When comparing Game Dev Story vs The Room, the Slant community recommends The Room for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games without in-app purchases/paywalls?” The Room is ranked 1st while Game Dev Story is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose The Room is:
You'll have to find clues, interpret symbols, use correct items in appropriate places to unearth the mystery of the room.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Simple and intuitive gameplay allows the game to be accessible, no matter the skill level
Nearly everything is self-explanatory, and the bits that aren't get explained by your secretary. This makes for a game that is easy to understand, even if it does not seem evident at first.
Pro Very engaging due to quick progression and frequent events
Contracts are measured in weeks and development cycles in months, but time passes at the rate of one day per second. Though the core gameplay involves watching little icons pop up over your employees' heads, rarely do five seconds go by without some player action being prudent, if not required.
Pro Fulfils a fantasy of creating a game studio
You get to choose what type of game you want to make, what tools you use to make it, who you hire to make it, what systems you publish the final product on and you get to watch how it is received by the world. Then you do it all over again bigger.
Pro A free demo version is available for anyone to try out
Game Dev Story Lite is available for free on the Google Play store. The Lite version ends after 2 in-game years.
Pro Entertaining business success model typical for Kairosoft games
Pro A good variety of puzzle types makes sure that the game never repeats or gets tiring
You'll have to find clues, interpret symbols, use correct items in appropriate places to unearth the mystery of the room.
Pro Immersive
Pro Great atmosphere is set by the wonderful music and well done design
Due to an excellent choice of music and incremental telling of a dark story, the game creates a nice bit of tension and a creepy vibe in an otherwise simple and calm game.
Pro Amazing graphics allow for a level of detail not always found on mobile games
The Room has very detailed graphics that show the intricacies of all the items.
Cons
Con Game is not free
Con Punctuation and grammar errors
Game Dev Story is a Japanese game that was translated to English, which shows, as sometimes there are a few grammatical errors in game. This shows a lack of polish, which may aggravate some players.
Con Unclear method of determining a game's success
Sometimes it is unclear how to find out how successful a game is.
Con It's very hard to fail
Your employees' salaries are waived the first year ("government subsidy") and you can go into the red to pay them after that. You can't develop a game without some initial funds, but since you can always take a contract to make money, there's basically no hole you can't crawl out of.
Con The control scheme can get slightly frustrating
The touch controls of navigating in 3D can be difficult at times.
Con Should be free
Con Ends abruptly
The Room is relatively short. Experienced players will be able to beat it in less than two hours. And it ends abruptly. Luckily there is a sequel.