Devices Tycoon gameplay revolves around building and managing an electronics corporation from the ground up, developed and published by Roastery Games on Steam. Players design custom hardware, program operating systems, hire specialized talent, and balance production lines against real-time corporate finances. From picking components in an in-depth device editor to handling press conferences and bank loans, the simulation offers extensive control over how tech products are conceived and brought to market.
Character Creation and the 80-Perk Progression System
Before opening your company doors, the game presents a life-stage questionnaire covering early childhood, childhood, school years, university years, and adulthood. Your answers shape your starting attributes and initial perks. You also establish your company name, select a founding country, and set your starting capital.
As your business operates, progression branches into five distinct perk categories that level up independently based on your company's actual operations:
- Management: Advanced by handling staffing decisions and corporate structure.
- Economy and Infrastructure: Leveled through financial operations, office expansions, and banking activities.
- Production and Technology: Advanced by running research and development projects, signing factory contracts, and refining production lines.
- Market and Audience: Upgraded through marketing campaigns, social media outreach, and public device releases.
- Influence and Domination: Developed through company acquisitions, stock purchases, and corporate standing.
Across these five categories, the game contains 80 unique perks. Each time a category levels up, you choose between two mutually exclusive perks. Decisions are permanent and cannot be reversed or respecified later, shaping your company's strategic focus for the rest of the playthrough.
Designing Devices, Hardware, and Custom Operating Systems
The core gameplay loop centers on creating and releasing custom technology products. The game supports a broad catalog of device types, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, headphones, televisions, consoles, gamepads, VR/XR/MR headsets, and custom keyboards. In addition to consumer end-products, you can independently engineer computer components like CPUs and graphics cards.
The device editor features over 10,000 customizable functions and aesthetic options:
| Component Category | Available Customization Choices |
|---|---|
| Physical Exterior | Body size, casing colors, and screen technology |
| Internal Hardware | Processors (CPUs), graphics cards (GPUs), memory, and cooling systems |
| Audio & Peripherals | Built-in speaker types and hardware configurations |
| Packaging & Branding | Box color, logo placement, typography styles, and box material quality |
| Software Integration | Custom mobile, smartwatch, TV, or desktop operating systems |
Hardware components receive individual performance and energy efficiency ratings. When designing custom operating systems, you map out interface aesthetics, unlock system features, and establish compatibility across single or multiple device platforms.
Production Pipelines, Research Labs, and Banking Systems
Turning a design into retail revenue requires coordinating multiple departments. You can purchase and upgrade more than 16 offices, staffing them with three core professions: designers, programmers, and engineers.
Product creation moves sequentially across these teams. Once designers complete the conceptual draft, the project passes to programmers for software setup, and finally to engineers for hardware assembly. In the current build, your company can only develop one active project at a time; inactive departments sit idle until the current pipeline phase transitions to their discipline.
To support expansion, three external systems govern your growth:
- Research Labs: While standard development generates Research Points (RP), dedicated Research Labs allow you to hire autonomous lab assistants. Expanding lab floors and upgrading staff produces passive RP to unlock higher-tier device features.
- Manufacturing Factories: In-house engineers build your initial launch batch. Once on-shelf inventory sells out, partnered external factories step in to continuously produce supplemental units, preventing product shortages.
- Bank and Loan System: If expansion exhausts your liquidity, banks provide loans based on designated interest rates, borrowing caps, and repayment windows. Repaying on time increases your bank trust score to unlock better borrowing terms, while nearing bankruptcy causes lenders to hike interest rates due to default risk.
Game Modes: Real History vs. Sandbox
Devices Tycoon provides two distinct ways to structure a playthrough:
Real History Mode
This mode begins your company in 2008 at the dawn of the modern smartphone era. Technology does not unlock all at once. Instead, historical milestones trigger over time across 500 feature categories, encompassing more than 50,000 historically accurate hardware and software breakthroughs. Early smartphones mirror early real-world designs—such as physical navigation buttons—and you receive notifications the moment new functions are invented, offering you the opportunity to beat competing brands to market.
Sandbox Mode
Sandbox mode removes standard timeline restrictions, letting players experiment freely with high-end tech. In the base launch version, accessing Sandbox mode requires reaching an unlock milestone of 100m cash during standard play.
Marketing, Social Media, and Launch Events
Releasing a device involves generating consumer hype before store placement begins:
- Device Presentations: Showcase upcoming hardware directly to your customer base to gain brand followers and elevate launch excitement.
- Press Conferences: Journalists ask direct, sometimes provocative questions about your company and upcoming releases. Thoughtful responses bolster reputation, while dismissive or evasive answers negatively impact anticipation.
- DevicesGram: The in-game social media platform where you post announcements, celebrate Annual Awards ceremony victories, and build an online following.
- Retail Stores: Companies can open and upgrade physical branded stores across multiple international territories to sell manufactured inventory.
Once units arrive on store shelves, simulated customer reviews evaluate the product. Reviews provide comedic feedback on specific design choices—such as high screen refresh rates or excessive retail pricing—and assign numerical scores that directly dictate store sales volume.
Known Community Feedback and Technical Fixes
Player reviews on Steam highlight several quality-of-life considerations and technical workarounds for the initial release:
- Single-Project Development: Development teams currently work sequentially on one item at a time. Community members actively request parallel multitasking so designers and engineers can work simultaneously on separate devices.
- Staff Micromanagement: Employee morale requires manual bonuses and vacation assignments. Players with large teams (50+ staff members) note that managing personnel on individual tabs can be time-consuming.
- Fullscreen Black Screen Workaround: If the display goes black upon entering fullscreen mode, developer and player testing confirms pressing Alt+Tab twice restores the image. Alternatively, players can switch to Windowed mode under Settings -> Video, or configure NVIDIA G-Sync to fullscreen-only or disabled.
- Linux and Steam Deck Setup: Community members running the game on Linux note it requires Microsoft Edge WebView2 installed via protontricks. If the mouse cursor fails to appear, enabling mouse capture for fullscreen windows in winecfg resolves the issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What platforms is Devices Tycoon available on?
Devices Tycoon is released on Windows PC via Steam. While player discussions reference an earlier mobile title by the developer, the current Steam release (Steam App ID 2085660) is built for PC environments with Windows 7 Home or newer.
Can you make your own computer processors and graphics cards?
Yes. The game includes dedicated CPU and GPU editors. You can develop proprietary processors and graphics hardware to power your own device lineup or distribute components across your product range.
How do you unlock Sandbox mode in Devices Tycoon?
According to player community reports, Sandbox mode is locked behind an achievement goal requiring your company to reach $100 million in cash during standard mode play.
Can you run multiple device projects at the same time?
No. In the current release, you can only run one active project at a time. While one department (such as programming) works on a phase, other departments (such as design or engineering) remain idle until the project progresses or concludes.
How does the bank loan system work?
Loans provide upfront capital with fixed interest rates and repayment windows. Repayments can be made at any point before the deadline. Consistently repaying loans on time boosts your bank trust rating for lower future rates, while poor company financial health leads banks to charge higher interest.
