Have you ever been playing a game and thought out loud to yourself, “I can make something better than this piece of junk”, or “I can easily make something as awesome as this”? Ever wanted to make your own video game but lack the creativity or knowledge of today’s thingamabob-gadgets and do-hickeys? Well, it is your lucky day. Greenheart Games have released their flagship title appropriately named Game Dev Tycoon, a business sim where you start and run your very own game company.

 In Game Dev Tycoon you begin your journey at the early years of video games. You begin by giving your company a name and by creating your games on a single workstation in your garage. From this humble origin you must now make a name for yourself in the world of game development. Do not worry about about the technical aspects of the game-making process, creating games has been simplified in Game Dev Tycoon. It is as easy as picking a game topic, its genre, and the target platform and you are on your way to creating the next hit.

As the owner, you call the shots as to what game is created; that werewolf RPG game you had rattling around in your brain? You can make it a reality. Zombie romance sim, government action-adventure, transport RPGs? Sure, why not. Mix and match to your adventurous whims.

Actual development is divided into stages where you adjust sliders in order to focus on certain aspects such as dialogue, graphics, sound, and so on. Care must be given to this as each stage will affect how well your game fares out compared to other games of that genre. Action games heavy in dialogue and RPGs lacking in story or graphics may fare poorly in the market, so you must use experience and your best judgement in order to make the game focused on what is most important to that specific game. Not everything will work, but it is fun to experiment with obscure mixes of genres and subjects. You never know what may become the next smash hit.

Every start up begins somewhere

Your options are very limited at the beginning, with only your garage as your office, yourself as the sole employee, and only the early infancy of computer technology as your platform. As time progresses you will gain new platforms and technology to work with as companies form and begin to release new consoles. As well as new tech, you gain experience with each new game released, new tech to research and, hopefully, some income from your game sales for which you can use to fund more projects or expand your company.

Speaking of platforms, the timeline in Game Dev Tycoon develops much like the real-life game industry. As the gaming industry grows, parodied versions of companies such as Ninvento will release game consoles and even form rivalries with other industry players such as Vena. Early on you gain access to consoles such as the Ninvento TES and the Vena Oasis for your game development. Those names sound familiar? These thinly-veiled parodies of real-life companies were a great source of amusement for myself. It was fun trying to guess what the next console or company would be named.

Cleverly “disguised” company rivals

If you have managed your money and releases well enough you will eventually be able to move into bigger and better offices. These offer a much larger workspace than a dingy garage and will allow you to hire employees and expand your company. As you grow even more you can expand even further into the industry by adding your own research department or develop your very own console. This all adds up to more tech, more development options, and more income. The amount of options available to you is simple astounding and frankly a little overwhelming.

I have played other similar game dev simulation games in the past such as Game Dev Story, but GreenHeart Games’ adaptation offers a bit more “meat”, so to speak. The game continued to impress me at each turn and gave me a few chuckles along the way. Very few issues come up with this game other than some frame rate slowdown at the later stages of the game, but it is bearable and it didn’t bother me so much.

I adore this game. It caters to my whims as an aspiring game developer and it just simply oozes with charm. If you want to fulfill your dreams as the head of your own game company or like business sims, give Game Dev Tycoon a go. You won’t be disappointed.

I wholeheartedly agree with their reviews

I would have to agree with the above rating. Simply marvelous.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Buy or demo the game at GreenHeart Games

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Image courtesy of bedroomproducersblog.com

Most people spend much of their lives dreaming about hitting it big at the top of the charts, though sadly this is a dream only ever realised by a very select few. However, one of the biggest reasons most don’t ever seem to get close to the ambitions is the fact that they don’t actually make any efforts to get there in the first place. They know what they want, but instead they sit idly by and let others soak up all the glory.

The biggest problem for most is knowing where to start as it’s one thing to have aspirations of grandeur, but another to know how to take them from your head and put them into practice. This also applies to those that may have plenty of talents in some areas but are limited in others – they might have the makings of a perfect song in their head, but how on Earth to get it transformed into something real?

Well, the answer may in fact be here in the form of the online beats selling and buying service.

Ever since the commercialization of music – which happened way too long ago to remember – those not lucky enough to be selected by the big labels have had near zero chance of getting their music heard and certainly no chance of making any money from it. There just haven’t been enough outlets for undiscovered talent to make a name for itself, while manual efforts and websites have usually come to nothing.

As of right now though, there are new services joining the industry that specialise in allowing amateur musicians and artists to sell and buy instrumentals online, in order to benefit both sides of the party. Those looking to make money from their talent have the ideal and specifically dedicated platform upon which to showcase what they’ve got to offer, while those looking to make some real headway with their music can pick up world-class instrumentals for the lowest possible prices.

Choosing the right site for such services ensures that the tracks and beats purchased are already of industry quality and are therefore good to go. There’s literally no better or easier way of bolstering your effort with professional instrumentals.

The thing is, playing a guitar or singing for example is pretty easy to do in a confined space – playing and recording drumbeats is anything but. As such, even if you’ve no intention of making it big in the industry and just want the most enjoyable way to improve your playing, buying a few beats online could be the perfect choice.

And what’s more, once you’ve bought the beats they are your property for life, which means that if you choose to make changes to them and add on some of your own work to resell them at a higher price, you have every right to do so.

These kinds of services have been sought after for so long and are finally here. And sure, they might not make you a millionaire overnight, but it’s technically never been easier to start your own bedroom music business and make a few coins.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.