Game Dev Studio
Released Mar 2018
Welcome to your own Game Dev Studio! How will you run your own offices and ascend to greatness in the gaming industry?
84% positive · 679 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to buy
Steam $1.49 $9.99 −85%
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Evaluation
Game Dev Studio launched on March 12, 2018 and received three major free content updates over roughly two years: Update #29 (June 21, 2019), Update #30 (October 4, 2019), and Update #31 (January 31, 2020). The sole paid DLC — a Developer Commentary Narration — shipped alongside Update #31 on January 31, 2020, and the developer explicitly stated it would be the only paid DLC ever released for the game.
On September 17, 2020, the developer published a candid post explaining that further content updates were contingent on the commercial performance of a new game called Intravenous. The developer cited burnout after five years on the project and poor sales as reasons for shifting focus. While the post stopped short of a definitive "no more content ever," it made clear that returning to Game Dev Studio was not a certainty — only a possibility if Intravenous sold well or GDS sales improved substantially. Crucially, no further news posts, patches, announcements, or content of any kind have appeared since June 20, 2020 (the last bug-fix patch), and no future content has been announced. The developer's silence has now extended to nearly six years since the last communication.
With no unreleased DLC on the store, no announced future content, no sustained pattern of major updates that would suggest more are still coming, and a developer statement that made continuation explicitly conditional on external financial factors — conditions that were never publicly confirmed to have been met — the game is best understood as complete. All content that was promised and delivered has shipped, and the developer has not communicated any further plans.
Evidence
Developer explains that further content updates for Game Dev Studio are conditional on the success of their new game Intravenous or a significant improvement in GDS sales. Cites burnout and poor sales as reasons for shifting focus. States bugfixes will continue but cannot promise new content without a steady income. This is the last developer communication of any kind.
Update #31 released, adding a Developer Commentary scenario. Developer explicitly states this is the only paid DLC that will ever be released, and all future gameplay content will remain free updates.
Content
1 of 1 released · no outstanding content
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
Explosive Squat Games
Achievements
28
Platform
Windows, Linux
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Not rated
Players
Single-player
About this game
Welcome to your own Game Dev Studio!
How will you run your own offices and ascend to greatness in the gaming industry?Non-linear progression. Fill the empty spaces in your office with any objects you wish, and when you run out of space, buy a new building to continue expanding!
Find the best employees for your studio. Employees have their skills, attributes, traits, interests, and knowledge on topics.
Create multiple teams, work on multiple game projects at once, or reach for the stars by focusing all your workpower on one game.
Just don't forget that you won't get to keep your employees forever.
Rev up those engines. Make game engines, update them with new tech, and revamp them when the code gets too messy!
Make awesome games. Employees? Check. Game engine? Check. Now it's time to make great games!
Hype it up! Advertise your games through a multitude of ways: invite reviewers for an interview, start a mass advertisement campaign, contact online personalities to create early playthrough videos of your game, hire agencies to shill your game online, and even bribe reviewers!
Show your rivals who's boss of this industry. Your rivals are on the lookout for talented developers just like you are, so get ready to fight off their attempts to lure your employees away with higher salaries. Give them a taste of their own medicine and buy them out when they go under!
Sway the odds of platform manufacturers. Games you release influence the fate of platform manufacturers for which they're made.
Good games will make a platform more attractive to gamers and change its market share for the better.
Never a dull moment. Story mode, four extra campaigns, a freeplay mode, and the ability to randomize various aspects of the game at the beginning of a playthrough make for greater replayability.
Full modding support via Steam Workshop. Every little bit about the game can be changed with mods, even turned into something else entirely if the modder's skill and patience allows them.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 27, 2026
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