Game Dev Tycoon

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1191 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 835 out of 1191
  2. Mixed: 278 out of 1191
  3. Negative: 78 out of 1191

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  1. poklane
    May 7, 2013
    6
    I had a feeling I didn't have control over a lot of things, especially the rating my game got. You can't choose the time you need to develop a game and make it a good game, so in the sequel (if they'll ever have one) they should let us choose the development time (1 year to 5 years). Also the lack of being able to develop DLC. Also, after you made a lot of sequels it's hard keeping trackI had a feeling I didn't have control over a lot of things, especially the rating my game got. You can't choose the time you need to develop a game and make it a good game, so in the sequel (if they'll ever have one) they should let us choose the development time (1 year to 5 years). Also the lack of being able to develop DLC. Also, after you made a lot of sequels it's hard keeping track of what kinda sequels you have made. Also the lack of upgrading engines is horrible. Having to spend a lot of money on developing a new engine 24.7 is really annoying. I also have a feeling employees have no use. Game development takes the same time, and the game's rating doesn't increase, it's just spending more money.… Expand
  2. Kelban
    May 6, 2013
    7
    VERDICT: Recommended for fans of business simulators ("tycoon" games) and those who take an interest in the game development industry.

    It's a good game for the low price of $7.99. I have gotten about 10 hours of entertainment out of it in my first 30-year playthrough. Replayability is mediocre as the game becomes repetitive in the late stages, but this is a chronic problem of "tycoon"    VERDICT: Recommended for fans of business simulators ("tycoon" games) and those who take an interest in the game development industry.

    It's a good game for the low price of $7.99. I have gotten about 10 hours of entertainment out of it in my first 30-year playthrough. Replayability is mediocre as the game becomes repetitive in the late stages, but this is a chronic problem of "tycoon" games. Experimenting with different genre/topic combinations is a core element of the gameplay, and it can be both frustrating and rewarding.

    I would have liked to see more transparency in the way your games are scored by the critics, such as showing a breakdown of how the various aspects of your game were rated (engine, gameplay, story, etc). This would make it less frustrating when you receive a low overall score on a game. Another thing that would improve the game is for the timeline to slow down a bit, or for the passage of time to slow as the game progresses. In the mid and late game, it felt like new consoles were coming out too frequently and your game engine basically became outdated upon release. The speed of the game felt rushed all along.

    In general, the game was fun and ran smoothly with no bugs for me. I believe the game should be expanded and tweaked for an optimal experience, so perhaps a cheap DLC (2 or 3 bucks) or free patch would be appropriate in the future. I will probably come back to the game periodically and try playing through it again when the mood strikes.    … Expand
  3. GildaTheGriffin
    May 3, 2013
    10
    I could play this game for hours and days. Hard to master as it has a unique mathematical algorithm to rate the games you make based on a number of different variety of mixing. The only problem is... the algorithm can be touchy and picky once you starts combining genres and other 'devices' to a certain topic. So it makes it a bit difficult to get around, but once you get the hang ofI could play this game for hours and days. Hard to master as it has a unique mathematical algorithm to rate the games you make based on a number of different variety of mixing. The only problem is... the algorithm can be touchy and picky once you starts combining genres and other 'devices' to a certain topic. So it makes it a bit difficult to get around, but once you get the hang of it, you might be playing it more and more.… Expand
  4. Korgalt
    May 7, 2013
    8
    A very fun and challenging game, especially during the first phase when your essentially an indie game studio trying to manage both a financial budget as well as a time one.
  5. MayhemMike83
    May 14, 2013
    3
    Nice theme but poorly executed.
    Here is a quote from a wiki about the games most important mechanic the review score of your game:
    "... Good quality game DOES NOT MEAN good reviews. In this game, you compete EXCLUSIVELY against your own previous high score ....Therefore, in order to get good a review score, you need to perform slightly better than your previous high score....." Which    Nice theme but poorly executed.
    Here is a quote from a wiki about the games most important mechanic the review score of your game:
    "... Good quality game DOES NOT MEAN good reviews.
    In this game, you compete EXCLUSIVELY against your own previous high score ....Therefore, in order to get good a review score, you need to perform slightly better than your previous high score....."

    Which means the worst thing you could do is making the most awesome game ever because you will have a hard time beating yourself afterwards.

