You will notice that each area has different +, ++, +++ and -, --, --- ratings. There is a relationship you should be aware of, and a selection method that will make your life easier. Start by selecting your Console. You can determine which Genre and Age Group the Console lines up with. You ideally want to have all consoles you are releasing on have +++ Age and Genre.

From this, you simply select the Age and Genre, then pick a topic that lines up with the age. On the right-hand side of the buttons for Genre and Topic, it might say "Good Combination", "Great Combination", "Terrible Combination". I suggest you always pick "Great Combination".

You can try to line up all +++'s and Great Combination but remember the game takes your previous high score and makes you beat it to get a good rating. If your last "Great Game" had 300 Tech and 300 Design, you need 330 Tech and 330 Design bubbles to get another great rating even if everything lines up perfectly.

Therefore, it is acceptable to pick either one ++ or "Good Combination" to leave room for improvement. My design method is to ALWAYS leave room for improvement while making the "best" game that I can.

It is important to specialize only on 2-3 genres and minimize mult-genre games (because you will get higher design/tech for making games your people are accustomed to making), and save sequels for later. There is no "best" Genre. If your people make 5 strategy games, 5 simulation games and 5 action games, then you release an RPG, you will get lower scores because your company isn't experienced at making RPG's.

I advise picking 2-3 Genre's. Each "Era" has differen't dominant genre's. In the beginning, Adult age and Action/Simulation/Strategy is great. The early/mid game brings importance to Kids Casual, and continues Action while adding "Everybody" to importance. As the game proceeds, RPG's gain dominance and "Everybody/Adult" seem dominant.

Some systems later (such as) grPad, grPhone, mPad, GS, Gameling, Vena Gear are only able to release medium size games, meaning when you release a new Graphics Engine you can release 2-3 medium games to get your Tech Level up instead of creating "Trash Games", which I will cover later in this guide.

You will notice that All "Playsystem" Consoles and "mBox" Consoles are very close to the PC on terms of what age/genre's are popular and Nuu/Wuu focuses on Casual and Kids while differeing on Strategy, Simulation and Action.

TL/DR: The best genre's change with each age. Each "age" has 2-3 good genre's for each age group.

Another important thing is minimizing features used. Only add what you think you need to. If you add $30,000 of features to the first game with a new engine, relese the next one with $40,000-50,000 new features. Build game engines ONLY when graphics upgrades are up, and only when you have the whole "generation" of values associated. (First, everything that costs 15 research, then everything that costs 40, etc).

You can avoid at least 1-3 bad scores every game engine you make by creating one game to "Trash" instead of "Release". These games will have a lower graphics tech level, and that will bring down your score because your prior graphics level had a higher tech level. This makes every graphics upgrade a new "reset" of sorts.

**Note on Upgrading game engines:

Early game, you can create a "Trash Game" or 2 for each new game engine to get Tech Levels up without hurting your fanbase or releasing a terrible game. Mid-Late game, some consoles like the laptops, handhelds and phones can only release small/medium games and those seem useful to release medium size games when upgrading. Don't use any features in these games. When you are ready to actually release your next game, you should add zero features then add 1-2 features each game that you release.

Add features ONLY to areas with +++ importance. When you add them, if you had $50,000 worth features in Dialogue but your next game has --- dialogue and +++ Gameplay, you need to remove all Dialogue features, and add about $60,000 Gameplay features. Only adding features in +++ areas on 2 sliders only, means you will have more features availible to use in the future.

Sequels:

After releasing a sequel the first time, it makes all non-sequels "rate less" that are released afterword because not having the "sequel" factor can make it harder to meet your 15% increase mandate. Starting on year 25-30 if you have a catalogue of say 12 games that are all 9.0 or higher, you can spend the rest of the game making 12 large/AAA sequels. I advise you wait to make sequels until you have a respectable library. Looking at the length of time it takes to make Large and AAA Games, you can live off sequels forever once you start making them.

MMO's:

These have linear profits but quadratic maintenance, meaning the maintenance will always slowly rise and eventually begin rising really high, really fast. The solution, is to release an expansion which causes a sales-spike. Thus, your MMO might have some 100m sales! However, after about the second Expansion, I have observed the third is almost never profitable.

If you release them too close together, you get penalized, if you don't the maintenance monster gobbles your profits and you die and go to Money Hell. So, after your second expansion for AAA games or third for Large games, prepare to trash it the second its maintenance rises above its profits. I normally make only Large MMO's.

I advise you wait and make your first MMO your last Non-Sequel game. Before making your final expansion for your MMO, make a second MMO of a different kind. Players seem to be less angry if you still have an MMO up when you take one down.

Multi-Genre:

First of all, because your people get better over time in different genre's, Multi-Genre Games, just like new Graphics Engines is a slight "reset". If your chosen Genre's are: Action, Adventure, RPG, guess what your Multi-Genre's should be? Action-Adventure, Action-RPG, Adventure-RPG. I think the game lists Adventure-Action, RPG-Action and RPG-Adventure as different so be aware of which permutation you choose.

Game Reports:

Spend at least 1-2 playthroughs with no goal other than making hundreds of small games to farm Game Reports because they unlock in-game information about how +++'s line up, slider information, and everything else. Unlocking this can mean having your answers right in front of you during your next playthrough because if you start a game, then use your prior save, it rememberes what your Game Reports gave you and lets you keep the hints.

You will reach a point in the game where you need to improve your characters for better ratings. Assume you gave everyone 1000 on all scores. Now, the only way to improve your games is with features. You have to beat your old score to have improved, so you don't want to cap your score right away. Instead of trying to force your skills to raise early, you should minimize your training costs in Research Points.

I always have training start out with one Speed session then one Design/Tech (Balance) session. This feels like a good natural growth and I do the same when I get G3. Eventually you need some 750 design/tech on everyone, to "perfect" them. Note on boost: I only use boost when i am training to increase that, and I sometimes use it for game reports for bigger games.

If you haven't noticed, Month 6: Week 2 has convention. At first this will be G3 and once you have R&D Lab you can do your own conventions instead.

When you have a game "in progress" during convention, when convention ends your "HYPE" score will begin a rapid increase. The best time to release a game is Month 6: Week 3. I like to wait past G3 to get that hype.

Another good time to have a game come out is Month 12. This could just be Hindsight Bias on my end, but it feels like every time month 12 comes along all games/consoles I have on the market sell more. This also works with G3! Meaning you can sell in the middle of month 5, and G3 will increase your sales OR you can release right after G3 and it will increase your hype. Both are good options.

I like to release on game in month 4 week 4, then quickly start my next game so that when G3 comes, I can have a game on market AND in development collecting fast hype!

And, so concludes any advice I have. There is a rare chance someone will know better than I, and if so, please comment and I will attempt to validate it and make corrections as needed. If there is anything else I can think of in the future, I may amend this guide to reflect that.

Thanks to Greenheart Games for being a good company who released a fun game, with a lot of positive feedback and reviews.