Game Dev Story and more Cairosoft games hit Steam

I think the first mobile game I ever bought was Game Dev Story, Kairosoft’s smash-hit lightweight management game about running a video game studio. I think the second mobile game I bought was probably one of its follow-ups, too. So I’m feeling all sorts of nostalgic as I see Game Dev Story and four other vintage Kairosoft manage ’em ups have arrived on Steam.

On Monday, Kairosoft Steam versions of Game Dev Story, Hot Springs Story, Dungeon Village, Station Manager, and Dream House Days DX. While Game Dev originated on Windows way back in the 90s, mostly these are the PC debut for games originally released on pocket telephones.

Game Dev Story has you run a games studio, hiring staff and allocating resources to create games, hoping to find hits (rated on the four metrics everyone knows: Graphics, Sound, Originality, and Fun, as every review of course uses) and maybe eventually launch your own console. Hot Springs Story expands that into running a hot spring resort, building amenities and such. Dungeon Village gives that an RPG twist, building a fantasy village to attract and house adventurers who’ll go out and duff stuff up for treasure. Station Manager has you build and decorate a fancy train station. And Dream House is about running and decorating apartment blocks.

I like their style of management games. They’re simple and gentle but it’s satisfying when things go right. So, it’s fun to create things with silly names. They’re all quite similar beyond Game Dev so hey, start with whichever theme most appeals to you?

The games are available now on Steam, each with a regular price of £9/€10/$12. Some have launch discounts making them cheaper right now.

You might see that some early reviews complained about keyboard input not working. That was a bug, which Cairosoft have fixed and apologized for. They’ve also since Added options to remap keyboard controls. But it still sounds like they’re pretty scrappy PC editions.