    Which makes the game pointless.    … Expand
  6. teshia
    May 13, 2013
    2
    I really didn't like this game. You can make all kinds of improvements to your game engine and become focuses on making great games in a certain genre but the game penalizes you harshly for repeating genre combinations. So I make a great fantasy role playing game and it gets amazing reviews, I improve my game engine with things like rich backstory, character development, and otherI really didn't like this game. You can make all kinds of improvements to your game engine and become focuses on making great games in a certain genre but the game penalizes you harshly for repeating genre combinations. So I make a great fantasy role playing game and it gets amazing reviews, I improve my game engine with things like rich backstory, character development, and other aspects pertinent to role playing games but when I make another fantasy role playing game it gives me terrible scores because I'm repeating myself. This isn't at all similar to what game development is like. The fact that I have to go from fantasy role playing games to making a casual virtual pet game for kids in order to have success is ridiculous. If any of this game was reality, companies like Bioware, Blizzard, and Maxis would have tanked after their first game. I'm sorry, but the mechanics in this game are ridiculous and it just makes the game feel clunky and broken.… Expand
  7. AngryTrey
    May 4, 2013
    0
    This game starts out fun but as you continue the fun slowly disappears and when it decides that it's gone the game hits you like a train wreck. Suddenly games that would've been doing well are getting 4's and 5's for no apparent reason. You'll try and sink more money into the next game to make it successful however it doesn't end up mattering. In the end the game has you sinking tons ofThis game starts out fun but as you continue the fun slowly disappears and when it decides that it's gone the game hits you like a train wreck. Suddenly games that would've been doing well are getting 4's and 5's for no apparent reason. You'll try and sink more money into the next game to make it successful however it doesn't end up mattering. In the end the game has you sinking tons of money into everything it can think and you end up bankrupt. You have to pay to make game engines to take advantage of new features then for some ridiculous reason you have to pay each time you want to use the features of your game engine in a game that you're making. All of that while having to pay increasing salary to each of your staff members. This is the only game that has frustrated me to the point of actually making an account and writing a review on how bad it is.… Expand
  8. Narakabethian
    Aug 30, 2013
    5
    Game Dev Tycoon starts off with an interesting take on the successful Game Dev Story giving you more control over how you develop your games with sliders and other features.

    First off the gameplay is good but very repetitive, all you do is adjust sliders for different genre. When you get your reviews they tell you next to nothing on to improve your game in the future, but that doesn't    Game Dev Tycoon starts off with an interesting take on the successful Game Dev Story giving you more control over how you develop your games with sliders and other features.

    First off the gameplay is good but very repetitive, all you do is adjust sliders for different genre. When you get your reviews they tell you next to nothing on to improve your game in the future, but that doesn't matter because by Year 30 I had already all the slider settings down, so the complex equations that everyone say you need to get a 10/10 is false, I got many perfect games (5) in my first playthrough. Which brings me to another point; there isn't much replay value in Game Dev Tycoon, it almost exactly the same thing everytime. There is consoles without much difference and no reason to choose one over the other besides personal preference and market share (exceptions being Dreamvast and Oasis.)

    The graphics are okay I didn't like too much, but my friend so your choice on that pretty much, but the sound is a bit different. The music is okay but there's only two tracks that I remember and the sound effects annoying, every time a point goes up there a little blip, but when start getting 10 points it make turn off sound effects.

    Speaking of sound effects that is all the options menu; Music (On/Off), Sound Effects (On/Off), Volume, and toggle fullscreen. Besides options there is your basics (Save, Load, New, Exit),Highscore Help, and Achievements. First off Help is useless the game is pretty much self-explanatory and when click skip tutorial when you start up a new playthrough it only skips the beginning tutorial on how to make games, but everything else is still there which is annoying. For Achievements there hefty amount for a game of its size with many secret ones. Highscores is basically all the things you've done are given points and added up, the trick to be more efficient with making games, research and consoles.

