82.3 hours played
Written 13 days ago
If you are someone who loves game development games, particularly if you've played Game Dev Tycoon and loved it, this game is for you. if you want a TLDR then its a very relaxing tycoon game where you can customize how you're studio looks in its entirety, deal with events, have more in depth options than GDT, and make it big as a developer, publisher, and even console manufacturer. For me, coming from GDT to MGT1, this game is the best of the 3.
I want to get my gripes with this game out of the way early: GDT was far better about showing events and making it feel like you were part of something greater, this game it feels like the only real studio is you, and nothing else important happens outside events that impact you (Video Game Crashes, Financial Crisis, etc.) While there are plenty of notifications saying "X Game Announched!!!" "X Platform Announced!!!" "X Studio Purcahsed Y from you!", and while theres also a trend chart that shows the most popular games weekly, it feels very disconncected imo, GDT would make it feel more personal "Publications Baffled that Nintendo and Sony have broken up only a day after announcing their joint-partnership". Even if the world of MGT2 is bigger objectively with there being nearly 100 competitors, it feels more isolated, the effects of an oversaturated market can barely be felt unless its coupled with the genre you are making a game for is unpopular. Furthermore, the way Engines work is something I dont really like, there are engines irl are multi-purpose (Unreal, Unity, etc) and dont cater to a genre unless its an internal studio engine where that studio really only makes a particular genre of games. I dont mind having an option to choose the special genre (you can use it for any game), but having a universal option where it gives a tiny bonus or a smaller chance for critical work success would have been a nice feature imo. However, my biggest gripe is console manufacturing, unless you hit it big each and every single game or play in sandbox, you wont be getting there until its so late in the game that there are no longer any new technologies to research, meaning you really only get 1, maybe 2 generations of consoles out. another 30-40 years of technology (base game) would have done wonders.
Now for what I like:
This game is faster paced and you can feel the times change, GDT it felt like nothing really changed, you just published games and that was it, this game you can feel how different the Apple I is from the 'end' game consoles (The pictures and numbers for the gameplay, tech, art, and music showing the progress really is a beautiful touch to add), and the technologies not only in the consoles, but genres being available as you play and the technologies you put into an individual game make this game feel more alive in that way. This game is also more complex, you dont juggle a few sliders and try to find good genre/topic combos, you have to choose gameplay features, prioritize what the main development studio focuses on (40% Gameplay, 10% Art, 10% Music, 40% Technology, or any combination of 100% of those 4 (This does not affect the dedicated departments for those 4 since they work separately), and (when applicable) work on internet features for the game.
You can also market your game, research technologies (required to make more complex games) train employees, have customer support options, and (as stated before) become a publisher and make your own consoles. Outside the publishing and console manufacturing, the rest of the options are stupid simple, just make sure you keep track of the money you have as well as making sure to actually do them (mainly for marketing), I personally would've liked to have the option to be more in depth with them if you wished, but considering how much you need to manage already, I understand why not, besides, every single department that uses people lets you do multiple things with them (Development can make games, engines, updates, contract work (applies to most departments directly tied to the development of a game), and support.
I also like the employment system, GDT only lets you have a set amount, MGT2 you can have hundreds of employees, even up in the thousands depending on how you make your studio, you can lose employees if you act like AAA studios irl act, you can hire employees that have negative traits (you can turn it off so you never hire those types of people though, a nice touch), and you can let the game automatically handle the less interesting stuff like salary (you can turn it off and manage it yourself if that's your style). You have relations with other publishers and developers that grow the more you work with them and fade as you work less with them, you can set genre trends if your game hits it big (Though this is very inconsistent, I dont really know how it works, it just seems to be at random and rare when it does happen)
Even after all technologies can be researched and no new ones appear, you can still milk the game for as long as you want, though the fun does die down a lot since its now just games coming out, it will just repeat over and over... However, for some thats where some fun can come in, continuing to make your games and expand on them. Buying out companies to make games for you and your console (if you wish to become one), there is no real end to the game, just an end to the vanilla stuff, however, there are mods out there than will let you get new technologies way longer than the base game does.
I definitely would buy this game if you're looking for something more complex than GDT, its worth the money even at full price.
![Mad Games Tycoon 2 [Rel]](https://wsrv.nl/?n=-1&output=webp&url=https://shared.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/256949854/movie.293x165.jpg?t=1687082735&w=232&h=130&dpr=2)
