Game Dev Tycoon

Fun game with incentive to replay. It is in a way a puzzle, as you need to figure out the best way to make money. That can happen in a number of ways.

Pretty fun way to try to realise your ambition about making games.

Very fun management sim game, creative and quirky while having a solid gameplay loop for those who enjoy management and creative-themed content. Has aged a little and multiple incremental and idle games have much deeper content/challenge but for when this came out and today it's a solid recommendation for people who want to simulate a video game studio for fun.

Plus how else will Dark Cloud 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 2 ReTowned and the grid-based SRPG, Dark Tempest: the Darkening ever get made?!?!

This cute little game dev simulator lets you start your own studio and roughly follow the history of the industry through generational hardware releases and trends that somewhat match how video games evolved over time.

While reaching the end of the game is pretty easy, the way games are rated can feel nonsensical and random at times. It is very unlikely to have two hits in a row, but there is an almost scripted successful game that is bound to happen to push you to unlock the second studio office. The options to tinker with which aspects of the game you want to focus on and which features to include is limited and oftentimes very similar games will receive wildly different ratings. It does kind of reflect how video games are received in reality, since timing and luck play a huge part, but in a video game that comes off as random and does not offer you useful information on how to improve. You are encouraged to make new theme and genre combinations even though many of the most successful studios release very similar games back to back. Ability to make sequels or have multi-platform releases comes rather late. The game simplifies the process of game development quite a lot to provide smooth and accessible gameplay.

There is a Pirate mode that significantly ups the challenge. Your games are heavily pirated and you have to actively work against it by developing anti-piracy protection in your engine. Also, investor companies start to appear and offer money for a big percentage of your sales. Messages by “fans” who pirate your games start to appear. It’s a bit too on the nose, but inclusion of that kind of mode is understandable. You can use a cheese strat where you collect around 3M and AFK in the Garage until the game ends, since the monthly rent is very cheap.

Overall, the game has its charm and constant references to real companies are fun to encounter. The gameplay is very simple and starts to get repetitive, since you are mostly just interacting with the same set of sliders all the time. The campaign is just short enough to avoid getting too boring, though.

Simple gameplay loop, yet I keep finding myself coming back every few years to play it again.
Definitely worth the $10 in my opinion.

This game is really fun and 100% worth the money. If you have a couple spare dollars, definitely give this game a go. But you should also probably understand the fundamentals of business first and don't make stupid in-game transactions and choices.

Very good game, should be helpful, if it was easier to get resource points.

Pros

Fun
Always wanting to play just a little more

Positives, but not for me

Some video game satire

Cons

Some of the achievements that popped in the game didn't save to my steam account
Could have done with more genres, could have done with less topics

It's super fun to imagine that you're in the 80's and you have a small company in a garage building games for different consoles.

this is a fun little game, especially for the sale price. unlock technology, learn what players like best when it comes to genre and theme combinations (it's intuitive, just think about successful real world games), and name your company and games silly things for fun. i particularly liked the little flavour bits dealing with fan games, old game engine release requests, and in one game mode, trying to stay afloat despite absolutely wild levels of player piracy.

(it's really funny how 'pirate mode', initially existing only as a way to make things spicy for players who pirated the game, was so popular it was made into a regular game mode, or whatever the reason for doing that actually was)

oh yeah, and experience with their support staff was pretty good tbh. seems to be a theme for small studios like this.

Due to Spiffing Brit back in 2022. I bought this game and have recently played it. Currently doing a run to get all achievements!

Probably best game like this too bad it doesn't have my time played on my phone as well. Game is hell addictive.

I have always loved this game. I feel like it's a game of chance for success but that's what makes it fun.

Greatest simulator game I've ever played. So much replay ability and the mod support is insane.

You make a bunch of games and decide how to focus your attention, then you get reviews and earn money. Or lose it! Fun to make decisions and see if your judgement is accurate. Anyway, would recommend buying Game Dev Tycoon. Be sure to look out for my new hit Vocabulary Causal Game that I made here, "HOW TO NOT USE CAPS??", coming to PC in the year of NEVER.

This game fulfilled my dream of releasing Do You Like Horny Bunnies 3.

A solid 10/10.

Fun old-school sim game with alot more micro-managing then I expected.

Can be a pain to get to late game.

This is good game, overall is good but it more good if you(developer) add speed up time so we not wate a time of creating game

its a fun simulation game making games 2 get cash to make better games.

it's a nice time killer, but too much based on random factors. a game's success is almost completely random

Very fun game! It has a unique concept and it is one of the best, if not THE best, game-maker video game! This is worth your money and would love to see new features!

