This sim lets you live out your dream of being a video game developer. You can build an MMO, manage investors and your team, and even create your own game.

Ever fantasized about creating your own game? Probably. Have you ever fantasized about creating your own game, while managing a development studio and managing your employees? What about balancing a budget, meeting deadlines, dealing with angry investors, and dealing data breaches? Maybe not.

Springloaded, the makers of Let's Build a Zoo 2021, have just announced a new management simulation game called Let's Build a Dungeon. Let's Build a Dungeon, in many ways, is based on the makingof 2021's Let's Build a Zoo, and Springloaded's older games. Watch the video below to learn how you can create, build and play your very own MMORPG with Let's Build a Dungeon... but that's just the tip of game development.

Springloaded announced today that it would be able to "hire staff, rent an apartment, manage project deadlines and negotiate with shareholders. You can also pitch publishers for investment." Take the company from an indie studio with a limited budget to a development powerhouse, in a humorous and true-to-life look at the current games industry.

Let's Build a Dungeon allows you to create any type of game, from "a monster-catching rpg" to "a cozy farm simulator." You can even fish, so I will definitely create a fishing MMO once this sim is released. You can play the game yourself, rather than just watching simulated players have fun.

This week I was able to play a short demo of Let's Build a Dungeon and it gave me a tantalizing taste of managing my own development studio. I started with an empty world and created a continent using random generation. Then I added a few buildings that you would find in a fantasy role-playing game: a mapography office, a farmhouse, and some decorations such as lamp posts and fences. There's no way for heroes to get anything done without quests. So I added mine: A merchant's basement has been overrun by giant rats, and they need your assistance. Yep, that's early-game quest-giving 101.

As I was building the world, beta testers were already roaming around. I created the rooms and passageways of my first dungeon, adding monster spawners that would generate rats for the heroes, placing chests with gold to reward them, and adding places for collectibles. My testers hurled fireballs into the dungeon, destroying swarms rodents. I continued to build and eventually added a gate that led to the first boss battle of my MMO with a big eyeball monster.

Then, suddenly, I received a text from my virtual manager. Oh, right! This isn't a simple game design simulation, it's also a gamesimulator. I left the dungeon and found myself on my virtual desktop, which had folders labeled 'Org Chart' and 'Dev Tools' and icons for a calendar, web browser, and other utilities. Let's Build a Dungeon is not just about building dungeons, placing monsters and treasures.

My boss told me that he had invested a lot of money in my studio, and he was expecting a milestone payment soon: a return on investment. He said that his name is Lord Richard and that his avatar wore a crown. In our short conversation, he casually mentioned the fact he had been to outerspace. I think I know who this investor could be based on. He also suggested that I play the game that I had just created, so I did. I ran through the town and dungeon that I created, fighting the rats and collecting the weapons and gold I'd hidden. My demo ended when I fought the boss - not the boss of my studio, but the boss of the dungeon.

I was able to see much more of Let's Build a Dungeon during a meeting with Springloaded CEO James Barnard. What I saw went far beyond the demo I played. Barnard showed me a simulated digital games market, which is very similar to Steam, where I will be appearing in my MMO.

It's not only my studio or game that is simulated, but also all of my customers. We could see the data of each player: their country, how long they have been playing and what quests are they completing. I could see the address, name, and a tiny simulated credit card number that they used to pay for the game. You can pay to encrypt your credit card numbers in Let's Build a Dungeon just in case there is a data breach... but you can also choose to not pay and hope for the worst. You can get hacked, and your users' information can be stolen. Let's build a Dungeon is a pretty in-depth game.

If you played Springloaded’s last sim Let’s Build a Zoo, you know there are many ways to be a bad zookeeper, such as turning your spare zoo animal into food or products for extra profits. Let's Build a Dungeon's potential for evil may not be as graphic, but it's still there. It's also mirrored in the real gaming industry. Springloaded says that there are a lot of meaningful ...) decisions to be made. "Players can force extended working hours in order to meet deadlines or ignore investor pressure in order to protect the development teams."

Want to create a game using this game about creating a video game? Yes, I agree. Big time. Let's Build a Dungeon has no release date, but interested players can sign-up for a beta at the official website. Here's its Steam page.