Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story

Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story is a life simulation and management game about building a game studio from scratch. You begin as a one-person studio and work through a three-year story, developing games and trying to establish yourself as a successful producer. You can manage a small team, with its members relying on your organization and leadership.

Run your studio

You make decisions about each game’s art style and music, and develop the skills needed to create the games you want, including programming, game design, music and art. You can hire staff in areas such as programming, narrative design, game design, art and music, while managing the budget and paying salaries. Outsourcing contracts can bring in money, and released games offer different ways to increase revenue.

Care for yourself

Alongside leading the studio, you need to look after your developer’s physical and mental health by making time to eat, sleep, exercise and have fun. The studio leader is sometimes portrayed as a talking cat.

Meet people

After work, you can spend time with friends and meet people from different industries. You can build personal skills to become more likable and choose whether to learn more about the people you meet and their stories. Those connections may be able to help you later.

Game modes

Story mode follows the studio’s first three years. Endless Mode is a sandbox that continues after the story ends, letting you keep leading the studio, make more games and earn money.