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. Glampkoo
    Oct 21, 2013
    10
    IMO This is in my list of favourite games. Yes, it actually is.
    When I first played the game I saw all these consoles which I never heard about or at least know them very well. I started making games and really enjoyed the game. Then I started having interest on retro gaming. I played a lot of NES games for funz and realized that the only thing matters in a game is gameplay or story.    IMO This is in my list of favourite games. Yes, it actually is.
    When I first played the game I saw all these consoles which I never heard about or at least know them very well. I started making games and really enjoyed the game. Then I started having interest on retro gaming. I played a lot of NES games for funz and realized that the only thing matters in a game is gameplay or story. Graphics are optional.
    TL;DR Very good game, deserves it's 9€ or whatever.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. MispeledStalion
    Oct 16, 2013
    7
    Really this is your run-of-the-mill business simulator, but the ties to the gaming culture and the ability to make every product uniquely yours and watching the 'critics review your game' makes it quite enjoyable. Pretty easy interface to navigate and decent replay value because you'll never fit all the content into one play through. Obviously, you'll get a feel for the formula prettyReally this is your run-of-the-mill business simulator, but the ties to the gaming culture and the ability to make every product uniquely yours and watching the 'critics review your game' makes it quite enjoyable. Pretty easy interface to navigate and decent replay value because you'll never fit all the content into one play through. Obviously, you'll get a feel for the formula pretty quick and the game can feel kinda tedious sometimes, but the glee of getting a perfect 10 or the disappointment of a 4 from the critics made this game fun for me.… Expand
  4. Diddlethumb
    Oct 15, 2013
    8
    This game is pretty amazing, but it's re-playable value is something to argue about. It's genuine, fantastic, and like an advanced Game Dev Story at first, but after a couple of games and getting to know about every single corner about this game, it starts getting repetitive, arduous, and plain boring. It's definitely fun to create your own games and get good reviews from it, but at thisThis game is pretty amazing, but it's re-playable value is something to argue about. It's genuine, fantastic, and like an advanced Game Dev Story at first, but after a couple of games and getting to know about every single corner about this game, it starts getting repetitive, arduous, and plain boring. It's definitely fun to create your own games and get good reviews from it, but at this current moment, it offers too little to play forever. It is a game in development, so I expect great things to come from it in the future, as a game where you can become Nintendo and make mature games and take series like Star Wars is absolutely fun, interesting, and bloody funny can go a long way in the case of an indie game. Oh, and it's only $9.99 worth it indeed if you like this sort of game, but again, it needs updates to become a fabled game like Minecraft.… Expand
  5. Kabsef
    Oct 15, 2013
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is VERY, VERY GOOD. Not perfect but, such a great game. A lot of people complain about it's resemblance to Game Dev Story, but to be honest the game play is so much more addictive and fun compared to GDS. And all the choices when you make your games is amazing. The game play also keeps rolling by bringing in new consoles and offices, as well as research to create better games. It also follows what happened in real life, for instance Sega failing to create a very good console and stopped making them. Even when the special events stop, end game is still made fun by being able to create your own consoles. It's fun to make up your own challenges and goals as well, to make the game play more challenging and interesting. The thing that makes this game imperfect is the small 'story' as so to speak, there should be more special events, more consoles, and the ability to actually see your competition, and know how to get over them. People think of this game as a simulator, it's not, it's a tycoon, clue is in the title.… Expand
  6. DarkM
    Oct 14, 2013
    9
    Great game, easy to pick up hard to master, playable for hours on end!
    Lots of people saying its a Game Dev Story knock off... not sure what that makes every military FPS game that comes out!!!! I enjoyed Game Dev Story on my phone, i enjoy Game Dev Tycoon on my PC. The

    as with anything there is always room for improvement hence the 9/10
  7. 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
  8. SwitSwat
    Oct 8, 2013
    7
    It's a great little simulation on the struggles that game developers face. While it doesn't cover everything, it still provides a bit of insight. It might not be very addictive at first, but it gets progressively better and faster as it goes on. It's far from perfect, but it's still good. 7/10
  9. lava
    Oct 7, 2013
    10
    Fantastic game. I appreciate the actual difficulty of it. I've yet to discover any easter eggs or sell 100 million copies. :)

    We do not have to be hooked up to a social network to play it.

