The Invisible Hand
Great Concept, But Not Great Execution
Pros:
I found this game very relevant given the recent activity with stocks like Gamestop and AMC. People are really hyped up on stocks but many don’t even know what shorting a stock means. This game can provide you a basic education on stocks and some insight on what it is like to be a stock trader which is really pretty cool. You will learn how the world is interconnected such as when lumber prices go up housing prices tend to follow suit or how a war in a country can affect the prices of certain goods. This game also hints that there is some manipulation in the trading world and quite frankly I absolutely 100% agree with that.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Capitalism Political Games.
Interesting concept, but flawed execution. The writing should have been done by real writers, as its about as subtle as a sledgehammer driving a tack through a wall, but I’m glad it’s there. This is the only stock sim game that is wrapped around any kind of narrative, to my knowledge (aside from Wall Street Kid on OG Nintendo). The game is very, very light on realism, as all you can do is buy at current price and short at current price. The markets are quite reliably predictable, as well. If you want something like this but that feels somewhat more like a sim and is more difficult and complex, check out ‘wall street raider’ or ‘speculator’ by roninsoft.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
Poverty is a Choice
Has more stock options than most other serious trading simulators!! WHAAAAT?!
– Real player with 11.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Capitalism Trading Games.
Now I went into Poverty is a Choice blind, and what I found was a hardcore stock trading sim covered in edgy wrapping. Oh yeah, I like it. Y’all know I’ve been on a crusade to find a modern Drug Wars here on Steam, and while this isn’t exactly that, it’s both close yet different enough to totally be it’s own thing. Yes, you buy-low-sell-high, but things take a more orthodox direction here with traditional stock trading.
Again, there is a lot of dark humor thrown in to lighten things up, but at the end of the day you will be gathering all the information you can to make sure you earn money each day to support your lifestyle, and even hopefully make it better. There are a great number of various upgrades you can get to help you out. Too many to go into here, but they almost all seem functional (I’ve tried a good number of them). I even had a pen and paper handy to take notes. Yeah, it gets pretty serious.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Black Border
They don’t want you to do your duty, they want you to obey.
-Mark Madison
Brothers and Sisters , Alanan greets you.
After the independence of the states of our motherland , Mudland, we were the only ones who stayed true to the ideals of Mudland. Based on the speeches of our Leader, we searched for nothing but freedom, but the intrusive and corrupted regimes of Partakna And Denber were against the freedom of our country. After years of bloody war with enemies of the people and the killing of innocent women and children of Alanan, now is time to rebuild the country, let’s unite once more and create Alanan anew. Shall our Great Leader be with us along this journey.
Read More: Best Capitalism Adventure Games.
Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
Hey hey, people.
I was not expecting a Sseth review on this. Welcome, Argentinians!
I’ve played it for a long time.
This is intended to be a spoiler free review.
Let me lay down some stuff, you will be able to tell if you’ll like it or not.
Your first playthrough is going to take a while and it will be fun. You’ll figure out the mechanics, make mistakes, reload some saves, make some profit, then eventually come out on top. Everything feels great, the ending is wonderful, it’s a complete experience all its own.
– Real player with 103.8 hrs in game
Finally a game where I can live out my fantasies of becoming a merchant who crushes hearts and dreams under the weight of his fat profit margin. Y’all can keep your Poorly-Lit Life Forces 2 or whatever the f♥ck it’s called, Recettear blows that all out of the water.
Ok first of all you play as a loli. Don’t be deceived–beneath her cute, naive exterior lies a heart as black as coal and a mind as shrewd and cunning as they come. This little sh♥t will bleed you for all you’re worth with mark-ups that would make Best Buy blush. And she will love every minute of it as she watches you carry your broke ♥ss out the door with a ham sandwich. Thank you and come again mother f♥cker.
– Real player with 26.3 hrs in game
AL･FINE
In Short:
An improvement of the business mechanics seen from Recettear.
Long Ver:
Recettear, a Japanese indie darling that focuses on being a merchant, years later we now find a very similar game inspired by Recettear.
In Al Fine, you play as Loius, a young man swindled by a Sprite named Alice to pay back for breaking a supposingly precious ‘gem’.
