Game Dev Story (iPhone)

In Game Dev Story you take full control of a video game company. Managing your workers and finances, taking control over the development of the titles you are making. Well some what. Like a little meta-game, you pick and a choose the people who work for you and train them. In the beginning of the game you pick your companies name, and intruduced to the secretary who will assist you in getting started. Startin off with only a couple employees you must hire workers, send out and add in paper or on the internet are some of the options. You must of course spend money on anything you want to do in the game like advertising and marketing. Money is key in Game Dev. Developing a game for the PC is the only choice at the start. If you wish develop for other consoles on the market you must buy a license negotiation for a high price to start developing for that platform. The consoles come out after years played in the game just like in real life. Some will be more successful then others and have a bigger share in the market, just liek in real life. They are all just spin off and renames of consoles past in gone, which I love. So clever.

The main core objective in the game is to own the market and pump out as many blockbuster games for the your fans. Creating a game is simple. Pick the platform you want to develop it for, pick the genre, the type of game and then the direction. When you are selecting the genre and type of game you are browsing through a list of different names. The names are presets or and the level carries over from a previous saved game, but you still only have five to choose from on each set. You select on two things you think will work for a game, and if the match you will upgrade the level of that type, say "action" and "ninja." It is sometimes hard to match two together, something on the list just wouldn't go with other things. They are also graded on how popular they are to your audience. You can unlock more genres and types by training your staff and here and there you will unlock new type. Hard to figure out how to do that really, which I didn't get. Once you combined more type you will receive bonuses and have more points towards the direction of your current game. In the direction screen is like stats for the game, good touch. Forty points can be attributed to a set of eight, ten point directions ie polish, realism, simplicity of the game etc.

Once direction is selected you have to choose a person to write up the story for you. This is where the game starts to come together. You can select an outside hire or someone that works for you. The outside hires will cost money but there stats are far better then your staffs, therefore can pump out more stats for the game. The stats are what makes the game, the game. Thats the whole thing you have to make these four stats from the people who work for you. Fun, creativity, graphics and music. The game will automatically make the game for you. The workers will just pop out the icons above their heads with the stat, and how many points go towards it. I like this cause it an easy way to just pick up and play on the go. The game plays just like I thought it would, very laid back and will ask you before doing anything major or important. Once the game is in full swing the percentage of completion will fill up. You will have to pick an art direction when the game is in alpha and music direction when the game reaches beta. Same as the start, you can choose an inside or outside hire for the job at hand. I always went for outside in most cases cause your staff will be not a skilled at first.

It takes time to accumulate money and get your team up and strong at first, but once you put in some time you will pumping out games one after another. A random salesman will come to your company and offer you items, which act as a boost for the game and cost thirty disks or research to use. The game your making can also encounter tons of bugs which have to be sorted out, and can delay your launch of the game. Great design, things like blackouts will also take away from you game stats due to lost progress. You will have to plan trips to the Gamedex expo where you will show off your titles and gain more fans, well more like just gain fans. Your games can also be nominated at the awards show. In which you have to play a mini game of stopping your name as the names appear on the screen. That was a neat touch, but think it be better if the game were just recognized for how good they are. On launch of the game you can name the game and then submit it and release the game. The game will be reviewed by four critics on a ten point scale, just like most sites/magazines around today. If your game reaches over thirty points your game will make it into the Hall of Fame.

If you make a game that is Hall of Fame worthy you will be awarded with the chance to make a sequel for this title. Making a sequel is a great option to generate more sale, you can make the sequel on the platform of your choice, but fail to make it to the Hall of Fame again and that is it for that property. The art in the game is well done and very simplistic, cute would describe it well. The game has so much to offer and charm that remotely anyone interested in video games could really pick up and play this game, and get hooked. You will be sinking in time before you know it, a lot of management is involved when making things work at the beginning. The money can be frustrating, but with option to do there work like port games can help bring in more coin. The time limit on those projects is just perfect enough to balance it out from the main projects. The game will only go up to 20 years and then your scores will be saved, you can choose to play on but nothing will be recorded. The best game you sold will also be recorded in the high score in the main menu. There is so much more I could explain or talk about but its better to just play and see everything for yourself. Game retails for 1.99 now which is half the price I paid and worth every penny. It is in the Hall of Fame for me and can't wait for the sequel. 9/10