    Overall Game Dev Tycoon was fun at first, but got boring after a while and the lack of content really weigh Game Dev Tycoon down giving it a verdict of 5, it's alright but names a lot of work and I can't help feeling I didn't $8 of fun out of this, if it was $5 it maybe would gotten a 6.    … Expand
  9. Reveiwer
    Dec 13, 2013
    4
    This game really does show a lot of penitential, but the game falls shout because of the laziness of developers. The game is fun and somewhat addictive, but the rating system is gives you no information about how to improve your game (ass well as report) and there is no statistics at all.
  10. masterturner
    Feb 2, 2014
    3
    While the game begins fun, whimsical, and simplistic, the game begins to suffer after you play a bit longer. In short, the game's system is extremely fickle, unpredictable at times, and utterly arbitrary.

    The limited "topics" do little if anything to enhance gameplay and instead only serve as an artificial block for creativity - if you want to succeed at the game, you do not get many    While the game begins fun, whimsical, and simplistic, the game begins to suffer after you play a bit longer. In short, the game's system is extremely fickle, unpredictable at times, and utterly arbitrary.

    The limited "topics" do little if anything to enhance gameplay and instead only serve as an artificial block for creativity - if you want to succeed at the game, you do not get many chances to make the games you truly want in many cases. You instead must settle for the topics you have to work with. In addition, the way topics are implemented penalizes you for thinking outside the box. While "X topic only goes with X method of gameplay" may be a line of thinking that is popular among some real life publishers and developers, blending unusual topics with different game styles has proven successful in the past, and gamers shouldn't be penalized for wanting to try unusual combinations.

    The game is extremely difficult if you aren't sticking to common themes. According to the wiki and guides written to help players build a successful company, the game essentially penalizes you for making too many good games - you are only competing with your own score, and competition does not actually exist. Your company single-handedly decides what the bar is for games and that makes it extremely hard to do well throughout the game if you get a good start early on. You will spend a long time trying to recapture the same success of your first game, and this will force you to pick combinations along the same lines, if not remake constant sequels - but never too close together, as making games with similar topics too close to one another causes a backlash.

    Individual employee stats are horribly implemented. "Leveling up" does not improve stats, it only serves as an experience limiter to determine what specializations you can pick up by pumping up stats through training with your usually very small allotment of research points. While a little training seems justifiable for the purposes of keeping your team competitive and for helping them achieve specialization, this game takes it to an extreme.

    In other words, the people you hire early on, despite constantly gaining "experience" with the tech and the industry, don't actually get any better just from making games. This means when you get the bigger office, the smartest move is to fire all your veterans and hire kids from the university to replace them. This is because the "industry veterans" on your team since you got out of the garage will invariably have laughably poor stats compared to the specialists you can hire immediately from the university. I could understand wanting to supplement by developed team with a few new kids for fresh new ideas, but again, this game takes it to an extreme.

    The timeflow goes EXTREMELY fast. Even a moment or two of idle "watching" your team can severely impact your progress if you want to get things done while story events are still happening - you need to be giving orders every step of the way, or your team will sit there doing nothing for entire weeks at a time. It's enough to make you want to fire them for their inefficiency, but hiring new people costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, just to get the message out that you need new people. Even though this is basically a ton of peoples dream jobs. Talk about an immersion killer. Your team is also limited to 6 at endgame, which is an unbelievably small team given the scale of the industry by that point. Again, what is immersion?

    Your team ALSO cannot be sent out for their "vacations" preemptively, and can only be sent off when they start complaining and losing efficiency - to make matter worse you cannot delay the release of your games when this happens, meaning that unless you want to let your team piss around and do nothing but collect a paycheck for a little while first, you risk them needing a vacation in the middle of development, hurting the max points that go into making the game good. It would have been nice to be able to preemptively give them a little time off before a long development cycle to prevent burnout, but such plans in management never occur to your character no matter how many times issues arise.

    The development cycle is repetitive and and constant no matter the game/topic/engine/size. You churn out games every few months in the beginning and maybe one or two a year if you're working optimally later on. There's way to develop more than one game at a time even when your team is big enough to support AAA games. The decisions for what games work best for what systems are arbitrary and contrived at worst and wish-fulfillment at best (I don't, to this day, have a clue what makes the Dreamcast so good for simulation based gaming, nor have the faintest idea what makes the PC bad for casual gaming). I could go on, but character limits. Suffice to say that this this journey through the game development world isn't going to end as nicely as you'd hoped.    … Expand
  11. LeonidasRex
    Feb 7, 2014
    10
    If you're an older gamer with a head full of useless gaming memories, then Game Dev Tycoon is for you. How will the NES fare against the Commodore 64? Will a ninja game do better as action or RPG? Do you know video games because you spent thousands of hours of your life playing them over the past few decades? This with this game you can turn that knowledge into million of unspendableIf you're an older gamer with a head full of useless gaming memories, then Game Dev Tycoon is for you. How will the NES fare against the Commodore 64? Will a ninja game do better as action or RPG? Do you know video games because you spent thousands of hours of your life playing them over the past few decades? This with this game you can turn that knowledge into million of unspendable dollars.

