Game Dev Story and Addictive Gaming

Game Dev Story

One of the things about portable gaming that always kept me at arms length was its long term accessibility. It’s cool to be able to play something on the DS or iPhone for a few minutes here and there, but I never imagined that I would sit down for a few hours straight in order to play something. Recently, that notion has been challenged by 999, which I’ve posted about a couple of times. However, another addictive game ruined my life this week in the form of Game Dev Story for the iPhone.

If you’re unaware, Game Dev Story is like playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, but with a video game development studio. You create games, hire staff, manage advertising and try pump up your sales and profits. You learn new genres, get bigger offices and can even make your own console eventually. The goal is to run the company for 20 years, and make great games in the process. It’s quirky, fun, easy to play and as I said before, crazy addictive. So far, my biggest hits have been a card game called Cardville as well as my RPG titled Loot World.

I downloaded the game on Monday and have been playing it several hours each day since. I never thought I would be that into an iPhone game, but it seriously has me itching to play more all the time, made worse by the fact that I physically can grab my phone and play whenever I want.

Have any of you heard of this game or played it? What’s the most addictive game you’ve played recently?