Have you ever wanted to design games? Ever dreamt of having your own game development company, your own crew and your own company HQ? GameBiz gives you the opportunity to show your skills in the gaming world, with a twist. Have you ever wanted to be there when Mario or even Pong was released? Maybe release a game that would now be featured on Abandonia? Of course you have!

GameBiz takes you back to where everything started; 1984 - the titular Magical Years. You found your own game development company and race against the great developers
of history. Wanted to release a better game, sweep Doom, Diablo or even Half-Life 2 from the charts and rewrite gaming history? Here's your chance!

Gameplay

You start out with $500,000 and $1 million as a loan, a small HQ building and a no-name publisher. Your task is to rise to the top of the charts with your games, and become the greatest game developer of all time. Needless to say, this is not an easy task.

First you have to start your game project. Select the name and the genre of your game and the platform (Amiga, Genesis, Amstrad... your choice). You must select the game technology too -  if you want a cheap game, choose old technology or up-to-date, but you can also "push the limits". You can also select an advertising medium, ranging from the local newspaper to worldwide TV coverage. If you are happy with your settings, you can start development. You can also hire assistants to speed up the development of programming, music, or design.

When your game is finished, you can release it and make some serious money if the market is right for it. Yes, the market is changing. Sometimes the gamers want action games, sometimes RPG or sports titles. Try to satisfy their needs.

Later in the game, software piracy will become a major concern, and your old development tools won't produce much success either. You must research new tools, anti-piracy defence and also porting tools to release your games to a different platform. Without research, your games won't make it to the top 100.You can hire new managers and buy a bigger HQ building and better equipment. Ever wanted Sid Meier as your project leader? Now's your chance.

There is much more you can explore by yourself, and maybe develop a No. 1 game. Try your skills and battle for the charts! Game on!

Graphics, Sound and Controls

GameBiz has a basic, yet excellent, layout and it is not over-designed. You can easily see the news, the platform and genre panels, and the menu layout is also good. The colors are easy on the eyes, and the starfield of the background is calming. You can access any info you want with only one click. Nice!

GameBiz has an awesome collection of MIDI songs, from the themes of the great classic games to general music. This is a huge addition to the game. You will experience constant nostalgia hearing the music of the Magical Years. The sound is pretty well-suited to the game too.

Technical issues and Compatibility

The game has some bugs, and tends to freeze sometimes, but if you save often it won't be a problem. It should run fine on any Windows based PC.  Please note, though, that you cannot save while developing a game! The music player also malfuntions sometimes, so you are better off listening to the game's songs with a standalone media player.

Final Words

GameBiz is an excellent game in its genre, being a freeware title this is an even more awesome archivement. Despite some minor (and less minor) bugs, the game's atmosphere is great and it's very well worth playing. You don't like a game? See if you can do it better
in GameBiz!