History VideoGame / GameDevTycoon

* EightPointEight: In-universe, it can be very disappointing if you sink a lot of money into a game, only to get 7s and 8s instead of the 9s and 10s (or [[UpToEleven 11s]]) you were hoping for.

* AllegedlyFreeGame: {{Averted|Trope}}. Greenheart noted the trend among some of their competitors and purposefully steered clear of it.

* [[TwentyPercentMoreAwesome 20% More Awesome]]: Literally Invoked, but Averted in spirit. Your next game needs to be 20% better than your last 9.0 hit to score another 9.0+ review. Averted in that the game uses a complex 'quality rating' score that may seem vague and arbitrary, but isn't when you look under the hood.
* AllegedlyFreeGame: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Greenheart noted the trend among some of their competitors and purposefully steered clear of it.

** 2013: For this day, the developers made a joke news post about an upcoming expansion pack for the game called the ''Shareholders' Edition'', where instead of actually gaining a fanbase and making quality games, [[MoneyDearBoy you simply focus on making money and nothing else.]] Some of the upgrades you can buy include [[VideoGame/SimCity forcing always-online DRM, forcing players to buy small things, and focusing more on the new "CrassBox" engine to make the game look good instead of actually making it playable.]]

** Happens by the truckload in the game, to both the platforms (i.e. [[{{Creator/Nintendo}} Ninvento]], [[Creator/{{Sega}} Vena]], [[Creator/{{Sony}} Vony]] and [[Creator/MicrosoftStudios Micronoft]]). It had to be done to [[WritingAroundTrademarks write around trademarks]].

* ConsoleCameo: Since the timeline of the game reflects the actual history of video games, we get to see parodies [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} of]] [[Creator/{{Sega}} the]] [[Creator/SonyComputerEntertainment big]] [[Creator/MicrosoftStudios four's]] systems, as well as a rather popular [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames brand]] of mobile phone in the game's latter half.

** Actually utilized as a creative deterrent for real pirates. A version that was purportedly leaked (actually released to Pirate Bay by the developers themselves) would, halfway through the game, trigger an event where the pirates stealing from you in game ''cannot be stopped''. They steal from you more and more, and essentially make the game [[http://www.destructoid.com/game-dev-tycoon-turns-piracy-back-on-the-pirates-252687.phtml impossible to win]]. A later update to the real game allows you to activate these events as a SelfImposedChallenge, though with options for mitigating it by developing various forms of CopyProtection (which will upset your fans, of course).

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: In-Universe: the in-game critics value innovation and releasing two games of the same genre in a row is poorly received.

* RichesToRags: You must avert this at all costs. You are allowed to overdraw money in hopes of making a profit, but if you hit the overdraw threshold, you'll risk suffering bankruptcy, resulting in a GameOver. You'll likely get a DesperationAttack opportunity if you're on the brink.

* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: It can be easy to gain 1 million to be able to move from the garage to the office, but lack of planning and high ranked games ships can not only lost your funds quick, but lead to bankruptcy.

* {{Irony}}: The developers leaked a version of their game onto the Pirate Bay where, when the pirate went far enough, their company would go bankrupt due to their games being pirated.

* UnwinnableByDesign: For players using pirated copies, their company will inevitably go under [[{{Irony}} when their games start getting pirated.]] This is later added to the official game, known as Pirate Mode, which subverts the system from unwinnable to NintendoHard and require you to play smarter to make up for the potential sales lost.

** Releasing games of the same topic/genre combo back to back is considered bad (unless said topic happens to be popular at the time), never mind that some companies actually make a living churning out games of the same topic/genre ''continuously'', and are actually ''successful'' at doing so, ie The Franchise/{{Touhou}} Project. The game places enormous emphasis on innovation.

* UnwinnableByDesign: For players using pirated copies, their company will inevitably go under [[{{Irony}} when their games start getting pirated.]] This is later added to the official game, known as Pirate Mode, which subverts the system from unwinnable to NintendoHard and require you to play smarter to make up for the petential sales lost.

* UnwinnableByDesign: For players using pirated copies, their company will inevitably go under [[{{Irony}} when their games start getting pirated.]]

** Several towards [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil piracy]], as mentioned above. Also, several are taken towards [[Creator/ElectronicArts EA]] even outside of the April Fools' post; for instance, if you lose, you might be told that you were bought out by an EA {{Expy}} and have been going downhill ever since.

* Irony: The developers leaked a version of their game onto the Pirate Bay where, when the pirate went far enough, their company would go bankrupt due to their games being pirated.

