I Wanna Be A Game Dev!, contrary to it’s name, is not a balls to the walls platformer ala I Wanna Be The Guy. Notice how it’s A Game Dev, not THE Game Dev. Important distinction. This game is a visual novel with light simulation mechanics.

You can explore some 3D areas, though they’re quite limited, and there are mini-games tied to raising your stats related to gamedeving (as well as other mini-games that you’ll encounter in the story that can affect other people’s perception of you). There are also regular questions from the teach, as well as events like quizzes that can be a good way of making friends, as well as having a smile when you hear a non-copyright-infringing rendition of the moon theme from DuckTales. There’s a lot of non-copyright-infringing material references, which is neat. You can interact with NPCs for their stories, invite them to movies, park, etc. to raise relationship with them to unlock more stories. I said at the beginning that the simulation mechanics are light. There’s no strategy to raising your skills or pursuing one character like in standard dating sims or raising sims or other kinds of sims. That’s in part due to the game not being that long, it’s only one act, with a big "To be continued". But also because you’re given specific goals to achieve related to game dev (though as far as I can tell the only reward is character friendship raising if they like what they see… maybe the ending changes if you get everything right or fail everything right, I don’t know).

Speaking of stories, the writing in general is quite good. The characters are nice and memorable, and there’s plenty of humorous dialogue, I was entertained through and through. The writing is grounded in reality, so you can believe the struggles of the group trying to get their game together, and other moments like thinking about future life and career. It’s pretty deep stuff. The only thing that I was a little bit disappointed by is the ending. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be that kind of game with a plot twist (Doki Doki Literature Club!, How to Date a Magical Girl!, if you know, you know), but I was too absorbed by the game. And it was pretty normal for the most part. I do hope that the ending is just a bad dream and act 2 starts like that (but continues after the climax), I think the game worked the best when it was grounded in real life, without having the “plot twist”… I hope… right? RIGHT?! Is this game all in le head??

The visuals are pretty nice. I don’t know why, but the low res visuals combined with pretty lighting look quite appealing. The character designs are also quite good. The music is nice.

If I were to criticize stuff, there are a few things I would point out:
-The game crashed a couple of three times, though the developers seem to be aware of that. I don’t know if it’s a memory leak or something, I did have an extended play session both times (scratch that, the game crashed a third time with not much playtime).
-Next, the questions you get in school. They’re technical stuff that the game doesn’t teach you about. If you don’t know jack about music, you have to guess. And, there is a proper exam in the game, it feels bad to flub the questions without having a chance to understand what you’re even being asked. I wish the game had proper study sessions for normies who aren’t into technical mumbo jumbo. You can search that stuff online, of course, but that feels cheatsy. I think there’s an opportunity to have normal study sessions with characters bouncing off each other with proper dialogue and hilarity, which would make these learning sessions more entertaining. Or, you know, you could just dump that knowledge in the game itself, like a notes book, and have the player memorize that. I only knew a few of the questions because I just so happened to have programming knowledge, for instance, “Which programming language is considered the closest to computers?” or something like that.
-I wish there was a way to make screenshots in the game, because any button I press causes the game to advance dialogue. I did notice that clicking on a sweat drop that sometimes appears on characters didn’t advance dialogue… for some reason. Bug? Feature? I could’ve mapped steam’s screenshot key to a mouse click and clicked on the drop, and thus not advance dialogue, but that’s too galaxy brained and complicated.
-I think the game could’ve done a better job at tutorializing the mini-games. Have a preview screen with the rules before starting them, because how it’s done in the game, you’re just dumped into the action and have to spend precious time trying to understand what the heck is going on. Also, not a fan of the “rhythm” mini-game, but that might be skill issue. I was only good at Love Live! School Idol Festival with the slowest note speed, so maybe there should be an accessibility feature for that?

Overall, I do like I Wanna Be A Game Dev!. Fun writing, good characters and nice aesthetics. I wish the devs good luck with Act 2. This game is free, so I’d say, check it out if you can and if you value good writing. If you’re not convinced, I’ll lay it on you in simpler terms. This game is a riot and totally poggers! The developers are gigachads! LOOOOOOOL! I hope I did this right.

