City Game Studio

About

City Game Studio is a single player casual management game with economy and business themes. It was developed by Binogure Studio and was released on August 24, 2021. It received very positive reviews from players.

You are the founder of your video game company. The starting point belongs to you, in your garage, or think big instead of small by acquiring your first local. At the end of the day, your decisions will make your studio a success and will mark the Video Game History.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+17

Skip User Reviews

90%

Audience ScoreBased on 770 reviews

gameplay27 positive mentions

grinding16 negative mentions

Extremely in-depth and feature-rich game dev simulation with controls over multiple studios, game engines, consoles, marketing, and business strategies.
Active and responsive solo developer continually improves and updates the game, engaging with community feedback and adding new content over multiple years.
Fun and addictive gameplay loop with satisfying progression from humble beginnings to massive gaming empire, appealing to fans of the genre and management sims.

Clunky and unintuitive UI with steep learning curve and occasional bugs, leading to management tedium and player frustration especially when scaling up.
Late game can become repetitive and too easy with limited challenge from AI competitors; micromanagement fatigue and performance issues appear at high company sizes.
Some gameplay systems (like console development, game review impact, hacking minigames, and staff management) feel shallow, unbalanced, or disconnected from core gameplay.

gameplay
115 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
74%
3%
The gameplay is a deep and engaging game development management simulation with a variety of strategic mechanics, including resource allocation, genre-platform matchmaking, and progression systems that reward experimentation. While some mechanics can be obtuse or underdeveloped, the intuitive interface, continuous developer support, and extensive modding community enhance the experience and replayability. Comparisons to similar titles highlight its richer, more complex options, though some find the late-game and UI clarity lacking.
- “In similar fashion to Game Dev Tycoon, the UI in this game is very clear and easy to use, the mechanics are intuitive and fun, the modding scene is very vibrant and it is easy to create mods without code if you wish to, the progression system feels fair and balanced, and it's honestly just a great game I can recommend to anyone who likes this genre.”
- “The gameplay mechanics and progression system are well-designed, ensuring that I always had meaningful choices to make and objectives to strive for.”
- “The game development system offers a wide array of choices, from design, engine, and graphics to gameplay mechanics.”
- “I find the studio competitor gameplay mechanic to become tedious and it falls flat, and your studios eventually balloon to unmanageable size where it just isn't fun to play anymore.”
- “Then, CGS also slowed the gameplay big time, you literally need to make tens of similar games to unlock some features.”
- “While the game has some interesting proposals and innovative ideas over the genre, its mechanics have very little depth in my opinion.”
graphics
53 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
72%
9%
The graphics feature a clean, minimalist, and stylized art style that prioritizes clarity and functionality over cutting-edge visuals, resulting in a somewhat simplistic and repetitive aesthetic that some find stale or outdated. While the visuals effectively represent offices, characters, and UI elements, they lack polish and modern appeal, occasionally causing performance issues in larger studios. Despite these drawbacks, the graphics align well with the game’s design depth and strategic choices, appealing to players who value substance over flashy presentation.
- “The graphics are clean, colorful, and functional, clearly showing offices, rooms, and characters.”
- “The visuals themselves are minimalist but effective, focusing on clarity and functionality rather than overly flashy graphics.”
- “I really like the fact that it has beautiful visuals, many different options and directions, it is still supported and contains quite few bugs for an increasingly extensive release.”
- “My main takeaways and drawback is that the game has absolutely atrocious graphics and UX.”
- “Visuals are very, very stale making furnishing offices a total bore.”
- “Graphics could use some optimization, with studios of 100+ members causing lags on pretty decent machines (3770k/16GB/SSD/1080ti).”
story
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
84%
8%
The story aspect of the game is generally seen as functional but limited, with players appreciating its similarity to titles like Game Dev Story and Game Dev Tycoon. The narrative is predictable and somewhat repetitive, often feeling more like a structured framework to guide gameplay rather than an engaging or evolving plot. While fans of the genre enjoy the familiarity and strategic elements of managing story emphasis in game development, some criticize the lack of charm, character interaction, and deeper narrative complexity.
- “You choose game genres, themes, and platforms to target, balancing development resources across gameplay, graphics, sound, and story.”
- “Inspired by a few similar games like Game Dev Story, Game Dev Tycoon, and Software Inc, this is probably one of the most advanced in the genre.”
- “If you ever played Game Dev Story, this is a more fleshed out version of that.”
- “The main story on normal difficulty can be completed in 4-6 hours, and you can easily buy out every single competitor (they provide no real competition) after a single hit game.”
- “It also drops all the sandbox aspects and frames the player into a strict, immutable storyline, with ups and downsides.”
- “Having this preset story means that I can fully predict where not to waste money and every game is going to be the same.”
replayability
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
57%
14%
The game offers high replayability through diverse genres, procedural generation, and extensive mod support, allowing each playthrough to feel unique and customizable. While some find it fast to complete once familiar, the variety of options and ongoing developer support contribute to sustained interest, making it significantly more replayable than comparable titles.
- “Replayability is high thanks to the variety of genres, game engines, and market conditions—each run can feel different depending on your decisions and strategy.”
- “Mod support and localization options have also expanded, giving the game strong replayability and customization options.”
- “The amount of options for genres and themes is already massive in the base game and it can be very easily increased with mods, which gives this loop insane replayability, similar to what it had in Game Dev Tycoon.”
- “I've played Game Dev Tycoon back in the day and it was plenty of fun, but I always thought it lacked a lot of features and replayability.”
- “It hurts the replayability because actual history never changes.”
