Tycoon Manage-All

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I was looking for a place to put an announcement about an upcoming game, and I was surprised there was no catch-all that fit. So I'll try to make the right one. Here we are, the Tycoon Manage-All.

For games where you manage a business like Railroad Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Big Pharma, Game Dev Tycoon, Oxygen Not Included, Nom Nom Galaxy, etc, etc, etc. I generally feel Tycoon games often overlap with city-builders like Anno, Planetbase, 1849, but I'll try not to step on the toes of one of my favorite other threads: the Agent-based Sandbox Games thread.

There's a great (now defunct) channel on Youtube for games of this style called Zhatt's Tycoon News. Head over there and check it out to give you an idea what I'm going for here. If you've got another similar channel that's currently active I'd love to know.

Anyway, to the point, Cliffski just announced a game inspired by Factorio and Elon Musk called Production Line. It's about efficiently building cars, and right now it sounds like he's in the should I develop this concept or not stage? It sounds interesting to me, as I quite enjoyed Big Pharma. Check it out and I'll post back when more news is available.

Nice thread idea.

I just dove into Software Inc. and am having a blast.

It's got robust building tools and a impressive sense of depth. You create and manage a software company guiding its growth and design goals. It tracks technology from the 80's through modern times and into the future. So you may start out simply doing contract work making primitive 2D art assets or text adventures some 4 decades ago, before moving on to more advanced systems.

You're not limited to making games either. You can develop Operating Systems, application software and more. But you have to pay attention to the market and see what the competition is up to as well. No sense in making mid-level audio software when the competition already has an advanced, popular program out on the shelves. You also have to pay attention to what hardware/OS is hot or not. Designing programs for an OS past its prime will severely limit your sales potential.

Not only do you compete with the A.I., you have to work with it as well. As your company goals become more complex, you might need to license someone else's game engine or programming tools suite. Show enough aptitude and you can flip the scenario, earning royalties as others come your way to use your software.

There's just a stupid amount of depth to this game. It's pretty fantastic. Has a pleasing minimalist art aesthetic as well.

And all made by one guy, if memory serves.

Aaron D. wrote:

I just dove into Software Inc. and am having a blast.

Wow. That is amazing. It's like my favorite part of The Sims (house construction) combined with Game Dev Tycoon. The one thing I wanted from Game Dev Tycoon when I played was to be the id/epic/dice/etc of game development and just focus on the engine. Unfortunately, it really was all about the games and that didn't pan out. I can't wait to give this a shot.

Software Inc. looks brilliant and I put it immediately on my steam list, but – just like so many games of this type nowadays – this also looks rather serious and realistic. Some of my all time favourite games are Bullfrog's "Theme"-games. I have especially fond memories of Theme Hospital and I've been eye-balling the edition on GoG, but I'm rather concerned that it is just not the game I remember. At the time of its release, in 1997, the graphics looked fine and I found the humour charmingly wacky, but I'm afraid that it might not hold up. So, here is my question: Are there any games out there that can be seen as a modern iteration of those types of games that Bullfrog made during the 1990s?

I think people have been trying hard to recapture the magic of these Bullfrog games, but I don't think anyone has really hit the mark yet.

Syndicate -> Satellite Reign

Dungeon Keeper -> War for the Overworld or Dungeons

Theme Park -> RollerCoaster Tycoon World or Planet Coaster

Populus -> Godus (snicker). _Please don't play Godus_

I have only played a little bit of some of these games, and the ones I did play just didn't stand up to their predecessor. I'd still rather play the original games with all their flaws than some of these replacements.

It's too bad you missed it, but Origin gave Theme Hospital away for free a couple months back. I think the gameplay stands up to modern expectations, even if there are obviously UI things that could be improved these days.

Planet Coaster and Parkitecht are both pretty damn awesome, even in their early stages as both are now.

Oh man, I totally forgot that Dungeon Keeper was Bullfrog as well... they were on a run back then...

Of all the games mentioned so far, Parkitect and Software Inc. are the ones that seem most interesting, but as I've played quite a bit of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Platinum several months ago, I'm not that much into roller coasters at the moment... too many roller coasters on the dance floor right now...

Great thread idea! Favorited.

There is quite a lot of cross over with some of these games - Agent based and City builders, etc.

