Game Dev Tycoon (PC Indie Game)

[Sassafrass]

Notes before I begin
All images taken from my own attempts at playing this.
Any TL;DR posts will be reported and the poster will be hunted down by me with a spoon, talcum powder and many cacti.

Game Dev Tycoon is a strange game to try and describe. It feels like a strategy game, but it also doesn?t feel like one. It?s a weird mix of RPG and strategy, or at least that?s how it feels to me. Game Dev Tycoon has you taking the role of an up and coming game developer, working out of your garage back in the 80?s, just after the Commadore 64 launched. The entire aim of Game Dev Tycoon is to create games, raise enough money to move out of your garage and raise the ranks of the game development world, hiring staff and generally becoming the next EA or Valve of the gaming industry. Or you could get stuck in your garage for the first 6 years and become bankrupt because the people who review your game are fickle bastards who hate everything you do and stand for.

The gameplay in Game Dev Tycoon is pretty simple, yet effective. You select an option labelled ?Develop New Game?, which gives you a menu to begin with, where you can select the topic of game, genre, game engine and, of course, the platform you distribute it on, which ranges from the PC to the Playstation 4, which has been renamed, along with nearly all of the consoles due to legal reasons. After you pick all of this, you then move onto the game development cycle which is surprisingly simple to do so. You have three sliders, which you can alter to adjust how much time you spend on each area of the game, of which there are nine. This means you can either become the next Crytek and focus on getting the best graphics for your game or you could focus on the story and try and become the next Bioware, just without the ending controversy. As you develop your game, you gain ?Development? and ?Technology? points, which really don?t do anything but give you an indication of how well your game might do. You also gain bug points, which will lower your scores if you release the game with said bugs still in the game. Admittedly, I quite like this idea as it allows you to become Bethesda and release good games with a lot of bugs which people will then demand you patch for them.

[Img_Inline width="325" Caption="Yes, they?re working on blue screen computers." Align="right"]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad25/Sasquacth99/GARME%20REVIEW%20SCREENS/oie_10152330VrlBEWMT_zps01336dbf.png[/Img_Inline]

You also gain ?research? points as you develop your game, which will come in handy later on. When you have enough of them, you can research new game types to give you more flexibility in your games, research new graphics technology and much more besides. All of this ties into the game engine creator, which allows you to add features to your games, like online play, branching stories and much more besides. Despite all this, Game Dev Tycoon is both easy to pick up and easy to get to grips with. It has good tutorials that, while telling you what to do, don?t feel obtrusive or ruin the game experience for you. They don?t tell you how to create the next smash hit game, like Call of Duty or Half Life, it just tells you the basics and allows you free reign to create whatever type of game crosses your mind. It?s simple, addictive gameplay that has me putting in 12 hours since I picked it up on the 3rd of May. The feeling that ?I can do better than that? when you release a game that gets an average review score keeps you going to try and make a better game.

However, there are a couple of issues with Game Dev Tycoon, one of those being how random it feels when the games you create are scored. After each game is released, it gives your four fake magazines that score your game and boy, aren?t they hard to please. They?re almost like Metacritic user reviews, where they mark you down just because ?OMG, another action gaem, INNOVTAE MOAR.? It?s a rather unforgiving system which could frustrate and put people off playing more. I?m also sure that I get low scores because I?m also terrible at game design but sometimes it just feels like the game gives you a low score because it wants too. A few times I?ve had games get sixes and sevens which is fine, but then the same game gets a two or a three. It just seems to be a little random at times when this happens. Another bug is that, at times, when you?re developing a game, it becomes stuck on a certain stage and leaves you unable to finish the game or do anything else. While I thought this was due to the computer I was playing it on being unsuitable for gaming, I?ve heard reports from friends who play Game Dev Tycoon as well this has been happening to them as well. While this does happen very rarely, it is still an issue.

Overall, Game Dev Tycoon is actually a fun little title with an addicting mechanic to it. Yes, it?s not the prettiest game ever and it?s by no means the most complex game out there, although it is easy to learn and hard to master. Game Dev Tycoon is a fun game that will keep you coming back for 30 minutes to an hour at a time, to try and perfect your games and make your company the next Valve, Bioware or EA. I?d suggest anyone who has an interest in Game Dev Tycoon to at least go and download the demo, to see if it?s the type of game that would interest them.

