I develop a new engine whenever I have a new graphics technology available and make sure I never neglect graphics during game development so the graphics component experience levels up at a steady pace.Īlso, you should keep in mind that releasing sequels on the same engine has a hefty quality penalty (doesn't apply to expansions). I make one where I release with the same features as the previous one but the staff has considerable improvement and one where I add new features from the engine. I personally use a mixed development plan, releasing two games a year (except on years where I have to develop a new engine). You also need a minimum graphics feature for large and AAA games to avoid a tech level quality penalty. Graphics is by far the most critical feature since its an important field on all genres except strategy and in all multi-genres. Also, if you are focusing on engine improvement, you may reach a point where just one new feature doesn't cut it so you may have to add more than one. Generally speaking a feature's benefit is directly tied to its cost although it doesn't scale linearly. This is obviously a rough guide and not all features are equal. It is probably time to develop a new engine. On you first game, you develop it featureless, the second you add Save Game, the third Mono Sound and the fourth Game Tutorials. You develop an engine with Mono Sound, Save Game and Game Tutorials and you are focusing on Action games which has Engine, Gameplay and Sound as important components.
If you focus on engine development, you should add features on components that matter to your genre one by one to your new games and develop a new engine whenever you run out of new features to add. On the other hand, this has the disadvantage of draining research points that could be allocated elsewhere and staff that is training isn't developing games. If you focus on staff development, consistently training your staff each year, you'll be less dependent on engine. As such you need a plan to keep your quality increasing consistently.
Without getting into too much detail, this game rewards making each game slightly better than the one you released before. It depends a lot on what your long term plan is for sustained development.
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