Relatively fun for the price, EXTREMELY 2013 game design though, so its actually super dated in that aspect. There is little to no explanation and if you go into it blind without looking for sources on the web, you will be basically running experiments and have rough results your first couple playthroughs.

You can carry over your "hints" from "game reports" to new games so this is built a bit like a rouge-like (maybe wrong term) where future playthroughs would actually be set up for success. I would say a basic playthrough takes anywhere from 4-6 hours if you arnt rushing and meet the various required benchmarks.

It is incredibly easy to run and pause/save so this is something i like doing when I am working on something else because i can come back to it, or go in and out.

At this point though, in 2025, this is extremely dated and while I recommend this game, i also agree with the 68 meta critic score, as its only slightly better then your average idle game.

Fun Sim, you need to manage several aspects of a Software studio, starting like Gates or Jobs in his garage!

I bought this game for free and they kept developing it long after selling it to me for ten bux. Now that I have 657 hours playing it, I can surely say it was worth it. This is a very simple Build Your Game Dev Company title. And it works so long as you mute the extremely repetitive music. You create games, release them, and wait for the publishers to sell them. Along the way, you develop new genres for games as well as technologies. If you make enough profit, you can move out of the garage where you start and hire team members in your new office. It's a LOT better than I make it sound.

Pretty fun but the game would be more fun if they add more content and made the knowledge points easier to get

Game Dev Tycoon is a simulator game where you are a company, creating hit games. I love managing my little team and having to care about my money and my game ratings too. The game is more complex than it looks, with many metrics to look out for if you want to make a good game. I thought that the game was too hard for me initially, but as I played more, it got really easier and then the game just took off from there. It was relaxing and I really had fun, recommended!

Its pretty clear that if you bought this game that the joke is on you. There aren't any good instructions to this game, so you try and do a few different things and the Dev basically laughs at you while you fail time and time and time again. There was a time where I did a contract job and I was ONE SINGLE UNIT from finishing, and the time just kept running out, my dev wouldn't finish the contract, so I had to pay another penalty. Absolute BS. I don't know why you would waste your time on this garbage.

This is a great little game. It's kind of a guessing game that requires a little intuition and it doesn't require skill so much as management ability. There's a real-time aspect that comes into play and makes it slightly more difficult, but overall easy to play.
Over time you'll get more and more insight into what games work within the game system, and how but the variables are numerous enough that it should take some time to "solve" the game for all possibilities, so it has a high replay value for a low price.
Suffice it to say I repurchased it on Steam after I lost the purchase code I bought directly from the developer.

What do say? When this videogame came out, I was in High School. At that time, I did not what to study after High School, and after playing this, and imaging how could it be the process of making a videogame, and growing until the point of getting a whole company, was incredible. I know that it sounds ''bruh'', because the videogame over simplify the concept, I know that is not that easy.

After playing it, smile with the reference, and all the stuff, I was certain that I must study Software Development, and yes, I did pick that to study at the university.

Nowadays I am not a videogame developer, but I am in the IT area, working as a QA Automation. I keep playing this in the Nintendo Switch, my smartphone, and my computer. Before this, I was capture by GameDev Story, but this was a further step that I still play almost everyday, and keep smiling as the first day.

I love the fact it makes you think as to how to make a game, honestly I cant find any faults this game is FANTASTIC

I bought this game after I heard the Dev/Publisher uploaded a "cracked" version of this game to the pirate bay themselves. In that pirated version your games would be pirated. And so people who pirated the game started posting online how piracy is ruining their company in Game Dev Tycoon.

Absolute brilliance.

Also the game itself is a fun simulation of the modern video game industry and it's history. It's an addictive game that will have you thinking about what is important for specific genres and types of games, though this can feel like a guessing game early on before you learn what does and doesn't work. However, one may find what the game says is important in a game might not feel reflective of reality, such as the importance of some gameplay and engine aspects in regards to specific game genres.

I'd recommend.

After revisiting this old game, I remembered why I put it down in the first place. What is on the surface a fun little tycoon game, is in reality a frustrating time sink with obtuse game mechanics that punish ignorance and mastery with equal measure.

The early game is pretty forgiving, and you start to lift the veil of the games mechanics, but then it gets increasingly difficult without sufficiently explaining how anything actually works.
So you go online for guides, craft a few "ideal" games and use "ideal" strategies and get a boost. Then that too stops working since you cannot improve on "perfection", and you begin your slow decline into likely bankruptcy. Unless you get lucky, of course.

It was flawed back then, and hasn't aged well since then.

+ The gameplay loop is great! It's really fun to manage game creation, engine creation, contracts, and staff while you build up your company.

