http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/game-dev-story/id396085661?mt=8 I didn't see any mention of this game here, so I thought I would see if anyone has played it or know anything about it. Game Dev Story Kairosoft Co.,Ltd Manage your own game company and try to create a million-selling game in this unique simulation. Features the ability t… TouchArcade Rating: $4.99 Buy Now Watch Media DetailsManage your own game company and try to create a million-selling game in this unique simulation. Features the ability to develop your company's own game console, plus a system for changing your staff members' professions. Hire talented people and train them to develop their skills. As your staff gets more experience, you will unlock a wider array of game genres and content to develop. Try to find the most popular combinations and develop for the latest platform! Your staff members can have a variety of game-related professions, from programmer to sound engineer. Work hard and you may reach the top of the video game industry! -- Try searching for "Kairosoft" to see all of our games, or visit us at https://kairopark.jp. Be sure to check out both our free-to-play and our paid games! https://twitter.com/kairokun2010 Information Seller:Kairosoft Co.,Ltd Genre:Simulation, Strategy Release:Oct 09, 2010 Updated:Feb 21, 2024 Version:2.61 Size:73.6 MB TouchArcade Rating: User Rating: (22) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal jsrco Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Oct 15, 2009 2,134 1 38 Coordinator Seattle https://www.Fatthunder.com #2 jsrco, Oct 9, 2010 I am not into it enough yet to know. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #3 LordGek, Oct 9, 2010 So any word on this? Could be cool. jsrco Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Oct 15, 2009 2,134 1 38 Coordinator Seattle https://www.Fatthunder.com #4 jsrco, Oct 9, 2010 I am enjoying it. It is definitely a different experience. You hire new employees in addition to the ones you have and they level up. The more they level up, the better games can be produced. This isn't something I could talk about quickly... there looks like there is a bit to it. Worth my money and time so far. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #5 LordGek, Oct 10, 2010 Totally open ended or are they giving you finite goals? acrotran Well-Known Member Jul 31, 2010 741 0 0 #6 acrotran, Oct 10, 2010 Is any of it random? jsrco Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Oct 15, 2009 2,134 1 38 Coordinator Seattle https://www.Fatthunder.com #7 jsrco, Oct 10, 2010 Not to far in but hiding from the high score and gameplay, it looks open ended. weaver523 Well-Known Member Apr 29, 2010 63 0 0 #8 weaver523, Oct 10, 2010 I picked this up and it's pretty fun. You train your employees to make them better, you can choose to contract out a job or hire a new employee. I attended Sengas unveiling of a new console and now have to save up for a license to develop for it. Also to boost your cash, you can take contract for other companies. If you miss the deadline they will threaten never to use your company again. It is open ended and you can do whatever you want. I'll answer any questions anyone has. ojtitus Well-Known Member Jul 7, 2010 3,228 5 38 Male Canton, Ohio #9 ojtitus, Oct 10, 2010 I love simulation games and this one sounds pretty solid, I will probably be picking this one up in the next day or two. If anyone else has anything they'd like to share about the game, I would like to hear it. Thanks StrangeCat Well-Known Member Oct 9, 2010 110 0 16 #10 StrangeCat, Oct 10, 2010 Oh.. its really a totally different experience in playing this game. Enjoying it... LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #11 LordGek, Oct 10, 2010 Game Impressions Okay I gave in and am having fun so far. It is a cute stat based game development simulation. While the game is fairly open ended, your primary objective is to make as much money as possible in your company's 20 year career (you can continue longer but it will be unscored) while avoiding going completely bankrupt. You hire staff and embark on relatively safe contract work (low risk and development costs for your company, but not usually as rewarding in the long run) or develop your own game (higher risk and development costs, but much bigger potential rewards and professional experience). Each of these projects are broken into distinct developmental phases with certain character skills (Programming, Scenario, Graphics, Sound) playing a bigger part than others. With most phases you need to make a call as to whether to do something in-house or to hire a free-lance professional for it. Free-Lancers can often do a far better job, but cost a lot of money and will deny your team some key development experience for down the road. As a result of these projects you'll gain Research Points (sort of like communal experience points) and Cash. These Research Points can be used to power little one time boosts or to level up some of your workers (the catch with leveling up workers is that while it increases their skills, it also will increase what they demand in salaries). The game, while keeping the actual game making very abstract, does give you a lot of leeway in deciding what kind of game you want to have your company develop (which platform, which genre, what theme, and a few other parameters). These choices are more than just meaningless window dressing as the game tells you of their various popularity levels and your company is rated on its experience in each of these themes and genres (this is an aspect, if I read it right, that carries on from game session to game session, so while all of your cash and worker stats are reset each time you start a new game, this genre experience does not