Game Dev Story - ROQ Mobile Review

What does it take to make a great video game?  Game Dev Story not only shows you, but asks you to find out the solution - That's right, you make the games!

Story 
Take a journey through the years of gaming as a young development company, starting with you, your secretary, and your two new developers.  Follow your team along through hirings, firings, award shows, game cons, and office transitions to become the most successful game development company of all time.

Gameplay
With intuitive design similar to that of an early RPG title, and incredible pacing, this game will have you addicted from the very first touch.  While developing, you'll be given a slew of options, from which console, to genre, specific type, and game direction.  When choosing your game direction, you are choosing your team's level of effort in developing your IP (Title) so choose wisely.

 Given your choices for development, your secretary will now ask you which of your employees or outside hires might write up the proposal for your IP.  While hiring your in-house crew will cost you nothing but their early salary, hiring out from the company will usually give you a higher quality result, at a cost relative to their skill levels.  Hiring out is very satisfying when successful, but terribly disappointing when you spend a great deal of cash for a poor quality result, and though it's a gamble, early on it may be the only way to push a good number units of your IP when the release day comes.

If you're looking for an alternative to developing games, while you're low on development cash, your company can contract out services such as creating theme songs, designing mascots, and translating games.  Each contract is given a time limit, and requires you to fulfill a level of one or two of four possible aspects that you will also need while developing your games - Fun, Creativity, Design, and Sound.

Depending on which assignment you choose will directly effect which of these skills you will require, so be careful not to choose a task that takes too much work in the number of weeks allotted, or your team's work will have gone to waste. Not only is this feature good for the cash perspective of design, but is also useful to those who use the many useful bonuses you will have available while developing, as you earn floppy disks which can earn you bonus points toward stats during the design of each IP.

Presentation
Overall, the game is nothing to drop a jaw to visually, but has a classic RPG style, much like the interface mentioned earlier.  Every aspect of the visuals will remind you of an early Nintendo role-player, from the somewhat wacky hairstyles to the text falling along the box when you are asked by an associate if they are allowed to try something new on a project.  I enjoyed the style as the game play is supposed to be the focus here, in the simplistic time-grabber.

Verdict 
With a well constructed design, flow, and an amazing level of addictiveness, your story should almost certainly be written.  The game will cost you a clean $4.91 US Dollars on the Android Market or $3.99 on an Apple Market, and is certainly worth picking up, if you've got a few days to loose in your life.