Game Review: Game Dev Tycoon

The first in my video game review series is a small indie game by the name of Game Dev Tycoon.  For those that are easily addicted to browser-like simulation games, you may have just found your new best friend.  Greenheart Games, a two-man army of programmers, has managed to roll players back to the 80s, to a time when games were simple.  From there, the player must use their brain to create the next big video game hits and keep steam all the way up until the modern era and beyond.

The basic premise of the game is simple.  You start out in your basement, a hack with dreams of making it big.  In order to make the perfect game, it’s up to you to figure out the correct balance of game design.  This is done with a simple slider system whereby you choose how much time to devote to each of nine aspects of the game, from the Engine to the Graphics and Sound.  The success of that balance depends primarily on what kind of game you’re making - RPG, Action, Simulation, Strategy, Adventure or Casual.

When each game is completed, you’ll get a group of ratings, from 1 to 10, to see how successful it is on the market.  If you do well, you’ll make more sales and gather more fans (making it easier to sell games later).  You’ll also gain experience in the various developmental areas and, as you level up, unlock options (such as advanced graphics or dialogues) that you can put into a custom engine in order to make future games even better.

As the game progresses, you’ll (hopefully) end up making enough money to get out of your garage and into a proper office.  From there, you can make bigger and bigger games and get an even better office.  If you’re successful enough, you’ll get the option to develop your own console systems or design a hit MMO.  You’ll need to hire on staff to help you do this, of course, as well as keep those staff trained up so that they don’t fall behind the standard.

The game may sound simple, but it’s really quite challenging.  Figuring out the balance of sliders and how to budget are the biggest issues.  You have to examine market shares on various gaming systems and decide which is more profitable.  You also have to figure out the how and when of marketing your games.  And, chances are, the first few times you play it, you will go seriously broke.

Game Dev Tycoon is one of those games where a bit of knowledge about gaming is required to do well.  The help system in the game is, unfortunately, a bit lacking, so you’ll probably need to do some online searching to weed out the finer details of how to get good at the game.  There’s also a few bugs still lurking in it, but the programmers are good about taking care to update it whenever they can.  For only $7.99 USD, however, it’s not a bad deal.

This is a game where you will, once hooked, find yourself trapped in the perpetual “just one more turn…” loop and before you know it, three hours are gone and you still want to play more.  If you have the self-control, it’s a great in-between game.  Since it only takes about 5-10 minutes to design a new game, it’s easy to pop in and out over the course of a day (making the best use of your break time at work, naturally).

If you love simulation games that don’t require hours of bookwork to understand, Game Dev Tycoon is a must-have.  I love this game to death and am looking forward to what the company will add to it as time goes on.  If you want to check it out, there's a free demo available, but be warned - it will consume you!

Game Dev Tycoon courtesy of greenheartgames.com