    I'm rating this a ten---for an indie that you can probably get for $5 or less on sale. The graphics and sound effects are minimal. The music gets annoying quickly. But the idea and underlying gameplay are clever and well-executed. You can start in your garage writing the equivalent of Zork, and finish the game with your own console and MMO.    … Expand
  12. ericcoutinho
    Jun 12, 2014
    7
    You are a game developer, working on your garage in the early years of gaming, developing from the old Commodore 64 to Ouya or XBox One. In the next 30-40 years you will grow side by side with the gaming industry, researching technology, design, marketing, and trying to make history.

    Game Dev Tycoon is an addictive casual game, and although not so deep in the simulation aspect, provides    You are a game developer, working on your garage in the early years of gaming, developing from the old Commodore 64 to Ouya or XBox One. In the next 30-40 years you will grow side by side with the gaming industry, researching technology, design, marketing, and trying to make history.

    Game Dev Tycoon is an addictive casual game, and although not so deep in the simulation aspect, provides a wide range of resources to manage, and to master this management you'll have to play it more than once, since the tips about how the market reacts to combinations of topic/genre/platform and time spent on each level of developing, still unlocked to the next playthrough.

    What kind of game the market wants now? Which technology is better to use? May i spent more time on level design or artificial intelligence? May i have to create a new engine or research new topics? It's better to make it alone or it's time to move on to another work space and hire employees? Shall i spent more time creating games or studying? How about to have a boot at this year convention? Self-publishing or using a publisher? May i need to sue pirates, give away old engines or let the fans to make related games? That's some of the questions you'll face while playing.

    About the flaws, the game have some, mostly because it needed more work to put together all this resources without compromising the gameplay. But facing it like a casual, cheap game, and learning how the game works, these flaws doesn't matter that much at the point of being big problems.    … Expand
  13. Sjalka
    Sep 7, 2013
    5
    it is oddly satisfying to hear the "popping" of little bubbles fly towards the completion of the game. sadly it has quite some flaws.

    the art style is lacking (sterile, stationary) and the genre descriptions vague. you cannot really customize the game as much as you want, or as i wanted. whats worst however is the insufficient feedback provided by the game. it is sometimes simply not    it is oddly satisfying to hear the "popping" of little bubbles fly towards the completion of the game. sadly it has quite some flaws.

    the art style is lacking (sterile, stationary) and the genre descriptions vague. you cannot really customize the game as much as you want, or as i wanted.

    whats worst however is the insufficient feedback provided by the game. it is sometimes simply not clear how the scoring is achieved. feedback from the sliders is also insufficient.

    the game lacks significant complexity for the very good tycoon idea it is.

    for a CASUAL game however it is very nice. it is quick it is satisfying. it does not have a great replay value though.    … Expand
  14. todjansen123
    Oct 11, 2013
    5
    3 Words NO REPLAY VALUE, don't buy it. The thing says that I need to make this 150 characters long so I am going to type non-sense into this thing like the game does to your mind. WODAWODKAWDOKAODKAPDOWKDAOKDAOPKAOPKOAKDOKDKOAWKDOAWKDOAWKDOWKAPOWKDAPKDAPOKDAOKDAOPWKDPAOWKDOWKAOP
  15. Turtlestroker
    Sep 21, 2013
    6
    While i must say i enjoyed myself a lot, the game is really lacking in depth. The game does not give you enough info on what goes good with this or that, while they have added a few elements that make creating a hit game a little more frequent the random critic scores are very tiresome and at many times frustrating.
  16. Cubed
    Nov 22, 2013
    5
    Although I played this game a lot and did have many fun experiences, it was more more frustrating than fun. You can spend lots of time planning your next game, making all the perfect combinations, running advertisements, and even starting your convention, yet you can still easily get horrible reviews.

