Game Dev Tycoon is a business simulation game developed by Greenheart Games. It was released on December 10, 2012 for Microsoft Windows, Windows RT, Mac OS X, and Linux. The premise of the game is that you are starting your own game development company in the 80s, where the gaming industry began. The goal is to create the best-selling games, research new technologies and new types of games, and become the leader in the game market.
Initially, it starts in the early 1980s in your garage with no employees, limited money, and a limited number of options. As he creates more games and earns more money, more options are unlocked, such as new consoles and the ability to create his first game engine. By creating more games, he will get more research points to research new topics and options, and his game development skills will improve. After accumulating over $1 million, he can upgrade to a new office and start hiring his first employees, which can help him create better games. After making more hit titles, he will be able to move to even bigger offices and hire more employees to develop bigger and more sophisticated games.
When you’re creating your first game, you have to think of a name, a genre, and a theme of choice. Each genre and theme combination has different effects on your game sales. You are then taken to an options menu where you can adjust the bars to match what you think the game should include. In the first stage, you need to adjust the time spent on the engine, gameplay, and story/missions. The next stage includes dialogue, level design, and AI. The last stage includes world design, graphics, and sound. The amount of time spent on one aspect versus another can affect the outcome of your game. When you’re done, you’ll see how reviewers rate your game and how much money in sales you’ve made and just created your first game.
With Game Dev Tycoon, it’s very similar to Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story, but there are many aspects that are very different, including the ability to change the amount of time spent on different aspects, such as engine versus gameplay. It is currently available on Windows, Windows RT, Mac and Linux for $7.99 at http://www.greenheartgames.com/ and a planned release on Steam will be available in August 2013.
Rating: 9/10