[b]I Wanna Be A Game Dev![/b], contrary to it’s name, is not a balls to the walls platformer ala [b]I Wanna Be The Guy[/b]. Notice how it’s A Game Dev, not THE Game Dev. Important distinction. This game is a visual novel with light simulation mechanics. You can explore some 3D areas, though they’re quite limited, and there are mini-games tied to raising your stats related to gamedeving (as well as other mini-games that you’ll encounter in the story that can affect other people’s perception of you). There are also regular questions from the teach, as well as events like quizzes that can be a good way of making friends, as well as having a smile when you hear a non-copyright-infringing rendition of the moon theme from [b]DuckTales[/b]. There’s a lot of non-copyright-infringing material references, which is neat. You can interact with NPCs for their stories, invite them to movies, park, etc. to raise relationship with them to unlock more stories. I said at the beginning that the simulation mechanics are light. There’s no strategy to raising your skills or pursuing one character like in standard dating sims or raising sims or other kinds of sims. That’s in part due to the game not being that long, it’s only one act, with a big "To be continued". But also because you’re given specific goals to achieve related to game dev (though as far as I can tell the only reward is character friendship raising if they like what they see… maybe the ending changes if you get everything right or fail everything right, I don’t know). Speaking of stories, the writing in general is quite good. The characters are nice and memorable, and there’s plenty of humorous dialogue, I was entertained through and through. The writing is grounded in reality, so you can believe the struggles of the group trying to get their game together, and other moments like thinking about future life and career. It’s pretty deep stuff. The only thing that I was a little bit disappointed by is the ending. [spoiler]I had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be [i]that[/i] kind of game with a plot twist ([b]Doki Doki Literature Club![/b], [b]How to Date a Magical Girl![/b], if you know, you know), but I was too absorbed by the game. And it was pretty normal for the most part. I do hope that the ending is just a bad dream and act 2 starts like that (but continues after the climax), I think the game worked the best when it was grounded in real life, without having the “plot twist”… I hope… right? RIGHT?! Is this game all in le head??[/spoiler] The visuals are pretty nice. I don’t know why, but the low res visuals combined with pretty lighting look quite appealing. The character designs are also quite good. The music is nice. If I were to criticize stuff, there are a few things I would point out: -The game crashed [strike]a couple of[/strike] three times, though the developers seem to be aware of that. [strike]I don’t know if it’s a memory leak or something, I did have an extended play session both times[/strike] (scratch that, the game crashed a third time with not much playtime). -Next, the questions you get in school. They’re technical stuff that the game doesn’t teach you about. If you don’t know jack about music, you have to guess. And, there is a proper exam in the game, it feels bad to flub the questions without having a chance to understand what you’re even being asked. I wish the game had proper study sessions for normies who aren’t into technical mumbo jumbo. You can search that stuff online, of course, but that feels cheatsy. I think there’s an opportunity to have normal study sessions with characters bouncing off each other with proper dialogue and hilarity, which would make these learning sessions more entertaining. Or, you know, you could just dump that knowledge in the game itself, like a notes book, and have the player memorize that. I only knew a few of the questions because I just so happened to have programming knowledge, for instance, “Which programming language is considered the closest to computers?” or something like that. -I wish there was a way to make screenshots in the game, because any button I press causes the game to advance dialogue. I did notice that clicking on a sweat drop that sometimes appears on characters didn’t advance dialogue… for some reason. Bug? Feature? I could’ve mapped steam’s screenshot key to a mouse click and clicked on the drop, and thus not advance dialogue, but that’s too galaxy brained and complicated. -I think the game could’ve done a better job at tutorializing the mini-games. Have a preview screen with the rules before starting them, because how it’s done in the game, you’re just dumped into the action and have to spend precious time trying to understand what the heck is going on. Also, not a fan of the “rhythm” mini-game, but that might be skill issue. I was only good at [b]Love Live! School Idol Festival[/b] with the slowest note speed, so maybe there should be an accessibility feature for that? Overall, I do like [b]I Wanna Be A Game Dev![/b]. Fun writing, good characters and nice aesthetics. I wish the devs good luck with Act 2. This game is free, so I’d say, check it out if you can and if you value good writing. If you’re not convinced, I’ll lay it on you in simpler terms. This game is a riot and totally poggers! The developers are gigachads! LOOOOOOOL! I hope I did this right.