Game Dev Tycoon

Overall Opinion: Game Dev Tycoon is a great example of how quality games can succeed in a crowded market. Developer Greenheart Games deliberately avoids the freemium model, giving you a great game for a low price. You won’t see microtransactions, forced waiting times or advertisement when you’re playing. Instead, you’ll experience an addictive, just-one-more-turn business simulator. Game Dev Tycoon provides a satisfying sense of progression as there’s always something to upgrade. Employees, office space and gaming technology options are always waiting for your management skills. This creates a compelling sense of momentum that will leave you wondering where the hours went. As you guide your company through decades of growth, you can recruit better employees, create games for more powerful systems and build your fan base. There’s also something to do, making this a great mobile game for long trips or long weekends at home. Fully completing a playthrough will take around 10 hours. If you want to unlock every secret mission and character, you can extend your playtime to around 20 hours. Of course, Game Dev Tycoon offers plenty of replay value. Can your company succeed if it sticks to PC games? What if you develop one hit gaming franchise and make a dozen iterations of the same title? You can keep challenging yourself with more complex restrictions or sit back and enjoy the flow of this economic simulator.

Pros: Unlike other tycoon games like Youtubers Life, Game Dev Tycoon offers a complicated economic simulator. Your company will likely go bankrupt the first few times you play, making your eventual victory sweeter. You need to actively manage this game. It’s not an idle clicker like Idle Dev Game & Clicker Studio’s Video Game Tycoon: Tap Story. The entire game unlocks with purchase. You won’t be stuck chasing premium currency or waiting for timers to expire.

Cons: The in-game staff blend together. Unlike the colorful cast of characters in Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story, your employees in Game Dev Tycoon all look the same. There are fewer hidden characters to discover. The cutesy graphics might annoy serious gamers. You might not want to pay upfront for the game before trying it. There’s no free demo like in Game Dev Story.