Game Dev Tycoon review

One of the best tycoon games that I've played so far although it does have some down points. Okay, let me introduce this from the start...

It's like any other tycoon game except that it is developed by Greenheart Games (a startup company) and I have to admit, it's pretty impressive.

As the promotional pitch of the game goes...

Replay gaming history. Create best selling games. Research new technologies. Become the leader of the market and gain worldwide fans.

The game's as accurate as what the above statements say.

So, you start off by developing games in your parents' garage. With great combos, a good eye for market trends and improving coding skills, you can easily move on to larger facilities to expand your gaming business.

When you start a new game, notice that there's an advance option button (which has the common 'settings' icon) at the top right corner. From there, you can set the maximum duration before the games end - I had initially thought it has unlimited duration - I play until I drop... lol.

Well, moving on... The game is rather fast-paced and there are plenty of stuff to keep you alert - like news of a new console hitting the market or that the G3 games convention is approaching. 

You can choose from 3 types of booth to set up at the G3 convention - this one is the most expensive of them all. :P

Giving your game a name is no easy matter lol, but you'll work it out :) Oh and also don't leave the name as the default name - you'll get criticised when the game review comes in (I've tried lol ;) ). THEY KNOW! Anyway, you design your games based on topics, genre, engine (customised) and...

Research to unlock a new topic

platforms (console, PC, mobile or tablets). If you have plenty of experience with gaming, you will quickly realise that in order to get great combos for topics and genre, you can actually base your matching to popular games in real life - like Halo, Fallout, Fifa, Dance Dance Revolution, Age of Empires, Skyrim, etc. But anyway, I will have a list of great combos (For topics with single genre. So far, I've never gotten a perfect combo for both genre in dual genre games) at the very end of this blogpost. :)

For my play-through, I find that by PC is a solid platform to use while the rest... well, let's just to say that I've developed really highly rated (by game critics) sequels/ new games but because of the platform I used (even though it has the highest marketshare among the other platforms), I get less sales than I should be expecting. 

Customised engines are not exactly a must. I've done pretty well with no customised engines for almost 80% of my play-through, but once you have one, I would recommend using it for sequels that you know will definitely sell - coz well, these engines are not really cheap and adding engine compartments into your game will cost a lot as well. 

The below screenshots will show, briefly, the game making process after you've decided the aforementioned factors...

The developing interface for medium games. Smaller games are easier - you don't need to assign each individual task to a staff. Oh and remember NOT to overwork your staff! :)

The development interface if you have a customised engine attached. you can choose which element of your engine that you want to incorporate into the developing game.... and they cost A LOT so, be financially prepared!

Allocate enough time for each part of the game that you're developing. Usually, I just max them out to give my staff plenty of time to generate more design and technology points (see below).

Only 3 employees including my character are developing this game at the moment.

Then, your employees and yourself will start generating points to design and technology. Most of the time, by getting them as high as you can and balanced out, you should produce a high quality game. Different genre of games will require slightly different emphasis on either design or technology though. For example, I've realised that for Simulation genre, you'll need to have more Technology. Also, if more people are free from other tasks to be involved in the development process, the more points you will get.

Note that there will be 3 stages of development for each game and each stage requires money. So don't splurge all your money on the first stage of the process and have not enough money for the rest of the stages.

Once the game is completed, you will get experience points for each part of the development process (for more upgrades) and also for your employees (including yourself).

Great review to a great sequel ;)

Not so bad eh? I really can match stuff up good! :P

This extra screenshot is just for bragging purposes LOL. Don't ask me why the name is so lame.... it's a hunting/simulation game lol.

More screenshots! :P Superheroes / Action/Casual combo.

Sci-Fi / Action/RPG dual combo

Then the reviews will come pouring in. This review is particularly good, but if you're like me, you'll mostly get 6-7. When you have a big fan base, even 5-6 ratings will get you profit, but just not that much. ;)

There are plenty of other features in the game that I'm too lazy to talk about in detail but I'll just list them here:

• Research - A must if you want to have a great custom engine or some new, very useful features (like having sequels), but it is very costly, so be financially prepared. Like having a couple of high rating sequels going or have a huge money pool lol. You'll need research points as well - if you don't have enough, start making games (sequels or new ones) lol.

There are a lot of researches that you can upgrade. Then, you can go on and make new and way superior custom engines.  The better your engine and the more you invested in your engine for your developing game, the better your game will be. (but this is not always true!)

• Training - A must if you want to get higher points for design and technology for your games. Needs research points.

Training my staff

• Contract deals - Only if you're really short on cash. But early in-game, this is a very good way for you to earn some extra money to develop new games in the situation, in which one of your games that you've just invested a lot of your money in, flopped. 

If you cannot finish the contract on time, you will have to pay a penalty. Some penalties are just not worth the money that you'd get - so, avoid those!

• Publishing deals vs Self-publishing - I find publishing deals really hard to get right. Since I rarely buy the licence required for other platforms, I only can do PC/ Any platform jobs and the restrictions these sort of deals put might just cost you even more money (with the penalty and loss that you have to endure if it doesn't work out). Not worth the risk of losing so much money - I'd rather make more sequels for popular games lol. My suggestion, just get 100k fans then start publishing medium games yourself (250k fans for large games). I've managed to publish a medium game successfully even though I had less then the optimal 100k fans (I think I had like around 70k).

