{"id":563,"date":"2010-12-29T09:55:14","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T17:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vidhero.wordpress.com\/?p=563"},"modified":"2010-12-29T09:55:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T17:55:14","slug":"game-dev-story-emperors-new-clothes-crippled-tamagotchi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/29\/game-dev-story-emperors-new-clothes-crippled-tamagotchi\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(this was posted initially as a response to gamasutra’s best iOS games of 2010<\/a>)<\/em>
\nI’ve heard nothing but praise for Game Dev Story (GDS), but disagree heartily.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it more like some sort of simple limited tamagotchi than a real game? (is there a better term? “micro simulation with minimal input allowed”?)<\/p>\n

I bought it when it first came out, because I love the concept of playing a game about “the business of making games.” I’d wanted to make one called “Start Up” where you basically play tetris to manage your company’s finances\/stock, and take breaks to walk around and RPG your office.
\nbut.
\nI felt GDS was about spending money on a couple barely different things, with no idea what the differences are really, then wondering if you failed fairly – or if it was all just random.<\/p>\n

I’m primarily a FPS and adventure gaming guy, who’s taken tenative steps into RPG land through Mass Effect and Fallout3. So I’m just not the intended audience?<\/p>\n

Felt like I was swindled.<\/p>\n

I’m sure it’s because I haven’t played the proper games to teach me how it all works. But, still, I was horribly confused and frustrated by GDS. Their in game instruction manual is a joke. 20 “pages” of basically a single sentence each. Left me wondering if I could find a real manual on their website (which then made me angry).<\/p>\n

the whole thing seems based on the idea that you already play this sort of thing\/game\/app and know what to do.<\/p>\n

So I stumbled through trying to figure out how to move the process\/story forward, wondering when I’d get more money to buy more things, wondering what signs there were (?) to inform me if I was making good\/bad choices with my purchases. …and apparently part of the game involves staring at the screen and waiting? After my first title bombed, I wondered what the incentive was supposed to be to spend any time in GDS (apparently telling other people how I interpret it’s quirks, around the watercooler, is the only reward this game offers? no built in story? no gameplay challenges?)<\/p>\n

I hesitate to say it is “bad”. Just that it was not at all what I was expecting (or wanting).<\/p>\n

(my goal with this comment is simply to say: If you are on the fence about it, because you’ve never been into that genre of game – I’d strongly suggest staying away.)<\/p>\n

(Also, if I didn’t play long enough to “get to the good part” please let me know. I think it’s interesting that it’s offering in-jokes around the industry’s history. really wanted to enjoy the title. Just don’t see how.).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t understand why everyone likes Game Dev Story (AFTER they actually play it).… Continue reading Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,16],"tags":[47,198,199,241,392,444],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-review","category-video-game","tag-app","tag-game-dev-story","tag-game-play","tag-iphone","tag-rpg","tag-tamagotchi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.solidfuelstudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}