reset). Some of the game's more hidden mechanics are how these genre and theme aspects combine together (a Puzzle Samurai themed game definitely goes against expectations even if these components alone are both fairly popular). Another fun aspect of console game development is the whole buying of a license. These are pretty hefty fees your company has to pay for the right to develop on a given system and force you to make some very strategic decisions...like do you just develop on a system with a low licensing fee, or save up to go for that really expensive one since that system appears to have a bigger market share. Lastly how long do you keep developing on a system once its market share has started to dwindle? My only whine in the end, and I'm sure it will just become apparent over time, is that when playing the game for the first time there is no clear way to know the significance of the various stats. Like I know I just developed a game that has a score of 37 in creativity and 46 in graphics...but I have no idea if that is good nor how it compares to my competitions' games. You can even get to the point where you develop your own console system. A HUGE risk but if you work it right you can make buckets (be the next Sony Playstation, not the 3DO). 4/5 ojtitus Well-Known Member Jul 7, 2010 3,228 5 38 Male Canton, Ohio #12 ojtitus, Oct 10, 2010 Thanks for the review LG! Sounds like something I would enjoy, especially since you can continue playing as long as you want after the main story is over. randomisthehero Well-Known Member Aug 31, 2010 117 0 16 Florida #13 randomisthehero, Oct 10, 2010 would love to see some gameplay if anyone can find a video or perhaps post one. jsrco Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Oct 15, 2009 2,134 1 38 Coordinator Seattle https://www.Fatthunder.com #14 jsrco, Oct 10, 2010 I stayed up till 5 in the morning making games trying to master the art of the "Romantic SIM RPG." Never got good reviews, but I had a ton of fans and it always made it on the sales charts. This game is friggen awesome. weaver523 Well-Known Member Apr 29, 2010 63 0 0 #15 weaver523, Oct 11, 2010 Excellent write up LordGek. I was up late as well just making that one more game before I go to bed. I hit 20 years this morning and decided to keep going. I've moved twice into a better studio. Don't know if there are more studios or not. I hope the developer continues to support this game and puts out some updates. Like: Maybe when the magazine comes up it lists the top ten games at that moment. I'd like the MMO genre added (if it's not in) and with it monthly costs for servers and a window that details the user base you have and monthly/yearly income, this would mean the game has a several year shelf life. You can only have 1 MMO active at a time. The games need to be on the shelf longer as some games are played several years after they come out (Star Craft, Counter Strike, Diablo), but this would only be the case with games that reach a certain popularity. All in all this is an excellent game well worth the cost. headcaseGames Well-Known Member Jun 26, 2009 1,869 0 0 Mobile Game Developer Hollywood, CA http://www.headcasegames.com #16 headcaseGames, Oct 11, 2010 it sounds pretty sick. Are there- -back stabbing producers, clawing their way over one another? -promised royalties that the publisher refuses to pay, resulting in mass exodus of staff? -poorly-planned games which sound wonderful at first but become so lost in poorly-planned "development hell" that most of the creative team must get laid off? -rampant alcoholism within the dev community? -spouses who leave the staffers because they must exist in perpetual crunch, constantly neglecting their loved ones? ...sorry, did not mean to sound jaded, enjoy your video game KoolKing Well-Known Member May 17, 2010 309 0 0 Valrico, FL #17 KoolKing, Oct 11, 2010 Question for those who've played this: It looks like the only other app from this dev was a Japanese version of the game. Their website is also rather bare bones. Have you noticed any strange grammar or wonky translation? weaver523 Well-Known Member Apr 29, 2010 63 0 0 #18 weaver523, Oct 11, 2010 I haven't notice any bad grammar or oddities. If you like simulation type games, give this a try. best 4 bucks I've spent yet. jsrco Well-Known Member Patreon Silver Oct 15, 2009 2,134 1 38 Coordinator Seattle https://www.Fatthunder.com #19 jsrco, Oct 11, 2010 Actually, if this is a translated game, I am shocked. It has a few chuckle worthy parodied titles in it. KoolKing Well-Known Member May 17, 2010 309 0 0 Valrico, FL #20 KoolKing, Oct 11, 2010 Yeah, the "Jake Kirby" in the screenshot was a nice touch. AppShopper shows the Japanese version was released in July with what looks like a slightly different interface, for those interested. Just wanted to make sure since this dev doesn't have much history yet. Thanks for the input guys. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) 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I am enjoying it. It is definitely a different experience. You hire new employees in addition to the ones you have and they level up. The more they level up, the better games can be produced. This isn't something I could talk about quickly... there looks like there is a bit to it. Worth my money and time so far.
I picked this up and it's pretty fun. You train your employees to make them better, you can choose to contract out a job or hire a new employee. I attended Sengas unveiling of a new console and now have to save up for a license to develop for it. Also to boost your cash, you can take contract for other companies. If you miss the deadline they will threaten never to use your company again. It is open ended and you can do whatever you want. I'll answer any questions anyone has.