[small]For those wondering, my specs on this shitty laptop are the following. My processor is a Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU B940 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz, with 4GBs of RAM and an Intel HD2000 chipset. I know, it?s the pinnacle of shittiness.[/small]​

Spoiler: Previous reviews

Films and TV: Hot Fuzz (First and original review) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.163840] - UK Big Brother and Celeb Big Brother [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.167121] - Scrubs (Sassafrass, VaudevillianVeteran and Pimppeter2) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.167644] - Black Sheep [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.174430] - Dave, a TV channel [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.181712] - Twilight: Eclipse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.213377] - The X-Factor (Sassafrass and VaudevillianVeteran) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.250859] - Predators [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.268805] - Hot Fuzz (Rewrite) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.270265]

Sassafrass to the YT Movies series: SK3: Battle For Redemption [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.375545-Sassafrass-to-the-YT-Movies-Scorpion-King-3-Battle-For-Redemption] - The Last Man On Earth [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.380367-Poll-Sassafrass-to-the-YT-Movies-The-Last-Man-on-Earth-1964] - Kung Fu Hustle [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.386443-Poll-Sassafrass-Reviews-Kung-Fu-Hustle-2004]

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Music: Full Fathom Five by Clutch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.206062] - Press X To Rock: Miracle of Sound [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.316714-Sassafrass-Reviews-Miracle-Of-Sound-Press-X-To-Rock]

Random reviews: Friends list review, no 4. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.170076] Friends list review 1, 2, 3 lost.

Game previews: Final Fantasy 13 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.178502]

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[Weaver]

It's a pretty fun game! My only issue with it is that there is an "optimal" way to make each kind of game. I very much advise anyone interested in it to NOT read the wiki and simply try things out for yourself, it will be a much more enjoyable experience instead of basically just moving sliders to get 10/10 games all the time.

I'm actually doing a play-through on youtube right now where I try to make only PC games and see if I can make it to the endgame with just the old PC getting me by. It's been a really fun challenge and I don't regret at all the $8 I spent on the game.

Highly recommended!

 

[Sassafrass]

It's a pretty fun game! My only issue with it is that there is an "optimal" way to make each kind of game. I very much advise anyone interested in it to NOT read the wiki and simply try things out for yourself, it will be a much more enjoyable experience instead of basically just moving sliders to get 10/10 games all the time.

I'm actually doing a play-through on youtube right now where I try to make only PC games and see if I can make it to the endgame with just the old PC getting me by. It's been a really fun challenge and I don't regret at all the $8 I spent on the game.

Highly recommended!

That's why I enjoy the game as well. You can't just wack all the sliders to max and print money, you actually have to think about what each game needs to focus on. And despite the time I've put in, I'm still finding it hard to make quality games over and over. One game could get a 9, the next 5 or 6 would get 4's or so.

And I've done that recently myself. I had a bit of trouble in the garage and first office, going into the red a bit but it's not too hard to get out of it. The low dev cost and lack of buying a license helps so much as well.

 

[Lost In The Void]

It's a pretty fun game! My only issue with it is that there is an "optimal" way to make each kind of game. I very much advise anyone interested in it to NOT read the wiki and simply try things out for yourself, it will be a much more enjoyable experience instead of basically just moving sliders to get 10/10 games all the time.

I'm actually doing a play-through on youtube right now where I try to make only PC games and see if I can make it to the endgame with just the old PC getting me by. It's been a really fun challenge and I don't regret at all the $8 I spent on the game.

Highly recommended!

This is what I did until I developed my own console post end game, so it is possible. I likened myself to the PC devs of old and just kept making RPGs for that market.

I really enjoyed this game, even if it did stutter during development for apparently no reason at some points, I highly recommend it as well. Also looking forward to the expansion coming up where you can play as a dickish publisher.

 

[Loop Stricken]

All of my bestsellers have been text-based RPGs.

 

[lacktheknack]

You just convinced me to pool my savings and buy this. Congratulations. But hey, I'm a sucker for these kinds of games.

 

[White_Lama]

So worth it, bought it for the simple reason that their view on people pirating their game just made it impossible NOT to get it just out of amusement.

 

[newwiseman]

Game Dev Tycoon just sounds and looks to much like Game Dev Story (iOS) for me to care, seeing as I've already played a great deal of Game Dev Story.

 

[Something Amyss]

So worth it, bought it for the simple reason that their view on people pirating their game just made it impossible NOT to get it just out of amusement.

Although....

Game Dev Tycoon just sounds and looks to much like Game Dev Story (iOS) for me to care, seeing as I've already played a great deal of Game Dev Story.

It's really funny to me that guys who effectively released a Game Dev Story knockoff are all "respect mah intellectual properteh!" when it comes to their own games. And this review makes it sound even more like GDS than I previously thought.

Now, piracy is not the same as wholesale copying of intellectual property, I get that, but it's still hilarious. I'm not condoning piracy, but I feel the moral here is rather hypocritical from guys so unoriginal as to lift Kairosoft's game almost whole cloth.

 

[Weaver]

Game Dev Tycoon just sounds and looks to much like Game Dev Story (iOS) for me to care, seeing as I've already played a great deal of Game Dev Story.

I can understand that. I don't have an IOS device though, so this version is really my only option.

 

[Kotaro]

Game Dev Tycoon just sounds and looks to much like Game Dev Story (iOS) for me to care, seeing as I've already played a great deal of Game Dev Story.

