This is mostly due to the fact that the game is lovingly crafted and devoted to showing the games industry for what it is, warts and all. The longer you manage to keep the lights on at your development studio, the more challenging Game Dev Tycoon gets, but it also gets a lot more rewarding. As fun as it is to make a game called Werewolf Simulator, if you don’t put it on the right platform, target the right audience, or focus on the right aspects of development, it might just be the game that ends up shuttering your studio and prompting you to reload a previous save or start over. In addition to making games that are well made, you have to contend with marketing budgets, public taste, critical reaction, and more.
The management systems of Game Dev Tycoon are deep, complex, and super satisfying. It also helps that time stops whenever you duck into a menu, but that doesn’t change the fact that Game Dev Tycoon is a game that demands you play it efficiently so you can turn a profit. Time marches ever forward, but-thankfully-the game starts out by keeping your options simple before ramping things up as your company grows and game technology becomes more sophisticated. The amount of stuff you have to manage in Game Dev Tycoon can make your head spin, particularly since the game isn’t turn-based. As a game about making games, most often you’ll be preoccupied with that, but other things you have to contend with include training your employees, taking vacations, signing publishing deals, creating new game engines, and more. In Game Dev Tycoon, you control the ins and outs of your development company from a simple isometric view that you tap on to bring up different contextual menus. The result is a management game that’s a super tough nut to crack, but suffering through these challenges is all part of the fun, particularly if you follow the games industry.
This management game starts you as solo developer in your garage and challenges you to climb the game development ranks to make your own AAA studio, and all the while it gives you a ton of challenges to contend with. Making games is hard, and Game Dev Tycoon definitely doesn’t try to hide that fact.