Game Review: Game Dev Story (Mobile)

If you need proof that the mobile market isn’t filled with just freemium trash & that there are some developers with actual skill & dedication to their craft…look no further then Game Dev Story.

One of the finest games to be released on the mobile market, it sees you take control of a small time video games company with the aim of turning it into a global giant. A simulation game, it follows the timeline of the video game industry with consoles mirroring the actual ones released sporadically.

The idea is for you to make hit titles after having agreed licences with the console makers. Hiring staff, training them & ensuring you’re getting the best out of them is just one part of creating a great game.

Choosing the right platform to release your game is important as each hold a share of the market. Releasing a high budget game on a console that has been on the market for years & has only a small percentage of the market won’t translate into many sales.

Genre & type are a combination that has to appeal to a certain type of gamer. At first you’ll be limited to what you can do in these categories but as you grow more options will become available. Want to make a ninja racing game or an audio novel about golf? Game Dev Story has many combinations that you can try to see what works. All of these options cost money & increase your overall development costs.

At first money will come & go very quickly…you’ll end up in debt easily so you do have to balance your budget well. Early on it’s sensible to just focus on one console & making cheap puzzle or card games. This will start the money moving even if it doesn’t reap huge returns.

As a game is being developed you can control the speed of development & which staff work on certain areas of the game such as story, graphics, fun or sound. There is such a sense of pride upon completing a game & seeing the review scores coming in. These scores are a great incentive to do better, watching reviewers destroy a game you spent millions on all because you thought a card game about robots was a good idea is heart-breaking but a great incentive to try again.

As your company grows so will your surroundings as you move to bigger & better offices allowing you to hire even more staff & handle tougher projects such as developing a console.

The bigger your fan base, the more sales you’ll get from your games. Advertisements, events & the game awards are great ways to promote yourself & the games you sell. The game awards that take place at the end of the year in particular are a big event & you’ll strive to create something worthy of winning the Game of the Year award & the million dollar prize (I’ve been a runner-up 4 times, still waiting for that award!).

As simulations go this is one of the best on the market , Game Dev Story is very addictive with a huge amount of freedom to develop your company as you want.

Quite simply brilliant.

For the price (£2.29) you are getting one of the best games available on mobiles to date. Many horrible free to play games expect more money just for a handful of extra turns. Buy this…