    According to the wiki, you are playing to beat your previous high score, and the    Although I played this game a lot and did have many fun experiences, it was more more frustrating than fun. You can spend lots of time planning your next game, making all the perfect combinations, running advertisements, and even starting your convention, yet you can still easily get horrible reviews.

    According to the wiki, you are playing to beat your previous high score, and the quality of the game means little. The fact that "Good quality Good reviews!" is a little annoying. I can make a game real quick while I am doing research for my big game, and it will get three 10's and a 9. My big game will get 4's and 5's.

    After seeing that you were competing against your previous score, I made a sequel to my best game, using an incredibly new engine with many new features. The game was better than my previous high score in a number of ways, yet still got worse reviews.

    In the end, there are many fun times in the game, yet the review system nearly ruined it for me.    … Expand
  17. topguy
    Dec 30, 2013
    3
    Rating: 3 points.
    First, good things, interesting idea for a game, and quite fun at the start.
    Why is it bad? First, the way your game gets popular is completely random, and you have little chance to change it. Meaning if you start doing bad, you are in the vortex and WON'T be getting out of it. The reviews the "reviewers" give don't give any info on how your game could get better and    Rating: 3 points.
    First, good things, interesting idea for a game, and quite fun at the start.

    Why is it bad? First, the way your game gets popular is completely random, and you have little chance to change it. Meaning if you start doing bad, you are in the vortex and WON'T be getting out of it. The reviews the "reviewers" give don't give any info on how your game could get better and only say "Your game is great!" or "Your game absolutely sucks!" or similar things. That doesn't help. If you have bad luck, you will have bad luck in this game. If you have good luck, you will have bad luck in this game.

    Overall, good game at the start, but it gets tedious and devastating around the middle.    … Expand
  18. SergeantSilly
    Aug 14, 2014
    2
    I would love to enjoy this game and play it in full but it has one of the most frustrating mechanics in any video game. The game calculates the score that your game receives based on two main things, how close you get to the best technology to design ratio and by comparing it to your last released game. The giant flaw in this system is that the best method of playing is to make games notI would love to enjoy this game and play it in full but it has one of the most frustrating mechanics in any video game. The game calculates the score that your game receives based on two main things, how close you get to the best technology to design ratio and by comparing it to your last released game. The giant flaw in this system is that the best method of playing is to make games not as good as they could be in order to allow you to make your next game get a higher score easier. This is one of the most frustrating systems I have ever seen in a game. The rest of the elements of this game are great and I would love it but this one mechanic makes the game unbearably annoying, punishing me for doing well.… Expand
  19. PPartisan
    Dec 29, 2014
    2
    GDT gives me very little reason to keep playing. The visuals are incredibly bland, the few animations and pop-ups that do exist lack context or character, in game feedback is sparse, and the underlying logic of the game appears flawed. In a word, it's unsatisfying. In another, it's boring. So, two hours after dropping £2.50 on it in the Steam sale, I'm done for good.

    From what I could    GDT gives me very little reason to keep playing. The visuals are incredibly bland, the few animations and pop-ups that do exist lack context or character, in game feedback is sparse, and the underlying logic of the game appears flawed. In a word, it's unsatisfying. In another, it's boring. So, two hours after dropping £2.50 on it in the Steam sale, I'm done for good.

    From what I could garner about the underlying mechanics of the game, success is based upon the correct combination of topic, platform, audience, genre, and then a variety of in game variables such as choosing to focus on dialogue, level design etc. The problem is that instead of having much at all to do about games or business management, GDT is all about making a series of guesses about correct combinations. It isn't about making your own games at all, or running your own start-up, but instead about replicating game history, as the only guiding principle a player really has for success is their own knowledge of what games were historically successful on what console at what times and for what reason. It's hour after hour of tapping boxes, getting one-liner reviews, a good or a bad score, then rinsing and repeating. The only "reward" for the player is the prospect of a good review and an occasional change of scenery. The pace of the game is very fast as well which, whilst irritating in some ways as it encourages button spam, serves to mask the one-dimensional game mechanics.