    Being a developer, I feel it is a very fun overview of the process.

    Thank you!
  10. SX_Predator
    Oct 2, 2013
    10
    This game has it all. Mathematical algorithms, Micronoft, Vony, Ninvento, even Nigerian scammers! Super fun and highly addictive. Must buy. Only 10 dollars on Steam!
  11. Krald
    Oct 2, 2013
    8
    This game is a fairly pleasant tycoon game that takes me refreshingly back to the days of theme hospital and similar such games. Easy to play and surprisingly addictive, it's very much an enjoyable experience chartering the history of the game development industry from garage to multi-faceted tech giant.

    While it won't go down in history as as memorable as some previous simulation    This game is a fairly pleasant tycoon game that takes me refreshingly back to the days of theme hospital and similar such games. Easy to play and surprisingly addictive, it's very much an enjoyable experience chartering the history of the game development industry from garage to multi-faceted tech giant.

    While it won't go down in history as as memorable as some previous simulation games, it nonetheless is an enjoyable and cheap experience that can easily notch you ten hours of playtime even with just one playthrough.

    The game rewards experimentation and proper planning, and while never being the most complex of titles it has just enough depth for me to enjoy. Managing your staff is important, specialising them through training is a big factor, and specialising your company with smart research leaning you towards certain genres can mean you can reliably create long-development AAA titles with high scores and sales. It takes some tinkering to get perfect.

    As for some of the issues other user reviewers have stated, pace can be modified, pick a 42 year playthrough if you want a slower, more paced journey through the game. Control over review scores is possible, much of it is logical and can be deduced from what you would logically think would make a good game. Beyond that, there is research which slowly uncovers the nuances of all the mechanics, and gives you a more in-depth overview, this information can me carried over onto new playthroughs so you can gradually build up a database of what works and what doesnt. If you're too impatient for that, there are various wiki articles that lay out the mechanics in plain sight and show that it's not quite as "Mystical" as it may seem.

    Replayability is not stellar I admit, but I am already considering a third playthrough there is the desire to improve and do it better, to conquer the industry at a quicker rate. If you really take to the game you could easily be set up for a good thirty-forty hours of fun even if you do not, one playthrough could still be ten-odd hours of fun.

    All-in-all I heartily recommend it to fans of simulation games, or those just curious for something a little different, for all the calls of it copying game dev story it still is practically one of two game development titles that I am aware of, and in an ocean of same-old-same-old titles that is still a pretty unique snowflake.    … Expand
  12. Pedrazl
    Oct 2, 2013
    7
    En la parte buena es original y adictivo. En la parte mala se puede hacer repetitivo y le falta un poco más de profundidad. Con mejoras sobre esta base puede llegar a ser un muy buen juego.
  13. karlsanada13
    Sep 29, 2013
    9
    Game Dev Tycoon is a gem of its genre. I literally played countless of hours just for this game. Especially the new update they've made on the game. Some may find it boring but I find this game really entertaining. Especially when you see the game you've made got a high freaking score. That's just so satisfying to see.

    I hope they add more content for this game.
  14. MadWasp01
    Sep 29, 2013
    7
    This game is awesome, I've always loved the idea of making games and the only ones I ever make are point-and-click games, but this lets me imagine what game I want and make them through this game, okay it isn't the same as actually making them, but I still have fun thinking what my games would be like.

    The nice range of options for staff and research make the game very immersing and I    This game is awesome, I've always loved the idea of making games and the only ones I ever make are point-and-click games, but this lets me imagine what game I want and make them through this game, okay it isn't the same as actually making them, but I still have fun thinking what my games would be like.

    The nice range of options for staff and research make the game very immersing and I can't help but play this for 8 hours at a time. But I do wish their were some more features in this game.

