Indie Dev Simulator (2020)

Developer: Egor Magurin, Shilov
Publisher: Indovers Studio
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Genres: Indie, Simulation, Strategy
Rating: 3.2 of 5, 92 player ratings
Typical playtime: about 3.2 hours
Where to get it: Steam

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A down-to-earth simulation of the stressful, solitary grind of indie game development with tight resource management.

simulationstrategyresource managementrealisticchallengingsolitarylow-budgettime-pressured

What players say

Players widely report the game feels abandoned, with the developer moving on to a new project while this one remains unfinished. The early game is a tedious grind of freelance work to pay rapidly rising rent, and the whole experience is described as shallow, short, and repetitive.

Screenshots

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More by Egor Magurin

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.