City Game Studio: Your Game Dev Adventure Begins

I recommend trying this game on a discount if you are interested in Tycoon games and a Game Dev theme, but unfortunately it is nearly as good as average rating in steam reviews. For me City Game Studio is a 8/10 title. It's clearly inspired by the old Game Dev Tycoon with focus on expanding the overall replayability making the game progression more player dependent. Unfortunately because of that City Game Studio becomes way more cluttered and a lot of systems aren't really interesting and make the game feel stagnant after a while. There are also a lot of decisions in overall design that I find questionable to say the least. Examples of those would be the lack of game themes (there are hardly any) which is extremely weird because it seems like there are a lot more game genres and combinations between them than game themes. Contracts and ways to gain experience in different game genres aren't well thought out, the company can gain tips on certain game genres while making new games of the same genre (or using marketing to scout the genre which feels clunky to use) but at the same time player unlocks this option only after certain time has passed (or certain requirements are met). There are hardly any reasons to explore game genres outside of the one player chose as his specialty at the beginning of the game, there isn't a mechanic that punishes the player for making similar games in terms of genre ( for example RPG, actionRPG, dungeon crawler, hack and slash RPG etc.), punishment only applies when player tries to make the same exact game (game calls it a asset flip). It almost feels like player is rewarded for making same games/consoles over and over again. There are also a lot of mechanics that SHOULD be possible to setup in a way, that they are done automatically, for example doing contracts in sequence, researching the market or updating the online store. I do like the addition of directors, they somewhat help with the feeling of being overwhelmed if player were to do it all by themselves BUT this brings me to another point, the BLOAT and CLUTTER. Game on normal difficulty is extremely easy to play (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), after releasing my second console I was basically able to buy out half of the other game companies and after my 4th console buy every single company in the game, BUT I didn't want to. Many menus visible on the screen are super small and contain little information, for example the right panel with games/conventions/consoles is extremely hard to navigate, can't arrange the information in any useful way, there is just so much clutter that it becomes an eyesore. Same thing happens with the left panel, which contains information on current projects, meaning produced games, consoles, ports, reports etc. there was a point when I didn't want to build new offices or buy out game companies even If I were to assign new directors to them BECAUSE there was so much stuff on screen I was always confused and thinking if I didn't forget to do something. Navigating through all those menus is mentally draining for me (I don't mind looking at charts/menus but I do mind if it's hard to find meaningful information in them and navigate between them), for example I spent a good amount of time searching where do I need to click to release a game update (for some reason it's on the right panel with release charts instead of development menu on the bottom in game history or somewhere like that). There are always new platforms releasing, new emails with meaningless information and "mark it as spam" option doesn't seem to do anything meaningful, also decorating isn't really that interesting because there is just too much stuff going on at the same time and I don't really feel inclined to micromanage that. I also don't like the fact that most of the game window area is taken up by office building which isn't practical at all. The things I do like about City Game Studio is the replay value, the aesthetics, graphics and soundtrack. I like how dynamic this game feels an how many options there are that are not available in other titles of similar genre, for example Mad Games Tycoon (making FOSS engines that are being developed by free contributors or addition of studio directors). I didn't encounter any major bugs, but I did have a problem when while updating a game I could assign the studio (which was the one updating the game) to other project and then they wouldn't go back to updating the game, meaning I had to cancel the update and start from the beginning while not reassigning them to another task by mistake. Game designing is also very fun but it isn't as robust as in Mad Games Tycoon (no sound studios or graphics designers). I do like the fact that I can port games to other platforms and that not all game genres work well on all platforms (meaning not only is platform popularity important but the specs and the compatibility between platforms/genres) In summary City Game Studio is a fun game and I do recommend it, but I do like Mad Games Tycoon 1 and 2 way more. They both just FEEL satisfying to play and scratch the tycoon itch. For me City Game Studio is just too cluttered and focuses too much on the "studio" aspect rather than the "game", but it works native in Linux and has a wide screen support which for me is very important. Maybe If I didn't play the original Game Dev Tycoon and Mad Games Tycoon my opinion would be different, but from my point of view I have to compare other similar games to City Game Studio. There is also a lot of modding support from what I've seen and the developers keep on updating the game which I do like a lot and I will probably play some more when I'll feel like it (maybe try some mods). I hope that some of my complaints will be changed later down the development, but this game by no means feels unfinished, its just that player isn't really encouraged to do different things but discouraged by sheer amount of options that aren't rewarding. Thanks Developers for making this game.

