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Friday 9 January 2015

Friday Feature

My first featured game of the week is Mad Games Tycoon (MGT) by Eggcode.
Form your own game studio in the early 80s in a small garage.
Develop your own game concepts, create a team and develop million-selling video games.
Research new technologies, train your staff and buy larger office buildings.
Expand your business and dominate the world's market for video games!



Why I Have Chosen It
It was a close run thing with Into the Stars but I eventually went with MGT as I’ve bought the early access version and have been very impressed with it.  I’m a big fan of game development games and have played Game Dev Story and Game Dev Tycoon, both of which have sent the benchmark.  From the looks of it, Mad Games Tycoon has raised the bar that bit higher and will even better once finished.

Summary
The game starts off with you choosing your company name, logo, etc and then plunges you straight in to the game at your HQ. 

The HQ is essentially a blank sheet of paper where you can create various rooms to develop games, train staff and market your games.  The amount of rooms available is vast, as are the customisation options for each room.  You can add different types of desk, cabinets and accessories such as plants and vending machines.  Figuring out what to put where can take a while and it is important to use your space as wisely as possible.  You do have the option to upgrade the size of your HQ as you earn more money.







To the main point of the Mad Games Tycoon: developing games.  As with other similar titles you have limited options when first developing your game but with all of them you choose: topic, genre (and the later option of a sub-genre), game engine, platform, focus (graphics, sound, gameplay and technology), languages to sell it in and finally features.  Once a game is made you get a review and choose a publisher.  The variations on all of the above are endless and gives a strong re-playability value to the game.  I found myself keeping playing to try new combinations and see if they worked.



Other features worth mentioning include:
  • Research – the amount of research you can do is staggering, with lots of options for new topics, features and genres
  • Engine – you can either buy a game engine or develop your own
  • Licenses – you have the option to buy licenses to develop games based on books and movies


There is a lot to recommend the game already, despite the early stage of development it is in.  I think that the possibilities for the game in the future are very promising and I would encourage any fans of the genre to check this out.

Current state
As of the 8th January the state was 0.150108A and from the early looks of it, they are updating and fixing bugs on a regular basis.

Strengths
Endless combinations

Weaknesses
In the current state, the main problem is a lack of a tutorial or any help.  You are essentially shooting in the dark through trial and error.  This can be fun but also frustrating.  I’m sure this will be something they solve in later versions.

Availability
£10.99 on Steam
$14.99 from the developer website



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