When comparing Game Dev Story vs TinyKeep, the Slant community recommends Game Dev Story for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games without in-app purchases/paywalls?” Game Dev Story is ranked 8th while TinyKeep is ranked 79th. The most important reason people chose Game Dev Story is:
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.
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 Randomly generated levels allows the game to always stay fresh and new
Each level is randomly generated, allowing each play to feel fresh and different from any other. There is no telling how each floor will be laid out, which makes for a game with limitless replayability.
Pro Immersive mode suppot allows the game to play in full screen, hiding the software navigation and notification bars
TinyKeep has support for immersive mode on Android 4.4+. This allows the game to be played in the entire screen on devices that uses navigation software buttons.
Pro Good controller support that makes for more tactical control of the game
TinyKeep has controller support for SHIELD devices as well as any HID controller, which is great for those that would prefer to play the game with a controller over using a touch screen.
Pro Being SHIELD compatible and Tegra optimized allows for a more graphicly intensive experience over the majority of games found on Android
Tiny Keep works with all SHIELD devices as well as other Tegra devices such as the Nexus 9. This allows for a more graphically intensive game, due to taking advantage of the Tegra GPUs.
Pro Different endings and Game+ mode give plenty incentive to play the game for a long time
There are 3 different endings to the game, which gives a good bit of incentive to replay numerous times in order to see them all as well as a Game+ mode that makes the game even more difficult.
Pro Fun mechanic where the environment can be used against enemies
Parts of the environment in the game can be used against ones enemies, such as spike floor traps, turned over fire pits or even captive NPCs. Utilizing these objects or NPCs adds an extra set of tools to aid in the players fight to reach the end of each level.
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 Only works on limited devices
TinyKeep, being a very graphically intensive game has been ported specifically for Tegra K1 devices with newly added support for the Tegra 4. Sadly this means that devices without a Tegra K1 or 4 will not be able to run the game.
