I mean can I research a DRM or something' wrote another user, who would likely have been incensed if Greenheart Games had put DRM on the game he was playing. Not fair' wrote one user while busy being 'not fair' to the developers of Game Dev Tycoon. 'Why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me!. Some players, though, apparently missed the irony and instead took to message boards to complain about the effect piracy was having on their in-game studio. Most pirates, on seeing the above message, might take it as a good opportunity to take a good, hard look at themselves and examine the effects their own actions are having on the developers. Interestingly, this tweak arguably makes the illegal version of Game Dev Tycoon a little more true-to-life than the version that players can actually buy (though in a way that's decidedly not very fun for the player). That's right: players in the pirated version will inevitably find themselves failing thanks to piracy. If players don’t buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt. This illicit version plays exactly like the official paid version for the first few hours, letting players control a miniature game development studio trying to release successful titles in a simulated marketplace.Īfter a while, though, those playing the pirated version will be confronted with a message that, as Klug puts it, takes 'the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers.'īoss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally. On the Greenheart Games blog, developer Patrick Klug details how he intentionally seeded a 'pirated' version of Game Dev Tycoon at the very moment that the title went up on the developer's store yesterday. The developers at Greenheart Games took the second tack for their new title Game Dev Tycoon, but they did so in what has to be the most hilarious way we've ever seen. Other developers don't block piracy outright but instead attempt to shame or inhibit pirates by coding disruptive 'features' that activate when a cracked version is detected. Over the years, game developers have gone to great lengths to prevent players from pirating their games, from physical paper wheels to intrusive DRM.

Pirate mode game dev tycoon