- “But on the other hand, it lacks replayability.”
grinding
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
94%
Grinding in the game is frequently described as tedious and micromanagement-heavy, with scaling up and multitasking becoming overwhelming as studios grow large. While some tools and incentives help reduce monotony, repetitive tasks like mass desk placement, managing large teams, and publishing numerous games often feel like slow, frustrating busywork. Additionally, certain achievements require extensive grinding, which may detract from overall enjoyment for some players.
- “The studio competitor gameplay mechanic becomes tedious and falls flat, with studios eventually ballooning to an unmanageable size where it just isn't fun to play anymore.”
- “There is never enough decent designers in the hiring pool and the pool doesn't increase in size, which is quite annoying at the later stages of the game (having 70+ workers and many millions of dollars). Also, balancing your teams becomes tedious and the 'fire' button should confirm before firing a person.”
- “The game includes very grindy achievements, such as completing 1000 games and postmortems, which feel like a big grind.”
music
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The music in the game is generally praised for being charming, soothing, and well-suited to the atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience. While some find it repetitive and a bit unvaried, it remains pleasant and not intrusive. A minor issue noted was the initial volume level, which may vary depending on the player's setup.
- “Also, this is directly to the developer, I don't know if you made the music to this game or had it commissioned, but it is flawless.”
- “It's so charming and soothing, I can just vibe out to the music and sometimes forget to play.”
- “The music creates a nice, balanced atmosphere that complements the flow of the gameplay.”
- “The gameplay loop is solid, the music is okay albeit repetitive (befitting of the environment, I suppose).”
- “The music was a bit loud on launch, but that could just be my headset and personal volume settings.”
- “The graphics leave something to be desired, but by no means are bad; similarly, the music—while repetitive and unvaried—doesn't make you want to turn off or lower the volume.”
monetization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
23%
44%
The monetization system offers extensive hands-on control with options like microtransactions, ads, and free-to-play models, though the cap of 16 microtransactions feels limiting for later stages. Features unlock progressively, but many become less engaging over time. Overall, the system is feature-rich and well-implemented, with ongoing updates enhancing the experience.
- “It has many features that you can add to your game, including microtransactions and ads, and you can even make a free-to-play game.”
- “You can dive deep into every aspect of game development, from designing and releasing your own custom console to tweaking in-game mechanics like microtransactions.”
- “There is a small problem with microtransactions where you can add a maximum of 16, which might seem enough at first but becomes limiting later.”
- “There is a small problem with the microtransactions: you can add 16 max, which might seem like enough at the beginning but becomes limiting later.”
- “The developer should increase the number of microtransactions or make it so that at first you can add 16 max but every time you update, you can add about 4 more.”
- “It has many features that you can add to your game (microtransactions and ads), and you can even make a free-to-play game.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
Optimization in the game is generally praised for being well-executed and enabling smooth performance even with complex gameplay elements. However, some users report lag and performance drops when managing multiple in-game activities or large studios, indicating occasional instability on mid-to-high-end systems. Overall, while optimization is a strong point, it can struggle under heavy load or with graphics in certain scenarios.
- “Great game, entertaining, well optimized and with a very intelligent workshop.”
- “I've just beaten the game for my first time and dude, this game is incredible, the optimization is insane and it's so good, well built. In my opinion 9/10, it's a bit fast paced but other than that amazing time playing this.”
- “The look is very similar which I don't mind, but I believe this one has much better performance with much more going on, so great job on the optimization.”
- “Overall game lacks direction and feedback and has performance issues.”
- “Also, once you start releasing multiple games at a rapid clip, your game will bog down performance and fill the screen with popups detailing how well they did and make you unable to play further.”
- “Graphics could use some optimization, with studios of 100+ members causing lags on pretty decent machines (3770k/16g/ssd/1080ti).”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game shows promising stability with fewer bugs than typical early-access titles, though some issues like crashing around late December and occasional minor bugs persist. Players remain optimistic due to the developer's commitment to ongoing improvements.
- “This game is good but it keeps crashing every time it hits the end of December; it freezes even though I have only 4 mods installed.”
- “I still have much to learn and there are a few bugs, but this game has a lot of promise.”
- “The sequel is definitely a day-one purchase for me, even if it comes out buggy or with less content, because I know this developer will keep improving it.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a strong sense of humor, with cleverly punny competitor names and hilarious auto-generated game titles. Additionally, its quirky mini-game of office decoration adds a funny twist by allowing absurdly tight employee arrangements for maximum efficiency.
- “The game has a great sense of humor: automatically-generated game names are absolutely hilarious, and the punny renamed competitors are clever.”
- “Decorating the office isn't strictly necessary, but it allows you to play a mini-game of arranging your employees and decorations for maximum efficiency—though it hilariously doesn't require you to leave much actual room for your employees, so you can pack them into some pretty tight arrangements if you want to.”
- “Funny notes.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users praise the game's authentic and immersive atmosphere, enhanced by balanced music that complements the gameplay flow. While they appreciate the current tone, some hope for a more colorful and visually appealing sequel without altering the plot or atmosphere.
- “The music creates a nice, balanced atmosphere that complements the flow of the gameplay.”
- “From the moment I set foot in my modest rented office space, I was captivated by the immersive gameplay and the authentic atmosphere that City Game Studio effortlessly created.”
- “Let's hope the developers will make a second part that's more colorful and visually appealing, but without changing the plot or the atmosphere.”