I can understand that. I don't have an IOS device though, so this version is really my only option.

Game Dev Story has a more charming aesthetic (16-bit graphics and music), but Game Dev Tycoon has some much-needed gameplay improvements.

 

[Neonbob]

That...actually sounds interesting.
I might look into this for pure shits and giggles.
Damn you again, Sassy.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I stopped playing when I got 5.5 million dollars, still in the garage mind you. I stopped because if I made 5.5 million dollars IRL I'd not do anywork and just workout and play vidogames all day.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Hmmm... I think I'll pirate it instead of trying out the demo!

Spoiler: What could possibly go wrong? =D

*marches out*

Erm, serious now...

Seems like a fun little game to do on the side. I wonder if the game is purposely hard to please or if it is a bug. I may pick it up.

 

[Sassafrass]

Hmmm... I think I'll pirate it instead of trying out the demo!

Spoiler: What could possibly go wrong? =D

*marches out*

Erm, serious now...

Seems like a fun little game to do on the side. I wonder if the game is purposely hard to please or if it is a bug. I may pick it up.

I'm honestly not sure if it's a bug or not. I mean, today I churned out a string of good games, that got me 7's and 8's but yesterday, I was churning out strings of 4's and 5's. It's just really weird and kinda annoying at times. :/

That...actually sounds interesting.
I might look into this for pure shits and giggles.
Damn you again, Sassy.

That's right, spend all your money.
I love it when you do that...

 

[Neonbob]

That...actually sounds interesting.
I might look into this for pure shits and giggles.
Damn you again, Sassy.

That's right, spend all your money.
I love it when you do that...

Dammit Sas, I already slip plenty into your undies at the other place! Must you make me bleed money when you're tangentially involved too?

 

[Eliwood10]

Very, very fun and compelling game, well worth the $8 impulse buy. If I have one nitpick, it's that I wish the events and the popularity of different platforms were more random rather than the same every playthrough; more like FTL but not quite to that level. I think it would add a little more strategy and need to adapt instead of there being one "optimal" way to play the game to completion.

 

[BushMonstar]

Hmmm... I think I'll pirate it instead of trying out the demo!

Spoiler: What could possibly go wrong? =D

*marches out*

Erm, serious now...

Seems like a fun little game to do on the side. I wonder if the game is purposely hard to please or if it is a bug. I may pick it up.

I'm honestly not sure if it's a bug or not. I mean, today I churned out a string of good games, that got me 7's and 8's but yesterday, I was churning out strings of 4's and 5's. It's just really weird and kinda annoying at times. :/

I've looked on the wiki. It's just really hard to please, and there's so much that goes into the review scores that the game doesn't ever tell you. Part of it is consistency in providing decent games, part of it is to never do the same thing (or close to the same thing) twice in a row.

Aside from that, it is a really fun game to play, but I could really recommend just playing it by your own judgement, not by what the Wiki says is the best thing to do.

 

[RicoADF]

All of my bestsellers have been text-based RPGs.

My best selling game was AusCity, which as a city strategy game is not a SimCity rippoff based in Australia honest..... ^_^

 

[Sassafrass]

Very, very fun and compelling game, well worth the $8 impulse buy. If I have one nitpick, it's that I wish the events and the popularity of different platforms were more random rather than the same every playthrough; more like FTL but not quite to that level. I think it would add a little more strategy and need to adapt instead of there being one "optimal" way to play the game to completion.

Yeah, that does bother me a little bit, the fact that the Mbox and Play Station will always have a bigger market share than the PC or anything else. I guess the devs are just following what they think is true in that case. And yeah, it would've been awesome to have it a little like FTL.

...Now I need to play FTL.
Dammit.

All of my bestsellers have been text-based RPGs.

My best selling game was AusCity, which as a city strategy game is not a SimCity rippoff based in Australia honest..... ^_^

My best selling game was a space sim game called EVIE. Although now I'm so far into my game, I can produce games that are average and still make a billion. XD

I've looked on the wiki. It's just really hard to please, and there's so much that goes into the review scores that the game doesn't ever tell you. Part of it is consistency in providing decent games, part of it is to never do the same thing (or close to the same thing) twice in a row.

Aside from that, it is a really fun game to play, but I could really recommend just playing it by your own judgement, not by what the Wiki says is the best thing to do.

Ah, makes sense. And I've personally never looked at the wiki because half the fun with GDT is experimenting. That and the fact you can't always do the same things to get success on different playthroughs. One great game on another play might be the game that kills your company on another.

That...actually sounds interesting.
I might look into this for pure shits and giggles.
Damn you again, Sassy.

That's right, spend all your money.
I love it when you do that...

Dammit Sas, I already slip plenty into your undies at the other place! Must you make me bleed money when you're tangentially involved too?

Yes.
Yes, yes I do. And you love it.