    Certain bizarre occurrences include harsh penalties for making game "sequels," or specialising in a particular genre, obligatory wage hikes for staff, no system for managing overheads and entering both the gaming and management industry completely blind! Everything is trial and error. Instead of having an option to research the status of the gaming industry at a given time to plan a game's structure and release date, I just have to take a guess and cross my fingers. Even when training staff, I don't know what it is I'm actually training them in (!) until their training is complete. If I knew as little as my avatar does, with zero knowledge of game or management, there's no way I'd create a start-up in my garage, yet I feel as if this is what I'm supposed to believe.

    A game of this sort could work very well, but it needs a serious injection of personality. As it is, I honestly wouldn't even play it for free.    … Expand
  20. DDilettante
    Jan 17, 2015
    7
    I need to open by admitting the truth; I am not, and never was, good at management/tycoon type games. All those needs, requirements, wants... why can't everyone and everything work well together, without my constant vigilance? But I suppose, that's not the point, or the game wouldn't be challenging!

    This game starts you in your humble basement, at the beginning of the video gaming era.    I need to open by admitting the truth; I am not, and never was, good at management/tycoon type games. All those needs, requirements, wants... why can't everyone and everything work well together, without my constant vigilance? But I suppose, that's not the point, or the game wouldn't be challenging!

    This game starts you in your humble basement, at the beginning of the video gaming era. You work with what you have, making small games with minimal hardware, hearing the announcements roll on by; consoles are slowly released, murmurings within the industry heard, trends are identified.

    You pour your efforts into parts of the games you feel are going to give the best reviews, and thus generate the most revenue. Want to make a Medieval-Action game? Sure. Invest more time in the gameplay, but you're going to have to cut back in other areas, perhaps dialogue.

    Eventually, you'll make enough to move out into your own office. You can hire a team, each with different stats. You can train them (and yourself) up as you release more hopeful winners, while keeping up with the technology curve. With enough time and money, you can even make your own consoles, and have an R&D department.

    Because of my ineptitude towards tycoon games, I initially felt underwhelmed. The Farmville-esque graphics deterred me, and I kept needing bailouts from the bank.

    But then I hit my first winner. An overall 9.5 rating for a particular game. My bank account swelled. I suddenly knew what I was doing. I was hooked, trying to get that perfect 10 game (I never did, sadly). Watching those thought bubbles rise from your workers, seeing your game get more and more tech-design points was addictive. Wanting to try all the combinations of games. Trying out all the witty Pun-related game titles.

    Add all of the mods currently available on steam, and this could warrant several playthroughs (the story goes through 35 years of the gaming industry).