But in this case, I've already published like a couple of medium games already lol. I usually make medium games for sequels of my really popular games - like Halo.

250k fans for large games. Usually, I don't like taking the risk for these sort of games - even the most popular sequels do flop sometimes.

• Sequels - A must and a life-saver... seriously. Once you've gotten several hit games (6-10 ratings), you can start churning out sequels of those games  - you can even make medium or large games from them. Sequels usually sell well enough, even though you may have developed it badly. I usually use this to recover from the loss of cash and fans when any of my new games flopped.

Outstanding response...  hehehe :P All thanks to my new custom engine.

Some more... ;)

More outstanding response... *brag* hehehe :P You can get outstanding response for your games without new engines and stuff, you know. ;)

• Marketing - Isn't really useful IMHO, but perhaps I marketed it at the wrong stage of game development (last stage). But I find the G3 convention helps a lot to increase the hype for a developing game - try to get the best booth as soon as you can.

Various types of marketing methods - depends on how much you are willing to spend on marketing.

• Staff - They are really helpful when you are moving on to making medium and large games although they do help a lot with small games as well. Give them as much training as they need - make them into specialists and ofc keep a few all-rounders around - give them vacation time when their motivation bar runs low - and don't worry about pay, they automatically get a pay rise whenever they level up. (Honestly though, do game developers, in real life, get so much income? One of my employees - level 7 - is earning like 109k per month... lol)

Sending a staff on forced, unpaid vacation lol

• Achievements - Most are really easy to get. :)

So far, I've gotten most of the achievement regarding sales of the games developed but I can't seem to hit 10 million sales yet. My highest is around 6.5 million sales. You'll need hit games such as the Alex Rider 2 game that I've made in the previous screenshot.





Cult status...lol :P

Oh and this ;)

• Game History - A very nice record of all the games you've ever made - refer to this when you're trying to decide which game to make a sequel of. Also note that when you've reach the stage where you have produced sooo many games until it's a hassle just to scroll through each one of them. This is the only part that I don't really like. They should make it into a list with a detailed preview of the games appearing on the side. I've also noticed that some of my previously produced games vanished from the list...

Just a sample :) My Halo 3 sequel managed to obtain  number 1 top sales rank and over 53 million in profit *brag some more*

• Patches - A must! Seriously, you want to lose fans or not? If not, then you'll do what they want. Don't be a scumbag... :P

DO ITTTTT! ASAP!

• Random news/opportunities - Usually encrypted messages brings good stuff, so spend that extra bit of cash on it does help lol. Oh and if you're planning to do sabotages, go ahead... you'll never get caught lol.

Someone stole my money... oh nvm, I have sooo much more!

• Popular trends - Follow it as much as you can. The extra Exp helps and it helps your sales as well. But bear in mind that if your game is bad, no popular trend will save you from suffering losses for that game.

Note the popular trend bar near the top right corner of the screen .... oh, you caught me. Can't I brag some more while showing you the features? xD

• Game off the market - You get a stat that's it. When does it gets off the market? I don't know honestly. I think that it depends on the popularity of the game. If people keep buying it, it will stay in the market longer, and the only way people will keep buying it - is that if it's really popular.

And you get a stat for the total sales you made off a game once it gets off the market.

Okay, I guess that's all. The review's completed. I highly recommend this game to gaming enthusiasts (you can learn about the entire gaming history though this game lol, though the names had to be changed but they are pretty obvious enough... like the xBox is called the mBox) and for people who are interested in Tycoon-type games.

Link to Greenheart Games: http://www.greenheartgames.com/


'My verdict? 9/10. They just need to edit a bit the game history part and also let people give slightly longer names to their games (especially for sequels). Extremely worth the hours that I've spent on this game. Very satisfying. :)' S.Y.


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Now.... time for bragging lol. Here goes! ;) The news that you'll get if you managed to produce really hit games.

If successful games, you will get this...

... and this ;)

Or this....

Or this.... hehehe

Or this.... the most epic news of all! :D

But for G3 conference, I still can't get the number 1 spot yet. Perhaps when I hit the 10 million sales achievement, then I'll have enough fans to get it.... hehe

My final scores after 30 years of development ^.^v

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Guide to getting Great combos or bonuses

The names of the game don't affect combos - it's all about matching the right genre to the right topic. Some of them are really a no-brainer, but some may have a lot of combinations and you'll have a headache trying to figure them out lol. Anyway, here goes (in no order - you can use Ctrl+F to find the one you want):

[Topic - Genre - Suggested Audience]

*Disclaimer: This list is by no means conclusive. I'll add more when I have the time to test the combos out.

*My audience is Everyone. But some of them can be tailored to Mature or Young audience.

1. Post-Apocalypse - Action or RPG
2. Sci-Fi - Action or RPG
3. Superheroes - Action
4. Pirate - Adventure - Everyone / Young
5. Racing - Simulation
6. Military - Strategy
7. Medieval - Strategy or RPG
8. Sports - Simulation
9. Transport - Simulation
10. Fantasy - Adventure - Everyone / Young
11. Music - Casual
12. Werewolf - Action
13. Detective - RPG
14. Startup - Simulation
15. School - Simulation
16. Martial Arts - Action
17. UFO - Action
18. Rhythm - Casual
19. Dance - Casual
20. ...