All in the Mind

Post date: Dec 1, 2010 9:21:06 PM

I've been playing a lot of Game Dev Story on my iPod Touch lately during my work breaks. Essentially, the game is a simulation of running a software company. You choose to develop games or take contract work to increase revenue. You can level up your staff, which can lead to better games, but it also results in having to pay higher salaries. You engage in hiring new staff, advertising, purchasing licenses to develop for various consoles, and more.

What I kept thinking about while playing the game is how so much of the experience is in my imagination. Even though I may select to create a Action game based on Reversi for the Game Kid, the game cycles through the same (admittedly adorable) animations of the characters at work while the same short music loop plays. Yet each time my little development team gets crackin' on a new assignment, it seems new and different than before.

It's amazing that it takes so little in terms of visual and auditory presentation to create such a big impact. In my opinion, that is a true mark of a well-developed game. The game is engaging because, above all else, it provides an enjoyable experience for the player. Game Dev Story is a real charmer, and looking at developer Kairosoft's website, it looks like they have a ton of cool simulation games I'd love to see translated from Japanese and brought to iDevice.