It’s always a surprise to see something genuinely interesting on the Android App store’s frontpage, completely disorganised as it is. Recently, the Japanese developed ‘GameDevStory’ appeared on the front page for a little under two British pounds (though due to the money being charged to me in Japanese Yen, I paid just as much in service charges: ouch). As someone who has played a fair few games, I’ve always dreamed of setting up my own studio in Serviced Offices Mayfair, and I suspect that many of you have too. So the appeal is instantly recognisable. It’s also helped along by a neat and quite cute looking aesthetic of pixel-art people in their office environment. This is a simple but effective isometric-perspective simulation that screams ‘Theme Hospital’. It’s not a relentlessly funny as that legendary Bullfrog title (the humour is more of a sustained parody), but it’s utterly adorable. It’s also mechanically ingenious, with non-obtrusive controls and plenty of short bursts of fun to be had.

Granted your own Serviced Office Space with four desks, you’re tasked with building a game studio, hiring and firing writers, artists, programmers and musicians as you see fit. You select a project for them to all work on, and you’ll see them earn points (fun, innovation, creativity, audio) for the product as they tap away at their little keyboards. Each project will also randomly gain bugs and research points. Bugs must be stamped out in the final stage of development, whilst research points are accumulated to be spent on levelling up your characters. You can also gamble on using research data to cause a massive boost to your product’s attributes, which can backfire and cause more bugs

This is the kind of game that ease you in before opening up an impressive array of features. As the game progresses, you move on to bigger offices, hire people into new roles and unlock new genres and focuses for your games. It’s rather reductive of the complexity of game development process, but it’s reminiscent enough to be at least a loving homage to the industry. It’s also a lot cheaper than renting Serviced Offices Manchester and dipping your toe in the proverbial piranha tank of the actual game industry.