Reviewed: May 16, 2006
Reviewed by: Kevin Jenkins
Publisher
Tri-Synergy
Developer
Beat Games
Released: March 22, 2006
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
1
5
2
1
1.0
System Requirements
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The business aspects of getting a publishing deal is as much of a game as the games themselves. It follows naturally to make a simulation of this process, something I've thought of programming myself. So I was excited to take on Game Tycoon and even told my friends about how cool it would be to play such a game.
Game Tycoon puts you in the role of a producer / owner of a game company. You do things somewhat related to what game industry business owners do such as take bank loans, publishing contracts, print game copies, and make employee schedules. This plays out either in a series of goal-oriented campaign missions or in a sandbox mode.
Usually when I give an overview of a game I have to gloss over all the small details, because most games are too detailed to easily describe in one or a few paragraphs. This time I already explained pretty much everything there is to Game Tycoon.
You control a 2D avatar and click on 2D buildings on a 2D map. Each building serves a function, but they are all basically steps you fill out in order to produce a game, speeding up time between the longer steps. There's no gameplay to speak of; there are no challenges to overcome, worlds to explore, or mysteries to solve. There's no depth either - you've seen the whole game by the time you get through the tutorial.
All it takes to get a loan is to click on the bank and pick how much money you want. The same holds true for publishers; just walk in and pick what contract you want. The only requirement for a publishing contract is a minimum game rating, which you somehow know before shipping, and a ship date, which if you fail you pay a fine to the publisher.
But there's no real risk of failure since budget or time overruns are not modeled. All it takes to hire people is to go to the college and click on a job ad. Employee wages are proportional to the two ratings for each employee: "Quality" and "Tempo" (work speed).
It's too bad the publisher wasted money on this implementation because in reality there's a lot of details in the real industry that could have been made into a fun simulation. Design business plans to get a loan, or start small and build up. Sell a proof of concept demo and go publisher shopping before you run out of money. Fight for a contract that pays the rent today without selling your companies future. Manage employees' personalities, recruiters stealing your brain talent, and diminishing employee returns as your company grows. Try self-publishing to make more money at the risk of not getting enough exposure.
The graphics are 2D bitmaps and sprites with no programmatic special effects. I'm not an artist so it wouldn't be fair for me to judge the artwork of whoever did the art for the game. It's not the best I've seen but not the worst either. From a gameplay perspective the art looks fine and all the art in the game has a common style.
Game Tycoon doesn't have any sound effects. There's one or two repeating songs that pass for music. The voice acting is either the worst I've heard or was intentionally made to sound silly.
Game Tycoon is pretty worthless as a game or an accurate representation of the gaming industry.
The industry is full of smart programmers with million dollar ideas. Other than incompetence or negligence, both of which are likely from what I've experienced of publishers, why throw good money at a game that will go straight to the bargain bin? I've seen better 2D games written for free by teenagers in Flash on Newgrounds.
There are games that do a good job of making a game out of real-world systems, such as The Corporate Machine (Computers), The Political Machine (Politics), and Uplink (Hacking). If you're looking for a good simulation, look at those games first.