Game Review

The way a new game is reviewed is somewhat complex and the rules change if we are talking about a new game, an addon, an NPC's game, etc...
The following info is related to a new game (sequel and spin-offs are considered new games). If the info changes to encompass more types, this disclaimer should be changed.
=== Review difficulty ===
The reviews get "harder" as time passes. Each week you need to add a little more points to each game discipline (Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Technical) to achieve a perfect score. but the difficulty reaches its apex in 2026, meaning the game doesn't get harder after that.
The difficulty curve is given by a Cubic Hermite Spline and the result is then multiplied by a weight given to the game difficulty.
(2t^3-3t^2+1)*0.0035858154296875 + (-2t^3+3t^2)*1+(t^3-t^2)*2 where t [0,1] or t [0,600]/600 (amount of months in-game)
see formula on Wolfram Alpha.
Difficulty Weight
difficulty	Weight
Very easy 	7000
Easy 	10000
Medium 	15000
Hard 	18000
Very Hard 	22000
Legendary 	30000
The above info is just for entertainment though and shouldn't be used to calculate anything, as there are a few conditionals in the game that skew the values. Please see Review Target Table for a complete table of the values for each discipline to achieve 100% reivew.
For example, the linked table take the following into consideration:
* Gameplay review are 10% harder before 1979
* Graphics review are 10% harder before 1982
* Sound reviews are 10% harder before 1985
* Technical Reviews are 20% harder before MoCap studio is unlocked, in Nov 1993
This means you need to generate more points in these areas to achieve 100%. In practice, you might want to slightly change the design priorities of your game to compensate.
NOTE: The table above only applies to non-retro games developed by the player (not the NPCs). Furthermore, the points generated in each discipline are just a small part of the review mechanics and don't ensure a 100% review. The table should be used to ajust your development priorites and ensure you are generating enough points.
As mentioned, the review score generated by the discipline points is just the base of the reviews. The next sections will outline all other game features and mechanics that impact the review score. They are entered in the order it is calculated in the game, which is somewhat important.
====TL;DR====
* Have full experience in everything
* Use the newest engine feature
* Make a lot of points in every discipline
* Have a sub-genre and sub-theme
* Add all studio room extra features
* Do the pre-release special marketing
* Have matching genre/theme/audience
* Have perfect settings (focus and design)
* Squash all bugs before release
* Don't be poor
===Platform Experience===
The experience you have with each platform is summed and divided by the number of platforms, this normalizes the amount of experience from 0 to 5. Any missing points will decrease the Graphics, Sound, Technical reviews by -2%. 
(5-(p_1+...+p_n)/n)*2 \text{ where } p[1,4] 
E.G. \begin{align} \text{Given p1=5, p2=2 and p3=4 }
\\ (5-(5+2+4)/3)*2
\\ (5 - 11/3) * 2
\\ 1.34 *2 = 2.68\end{align}
 This means each of the mentioned disciplines would receive -2.68% in their review score. 
In sum, having more or less platforms don't directly affect the reivew, but help dilute the impact of the platforms you don't have a lot of experience on. 
===Specialized Rooms===
Specialized rooms are: QA, Graphic Studio, Sound Studio and Mocap Studion. Each contribute points to Gameplay, Graphics, Sound and Technical respectively. Each room has 6 specialized features it can add to the game.
After a certain date, not putting a specialized feature in, decreases that disciplines review by 1% per missing feature, the exception for this rule is the Mocap studio, where each missing feature decreases the Graphics review instead of the Technical review. Below are the dates these debuffs kick in:
*QA: 1979
*Graphics: 1982
*Sound: 1985
*Mocap: Nov 1993
Save for the mocap studio, you could research the other rooms as soon as possible, but you only really need to use them on the mentioned dates. Also, keep in mind the balance of adding these features, versus their cost versus the 1% debuff per feature. Adding more points to a discipline than required by the Review Target Table won't increase the score, so if you are already capped on that, you are spending money to avoid losing 1% of review score and although there are very few ways to get a bonus score you might be able to use that knowledge to see how many features you can do without and avoid too great of an impact.
===Outdated Engine Feature===
This mechanic applies only to non-retro and non-mobile games. For any given Engine Feature Type (Graphics, Sound, AI and Physics), each unlocked, not necessarely researched, feature newer than the feature being used adds 1 point of outdate to that feature.
*Graphics: Each outdate point reduces the Graphics review in -2%
*Sound: Each outdate point reduces the Sound review in -2%
*AI: Each outdate point reduces the Gameplay review in -1%
*Physics: Each outdate point reduces the Gameplay review in -1%
So, the older a feature is the worse impact it will have in the score. Interestingly enough, although AI and Physics generate both Gameplay and Technical points, the latter doesn't get a debuff for using outdate features.
===Game Size===
The review scores will get a debuff depending on the Game Size and year. This debuff is applied all disciplines, but it is not cumulative. E.G. Once the 1988 debuff kicks in, it supplants the 1983 one.
Game Size debuff by year
Year 	B 	B+ 	A 	AA 	AAA	AAAA
1983 onwards	-1%	0% 	0% 	0% 	0% 	0%
1988 onwards	-2%	-1%	0% 	0% 	0% 	0%
1995 onwards	-3%	-2%	-1%	0% 	0% 	0%
2004 onwards	-4%	-3%	-2%	-1%	0% 	0%
2020 onwards	-5%	-4%	-3%	-2%	-1%	0%
===Licensing===
The following only applies if the game is using a License. Games won't lose anything if they are not using a license.
