PixlBit

Game Dev Tycoon doesn't deserve the scorn it gets for being a quote-unquote plagiarism of Game Dev Story, a more than decade old video game company management sim. It's a decent game, and the developers seemed to put some TLC into the project. Plus, I'm no cool guy, so I don't have an Apple or Android device to play GDS on. No, the game deserves scorn for much better reasons: the game simply stops being fun too quickly, and to too much of an extreme. It's ridiculous how unfun the game eventually becomes, in almost every way. Only a true artist could have mastered such a talent.

Before I discuss any further, I want to elaborate that I don’t hate the game. When I was into it, I was into it. Early on, when you're just a person designing a game in a garage, it feels very simple and rewarding. I mean, once it hit the market, a 4/10 was a blessing then; breaking 5,000 sales was a dream come true; watching as your meager fan count rises was nice little fun. The feeling you get when you make your first nearly perfect game is also something that can’t be understated. Nothing better than going from a little over $200,000 to quite possibly milions of dollars before you even leave your garage. Its parody of video game history, such as using a “TES by Ninvento” or the “Oasis by Vena”, were pretty fun, even if it felt a bit TOO accurate and as such boring. There are several elements that go into your game's design. Through research, your character can learn how to do these elements even better, and design new engines to use them. Once your game is complete, you are subjected to the aforementioned market, where you are judged by consumer and critic alike. You usually start out with poor reviews/sales, and part of the challenge is finding the right formula.

At first, it's pretty simple. Most of the genre/theme combinations are common sense - sports don't go with RPGs, but medieval does, while any genre can work on the two platforms immediately available. This makes mastering game development a lot easier, and you may find yourself on a roll with 9 and 10 out of 10s. This, however, is where a first- or second-timer player will usually mess up. After a while, you hear rumblings of the newest console, the “TES”. Once it's released, your next step is to obtain a license to make games for it. What you may not realize, as the game never sets this up for you, is that the TES is a lot more picky than its predecessors, as it will not accept any genre besides Action. This becomes a recurring problem, as you are limited in scope, and you can only learn what the TES audience wants through trial and error.

Yet, the game takes no opportunity at all to teach players exactly what they did wrong. A trial and error system isn’t even that bad, if the game kept notes for you and indicated what works on what platform. Yet they could have done it even smarter than that by, for example, having a made-up list of video games from other companies, and allow you to obtain sales/reviews for these games. Then, you can put two-and-two together to determine that a high-rated game with low sales is of the wrong genre. Give players clues that they can put together themselves. I mean, without that, it fails at being a skill-based game. It’s basically Farmville. I am also remiss that the game never seems to reward you for taking a risk. Pirate RPG? Not an especially successful genre, but why can’t I, in this slightly alternate universe, establish a cult classic? I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything by cheesing my way through the game and discovering which ideas are shitty, nor do I feel rewarded that the best way to beat the first portion of the game is to always make sports games. It gets even worse later on when the game has you choose an age group, which just adds a new element of guesswork.

Like I said earlier, the idea of this being a parody of our video game industry is neat. I won't say it's bad, but it's much worse than it could have been. It follows the industry WAY too closely to be interesting. I want to be able to make so many bad games that it causes a crash. I want to be able to make a string of the best games ever for the G64, and allow them to stay as an industry leader for the whole game (which, of course, means new platforms, not just mislettered ones!). Imagine if you could even buy out the now-failing Ninvento, and compete as a console developer! I want to be able to do a lot of stuff that the game doesn't want me to be able to do, and that's really disappointing.

The sound and graphics are nothing to write home about. If I had to describe them in one way, I would again cite “Farmville”. A bit disheartening that an indie developer would make a game so similar to such a mainstream thing. Really though, if that was its biggest problem, this would be a pretty good game. As it is though, the game is one of great potential, yet poor followthrough. Despite its similarities to Zynga’s tripe, it’s definitely some steps ahead of them; it just didn't feel special, and had every opportunity to be. While games show you in-game progress of your wares or actual indication of time progression, GDT seems content with text, menus, progress meters, sliders, etc. To me, that isn’t interactivity. The sliders were so nebulous to me that at some point I could no longer invest myself in making a good game. I wasn't so disappointed that I regret spending $7.99, but devs, if you really want to impress me, put that money into expanding this game into something incredible. Whenever I play RollerCoaster Tycoon, I don't feel frustrated. I don't have to hope that my rollercoaster doesn't suddenly fly off and kill hundreds, because the game gives me an opportunity to have that not happen. The first time I play RCT, I feel that success is well within my reach. This is not the case with GDT, and I think we all want it to be.