It's strange that App Store games above the 59p price point (or even £1.19) are often the subject of internet criticism that they are 'too expensive', despite being less than a shop-bought sandwich or magazine. Game Dev Story, on iPhone, comes in at a 'weighty' £2.39 and has been subject to such criticism. I used to pay £1.99 for Mastertronic games on the Spectrum back in the 80s - this is only 40p more (and considerably less in real terms) and is a finely-crafted gem of addictiveness.
At its simplest, it is a business simulation, where you attempt to guide your start-up company to success, fame and fortune. The USP here is that the company in question is a videogame developer and the graphics are isometric 16-bit style.
After first hiring a team of coders, you put them to work on either a game or contract work. A number of consoles are available (all of which have a sizeable licence fee that must be paid up front) but you'll most likely start on churning out PC games, where both costs and profits are lower, before being able to afford to move onto consoles.
Games come in a number of types and genres, more of which are unlocked as you play and your team's skills progress (training them helps here). If the genre and type of game are well-suited - samurai RPG, for example - your game is more likely to succeed. Probably best to avoid Ninja Dating games though.
The development work has four attributes - fun, creativity, graphics and sound - and it's up to your team to maximise these categories. Each can be increased by power-ups bought from a travelling salesman who periodically appears and, at least once during development, one of your staff will come to you asking for permission to attempt to boost an aspect of the game.
At the end of a game's development, the bugs that have worked their way into your game can be programmed out, or you can release a game full of bugs (not that that would ever happen in real life).
After the game is finished, it is reviewed by hard-nosed games journalists, who can be stingy with their scores. Fortunately for my games company, games will still sell even if they review poorly, as in real life (as Wii shovelware Carnival Games's 1.5m copies sold shows).
The game works within an annual cycle, with some events taking place every year. There is a sense of progression throughout the game, with new consoles being brought to the market and old ones being discontinued as the years pass.
A proud moment
The game is extremely addictive - I have played it for lengthy periods when I could have instead been playing on one of my 'proper' game consoles. The urge to develop 'one more game' (which leads to another and another....) is very strong. Business in the real world is not an interesting subject but pseudo-business with cute 16-bit graphics is.
And for less than the cost of pint of beer.
