Video games are usually escapism to a fantasy world, you play a knight in a fantasy world, a space man in a science fiction opera, a detective following the footsteps of some serial killer or some treasure hunter in some ruins hidden in some rain forest. But never do we take on the role of the real heroes of video games, the developers.

Game Dev Story seems to take that route for us, and the result is definitely amusing. you take on the role of a game developer company owner who hires people to make games and sell them to the public. While it is not the most accurate interpretation, you do get a taste of how it is in this industry, from the getting your name out, advertising, and going through criticism from pretentious journalists (harhar). 

It is even more rewarding for people who are in the know of the gaming industry’s history, the game does a few subtle references, not only by the name of some games, but also to the name of systems. What’s even cooler is that they reference their popularity and the life span and what made some more successful than others, so understanding how game consoles sold in the real world can help you go through this game somewhat.

The way the game works is that you have a 20 (game time) years to get yourself up the ladder, you will start with a small team of employees that you use in order to develop the games you make, and will grow by hiring more according to your budget and size of office. There will be times where you can’t afford to make a game, so you will have to make some money through a few contracts (CG movie, Ringtone editing, graphic design, etc.) to get you by.

PC is the only platform that is evergreen and does not require a license to develop in the game, they are relatively cheaper to develop for but has a very low market share, so you won’t make that much money just developing for PC. Consoles and portables on the other hand, hold a bigger market share and therefore will have your game reach a broader audience, therefore making more money for you to progress in the game.

The game is rendered in a gorgeously colored isometric pixel art, while the art style is a bit on the minimalistic side when it comes to the people sprites, the backgrounds and the console models look beautiful.

While the main objective of the game is spending money to make more money, it is not a constant path of nothing but making more money, you will encounter problems along the way, consoles will discontinue while you’re developing games for it, power failures, games won’t sell as well as expected and the like. It is a very addicting game, you will find yourself working for “one last project” for the 50th time when you were suppose to go do something else 2-3 hours ago.

The game is available for both iPhone ($3.99) and Android ($2.99), I kind of noticed the game runs a little smoother on android, but then I was running the game on the first generation iPad which shouldn’t be a problem with the performance (even though the slight jerkiness in the iOS version isn’t too bad). One big problem though is that the game equally drains battery like nobody’s business on both platforms respectively.

What We Think: Really fun little game that is highly recommended for anyone who has an avid interest in the gaming industry, it’s exactly the game made for that demographic, but even if you aren’t this is an excellent mobile game that works absolutely great for the mobile phone platform, just keep an eye on the battery.

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