Game Dev Tycoon Review

I have to say that I like simulation games, though I am not usually very good at them. Recently, during the Steam Holiday Sale, I was able to pick up Greenheart Games' Game Dev Tycoon for next to nothing. That was great for me, but possibly less great for the developer so I thought I would do my part by posting a review.

Game Dev Tycoon, as the name implies, has you starting out a new game development company in your garage. You get to choose what platforms to make your games on, what genre and type of game as well as how much money and time you will put into the various aspects of the game. All of this is done with a simple pop-up menu system while you look down into your fledgling game studio.

All of the usual hallmarks of a tycoon simulation are there. You have the tech tree that you can research to unlock new technologies for your game engines (surround sound, cut-scenes, dialogue trees, full-motion video, etc.). You also are responsible for hiring, developing and/or firing your staff as your company grows. You choose what type of booth you want at the annual convention and how you want market your game. You also decide when the games you develop are finished and ready to ship.

To make a game in Game Dev Tycoon, you select the genre, platform and type of game you want. What you can choose depends on what systems you have licenses to, what you have researched and what type of game engines you have developed for your team to code on. As you make games, you will gain research points that can be spent (along with the money you make selling your games) on training your staff or researching the latest and greatest technology. You also are responsible for balancing your staff on projects (once you start doing medium or large projects) to ensure no one is over-allocated or burnt out.

Once a game is finished, you release it and then get to see the reviews come in. The reviews are all a simple phrase and a number from four different game reviewers. The higher the review score the more-likely you will have a breakout hit that can make millions for your company. If you have a string of poor games or need money, you can also take on contract work for some quick cash to keep your studio afloat. You can also work with a publisher on a game, which may give you access to a larger audience but at the expense of them taking the lion share of the revenues and dictating what type of game you have to make.

I really liked how the game systems that you can develop for are modeled on real-life systems. That does have a drawback of making Game Dev Tycoon a little easier if you know your console history and which platforms to avoid. It is also always suspenseful waiting to see what rating your new game will get, hoping for a blockbuster. I still haven't figured out exactly what makes the reviewers like a game most as each game you develop has to have the right genre and style for the platform as well as a lot of design and technology invested by your team to seem to get a lot of customers but that may not result in a highly rated game.

If you like to do some high-level managing of a game studio and call the shots, Game Dev Tycoon is an easy to learn & play and fun way to do that. It is also relatively cheap whether on sale or not (typically $9.99 on Steam). I give Game Dev Tycoon 4 Mick Happies. Now I have to get my studio, Entertainbert, back to making PoE 2.

FTL: Faster Than Light Review

FTL: Faster Than Light is a space simulator where you and your crew are piloting a ship trying to run from a Rebel fleet bent on stopping you from delivering key data to the Federation. FTL was developed by Subset Games (Matthew Davis and Justin Ma) and partially funded through a Kickstarter campaign. The game is available (Mac, PC, Linux) via the FTL website or through Steam.

I first heard about FTL from listing to the Major Nelson podcast where E mentioned that he was playing the game. From there I searched for the game and found the FTL website. There wasn’t much detail there, so I happened to come across this YouTube video of a play-through that gave a really good overview of the game:

FTL has minimalistic top-down graphics and real-time combat. You control all aspects of your ship from how much power you put into various ship systems to where you station your crew (they add bonuses as they become more proficient at a job – faster weapon power up, etc.) and how you upgrade your ship. The items you most have to manage are fuel, missiles, drone parts and scrap - the currency of the future. The controls are point and click and easy to learn and you can pause when necessary – which it is if your ship has been boarded, has a hull breach and is on fire – to help you think about where to move crew or what part of an enemy ship to target.

The basic elements of the game have you jumping (using FTL drives) to various spots in a given star sector. At each stop you may run into hostile ships, potential quests, black market stores or other challenges or dangers. At each you will have a series of choices to make that may help or hurt your overall goal to escape the Rebel fleet and reach the Federation. With each jump you make in a sector, it will (hopefully) take you closer to the exit point (where you can jump to the next sector) and away from the Rebel fleet (shown on the jump screen as a growing danger area you want to avoid – read you fight enemy ships every jump).

FTL doesn’t waste much energy on the graphics, but the sound is great and the game play is really engaging. It is similar to rogue-like games (Rogue, NetHack, etc.) in that death of your ship and crew is permanent. I found that it made me think fondly of NetTrek and similar minimal graphics starship games of the past. There are also Stats and Achievements to help you track how well you have done on each game. There are also multiple ship designs that can be unlocked by various achievements. I have played six games so far and unlocked one new ship design and haven’t come close to winning the game on normal, succumbing to a different death each time.

FTL is hard, fun and re-playable and at $10, you should go out and get it. If you wonder if FTL is right for you, watch the video above for a little while to get a feel for how it works and how quickly things can go from great to running at the edge of your seat. FTL gets 4 Mick Happies. Safe travels in the darkness of space.