I keep coming back, for the passionate developer that listens to all of the fans' feedback, and his dedication to making this the best game possible. Endless fun and replayability. Constant updates and features, very fun game dev management / simulation game. One of my favorites in the genre :)

It's just Game Dev Tycoon with extra stuff that just bloats the game and makes it worse.

The game should have really delved from the formula of previous games, especially with how the 'sliders' work and how the game remembers what works and what doesn't. Once you get a genre down, you're basically guaranteed unlimited money. But if you don't, you're basically guaranteed failure, a lot of failure. Even as a massive studio with unlimited resources. And it is VERY easy to get to the point of being a massive studio. Do I know what system could replace it? No. I just know I am kinda tired of it being in every game dev sim. It removes the ability for you to attempt to create unique games and take risks. It is also quite frustrating that any game which doesn't score above a 85 basically sells absolutely horribly. I don't mean like 1/3rd of what a good selling game might sell. I mean more like selling 3,000 copies instead of 500,000. It basically makes it impossible to just be an average game developer. You cannot be ubisoft, you have to be rockstar. That being said, overall this is still a good game for what it is.

Кал, который вылетает каждые 15 минут. Просто беспощадный рефанд.

Played the game on normal then hard difficulty and it's still extremely easy. If you have played other Game Dev simulators, then you have played this one. You have devs that are experienced in 3 categories and to make a game you pick out features that dont matter and fill up the bar. Rinse and repeat, unlock more features you wont interact with because it doesnt matter (Stocks, Buying out competitors, Training, etc). I hope one day Game Dev simulators move away from this specific model that Game Dev Story made popular. To the dev: I look forward to it.

制作组更新的很勤快，我玩了它有几年了，每隔一段时间重新游玩时都能看到新东西

Its a fun game, but what's really amazing is the dev support and updates this game gets. He constantly delivers update after update and bugfix after bugfix. He's goated. Support him.

I highly recommend City Game Studio! It's a fun and addictive game with deep management mechanics and a lot of freedom to build your own game development company. The gameplay is enjoyable, and it's clear that a lot of passion went into creating it. I would love to see even more content in future updates, such as new gameplay mechanics, additional events, more customization options, and extra features to keep the experience fresh. Another great addition would be official Arabic language support, which would make the game more accessible to many players in the Arab community. Until then, I've created an Arabic translation mod for anyone who wants to play in Arabic: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3762369776 Thank you to the developer for the continuous support and updates. Looking forward to what's coming next!

I really like this game and appreciate the developer continuing to release free updates all these years! Also, I'm a fellow Godot developer so I'm a little biased. Would love to see this become a rock solid sim tycoon game. There are a fair bit of bugs when playing through the game as-is. It's fun, the design and art are great, and the feature set is impressive, as far as what the game helps you imagine you're doing. I got a great feeling whenever a game I released would be a smash hit. All the different avenues to running a game studio offer a ton of flexibility on your path to success. The main things holding this game back for me are the UI, and the bugs. The UI is laid out OK but some panels/menus you interact with are frustrating to use. Specifically the rightmost panel where you see your current games for sale. I would appreciate a full screen menu for all of that information. Bugs, well it's mostly UI stuff and difficulty stuff. For example, my workers sometimes would get free vacation while time is paused, the sorting of studios in the stock market screen is broken. Most of the bugs I saw were so small I can't even remember them but usually interface things, not game breaking bugs. Which is why I still recommend this game, and I had a good time. It felt like role playing as a game dev studio... which is what I came for.