Noted for a particularly [[TropesAreTools creative]] and {{Iron|y}}ic DigitalPiracyIsEvil AuthorFilibuster, where if you pirated the game in RealLife, your in-universe game fails on account of copious amounts of digital piracy.

* AuthorFilibuster[=/=]{{Irony}} See DigitalPiracyIsEvil, below.

* IronicHell: See the second bullet DigitalPiracyIsEvil above.
* IsometricProjection

* UnwinnableByDesign: For players using pirated copies. See DigitalPiracyIsEvil above.

** In early versions of the game, you also have to research the ability to have a game be controlled by a mouse. This comes after making things like joysticks and ''steering wheels'', when one would think that the mouse would come first. A case of RealityIsUnrealistic, actually. Joysticks as we know them (electrical contacts and all) date to the 1920s, while the computer mouse didn't make it to market until the late 1960s- heck, the computer mouse remained a niche up until the mid 80s, when GUI-based operating systems went mainstream (with the introduction of the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}}, UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh and UsefulNotes/AtariST). Commodore 64s and [=PCs=] supported joysticks before then. And even then, mice didn't become mainstream among PC users until Windows 3.1 was introduced in the early 90s.

** In early versions of the game, you also have to research the ability to have a game be controlled by a mouse. This comes after making things like joysticks and ''steering wheels'', when one would think that the mouse would come first. A case of RealityIsUnrealistic, actually. Joysticks as we know them (electrical contacts and all) date to the 1920s, while the computer mouse didn't make it to market until the late 1960s- heck, the computer mouse remained a niche up until the mid 80s, when GUI-based operating systems went mainstream (with the introduction of the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}}, UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh and UsefulNotes/AtariST). Commodore 64s and [=PCs=] supported joysticks before then.

** Releasing games of the same topic/genre combo back to back is considered bad (unless said topic happens to be popular at the time), never mind that some companies actually make a living churning out games of the same topic/genre ''continuously'', and are actually ''successful'' at doing so, ie The Touhou Project. The game places enormous emphasis on innovation.

Noted for a particularly [[TropesAreNotBad creative]] and {{Iron|y}}ic DigitalPiracyIsEvil AuthorFilibuster, where if you pirated the game in RealLife, your in-universe game fails on account of copious amounts of digital piracy.

* ConsoleCameo: Since the timeline of the game reflects the actual history of video games, we get to see parodies [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} of]] [[Creator/{{Sega}} the]] [[Creator/SonyComputerEntertainment big]] [[Creator/MicrosoftStudios four's]] systems, as well as a rather popular [[IOSGames brand]] of mobile phone in the game's latter half.

** There are a couple Topic/Genre combos that the game treats as 'Bad', Such as [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Time Travel + RPG]], that otherwise have RL examples of why that combo would actually be good.

* DoubleUnlock: Triple Unlock in this case. You must reach a certain skill level to unlock research for a game aspect. Then you have to spend time, money and research points to actually research it, THEN you have to build a brand new game engine and include the feature in it. Once you do all that, you can include that feature in your game. Luckily this sounds harder than it actually is.

** There's an achievement for getting "a perfect ten" in reviews. Scoring ''above'' ten (like getting 10, 10, 10 and 11) does not unlock it (but will unlock the "up to eleven" achievement).
* EndlessGame: After you "finish" the game, you can choose to continue, for as long as you want.
** While you can continue forever, no new story elements (such as new consoles being introduced or old ones leaving the market) will be introduced.

* DesperationAttack: If your bank account dips below -200,000$, the bank can offer to give you a sizable loan to stave off bankruptcy, with the catch that you need to pay them back double the amount in a year's time. Doubles as a DeathOrGloryAttack as your options upon accepting the loan basically boil down to either making a hit game that rockets you back to financial stability or going bust trying.

** One possible event involves people pirating one of your games; you can choose to either sue them or simply give them a warning.
** Actually utilized as a creative deterrent for real pirates. A version that was purportedly leaked (actually released to Pirate Bay by the developers themselves) would, halfway through the game, trigger an event where the pirates stealing from you in game ''cannot be stopped''. They steal from you more and more, and essentially make the game [[http://www.destructoid.com/game-dev-tycoon-turns-piracy-back-on-the-pirates-252687.phtml impossible to win]]. A later update to the real game allows you to activate these events as a SelfImposedChallenge.

* SequelGap: Possible to do in-universe, and there's no penalty for making a sequel to a game that's years or even decades old. In fact, it's actually a bit easier to get a high score on a sequel to an old game, as critics are likely to praise [[CaptainObvious the new game having a more advanced engine than the years-old original.]]