“Game Dev Story” is fantastic. Despite a few minor frustrations (which I’ll get into a little later), this game is a disturbingly addictive experience which combines the grind-happy nature of an old-school RPG with a deeply satisfying sense of progression from zero to (hopefully) hero over 20 years of in game time. You take on the role of a game development studio manager who is responsible for all sorts of decisions which can make or break the studio’s success. Behind the seemingly simplistic presentation, “Game Dev Story” presents a deep interplay between different economic and social variables. Thankfully, this information is presented at a manageable pace so that you can learn the ropes without becoming overwhelmed.
Graphics
As of this writing, there is no iPad-native version of “Game Dev Story”. That being said, the game looks perfectly serviceable when you double the size of the iPhone version. The game plays itself out through a charming isometric perspective and a graphical style that references 8 and 16 bit role playing games of decades past.
The higher level employees will go on hot streaks, increasing their productivity by quite a bit.
You’ll spend the majority of the game watching your employees work at their terminals. A few key stats will increase via little numbers and symbols popping up over their heads, further reinforcing the RPG vibe.
When it comes time take control of your office, you do so via a series of easy to use menus that open when you tap on the screen. These menus consist of all sorts of administrative options which enable you to issue specific orders to your office.
Gameplay
Beyond the charming graphics, “Game Dev Story” delivers in a big way in terms of deep, addictive gameplay. The game begins simply enough by suggesting that you hire employees and get started on a project. You can decide what kinds of employees to hire, each of which has varying strengths in 4 different stats: programming, graphics, sound, and scenario.
The choices you make during this initial hiring process can have a very real effect on how the rest of the game plays out. Should you go with a team of people with strengths that coordinate well with one another, or would you rather favor 2 or 3 stats and let the other ones increase over time?
This game is very much about forward momentum, reflected by a “hype” number which represents the excitement about your upcoming release. You also have a running tally of “fans” who love your company’s games. However, your fans will lose interest and abandon ship if you wait too long between releases. Additionally, your fan-base ages with time, making it increasingly necessary to develop games that appeal to a slightly older crowd in order to retain your momentum. You can also add to your fan-base by attending trade shows and engaging in various types of advertising.
Like advertising, the success of your trade show attendance is dictated by both your company’s existing reputation and how much money you spend; you might go with a subtle presence involving costumes and get a few customers, but if you’ve got the cash you might want to go with something a little more exotic. Booth babes, anyone?
Beyond growing your fan-base, you also have to purchase console licenses before you can develop for them. The choice of which console to develop on is determined by market research into which systems have the largest demographic, but the licensing cost also has a large bearing on your decision. For instance, a smaller studio with less capital will need to work its way up through several successful game releases and completed contracts before it has the kind of scratch required to develop for a popular system.
One interesting note about choosing consoles: Each fictional system in the game has a real world counterpart, and that console’s success or failure will closely mirror what happened with the real deal. It helps if you know a bit about the history of video game systems over the last 20 years or so, but this information is not vital to your enjoyment of the game.
In addition to all of this, you can use “research points” that are gained through performing various types of work to level up your employees. This has the effect of boosting some or even all of the stats of each employee, but sometimes it’s best to cut a person loose and hire a worker with better initial stats (provided you have the budget to meet their yearly salary). In fact, I found that the single most important factor in my company’s success was to hire the best talent I could afford as soon as possible. This translates into faster accumulation of research points and more efficient completion of projects. Being able to fit more contracts into a shorter amount of time means that you can get more seed money for your next project while losing fewer of your fans to the ravages of time and fickleness.
The reviews are in!
The financial success of each game depends on lots of factors, including choosing the right type and direction for your game (a “ninja adventure” game will do much better than a “pirate racing” game). You also have reviewers to contend with. However, even if you get mediocre reviews, you may still have a success on your hands depending on your fan-base and other factors.
After a while, you’ll be able to upgrade to a bigger office if you make enough money. This will get you some beneficial publicity, but more importantly it will allow you to hire additional employees.
The game “ends” when 20 years pass, and you are then scored based on how much progress you’ve made in that time. There is a “new game plus” of sorts: You can start over but keep the levels that you’ve earned in each game type. For example, if you attained level 3 in developing “animal” games then you’ll retain that stat in the new play-through. This head start combined with the desire to use all the lessons you learned in your first play-through creates a strong incentive to start over and really kick some ass. For instance, in my first play-through I spent too much time doing contract work in order to build up a lot of seed money for my studio’s first game. This time should have been spent developing games for cheaply licensed, popular consoles before their market share dried up.
Sound
The music in this game is probably the weakest point. The loops are way too short and repetitive, only changing when you upgrade your office. The sound design is serviceable, providing the player with satisfying feedback to indicate different game conditions.
Overall
When I set out to write this review, I wanted to convey how deep this game can get. Although I’ve explained a lot, there is more to this experience than I could possibly stuff into one article. Hiring hardware hackers and developing your own console (and thus sidestepping the need to purchase a license from a third party) is just one example of something I’ve barely scratched the surface on. I’ll leave those things for you to discover 
There are a few frustrations involved here and there such as the seemingly unavoidable and randomized events that can set you back; for instance, your studio may suffer an equipment failure and lose valuable development time, or perhaps another studio releases a game that is similar to the one you are currently developing, cutting into your sales. It would have been nice if I had some way of preparing for these situations. As it stands, these events feel like annoyances that were thrown in merely to add unneeded variety to the experience. However, these events are very rare so they are minor inconveniences in comparison to all the fun stuff.
Even though it seems simple at first, “Game Dev Story” draws you in with a charming aesthetic and an increasingly complex interplay of variables. It does an admirable job of approximating the operation of a real world business while providing a great deal of reward for experimentation and creative play.
If this article was useful, you might want to check out the rest of my iPad Game Reviews!
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