Remember those days when you used to get all of your friends together and they’d cart their PC towers and monitors over to your house and you’d configure your network to allow for an uber awesome LAN party? No? Well, I do and Game Dev Story (Kairosoft Co., Ltd) for the iPad is cooler and geekier than THAT.
Game Dev Story is one of those instant classics. A game that you can pop in and out of without fear of your villagers dying off or your tower being depleted of its stock.
The goal of Game Dev Story is to create an award-winning video game production house. You build up capital, purchase licenses for various consoles and you create games by choosing the genre and theme. Along the way, you are also responsible for training and up leveling your staff and hiring and firing new team members.
The elusive hardware engineer (seriously, does anyone know where to hire this dude?), the coveted “Best Game of the Year” title and the shifty Mister X character are enough to make you want to keep playing the game… even if it means sacrificing your social life.
The Good
Game Dev Story is addictive and it is a lot of fun. Creating games and giving them hilarious titles is only part of the enjoyment. There is something to be said about a game that makes you feel like you are accomplishing great things in the world and makes you forget about the hours you’ve logged into this tiny, pixelated land.
It is always a great day when you come across a seriously fun app with a great price tag. Priced at $1.99, it is definitely reasonably priced for the number of hours you will get out of this game.
The Not So Good
Game Dev Story is not necessarily an easy game to pick up at first so be prepared to completely fail at creating a game studio you first go around. This especially rings true if you are anything like I am and your game manuals never get cracked open. Ever.
The game play becomes a bit stale once you figure out the right combinations and your capital gets high enough. Build a Ninja Action game, get into the Hall of Fame, purchase some Lunar Writing advertising… rinse and repeat. It left me wishing that there were actual levels built into the game rather than an endless, open storyline.
Great article, really well thought through.
One of the best apps out there!
I hear to get the Hardware Engineer you have to max one employee’s stats, change his job, max that one, change again (not sure if you have to do it twice of three times) then they become an Engineer!
A game about making video games is an interesting idea. If you have an interest in game development but no technical skills, this is the perfect way to apply yourself. I hope it’s a good game.