I love simulation games and this one sounds pretty solid, I will probably be picking this one up in the next day or two. If anyone else has anything they'd like to share about the game, I would like to hear it. Thanks
Game Impressions Okay I gave in and am having fun so far. It is a cute stat based game development simulation. While the game is fairly open ended, your primary objective is to make as much money as possible in your company's 20 year career (you can continue longer but it will be unscored) while avoiding going completely bankrupt. You hire staff and embark on relatively safe contract work (low risk and development costs for your company, but not usually as rewarding in the long run) or develop your own game (higher risk and development costs, but much bigger potential rewards and professional experience). Each of these projects are broken into distinct developmental phases with certain character skills (Programming, Scenario, Graphics, Sound) playing a bigger part than others. With most phases you need to make a call as to whether to do something in-house or to hire a free-lance professional for it. Free-Lancers can often do a far better job, but cost a lot of money and will deny your team some key development experience for down the road. As a result of these projects you'll gain Research Points (sort of like communal experience points) and Cash. These Research Points can be used to power little one time boosts or to level up some of your workers (the catch with leveling up workers is that while it increases their skills, it also will increase what they demand in salaries). The game, while keeping the actual game making very abstract, does give you a lot of leeway in deciding what kind of game you want to have your company develop (which platform, which genre, what theme, and a few other parameters). These choices are more than just meaningless window dressing as the game tells you of their various popularity levels and your company is rated on its experience in each of these themes and genres (this is an aspect, if I read it right, that carries on from game session to game session, so while all of your cash and worker stats are reset each time you start a new game, this genre experience does not reset). Some of the game's more hidden mechanics are how these genre and theme aspects combine together (a Puzzle Samurai themed game definitely goes against expectations even if these components alone are both fairly popular). Another fun aspect of console game development is the whole buying of a license. These are pretty hefty fees your company has to pay for the right to develop on a given system and force you to make some very strategic decisions...like do you just develop on a system with a low licensing fee, or save up to go for that really expensive one since that system appears to have a bigger market share. Lastly how long do you keep developing on a system once its market share has started to dwindle? My only whine in the end, and I'm sure it will just become apparent over time, is that when playing the game for the first time there is no clear way to know the significance of the various stats. Like I know I just developed a game that has a score of 37 in creativity and 46 in graphics...but I have no idea if that is good nor how it compares to my competitions' games. You can even get to the point where you develop your own console system. A HUGE risk but if you work it right you can make buckets (be the next Sony Playstation, not the 3DO). 4/5
Thanks for the review LG! Sounds like something I would enjoy, especially since you can continue playing as long as you want after the main story is over.
I stayed up till 5 in the morning making games trying to master the art of the "Romantic SIM RPG." Never got good reviews, but I had a ton of fans and it always made it on the sales charts. This game is friggen awesome.
Excellent write up LordGek. I was up late as well just making that one more game before I go to bed. I hit 20 years this morning and decided to keep going. I've moved twice into a better studio. Don't know if there are more studios or not. I hope the developer continues to support this game and puts out some updates. Like: Maybe when the magazine comes up it lists the top ten games at that moment. I'd like the MMO genre added (if it's not in) and with it monthly costs for servers and a window that details the user base you have and monthly/yearly income, this would mean the game has a several year shelf life. You can only have 1 MMO active at a time. The games need to be on the shelf longer as some games are played several years after they come out (Star Craft, Counter Strike, Diablo), but this would only be the case with games that reach a certain popularity. All in all this is an excellent game well worth the cost.
it sounds pretty sick. Are there- -back stabbing producers, clawing their way over one another? -promised royalties that the publisher refuses to pay, resulting in mass exodus of staff? -poorly-planned games which sound wonderful at first but become so lost in poorly-planned "development hell" that most of the creative team must get laid off? -rampant alcoholism within the dev community? -spouses who leave the staffers because they must exist in perpetual crunch, constantly neglecting their loved ones? ...sorry, did not mean to sound jaded, enjoy your video game
Question for those who've played this: It looks like the only other app from this dev was a Japanese version of the game. Their website is also rather bare bones. Have you noticed any strange grammar or wonky translation?
I haven't notice any bad grammar or oddities. If you like simulation type games, give this a try. best 4 bucks I've spent yet.
Actually, if this is a translated game, I am shocked. It has a few chuckle worthy parodied titles in it.
Yeah, the "Jake Kirby" in the screenshot was a nice touch. AppShopper shows the Japanese version was released in July with what looks like a slightly different interface, for those interested. Just wanted to make sure since this dev doesn't have much history yet. Thanks for the input guys.
