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<p>The game that I am going to be reviewing this afternoon is one that is a bit odd and somewhat ironic considering that this is a game review, it's called Game Dev Tycoon. Game Dev Tycoon is a business simulator style game where you take on the role of running a video game company. The game was developed and published by Greenheart Games, with this being their only game made thus far. It was released in December of 2012 for the Windows, Mac, Linux, IOS and Android platforms. A fun fact about its release is that apparently a cracked copy was leaked by one of the devs onto torrent websites. This cracked version had an anti piracy feature placed within the game which made you constantly lose and get strange messages as you attempted to progress through the game. While this might have been annoying to people who pirated the game, I thought it was pretty damn hilarious when I heard about it. (I really have to take a second here to applaud Greenheart for having a sense of humor.) </p>
<p>Now, I usually don't really get into these types of games all that much. Really, the only simulation game that I've ever really put a lot of my time into was The Sims 3. (And, that game isn't really a business style game, unless you're in the business of trapping people inside their own house.) That was until I found this game, and I proceeded to sink about 45 or so hours into playing it. Now, after having played it for a pretty decent amount of time, I feel like I can say that this game is, well, pretty alright. I figured when I got it that the reviews you got on your games critiquing your games would have a bit more substance to them to help you go in the right direction. This essential part of the game, however, is a messy and shallow system that makes little sense. This game almost comes off as a goofy parody game or something, which I wouldn't really consider a good thing since that's not what it was sold/advertised as. </p>
<p>https://i.imgur.com/FLOiDWs.png</p>
<p>This game is presented in the same style fashion which we've seen from titles in a similar vein such as Roller Coaster Tycoon, which isn't a slight against the game or anything. Business simulator games all have a pretty similar premise, obviously. There's no real narrative here besides giving you a small little history lesson in the fashion of the game company that you grow from the ground up. You begin by creating an avatar for your character, and afterwards you spawn into your garage with a PC system that suggests the idea that you're attempting to start your company sometime in the late 70's. Eventually so long as you don't bomb hard and bankrupt your company, you'll find yourself 25-35 years in the future developing current generation games with current gen technology. </p>
<p>So, yeah, you play from era to era developing your company and game technology. This honestly is kind of a bland and boring experience for the first section of the game, as none of the game changing technology or elements of something new and entertaining are introduced very quickly. Developing games goes into several stages which are funding, employee management, development and marketing for your game. In the early stages of this game all of your funding comes from doing contract work with other companies which also helps you get research points which are then used to unlock new tech, game genres and the ability to upgrade your employees skill sets. </p>
<p>Upon choosing a name, genre, topic and console for the game you want to develop, you are then shown several screens that prompt you to decide on the factors of development. Here you get to decide what is focused on during development, allowing you to put emphasis on one thing over the other 2 or allowing you to balance them out if you so wish. There is a lot of trial and error on this part early on in the game, as you need to find what works best with your genre/topic of game. If you're designing a role playing game, then obviously you'll want to develop heavily into the dialogue and world building elements over others. There are a lot of combinations that can be used and discovered, and you'll have to learn the ropes of this before you can become successful at building your company up. </p>
<p>https://i.imgur.com/ZKLQtTy.png</p>
<p>As you continue to grow and expand, new sections of the game come about and provide even more of a challenge for you. You'll have to attempt to follow the current market trends to see what is popular with the gaming community, deciding how much of your funding should go into what and also start hiring new employees and deciding what they should be working on and how you want to grow them as assets. There are even events that you'll have to decide on attending or not attending such as G3 convention events, where you can try to hype up your most recent game and draw out some extra business for when your game is finally released. </p>
<p>However, as you continue forward with developing your games you'll start to the notice that the game falls flat on its face in some of the sections, and really lacks a lot of depth and substance at times. The hype I just mentioned is one aspect, as the game doesn't even attempt to tell you how important it is to achieve when it can really influence a lot of what happens with your game releases overall. Another section that the game does extremely poorly with is game reviews by critics for your game. You get the same 2 or 3 dozen little lines critiquing your games in vague/poor ways that doesn't tell you anything about what you've done wrong. These fake reviews just tell if you have done good or bad and nothing else. Real helpful, right? </p>
<p>They might say your first game was a great success and they can't wait to see what you'll do in the future with the series, or that they can't wait for a sequel to be released. Then upon releasing a sequel with improved graphics and other aspects, they'll say it's a flop and a piece of garbage without explaining why or what you've done wrong. There is no way to get real feedback via alpha/beta testers or anything like that. So, you often times are left confused as to what you could have done wrong. Sure, there are obvious things you shouldn't do like using old gen hardware to make a game or making a horror sports game (I dunno though, I'd love to play a hockey game where a supernatural serial killer comes out on the ice), but even when you do everything right you'll find yourself failing for no apparent reason. There's just little rhyme or reason to this system, and it feels like a lot of it is basically just dependent on a roll of the die and pure luck. </p>
<p>https://i.imgur.com/TASTnHI.png</p>
<p>The graphics, sound design and controller presentation are all very low end, with elements of what you would expect to see in a game from your phone with lots of bubble popping and other silly elements. While it works, it leaves a lot to be desired and has little to no charm for PC players. The soundtrack for the game is dull and drab and seems like something you would find on a royalty free music website with how boring and generic it is. So, while the graphics and sound design never fail or cause issues with the gameplay, they never really impress you either or catch your attention. I would just say that these are mediocre at best, really. Now, why I won't go heavy on suggestions on what could have been done here, I think one small thing could have given the game some style. Had you been able to customize your workspace with the current era's game systems and decorations as you progressed, I think there could have been some extra charm to the game itself. Instead, you get to just stare at bland backgrounds. Happy happy, joy joy! </p>
<p>Overall, I am kind of on the fence if I would recommend this game to anyone or not. I did find myself enjoying it for a decent chunk of hours while I was playing, but eventually it really just became a frustrating, monotonous experience that was making me only want to play to win once and not really enjoy myself. And, even after winning I didn't feel any satisfaction or anything. It never captured my attention or drew me in with some charming graphics or soundtrack, and I never really felt like I was actually able to alter the world around me like you would expect with running your own business. The feedback system is non existent and you'll really never know why your games failed. It does provide a cool little element of looking back into the past of game development, and showing some aspects of what game design is like somewhat. I would say if you're interested in this type of game, maybe check out some gameplay videos first and see if it's something you'd like. At the very least, wait until it's on sale and get it for cheap and don't pay full price. </p>
<p>Well, that's it. Thanks for stopping by to check out my post. Appreciate it! </p>
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