Wednesday 20 July 2011

Game Dev Story: Addicting and Fun


Lately on my Android life, I found a game that interests me (somehow, hehehe) on the Android Market with the title Game Dev Story. At first, I thought this game is somewhat technical (particularly in making games, which is also my interest), so I downloaded its "Lite" version to test it out. Graphics are somewhat like the games you see on GameBoy with a button telling me to play this game (actually it is labeled as "new game", hehehe). I was then brought to a world identical to ours but me as a president of "Sunny Studios". I found my Secretary welcomes me and tells me to hire new employees. Your ultimate goal, as the president of your company, is to be on top of the video game industry.

Now lets get back to the real life. Your Secretary in the game tells you hints while your still familiarizing the game. You have about 2 employees (that are doing nothing at the very beginning). You can add your employees by hiring. You can do many things to your employees like training them (training boosts their stats, making them more productive in making games), level them up (same as training but their salaries increased, ouch), change their careers (change their job description when they are at maximum level, which is Lvl 5, and rotate their jobs until you get an option making him/her a Hardware Engineer), give them items that boosts their stats, and fire them (ouch).


You make your company productive by doing jobs outside (contracts) and making games (new game). Contracts gives you small but fast cash (you need to finish the job of course). Making games, like real life, is expensive. You need to purchase licenses to develop for a console (BTW, there are many consoles in the game), choosing a genre and a type of game also has a price, even the development process (direction of the game).

To much of the expenses, lets go through the return of your investments. Actually, the money you make by making a game depends on your game. So you need to make sure you have the right combinations of genre and type (there are many in the internet you can find), employees with good stats, good timing (which is usually december), and the right console. Not all consoles in the game gives you a lot of money (The game consoles in Game Dev Story are real life consoles, with different names and design of course. Choose the ones that look like a Game Boy and a Play Station). To ensure you have many sales, you must advertise your game to make many fans. The more fans you have, the more sales you get.

I wasn't able to continue my quest as a president of "Sunny Studios" because I just downloaded the lite version. Even so, It was addicting and fun! I love the game. Even my girlfriend is enjoying this game. The technicality of making a game was simplified by a game making it more fun and enjoyable. As a game developer, I learned a lot from this game.

I want you to try it out. You can download the game in the Android Market:

The game is also available on iPhone.

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Chitika