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Game Dev Tycoon hi-res on Steam next week
Greenheart Games is gearing up for a Steam release of its satirical game development studio sim, Game Dev Tycoon, next Thursday, August 29. Game Dev Tycoon received community approval via Steam Greenlight back in May. Prior to its Greenlight campaign, Game Dev Tycoon game earned a degree of notoriety for its unique anti-piracy measures, which punished player theft in-game with studio failure and bankruptcy. The Steam version of Game Dev Tycoon is currently up for preorder at a 20 percent discount.
Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed, Riot head up batch of six at Steam Greenlight
Steam revealed today that Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed and other standout titles are featured in the latest batch of games to earn community approval and platform distribution rights through Steam Greenlight. Green Heart Games' simulation title Game Dev Tycoon earned a devoted following upon its release last month for its clever in-game approach to anti-piracy protection. Bootdisk Revolution's Bleed, a one-man effort that premiered for Windows and the Xbox Live Indie Games service late last year, combines frantically paced platforming with time-bending, quadruple-jumping gameplay mechanics. Other games to pass through the latest round of Greenlight approvals include ConcernedApe's open-ended RPG Stardew Valley, The Leonard's "playable documentary" Riot, AustinHand's survival horror title The Legend, and Aterdux Entertainment's Kickstarted strategy-RPG Legends of Eisenwald.
Game Dev Tycoon creator punishes pirates with in-game bankruptcy
Upon launching its debut title Game Dev Tycoon for Windows, Mac, and Linux yesterday, creator Green Heart Games implemented a clever approach to anti-piracy, targeting non-paying players with a game-ending dose of ironic retribution.The cracked version of Game Dev Tycoon, which Green Heart Games created and distributed itself, functions normally for the first few hours of play. Soon, however, the player's up-and-coming studio encounters a serious problem."Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally," reads one in-game message in the pirated version of Game Dev Tycoon. "If players don't buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt."Shortly thereafter, all games created by the virtual studio suffer a very high piracy rate. The end result is bankruptcy, and a premature end to the player's quest. As a result, Green Heart Games received a series of help requests from baffled software pirates on its forum. "Why are there so many people that pirate?" one player asked. "It ruins me!"Though it finds humor in the situation, Green Heart Games also notes an unpleasant reality: paying players make up only 6.4 percent of Game Dev Tycoon's userbase. By tracking anonymous usage data, the developer found that 3,104 players opted to pirate the game, while only 214 users paid $7.99 for a legitimate copy."When I was younger, downloading illegal copies was practically normal but this was mostly because global game distribution was in its infancy," Game Dev Tycoon co-creator Patrick Klug admits in a follow-up blog post. "We are not wealthy and it's unlikely that we will be any time soon, so stop pretending like we don't need your 8 dollars! We are just two guys working our butts off, trying to start our own game studio to create games which are fun to play."
