Game Dev Tycoon

For the price of a cup of coffee you can pick this game up – don’t be one of the 97% that pirated it. Game Dev Tycoon is the one Tycoon title worth buying now that it’s on Steam.

What is it like to start with a few thousand dollars and end up in an office full of people producing multi-million gaming hits? This game lets you find out and makes it worth your while. [Nov 2013]

If you thought that game developing is a game, you’ve guessed right! Now you will probably start to appreciate more the developers of your favorite games and realize the obstacles they face. [June 2013]

If you liked Game Dev Story, you're probably going to like this one. It's not a huge evolution from that game, but still adds it's own vision and depth to the concept.

The better the game, the more money the company made; the more money the company made, the better games.

A very relaxing game title suffering from a light stereotype, and maybe an over-simplification, but at the end of a day it's a magic combination of a casual strategy game and a witty summary of the game industry history.

Making your own games is quite fun, but you don’t get a lot of feedback as a developer. Despite its old-school look it is a good game. However, if it looked better it would be more attractive as a game.

Overall, Game Dev Tycoon has taken over my weeknights and weekends with no hesitation on my part. If you liked Game Dev Story, The Sims or any others in the sim genre, this will keep your addiction going on for a while.

Game Dev Tycoon has some nice bells and whistles and the social commentary and satire on the video game industry is charming at times. The game “has its moments” and “I liked it.” but it still has a limited amount of content that will keep the players coming back for more, and even when they do come back, it will take a while to get into the meat and potatoes of the experience. Still, that first play through was one enjoyable ride down video game history lane.

Far from a perfect sim, but as a commentary on the industry we follow and love, it's enough to give you pause for thought. [July 2013, p.90]

Game Dev Tycoon is a fun simulation, perfectly targeted to the (retro-)gaming enthusiast. Some of its mechanics, though, are somewhat simplistic and not 100% coherent, making the overall experience less brilliant than it could have been.

It's hard to get attached to your creations when they're represented by numbers alone. [Dec 2013, p.73]

In other words, unless you're really desperate for a game development simulator and you don't have a mobile gaming device, you can definitely pass on Game Dev Tycoon.

Taking into account the quite low price and the almost non-existent technical requirements, Game Dev Tycoon is a good and above all original game, albeit without great pretensions.

Game Dev Tycoon is a simple, but extremely funny and entertaining game. It would be far superior just adding certain technical improvements and gameplay components. Those responsible should continue to develop this original idea. They could achieve a great title just by implementing a few changes and adding some content. A really nice offer.

Game Dev Tycoon is an enjoyable tycoon game with too simplistic and sometimes obscure mechanics. Buy it if you want to explore the dev side of the videogame industry.

It's a difficult case. There's a boatload of good ideas in Game Dev Tycoon which expand one of my favorite mobile games ever – Game Dev Story – to a huge degree. They alone should have made for a far superior experience. Sadly, there's no effective way to channel all the tools the game gives you to produce the perfect videogame. Come on, Game Dev Tycoon, give me some spreadsheets, show me what made my successes and missteps what they became. In short: Talk to me!

While I appreciate the perspective Game Dev Tycoon has given me on game development, from indie studios in debt to huge studios juggling multiple projects, it was never the game's sim elements that had me returning. It offers a pleasant walk down memory lane of past consoles and technology, but that's about it.

The problem is not that Game Dev Tycoon is a Game Dev Story-clone; the problem is that the game neither brings anything new to the table nor manages to live up to its role model.