Game development, as many have found in recent years with more exposure to the inner-workings of the video game industry, is as fun as a passion to develop all sorts of creative and ingenious games as it is hard work that demands the best hands when designing games that could easily be beloved by millions given the right exposure as well as having the right knowledge of technology to make it all work come it's release.

Seeing just how many games there are, easily within the 6-figures if you count every single console within each and every generation of gaming alongside countless fan-inspired creations and bootleg rip-offs from less reputable sources, it is no small wonder that we eventually ended up with a rather unique indie that focuses primarily on the art of making video games themselves that has proven to be quite the endearing piece of gaming history here!

Introducing Game Dev Tycoon, a game that focuses primarily on the 'Simulation' genre side of things where the goal is to start off your career as a humble solo developer in his/her garage to work on games dating around the mid-80's and gradually progressing your way to bigger premises once you have begun to figure out how to make games that are good (a process that sounds simple enough but is anything BUT easy once you actually try it out for yourself!) and gradually take on more complicated operations that spans all the way to near enough around modern video gaming times in the start of the 2020's!

Now given that those who have already bought the game for themselves will have a keen interest in the history of the video game industry, it helps to have knowledge of what went on with video game consoles back in the day alongside a more fundamental understanding of all the different topics and what gels well with this game's six genres, that being Action, Adventure, RPG, Simulation, Strategy and Casual, since such iconic genres as Horror, Sports and Racing are not considered by Game Dev Tycoon to be genres but instead topics that vary in how well they work with each of the six given genres, ranging from being a fantastic combination to outright horrible that WILL have an impact on your new game's reviews which, in turn, will also affect the sales of it that will determine whether you are one step closer to bankruptcy or have the means to expand greatly.

Following up on this is how you go about making each game itself, seeing as there are nine categories of what defines the 'characteristics' of a game itself, such as it's gameplay, graphics, sound and world design among others, since these are split into three stages of video game development whereby your goal is to balance them via the three meters provided in such a way that it helps to enhance the genre that the game is based on, though a tip is that genres all have preferences to each of these categories that individual topics have no impact over.

Though if this was all it took to do well in Game Dev Tycoon, then it would make for a rather boring Simulation game, but this is where several different factors that helps to keep a player on their toes for one must keep up with the times and make improvements to their games primarily through their own custom engine which can be given various new systems (better gameplay experience, a level editor, improved AI etc) to make those categories stand out more when designing future games, noting that these will be impacted by how much you dedicate the meters to the groups as too little will result in these systems being impacted via a percentile, requiring careful balancing when dealing with different genres.

Furthermore, once you head out of your garage and into an actual office, you are bombarded with higher running costs and must stay competitive by making full use of the bigger premise by hiring people and training them in four stats (design/technology determine where they specialize in, with some categories being more focused on technology whilst others lean towards design, speed improves how fast they do certain tasks and research results in more research points when doing actions that grant them) to take on bigger games together, seeing as they introduce a tricky element of assigning the right staff to the best categories suited for their stats but also doing so in such a way that none of them are overworked to the point that it impacts their performance!

It only gets more tricky from there, although I find part of the fun of making various games with names either similar to real-life games or heavily inspired with creative puns of my own is experimenting with what works and what does not, seeing as you soon learn what to do to make money, seeing as part of the problem to solve is working out HOW to make a good game first and foremost, then how to keep doing that as you progress forward as having games that you know mix with genres well (never mind when you throw separate 'age groups' into the mix!) and having it all figured out, only to find that your games just are not getting reviewed well is possibly an indication that your engine is becoming outdated and needs immediate improvement rather than your knowledge in the video game making process failing you, though experimentation with different approaches is best when facing difficulties like these.

Though to mention some minor criticism from my perspective here, I did hope that this game would have been set a good 10 or so years ago to cover the entirety of the first generation of gaming alongside the earlier years of the second, seeing how fun it would be to take things back an extra step or two with cleverly-named and 'legally fair' consoles resembling the likes of the Coleco Telstar and Atari 2600 among others, alongside emphasizing the 'game report' function better as many will likely not realize how useful it is as an internal 'guide' that you slowly build up after each game made to give you tips on what genres mix with what consoles, topics and age groups alongside how high or low each parameter should roughly be at.

Other than the experimental nature of this game, working things out by 'trial and error' for areas where gamers are taking an educated guess on, I would say that Game Dev Tycoon does a lot right as far as a game in the 'Simulation' genre and, whilst I won't be giving it a solid 10/10 anytime soon, (like that All Games, maybe the late TotalBiscuit was right about potentially blacklisting them...) it's still well-worth a purchase if you have any interest in video game industry and would like to see how you'd fare with being the man who has full control over the video game development process in an industry as competitive as the video game scene!

TLDR Version:

• A fun simulation game that gives players a shot at taking the reigns and balancing each game they design via increasingly complex operations (+)
• Great focus on encouraging experimentation of genres with specific topics, consoles and age groups via 'game reports' that act as an in-game 'guide' the more you add to it (+)
• Game Dev Tycoon covers gaming as far back as the early 80's, going through each generation of gaming with various news on playfully-named consoles that are 'legally sound' (+)
• Introduces new mechanics to the player at a fair pace that lets the player decide how fast to push for added risks and rewards versus taking a slower route to learn the game more thoroughly (+)

• Doesn't cover the very first generation of gaming nor most of the second, missing out on the truly ancient consoles like the Atari 2600 and Magnavox Odyssey (-)
• The 'game report' function is not highlighted well enough for newer players and could result in frustrations with figuring out genre preferences when it already has an in-game solution (-)
• Some players will naturally not take well to Game Dev Tycoon's focus on experimenting over making games as failure in your first run is to be expected and the lack of using the in-game guide may exacerbate this issue (-)

Very Good

Piracy does NOT hurt games sales like you say they do in this game and thats a fact. You are lying saying game pirates take half your companies game sales revenue irl it has almost no affect on sales.