Game Dev Tycoon developer finds success after its cheeky anti-piracy stunt

Last month the two brothers at Greenheart Games implemented a brilliant bug into pirated copies of their game, Game Dev Story, that made it so anyone playing a cracked copy would unwittingly fail due to piracy.

Now Greenheart has explained on its blog that its game was successful in spite of a majority of its copies being pirated. "I'm happy to report that my brother Daniel can finally transition out of his full time job to focus exclusively on Greenheart Games," wrote Greenheart's Patrick Klug. "The support from paying players (who are still outnumbered by pirates) is what makes all this possible."

Klug went on to explain its cheeky anti-piracy stunt brought in an influx of players and helped get Game Dev Tycoon greenlit on Steam.

That being said, the brothers Klug have been very critical of their own work and would like to improve their popular sim. "While it's clear that many players enjoy their experience with Game Dev Tycoon, we also saw some frustrations and have to admit that Game Dev Tycoon could use some more polish. From the feedback we received and from watching players play the game we can see that there are some flaws which hinder the game's potential and lessen the game experience."

Greenheart was adamant that it didn't want Game Dev Tycoon to be a simple grindfest, and it should require more tactical thinking than pure time-killing brute force. "In Game Dev Tycoon you can create a good game from the start but you can also create a bad game with a great team. We like this and want to keep it that way but admittedly the balance is sometimes off. The problem is that the game is tuned for some play styles but not for others," Greenheart explained. "The game can be too punishing at certain stages and, what's worse, it doesn't give you enough feedback to be able to adapt your strategy. Sure, you could play following a wiki with a calculator at hand but we never wanted the game to be played this way."

The developer would like to release an updated version of the game when it comes to Steam in August. "Don't expect any major additions (that's what a sequel is for!) but you can expect some improvements/small additions and a more polished game experience," Greenheart added.

While Greenheart can't generate Steam keys until its closer to release, players can purchase Game Dev Tycoon from the developer's official site, and they'll be sent free Steam keys once the game is ready to go up on Valve's distribution service.