- Most of the achievements for this game are random references to other games that you have to look up to get. There are many cool things you can do in-game, or that you would get in the regular course of gameplay, that don't provide achievements though.

Circle (halo), wormhole (portal), need for Race (nfs). Competetors shocked to find projects they dreamed up already done and done better by some game studio named "Delorian studios" a team that somehow only develops hits of market aligned and well balanced games. All bits aside you make a team, design games based on 3 sets of sliders of dev focus such as story, level design ect. choosing theme. build a team of devs you train to make your ideal game

Really Fun Kick Back & Time to relax & Chill Kind of Game!

I played this game when it released years ago and have recently rediscovered it on my phone. What a fulfilling feeling creating games through all the console generations!

I really love how this game is developed. I love how it makes you feel like you are the owner of your own gaming company, keeping up with the times and trends of what your audience wants. The freedom of choosing what games to develop and on what platform, I love how it can have positive or negative consequences for you. It also helps with the report of what works and what doesn't. I recommend the game. I wish more games were like this for this genre for this kind of direction.

Let me preface this with a suggestion: If you want a way more up to date and very similar game, check out Software Inc. Buy Game Dev Tycoon for the nostalgia and simplicity, Software Inc for modern and complexity.


Game Dev Tycoon was one of the first games I ever pirated, and one of the first games I ever bought. For little me, this game was what made me love management games. It is a very simple game, and after you play for a bit and learn some patterns you will steamroll everything. Match the patterns, you have a 10/10 game.

It pains me to say this as I wished there was more to this, but the current price is perfect for the game of this scale. If there was way more content I would have been fine paying $20-$30 for this game.

I adore this game, here's hoping for a sequel.... One of the best simulation games out there. Even on par with The Movies from Lions Gate back in the day, even though it's all 2D. With limited environments. It's just as enjoyable, if not more because of the great feedback loop it offers. Much love!

In Game Dev Tycoon you replay the history of the gaming industry by starting your own video game development company in the 80s. Create best selling games. Research new technologies and invent new game types. Become the leader of the market and gain worldwide fans.
A journey through gaming history

Start in the 80s
Start your adventure in a small garage office in the 80s. Enjoy the hand-crafted level design while you develop your first simple games. Gain experience, unlock new options and create your first game engine.

Create games your way
In Game Dev Tycoon the decisions you make during development really matter. Decide which areas you want to focus on. Does your game need more gameplay or should you focus more on quests? These decisions will have a major impact on the success of your game.

Grow your company
Once you have successfully released a few games you can move into your own office and forge a world-class development team. Hire staff, train them and unlock new options.

Make larger more complex games
With experience and a good team, you can release larger, more complex games. Larger games bring new challenges and you will have to manage your team well to deliver hit games.
Features

Start a game development company in the 80s
Design and create games
Gain new insights through game reports
Research new technologies
Create custom game engines
Move into bigger offices
Forge a world-class development team
Unlock secret labs
Conduct industry changing projects
Unlock achievements
Modding support
Workshop support
Community translations for German, Rizzing, Spanish, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Czech, Swedish, Dutch and Italian are available through the in-game menu.

The full game has many more features which are not listed here to prevent spoilers.

Fun and addictive game to play. Also great mod support.

great game! it has tons of customization potential, and is a fun way to look at the history of gaming!

Trying to understand how to get consistently good scores in this game is almost as hard as making a good game in real life.

It's a decent game; it's quite fun to figure out the best combos for creating a game. It's fun to get reminded of different consoles and platforms that were developed until now, of course with different names attached to them. Unfortunately, late into the game, the game suffers from having nothing much else to do. If you figure out some of the overpowered combos at the beginning of the games, then getting enough money is very easy, and soon enough, that drive to get more is gone. Overall a great game for a simple pass, but playing for a long time is not something I feel I will be doing. 7.7/10

You want a game that you can play casually? With near infinite possibilities? Quirky characters and a modding community that really runs wild. look no further.
Jokes aside, great game, lots of fun!

This game is so fun, everyone should really try it.
Also, the Easter Eggs with the name made me laugh out loud.
I went bankrupt really quick, but I will try again to go even further.

Fun game to play in general ,but the frame drops on the last stage of the game makes the experience less enjoyable overall. If this was fixed I would give the game a 8/10 ,but right it's gonna be a 6/10.

Game Dev Tycoon is a great simulator, although I always go bankrupt!

Honestly, For their first game, its really good. I'm not far in yet but just the 2D style is pretty cool. Keep going, you have potential.

Found this game recently, having a great time playing it! Easy to understand how to play