Hello there folks!

So, I haven’t been posting for the last few days because of college work – but I’m back now and ready to roll up my sleeves and start anew. Well, this week I’ve got a slew of smaller games that I’ll be talking about – also I want to provide folks with a heads up that I’ll actually be doing a weekly review for the Able Gamers Foundation – so I’m super excited for the opportunity! I’ll keep people posted, and I’ll be reposting any review done there 48 hours after they’ve been submitted. Now – onto today’s game shall we?

Now, for those of you who’ve been following [ and for those of you who are new ] as an aspiring game developer I’ve grown a little bit of a love affair with this game app:

Game Dev Story by Kairosoft 

Come to design games - Stay to become a legend.

Game Dev Story is a mixture of RPG/Sim Game and it’s truly an addictive experience if you like simulation games. The graphics are definitely retro and the gameplay is simple enough, but actually learning how the game works and the strategy behind getting the best scores on your games is the real challenge of the game, which is why I got so hooked. You play as the owner of your own game development studio.

Create games, train your staff, and try and become an award winning game studio!

Working really bytes... unless you're gaming!

If that sounds fun then you’ll probably love Game Dev Story.

Now let’s break the game down in terms of it’s accessibility, because that’s the important part I love to focus on as a designer. I will start off by saying, that while the gameplay is sort of slow, the game is educational, simple to play, has heartwarming graphics, and definitely a game anyone should check out once.

Here’s some gameplay to see how it works:

Pros:

• Game Dev Story has one-touch controls perfect for physically impaired or one-handed gamers.

• Graphics are vivid and color variations are different enough that colorblind gamers won’t have a problem with playing this game.

• Large print text for vision impaired gamers.

• Musical audio, but all directions and gameplay updates via text. Deaf gamers  will be able to definitely grab this game and just play, without fear of missing valuable information.

• Simple gameplay is not only educational [ helps learn financial saving/spending business concepts ] but makes it easy to play for many players.

• Game time pauses for every time you make a change – helps physically impaired gamers play without fear of rushed decisions/gameplay.

• Large buttons for easy touch controls.

Cons:

• Repetitive music score, while nice at first, can get old – but can be muted. 

• The game development process goes by quite fast, and while nice, when the Free version only let’s you go 5 years into development – it can feel like a much shorter experience than desired.

• The game becomes far more difficult, not in gameplay, but in strategy. It’s a definite toss up when trying to determine which genre and style of game will sell well together – which may make the game harder for cognitively impaired gamers to be truly successful in the game.

• No real story to the game, so the only incentives are trying to get your popularity and games to win rewards – but that’s a fun experience in and of itself!

Overall though, this game is a heartwarming throwback to the retro-sim games of old – and a wonderful experience to pass the time as a designer. If you’re interested I would totally recommend grabbing up the FREE version from either Android or the Apple App Store. This version will last you for about 2 1/2 hours of gameplay, but if you really grow hooked to the experience you can purchase the game for $3.99 on the App Store and $2.50 on the Android Market – and design till your hearts content – FOREVER! I hope that the game will get updates and perhaps some expansions in the future – but this is definitely a very simple, joyous experience I think any gamer looking for an educational, fun, and accessible game experience will enjoy!

If you enjoy Game Dev Story – I’d definitely recommend checking out the other simulation games that Kairosoft has to offer. They’re all easy to play and easily accessible – and I think that’s what more and more games need to have. Check ’em out!