I've played about 20 hours of Parkitect, and it's really charming and well put together. I can't wait to add more to that tally, but want to wait until closer to release. The mod scene took off pretty quickly, adding rides, scenery etc, but sadly a lot of the original mods have either been broken by updates, or abandoned as their creator moved on. I started a Rollercoaster Rennaisance thread to cover all three upcoming theme park games, but it doesn't yet get much traction (sorry for diluting already 'quiet' genres on here :/). I have about 60 hours in Planet Coaster Alpha so far, and, while it'll get there, it's very much a Theme Park Scenery Creator game in it's current state - there is only the first phase of the Sim/Business/Management stuff in there. Only about 6 week until release though.

As for Theme Hospital, it actually holds up pretty well, game-play wise, and with the CorsixTH Open Source re-write (requires that you own the base game), it runs fine at today's resolutions and PC performance.

If you liked Game Dev Tycoon, there's also Mad Games Tycoon, which seems to sit in between Game Dev Tycoon and Software Inc in terms of content (drawing rooms, etc, but focusing on game development).

Speaking of Theme Hospital being on the house. Next up is Dungeon Keeper:

Dungeon Keeper on Origin

I couldn't resist and finally bought Software, Inc. During my first five hours I've already run two of my own companies into the ground. Making money on your own at the start of the game is fairly simply, because your avatar obviously doesn't have any needs (he doesn't even need a loo) and can work like a dog. Everything goes down the drain whenever I start employing people... People cost a bucket load of money and after half a year my last company was bankrupt... All in all, it is a very neat game though. The build mode is more complex than it looks at first sight and reminds me a lot of The Sims – where building houses was the only thing I really liked. This is only the second early access game I've ever bought and I'm positively surprised that it offers such a deep experience already. I'm looking forward to see what happens with this game in the future, as it's got a lot of potential.

I wasn't a huge fan of Train Fever. It was slow, both pacing of the game and technically on my computer. But nevertheless, I'm interested in Transport Fever which is what's next from that developer.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/446800

Has anyone given this a shot yet?

I'm sort of interested in Transport Fever, but it seemed like they just dropped all support for Train Fever a little bit after it was released, didn't fix any bugs, and just started jumping right into making this. I know they need to get out another product to bring in more income, but I guess I feel a bit jaded after my last experience with that company.

Greenheart Games, the dev behind Came Dev Tycoon, emailed me the other day to say that they are almost ready to announce "Game #2" in the next couple of days. They don't give any further details, though, but I'd be surprised if it isn't another Indie Tycoon style of game. A post on their forums by a staff member suggests that it will be in the Business/Simulation genre, and, sticking with their Game Dev Tycoon conventions, they are focusing on "Gameplay, AI, Graphics".

Wonder what it could be! I really enjoyed my time with Game Dev Tycoon, but it lost its replay-ability once you have worked out what combinations for each type of game, etc.

... and now they have announced it. Tavern Keeper, A Fantasy Tavern Simulator.

IMAGE(https://www.tavernkeeper.com/assets/images/screenshots/1.jpg)

Huh.

That looks like goofy-fun.

I'm not terribly excited about this bundle, but

Humble Tycoon Simulator Bundle

Includes:
Train Simulator 2016
RCT Deluxe
Out of the Park Baseball 17

BTA:
Car Mechanic Simulator 15
Democracy 3
Big Pharma

$12:
Youtubers Life

No mention of more coming soon.

Out of the Park Baseball 17 is awesome, but incredibly complex and takes some dedication.

I like Democracy 3 quite a bit.

Discovered this quick game today. It's worth a moment of your time. So far I'm down to producing only 24 products before retirement, but I know I could shave off a couple more.

To Build a Better Mousetrap

Man, I've eyed Big Pharma for a while, but I blew all my pennies on a new rig. Anyone have any experience with it?

omni wrote:

Man, I've eyed Big Pharma for a while, but I blew all my pennies on a new rig. Anyone have any experience with it?

My review

If you don't feel like reading a lot, I liked it!

Edit: Here's the GWJ thread for it.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

EDIT: HUGE Thanks to Frahg who just humble-gifted me a copy! :O

What a guy!

That's....... what?

It's clearly a management game of sorts... but I honestly don't know what to make of it. Is it good? Is it a horror game? What is going on in half the trailer...

So mystery. Much huh.

This looks fun!

Another Brick in the Mall

And following on from that, SimAirport just left Greenlight and into Early Access.

omni wrote:

And following on from that, SimAirport just left Greenlight and into Early Access.

That is so similar in UI and art to Prison Architect that I was surprised it's not in some way related to Introversion.

Ha!

That's actually what inspired me to put SimAirport on my Wishlist!

It is quite pricy though...

Yeah, that's why I'm tracking it through my Wishlist.

Curious to see how it's received and how YouTube gameplay vids pan out.

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