Greenheart games has recently devised a game so addicting, so absolutely charming, that I actually had a hard time stepping away from the game to review it. Game Dev Tycoon sends players back to the 80’s to begin their own game development studio. From meager beginnings in your garage, players can grow into a powerhouse of a company. While choices in hardware and game topics are sparse starting out, with a few successful titles, players can create a wide array of games.
At the development level, players must employ some tact and strategy, choosing what aspects of a game to focus on most. For example, when creating an RPG, users may have to decide between lending more time to the games narrative or its graphics. Your choices will then directly influence the success of the game. Upon completion, your game is scored from 1-10 and given a very brief review.
As players become a goliath of the gaming world, more and more employees become available for hire, coming together to build an elite dev team. But raw talent is not all that is needed to succeed. By spending research points, players can train their devs in different areas of design. These same research points may also be used to find new genre’s of games to create, new gaming innovations such as online play, and can even be used to create your own custom game engine.
As someone who loves games (as you probably do as well), it is very fun to feel like you are behind the scenes. It is incredibly easy to sit around on forums and complain about modern publishers and dev studios’ wrongdoings, so it is interesting to be placed in situations that often cause controversy in the gaming world. From time to time, in game events will take place that force users to experience sticky PR situations firsthand.
For example, you may receive a report that people are pirating your game, requiring you to either take harsh action, or issue a warning. Some of your games may need to be patched, and as the head of the dev firm, you must choose whether or not to release it as your fans grow louder. There are even times when fans request the source code to an old engine players may have used to build a game in the past. Will you be selfish and hoard your technological treasures away? Or will you share with the people who have brought you success?
Satisfying gameplay mixes very well with Dev Tycoons subtle funny jabs at the gaming industry. I found myself laughing at systems like the “mBox One” which released amidst controversy about game sharing and always-online requirements, and even it’s competitor the “Playsystem 4”. Game Dev Tycoon is non-stop fun that I am actually going to go right back to playing now.