User:JibstaMan/Custom Game Engine

A custom game engine enables the use of new features, which in turn can help improve a game's review score. Selecting the right features for a good game combination is essential to reaching good score.

Custom game engine can be researched from the start of the game for 50 RP. Once researched, a menu item will become available to Create Custom Engine.



Feature overview
Some features are mutually exclusive. The tables below list the "group" for certain features. A game can only contain one feature from a given group. So (looking at the Story/Quests table) it would be possible to have both Linear Story and Simple Cutscenes enabled for a game, but not both Linear Story and Branching Story, since those apply to the same group. Therefore, when developing a new engine, it might be wise to only select the best feature from each group. On the other hand, being able to choose a less expensive feature might come in handy. For example, when developing a game where Story/Quests isn't important, having the Linear Story option in the custom engine would allow it to be added, whereas having the Branching Story option would mean the feature would only get developed half due to time limitation.

Another thing to note is that there is no downside to adding features (besides paying the cost of developing that feature). Note that more features require more time to be spent on that category, otherwise it won't be fully developed. It's perfectly viable to create 3D games for consoles that wouldn't realistically allow it. So in short, more features make for a better game.

Also 2D and 3D Graphics features have hidden stat - Tech level which is used to calculate amount of Tech and Design points of game and Technical expertise for game score. Tech level of the game is calculated as average of Tech levels of all 2D and 3D Graphics features in the Custom Game Engine and Tech level of used Platform. So in order to get best Tech level of a game, it's best to include only a single Graphics feature with the highest Tech level.

Graphics
All graphic features are mutually exclusive, except for Stereoscopic 3D.