and I wish you all the pleasure from Game Dev Story. 
Hopefully they will come out with the sequel with more Cuteness, 
Approachability, Simplicity, Game World, Realism, Niche Appeal, Innovation, 
and Polish. 
"This'll go down in history"