Game Dev Tycoon Review (CourtJesterCowboy)
Game Dev Tycoon is not very "fun"... Its more "challenging & intriguing", until it isn't anymore.
I spent most of the time zoning out, somewhat frustrated, fishing for working combinations blindly, while almost going bankrupt... then the big hit games would rejuvenate me into playing a bit more. Maybe that is the point? Either way, not the point for me. There simply isn't enough visual/audio entertainment going on, like in Roller-coaster Tycoon for example, while I try to struggle my way towards combinations that are preset.
I began to try and fish back into old combinations that supposedly should work for certain platforms and I began to be punished for seemingly no reason, even though I did my best to upgrade engines and whatnot to keep it fresh at the same time. As that was occurring, more and more factors were being presented, like hiring/training people and properly placing them into dev categories, which ramped the "difficulty" too quickly for my liking, trapping me in a corner of no longer enjoying the game. Also, side contract missions for quick cash seem to fail and penalize more than succeed, and it was apparently random, rather than maybe a mini game that we actually could be challenged with and influence our side jobs with. I was not a fan of that at all.
The final straw for me was when I took a promotional job to make a specific game on a specific console. I had already made a couple games on that console and figured out two of the three factors that supposedly worked best on that platform. I thought to myself "Oooo nice I got this, I already know what works here mostly, ill just combine what I found and were gonna get a hit" I spent the rest of my money researching the best possible engine, made the game they wanted to the best of my abilities (After you find categories that work on a platform, it starts helping you with dev categories time amounts) and I proceeded to somehow make the worst game out of all 15-20 games I made. The million+ dollar game I made that supposedly was promoted on a mainline NES, somehow scored a 2.5/10 and made no cash vs the crappy 15k game I made in a garage for PC that made me like 300k with zero promotion. In that moment I laughed and realized I was wasting my time, I prefer games that still give you mental satisfaction regardless of outcome.
I cant see myself really getting much more out of this game. I will likely cheat it just to shoot to the top and see what it would have to offer for me if I were willing to waste the time.