Game Dev Tycoon is a business simulation game where you replay the history of the gaming industry by starting your own video game development company in the 80s. Create best selling games. Research new technologies and invent new game types. Become the leader of the market and gain worldwide fans.
The game is horribly designed. It's underlying mechanics are way too simple to make a compelling simulation, and work in a sometimes incomprehensible and illogical manner. The tools to properly work on titles are either not present or inaccessible at the stages they would normally be available at to game developers. Pressure builds in a silly manner due to misdesigned systems interaction (workforce management versus results in a stupidly compressed timeframe). If you **** up, you can basically start over, because correcting your mistakes so that they won't hurt you two hours down the line is nearly impossible. The progression is also painfully static. It basically forces you to replay, but doesn't offer any replay value to incentivize this.
Overall, the game feels really horrible. It's unrewarding, the components are slapped together in a stupidly simplistic and obscure box with mediocre windowdressing.
You can get hundreds of current games that have a WAY better value at this price.