CorruptDictator
I want a custom title, but I dont trust VintagePC
Let us talk about the game I just bought last night, Game Dev Tycoon. I had ignored this title when someone informed me about it a week or two ago because it just looked like a knockoff of Game Dev Story. However, on a whim last time I said to heck with it and bought the game anyway because I loved playing Game Dev Story, but rarely use our iPad. On top of that the game was only eight bucks and it is hard to be completely disappointed in something that cheap as long as I can get a few hours entertainment out of it.
I was completely right to say it was a knockoff, but it is a knockoff in all the best ways. I am still getting into the game (kept me up way too late last night), but I would say it is about a 75% copy and 25% new and improved so far. At the open you play as just one guy in a garage pumping out games in the PC/C64 era and play for thirty years of in game time. Early on I saw a few little changes that I very much enjoyed. Number one to this is how you level up your teams ability to use generalized skill areas such as world design or gameplay instead of just attributing points to such categories like in GDS (points that can often become difficult to earn more of as the game went on). I love how I can research everything from new game types (instead of unlocking them by chance) to extra features for my games and elements for custom game engines. The game engine development facet is especially nice since you get make an engine all encompassing for any game type, or focus on researching and including elements that are tailored for the kind of games you make most often. I have read that you can eventually make a console, but so far with the engine feature I could not care less about that.
The stages of game development are also nice, and take some learning. Much like GDS there are three stages, but now you use sliders to determine what get focused on and specific elements have a greater impact on different game types. Early on you do not have to worry about who does what, but bigger games do require you to have specific people do different jobs which (much like GDS) can affect overall quality. The additional game element mentioned before can include things like cut scenes or higher quality audio that act as boosts to your production rate. In the end you game only has two numbers that matter, Design and Technology, but I am sure there are invisible factors that strongly affect game ratings and sales.
As you expand to a medium level business and hire employees the scope of games you can make increases. A neat addition here is the option to develop games for a larger publisher. This is often a double edged sword because if you are successful you pull in lots of extra fans and often make good revenue, but if you do not meet requirements your time ends up being kind of wasted. At this level of the game, the difficulty also scale up a bit more than expected. I already bankrupted my company once and had to start over because as you grow, you have to work harder to make quality games. I am not sure why this scale exists, but I suspect it is an idea of bigger more well known companies should have higher expectations from their player base. I have not yet moved onto the next company phase, but am hopeful that both the expansive development options and even difficulty curve continue to offer addicting gameplay.
If you like sim games along these lines and have been considering Game Dev Tycoon at all, I cannot recommend it enough from what I have experienced. Green Heart Games is continuing to work on the game, fixing bugs and plan on adding additional features as they can. A little extra incentive is the fact that they made the game for Windows, Mac and Linux at release and hopefully they will get on Steam eventually via the Greenlight program.
(I have no idea why the last part is in bold but I cannot get it to go away.)
I was completely right to say it was a knockoff, but it is a knockoff in all the best ways. I am still getting into the game (kept me up way too late last night), but I would say it is about a 75% copy and 25% new and improved so far. At the open you play as just one guy in a garage pumping out games in the PC/C64 era and play for thirty years of in game time. Early on I saw a few little changes that I very much enjoyed. Number one to this is how you level up your teams ability to use generalized skill areas such as world design or gameplay instead of just attributing points to such categories like in GDS (points that can often become difficult to earn more of as the game went on). I love how I can research everything from new game types (instead of unlocking them by chance) to extra features for my games and elements for custom game engines. The game engine development facet is especially nice since you get make an engine all encompassing for any game type, or focus on researching and including elements that are tailored for the kind of games you make most often. I have read that you can eventually make a console, but so far with the engine feature I could not care less about that.
The stages of game development are also nice, and take some learning. Much like GDS there are three stages, but now you use sliders to determine what get focused on and specific elements have a greater impact on different game types. Early on you do not have to worry about who does what, but bigger games do require you to have specific people do different jobs which (much like GDS) can affect overall quality. The additional game element mentioned before can include things like cut scenes or higher quality audio that act as boosts to your production rate. In the end you game only has two numbers that matter, Design and Technology, but I am sure there are invisible factors that strongly affect game ratings and sales.
As you expand to a medium level business and hire employees the scope of games you can make increases. A neat addition here is the option to develop games for a larger publisher. This is often a double edged sword because if you are successful you pull in lots of extra fans and often make good revenue, but if you do not meet requirements your time ends up being kind of wasted. At this level of the game, the difficulty also scale up a bit more than expected. I already bankrupted my company once and had to start over because as you grow, you have to work harder to make quality games. I am not sure why this scale exists, but I suspect it is an idea of bigger more well known companies should have higher expectations from their player base. I have not yet moved onto the next company phase, but am hopeful that both the expansive development options and even difficulty curve continue to offer addicting gameplay.
If you like sim games along these lines and have been considering Game Dev Tycoon at all, I cannot recommend it enough from what I have experienced. Green Heart Games is continuing to work on the game, fixing bugs and plan on adding additional features as they can. A little extra incentive is the fact that they made the game for Windows, Mac and Linux at release and hopefully they will get on Steam eventually via the Greenlight program.
(I have no idea why the last part is in bold but I cannot get it to go away.)
