So, I went over modding wiki for this game, and I haven't found any particular stats for lead designers. In every single game of this type I was lacking a "reality mode" option in hard modes, beside classic - more grind or much more slower start. For me the idea for harder difficulty would be having a chance for the Daikatana scenario (every older gamer remembers John Romeros' Daikatana hyped project, that flopped hugely and ended his career). After figuring out how to get best score on software, the game really loses it's challenging edge, leaving predictability.

This is just an idea, and I don't think its really possible to implement in this game, but Lead designers should have creativity range (+/- 10%) giving them opportunity to create better or worse design. This would lead to visionary designers having a chance to flop (not hugely, but noticeably) a popular IP, and we all saw this is a real scenario. Addition would be a new stat "Lead reputation", that can help hype the product or even penalize it after a string of flops.

If anybody has any idea how to start on this, please share it, because I believe this game could be THE business simulator game, playing it 20 years from now.