It genuinely makes you feel like a gamedev without all the actual work that goes into it. And for years I'd find myself coming back to it to relive the fantasy.

But overtime I started noticing how sometimes the scores and sales of my games made no sense. For example, you could spend all your budget developing a powerful engine with cutting-edge technologies, spend a lot of time training your crew, make a big-budget game on that new engine and splurge on a large marketing campaign, and then release it to low scores and poor sales, thus completely ruining your career. Or you could create a text-based adventure on almost no budget and it will get 9+ scores and generate you millions of profits. I've always suspected something wasn't right about this.

Tried playing it with a cheat mod just now, and it confirmed my suspicions. I activated a 1337 developer, unlocked several technologies ahead of time + all the hints, and still couldn't get scores higher than 8. I moved into an office, filled my team with 1337 devs, unlocked several more technologies, added millions of money and fans, and began developing high-budget cutting edge games that were years ahead of their era, and each time I would fail to gain higher than 8. In addition, due to having millions of fans, I was selling tens of millions even with mediocre games, yet my games would always rank low on the sales charts (e.g. 60th place), implying that there are 59 more games that moved millions of units each (in the late 1980s!). Which is just ridiculous.

This game basically parasitizes on your dreams. There is no real substance to it. It's merely a graphical shell with a scripted progression.

While I remember enjoying this game on my first run, I can't help but feel cheated. And can no longer derive any joy from it. I'll keep 2 stars for the pleasant illusion it once created.