    Game Dev Tycoon is great if you like this sort of thing, and even if you don't normally go for these, it's still worth a try. It got me.    … Expand
  21. hassall
    Dec 3, 2016
    7
    I Absolutely love this game i played so many hours into this game it is unreal. It is A very fun and challenging game, I have played this game so many times and still have fun playing it.
  22. Akauro
    Dec 9, 2016
    9
    Геймплей 9/10. Cюжет вы придумываете сами, создаете свою компанию, делаете игры. Можно даже создать свою консоль и делать игры эксклюзивно для нее повышая ее продажи. Очень крутая игра, всем советую, сам прошел игру 7 раз. Спасибо за внимание.Геймплей 9/10. Cюжет вы придумываете сами, создаете свою компанию, делаете игры. Можно даже создать свою консоль и делать игры эксклюзивно для нее повышая ее продажи. Очень крутая игра, всем советую, сам прошел игру 7 раз. Спасибо за внимание.
  23. ImNotRicky
    May 12, 2013
    6
    The biggest problem with Game Dev Tycoon is it's crazy resemblance to Game Dev Story. Besides that, (I'll just leave that out there) it's a fun time-waster, you might spend a few hours on it (or even longer) Hard as hell, but still kind of clever. The ratings from the critics inside the game can be pretty random and it's idea that some genres don't or do work with some topics is kind ofThe biggest problem with Game Dev Tycoon is it's crazy resemblance to Game Dev Story. Besides that, (I'll just leave that out there) it's a fun time-waster, you might spend a few hours on it (or even longer) Hard as hell, but still kind of clever. The ratings from the critics inside the game can be pretty random and it's idea that some genres don't or do work with some topics is kind of broken The game hasn't any concept of niche audiences.… Expand
  24. MrAmazingSocks
    Jul 3, 2013
    6
    I just don't really get this game, there was a point where I stopped playing because I kept going bankrupt after my games started getting terrible reviews regardless of quality or genre after for reasons I don't understand a game I made for just a small amount of cash got a rating of 9.5 or something and made a couple of million which only lasted to fund my new engines which had betterI just don't really get this game, there was a point where I stopped playing because I kept going bankrupt after my games started getting terrible reviews regardless of quality or genre after for reasons I don't understand a game I made for just a small amount of cash got a rating of 9.5 or something and made a couple of million which only lasted to fund my new engines which had better features than the last ones but still managed to help my games get scores of 5-7.… Expand
  25. Jounk33
    May 12, 2013
    7
    The first look and the first game is fun and is motivating to play a stage in one night.
    But after that I don'feel to replay it again, because If you know how it works, the game is no longer a challenge.
    There are no random events such as financial crises and the impact of software piracy .
    Conclusion so far, good idea, but this was presented very clumsy. Hope for a better version in future.
  26. felipedrl
    May 7, 2013
    10
    I don't remember the last time I played 6-hour-straight sessions on a game that costed me less than 10 bucks. That's how good and addictive this game is. It has neat graphics, nice sound SFX and music. You'll revive the console wars os the past 30 years, create your own game engines, hire employees, move to larger studios, design games and be anxious about the critics about them, and haveI don't remember the last time I played 6-hour-straight sessions on a game that costed me less than 10 bucks. That's how good and addictive this game is. It has neat graphics, nice sound SFX and music. You'll revive the console wars os the past 30 years, create your own game engines, hire employees, move to larger studios, design games and be anxious about the critics about them, and have lots of fun. The only thing I think they could improve is the UI. Like for instance when you want to make employee specialized in "Level Design". The UI display the pre-requisites in plain text like this: (D:560 T:360), using icons would be much better here.… Expand
  27. Badger91
    May 7, 2013
    8
    This is one of the "just one more, just one more" game. Simple and addictive. If you are "Tycoon" fan this is "must have" for you I spent about 40h in game and i won't regret.
  28. sabrewingz
    May 7, 2013
    9
    Game Development and Simulation are a great combination!
    But seriously, i could (and have) play this game for hours on end. It is fun to watch your company grow from one guy in their garage to having a whole team.
  29. Pomegranate23
    Oct 19, 2013
    10
    Incredibly fun game. What makes me enjoy it the most is the settings. Its an amazing feeling for me to run a game dev company,if you wont like that then its pointless to buy this game. The gameplay mechanics are maybe a bit basic,but I like them and the game has made itself well worth the money.

    Its also a very relaxing game. You can just jump into it and play for 10min if you have time    Incredibly fun game. What makes me enjoy it the most is the settings. Its an amazing feeling for me to run a game dev company,if you wont like that then its pointless to buy this game. The gameplay mechanics are maybe a bit basic,but I like them and the game has made itself well worth the money.

    Its also a very relaxing game. You can just jump into it and play for 10min if you have time over, or play it while watching a movie :)

    EDIT: I rewrote this just to mention that they have now done some major updates for this game. Fixed the most common issues such as lack of feedback!    … Expand
  30. R3GIST3R
    May 24, 2013
    8
    Game Dev and simulation is a great combination!

    Now on a more serious note, this game was really worth 8 bucks. The large span of different combinations of game topics, genres, platforms to develop for and engine mechanics made the game very re-playable. The only problem I have with the game is the tiny amount of "immersivness" in the game. Sure you can choose the game's topics and    Game Dev and simulation is a great combination!

    Now on a more serious note, this game was really worth 8 bucks. The large span of different combinations of game topics, genres, platforms to develop for and engine mechanics made the game very re-playable. The only problem I have with the game is the tiny amount of "immersivness" in the game. Sure you can choose the game's topics and genres and adjust an engine you have made to fit the kind of game you would really create but there is just so little that goes into it.

    The only other problem I had with it was the repetitive nature of the game. Once I got really "into it" with the game I found myself taking breaks from it. But again it was definitely worth the 8 bucks, for some good ol' indie game fun.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
46
#46 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. SpazioGames
    Sep 16, 2014
    65
    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.
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  2. GameCritics
    May 12, 2014
    30
    However, I don't really think Tycoon really wants to be more than ‘a glimpse' at video game production, and any attempt to comment on the industry from this dull, monotonous experience fails to hit its mark.
    Read full review
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Oct 24, 2013
    80
    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]
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