I recently bought two games and spent hours on end playing them. The two games were Game Dev Story and Ridiculous Fishing. These two games are entirely different games. Ridiculous Fishing is a tilt-based fishing game where you try to earn money by collecting the most fish, while Game Dev Story is a simulation game, not unlike FarmVille, where you try to make money by managing a team of developers to make games.

Ridiculous Fishing is a great game you can play in quick spurts. You tap the screen to start and descend into the blue, dodging as many fish as you can until you hit one. When you do snag one, the game becomes a frenzy to try and collect all of the fish you can. As the fish surface, they fly in the sky. and you bring your reign of fire upon them, gaining money for each kill with your trusty pistol. Call of Duty can’t beat this. Honestly, I didn’t actually play the game in bursts. I’m not the kind of person that’s able to play games in that way. I was playing this game for a couple hours every night before I went to sleep. The game didn’t exactly last that long, as it was meant to be played a little more sporadically. It’s a testament to the amount of fun in the game, though, because I would be constantly playing so I could earn more fishing line, a new gun, or and upgrade that would tweak how the game was played. I’ve enjoyed the games that Vlambeer has released, and I’m especially excited for Luftrausers after playing its flash version. There aren’t that many games quite like this, and it was nice to get a refreshing new game on the App Store. Ridiculous Fishing is $2.99 on the Google Play Store and the App Store

Like with Ridiculous Fishing, I spent a lot of my time playing Game Dev Story. This game is a natural time sink. You spend a time managing your team of developers to make money by doing contract work or making games. You never do any mini games or short puzzles to make the games or decide on specifics for each project, but it sure is a puzzle trying to figure out which kinds of games strike a chord with your audience and would earn you a lot of sales. In my first run of the game (each one is 20 years in lapsed time), I managed to get games into the Hall Of Fame and #1 gross seller spots. The game was fun because the management system of the studio was intuitive, quirky and cute. I enjoyed designing several Animal Life games, training and balancing the staff to my own needs, and, overall, running my own game studio. It was really fun because I made cute little names like Finnik and Animia for my games. I imagined the plot and cuteness of the games, and I bet they could have been best sellers on the real game market! Another thing I thought interesting about the game was its insight into a developer’s world. While it may be different than what I or others have experienced, it’s understandable why so many companies go for years without games or go bankrupt from production costs and advertising. As I played, I was worried that, when the salary came around, it would put me under and make me lose the game since I wouldn’t have enough to pay my employees. I also spent some money I didn’t have on certain things and was in several thousands of dollars in debt several times during the game. It’s cool how a game like this can be insightful, especially a mobile game. Game Dev Story is $2.50 on the Google Play Store, and currently a discounted 99 cents on the App Store.

I haven’t been able to get many games lately; I’ve mostly just gotten the free ones on the App Store. So it’s been pretty fun playing these in my free time when I’m not programming or doing homework. I’m glad the game market has been expanding so much within the last few years. Who would have thought we would be making such crazy games as the tilt based Ridiculous Fishing or the insanely meta Game Dev Story even ten years ago?