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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