Each license has a good genre, a bad genre and a quality score from 10 to 100.
*If the main genre matches the license's good genre, it receives 3 times the license quality as Gameplay review score
**E.G. A license with 100 quality will give a 3% bonus, and a license with 50 quality will give 1.5% Q*0.03
*If the main genre matches the bad genre, it receives negative 5 times the license quality as Gameplay review score
**E.G. A license with 100 quality will give a -5% debuff, a license with 50 quality will give -2.5% Q*0.05
*If the main genre doesn't match neither the good or bad genres, it receives 1 time the license quality as Gameplay review score
*If the game has a subgenre:
**If it matches the good genre it receives 2 times the license quality as Gameplay review
**If it matches the bad genre, it receives negative 3 times the license quality as Gameplay review score
**If it doesn't match neither the good or bad genres, it receives 1 time the license quality as Gameplay review score
In sum, using a license is a great way of increasing the Gameplay review score, which is the discipline that's most affected and has the most debuffs, as long as you follow the license's good/bad genre constraints.
===Final Score===
At this point the Final review score is calculated but not yet finalized as it can still be impacted by the mechanics described further down.
Each discipline review% (Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Technical) is summed into the Final score after being weighted agains that Genre design priority.
E.G. Given a genre that has a 50% priority in Gameplay and that achieved 90% in that discipline, this will contribute 45% to the Final review score.
Please note that the design priority when developing the game does not need to match the genre's design priority as the first is used to help determine how many points will be generated in that discipline.
===Bugs===
Each bug decreases all reviews:
*Gameplay: -0.2%
*Graphics: -0.1%
*Sound: -0.1%
*Technical: -0.1%
*Final: -0.1%
Gotta squash 'em all!
===Game Concept===
This section is about the Genre, Theme and Target Audience suitability and experience. Which genres match, which theme fits each genre and which genre is suitable for each audience can be found in each mechanics page, but if you are playing with randomized values, these can be discovered after creating a game through the Game Report.
*If the genre is not suitable for the target audience: Gameplay -4%, Final -3%
*If the genre and sub-genre don't match OR there's no sub-genre: Gameplay -4%, Final -3%
*Each missing xp point in the main genre: Gameplay -0.8%, Final -0.6%
*Each missing xp point in the sub-genre: Gameplay -0.4%, Final- 0.3%
*If there's no sub-genre: Gameplay -2%, Final -1.5%
*If theme doesn't fit with main genre: Gameplay -4%, Final -3%
*If sub-theme doesn't fit with main genre OR there's no sub-theme: Gameplay -2%, Final -1.5%
*Each missing xp point in the main theme: Gameplay -0.8%, Final -0.6%
*Each missing xp point in the sub-theme: Gameplay -0.4%, Final -0.3%
*If there's no sub-theme: Gameplay -2%, Final -1.5%
In conclusion, not having a sub-genre and a sub-theme will get you penalized twice. Research and add sub-theme and sub-genre as soon as possible.
=== Design Focus ===
The Design Focus are the 8 sliders you can tweak during the game development (game depth, beginner friendly, etc). Because these slides are used to distribute a limited amount of points, 40 points, they work in pairs as one value can't be raised without lowering another. This is important as it means there are only 4 pairs of focus, which is the reason the debuff works in the way it does.
You receive a debuff to the Gameplay and Final score by how much LOWER you set your focus than the target for the genre. In other words, you are penalized on the delta between your design focus and the ideal if your focus is lower than the ideal. This delta is weigthed against the difficulty.
Difficulty Weight
difficulty	Gameplay	Final
Very easy 	0.3 	0.2
Easy 	0.4 	0.3
Medium 	0.5 	0.4
Hard 	0.8 	0.5
Very Hard 	0.9 	0.6
Legendary 	1 	0.7
E.G. If you set one focus to 10, but the target was 8, you won't be penalized, but if you got one slider wrong, you also got another one somewhere, and it is necessarely under the target amount. So lets say you set this other slide to 4 but the target was 6. The delta would be 2, if you are playing on Medium, you would lose 1% in Gameplay and 0.8% in the Final score.
=== Design Direction ===
The Design Direction are the three sliders under the focus (How hard the game is, core/casual audience, how violent the game is). Because these don't distribute a fixed amount of points like the focus does, you are penalized by the absolute delta between your settings and the ideal for the Genre.
The delta amount is uses the same weights as the design focus, thus, it penalizes in the same amounts per difficulty.
=== Addon / Standalone Addon ===
These have the Gameplay and Final score affected by the addon's quality. The mechanic hasn't been thoroughly explored yet.
=== Financing ===
All scores are affected if the game financing is less than 100%. Mechanic's specifics hasn't been thoroughly explored yet. 
"Stop being poor" - Paris Hilton, probably, at some point.
=== Review Bonus ===
Finally, there are a few ways of getting a bonus review score.
* The Pre-Release For Press special marketing gives +3% to all reviews, if your game review is 50% or more, otherwise you get -3%.
* If the main genre is the one your studio is specialized at, you get a flat +3% to the Final review.
* All reviews get a flat bonus depending on difficulty.
Difficulty Weight
difficulty	Weight
Very easy 	+4%
Easy 	+3%
Medium 	+2%
Hard 	+1%
Very Hard 	+0.5%
Legendary 	+0%
=== Finalizing score ===
Now that everything has been calculated all the reviews are rounded to the closest integer number, and if the number ends in 0.5 it is rounded to the closest EVEN number.
Reviews can't go lower than 1% or higher than 100%.
Category:Game Mechanics