    Features such as starting at whatever year you want after completing the game once or features like playing a scenario where you pick a company like Maxis and play out the company's history.

    And their are some things I have wrong with this game such as the graphics and gameplay making the game seem like a Facebook game at times, also the game is very repetitive, you are basically doing the same thing over and over and it does get dull after a couple of days of playing the game/

    Don't get me wrong I love this game, and I would happily give this a 7/10 overall.    … Expand
  15. Rappi
    Sep 28, 2013
    10
    It reminds me of Airline Tycoon and it still has a lot of potential I would improve but no 2 part Produce improve this item and then you can think about a second part with a new graphics engine.
    It is great D
  16. Sk3z
    Sep 26, 2013
    6
    This game suffers from a very common problem nowadays: it's all about achievement.... The gameplay itself it's very straightforward, the few things that can be done are hugely influenced by random points you get. Most of the choices, again, do not give you hints on the outcome... All around it's an enjoyable casual game, whit a nice 2d graphic and bad musics, good to play when you haveThis game suffers from a very common problem nowadays: it's all about achievement.... The gameplay itself it's very straightforward, the few things that can be done are hugely influenced by random points you get. Most of the choices, again, do not give you hints on the outcome... All around it's an enjoyable casual game, whit a nice 2d graphic and bad musics, good to play when you have nothing better to do, but nothing more of that.… Expand
  17. delores
    Sep 24, 2013
    0
    Not only this game is a clone of a much better game, it´s programmed very badly, slowing down your PC performance to a minimum at higher levels of action. If you critisize the developers or question the legal part of potential copyright infridgement, you might get banned from forum. Censorship is something I don ´t expect from honest developers and this must be mentioned. Selling likeNot only this game is a clone of a much better game, it´s programmed very badly, slowing down your PC performance to a minimum at higher levels of action. If you critisize the developers or question the legal part of potential copyright infridgement, you might get banned from forum. Censorship is something I don ´t expect from honest developers and this must be mentioned. Selling like thieves and behaving like dictators deserves to be pirated. Don ´t buy this crap.… Expand
  18. gamertamer
    Sep 24, 2013
    8
    Yes this game has SIMILARITYS to game dev story but it is not the same and it is not a rip off if anything it is better then game dev story (although I must berate the click anywhere menu as it wouldn't stay open or it would come up when I was trying to select an employee) and on employees their wage raises because that is what would happen it REAL LIFE and yes the engines cost to buildYes this game has SIMILARITYS to game dev story but it is not the same and it is not a rip off if anything it is better then game dev story (although I must berate the click anywhere menu as it wouldn't stay open or it would come up when I was trying to select an employee) and on employees their wage raises because that is what would happen it REAL LIFE and yes the engines cost to build and yes games cost to make. the scores where not based on random numbers they where based on the amount of tech and design in the game and low scores means you need more tech and or design, I do think that there where not enough 'out of the ordinary' things like developing graphics in a hardware lab in the first and second building.
    Yes you need to have correct combinations (unless the popularity is for odd combinations) to get good scores like racing RPG it wont work well and you do need to vary in what you make like instead of making RPG after RPG vary like RPG then casual then sim then RPG.    … Expand
  19. Bluefootedpig
    Sep 23, 2013
    10
    This is a solid game with great variety. People who complain you can't repeat yourself are being silly, you can repeat and develop sequels, just make sure they are space out by at least a year. The only thing you can't do is repeat the exact same combo, such as fantasy rpg. You can change it up by doing fantasy action and you are fine.

    The game randomizes what topics you can use so    This is a solid game with great variety. People who complain you can't repeat yourself are being silly, you can repeat and develop sequels, just make sure they are space out by at least a year. The only thing you can't do is repeat the exact same combo, such as fantasy rpg. You can change it up by doing fantasy action and you are fine.

    The game randomizes what topics you can use so reply is decent, the goal is to win in 35 years but is sandbox beyond that.

