Not since ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ have I been hooked on a videogame this badly. ‘Game Dev Story’ won me over and I just can’t stop.
When’s the last time you’ve been so stuck on a game that you just can’t bring yourself to stop playing? That’s happened to me several times for games like ‘Plants vs. Zombies’, ‘World of Warcraft’, ‘Daggerfall’, ‘Borderlands’, and of course ‘Tetris’.
These are games that make you say “Just one more turn” or “As soon as I level, I’ll stop.” You rarely do, of course. You want to keep going, to see what’s next, to complete just one more challenge or to make your character just a little bit better.
My current addiction is called ‘Game Dev Story’. This is the first time I’ve been hooked on a phone game, unless ‘Tetris’ counts. And here’s the kicker – it’s not even on my phone. As I type this, I have the game running next to me on my roommate’s Android phone, borrowed with the promise that I won’t answer any calls or texts.
Despite my innate desire to snoop, I wouldn’t even think about answering a call. That would take me out of the game.
‘Game Dev Story’ is a simulation game for Apple and Android phones that lets you run a game studio. You hire the staff, pick the console you’ll develop for, and choose the game genre and type. It’s just about what you’d expect from what amounts to being a work simulator.
Once you’ve created and dubugged your game, it gets reviewed by four members of the press that give it a rating between 1 and 10. After that your game ships out, sales come in and you’re off to develop your next game.
That’s a simplified version of the gameplay, but that’s the gist of it. As the owner, you also get to manage and level up your staff, use boosts to ensure a great game, and change jobs around so your employees can develop to the fullest. When you get really good, you can even create your own console.
Everything that happens in the game in terms of console releases echoes what happened in reality, but with a slight variation to avoid copyrights. Intendo releases the Super IES, while Saga unveils the Exodus to the world.
There are plenty of little gags like that, including the games of your competitors and the names of your employees. My current staff list includes the names Walt Sidney and Stephen Jobson, but I just fired Gilly Bates.
I currently have several Hall of Fame games with tremendous sales, but haven’t yet won a game of the year award, despite one Online Cowboy RPG named ‘CowboyCraft’ with a 38/40 from the critics. There’s some tough competition out there.
If you’ve got a passion for videogames and you don’t mind getting ridiculously hooked on one for your phone, you can pick up ‘Game Dev Story’ for $3.99 on iTunes or for the very weird price of $2.52 on the Android Market.