    This game is difficult to lose at, but difficult to win as well.    … Expand
  20. rafibig
    Sep 23, 2013
    10
    Einfach nur ein super cooles Spiel :D I like
    Mir hat am besten die 'Balance des Spieles gefallen. Man muss schon die "richtigen" Entscheidungen machen, allerdings bleibt es schön fair. Mein Tipp: Spezialisiert euch auf ein Topic dann habt ihrs besser im Griff
  21. Steemed_Steel
    Sep 23, 2013
    10
    Its been a long times since i've played a game this great It may seem a little simple, and to some look like its a few hour gameplay deal (thats how i felt when looking it over the first time). Now I have a hard time not playing it its so much fun and when you complete the game it lets you continue, that being said, then you know whats going to happen in the endgame, you want to startIts been a long times since i've played a game this great It may seem a little simple, and to some look like its a few hour gameplay deal (thats how i felt when looking it over the first time). Now I have a hard time not playing it its so much fun and when you complete the game it lets you continue, that being said, then you know whats going to happen in the endgame, you want to start over, and get big soon, just to make other companies from real life look small... like, what if you were leading console, better then playstation or xbox… Expand
  22. 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.
  23. BogoSomeoneAnyo
    Sep 20, 2013
    2
    Just doesn't have the charm and pretty much a rip-off of Game Dev Story. The graphics are boring and generic, and those aspects of games such as creativity and fun are missing. Really quite dissapointing.
  24. Keskynator
    Sep 15, 2013
    10
    It's a wonderful game. Everyone who played "Game Dev Story" on iOS or Android would love this game. It's customizable and has a nice replay-rate. It's every time a new adventure, and i like adventures!
  25. los_majklos
    Sep 15, 2013
    9
    This Indie piece surprised me a lot! There's nothing complicated, yet the decision making is complex and challenging.
    The theme itself and number of references to real life game industry are just brilliant. Authors have shown some really deep understanding of the topic.
    I don't agree, that playthrough is repetitive, it's a great fun for me to play it for the 4th time.
  26. VSviridenko
    Sep 15, 2013
    10
    Really enjoy playing this game. Will recommend to my friends.
    Thanks to developers for making it so fun and interesting.

    P.S. I'm waiting for updates. You should definitely think about adding Multiplayer Mode or something like this.
  27. IdealHuman
    Sep 14, 2013
    8
    I'm very hesitant about giving it an 8. The gameplay itself is really quite fun but there is a lot that needs to be fixed, added, or changed. I would really love to see more settings to customize the game's look a bit more, especially for slower computers. Just as well, 'Game Dev Tycoon' could also do with adding more options for game developing. As of right now, we can't really explainI'm very hesitant about giving it an 8. The gameplay itself is really quite fun but there is a lot that needs to be fixed, added, or changed. I would really love to see more settings to customize the game's look a bit more, especially for slower computers. Just as well, 'Game Dev Tycoon' could also do with adding more options for game developing. As of right now, we can't really explain much of our own concept in the games we develop, leading to poor scores and sales in the game. With future updates, it has potential to be a very good game.… Expand
  28. 12-Inch-Warrior
    Sep 14, 2013
    8
    Really enjoyable little game, bargain for the price, i picked this up at midnight after finishing my weeks work on steam and played until 8am. If you really can't shell out the 7 or 8 dollars for the game then wait for a sale and do yourself a favour and pick this game up.
  29. TDD91
    Sep 9, 2013
    10
    Any game that punishes the pirates in the most spectacularly ironic of ways is definitely worth getting. It's quite addictive, you just keep pushing out game after game, tinkering a little, trying to find the perfect combination that sends your accounts sky rocketing.
  30. Perinormel
    Sep 8, 2013
    9
    Cheap, Fun, Addicting. However, I'm only giving this a 9 out of 10 because of All Games. Those jerks have ruined me from getting so many perfect 10's on Large games. If you're looking for a great time sink, then this is a perfect game for you.
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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.
    Read full review
  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]
See all critic reviews »