But there is no giant debt hanging over our heads but in place are the guild taxes which occurs a few times per month and when there is a challenge, you have a few days to upped over your opponent’s profits.
– Real player with 29.6 hrs in game
AL･FINE is a mix between Visual Novel / Shop Management. It is a nice game but it’s not quite like Recettear. The VN story is about a boy that destroy a Pixie’s jewel and to pay it back he reopens his parents shop. There is other NPCs present in the story but this game doesn’t have any romance or NPC route.
The main purpose of the Shop is to sell a lot of items and compete with others shops in commerce battles. You have 100 days until the end of the game and 4 commerce battles to win.
Difference between Recettear:
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
March of Industry: Very Capitalist Factory Simulator Entertainments
I agree with others that the game is too short for the price. I understand that the design choice was to allow each play through to be around an hour, focusing on replayability. My disapoitment was after the first play through I found myself doing the same thing over and over again.
Pros
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It’s an automation game
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Interesting Non-Grid/Non-Tiled approach
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Mod Support, but not really integrated into the game itself.
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Humor
Cons
- No Tutorial or information on how an object functions
– Real player with 21.4 hrs in game
More Reviews @ TheVideogameBacklog.com
Once again I’m thrust into the world of making arms for money. Wait, what did I say again? Ignore that part. But here you are, making arms for the Motherland. It’s a simple premise of test and build and sell to expand and reset to be able to build better and faster… for funzies! Most of the time those types of games don’t interest me much at all. I’ve played a few games based on resetting to get a bonus and they just leave me with a bad taste. March of Industry is a great example of how to make that formula fun.
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
Spinnortality | cyberpunk management sim
This game oozes potential. From its premise to its simplistic, yet surprisingly deep gameplay, Spinnortality is great. However, just like its name, there is something off about it the deeper you get, until you realize this game is nigh unbeatable…and not in that good, strategy game way; but instead, due to frustrating bugs, poorly thought out mechanics, and unbalanced agenda trees that make 2 out of the 4 victory possibilities impossible beyond easy mode (even then it’s a pain).
RNG is terrible and you WILL fail with anything in the game under a 90% success chance. You will regularly fail anyway. I’ve played 2 separate games where a shuttle launch to the moon with a 99% success chance failed.
– Real player with 48.4 hrs in game
I have to say, those first few playthroughs are pretty great.
This is an enjoyable cyberpunk management game that I think hits just the right level of difficulty. I bought this game at launch, and since then there have been a few updates which have fixed a handful of bugs and have added some new mechanics which balance the game a little better.
In Spinnortality, you are the CEO of a friendly social media company which rapidly becomes not so friendly. In the game, you have two major goals. The first goal is to achieve global domination, which is done by completing tasks set before you by your board of directors to earn points which can be spent in several policy tracks; you win by maxing out one type of policy track and meeting some global conditions along with it. The second goal is to remain alive and employed long enough to do this.
– Real player with 42.2 hrs in game
Undertaker’s
First of all, thank you, Hyeson, for providing me with a free key to your game. :D
Undertaker’s is a fun and cute little business management tycoon game by indie developer Hyeson. You buy your funeral supplies and sell them to the bereaved who come to you to bury their loved ones. Some have specific things they want, other’s don’t care, but all have a budget. Eventually, you’ll be able to build your own buildings to produce your caskets, headstones, and flowers, but will still need to purchase the materials from the local store. The hand drawn graphics are colorful and charming.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
If you’re looking for a simple, straightforward sim game with a slightly morbid theme then this is for you. You run an undertaker’s (shocking, I know) and you’ll have customers attend your shop regularly. You’ll have to help them pick out coffins, headstones and flowers for their dearly departed.
Different customers have different budgets and some will have specific requirements. Customers that are satisfied with you, increase your reputation, which reduces the time between customers arriving so you can make more sales. Customers that are unhappy or who you turn away, can do the opposite. I found that to start with, it can take a while for customers to appear, at least until your reputation increases. Over time you can take on staff members, such as a secretary, who can help you identify the needs of the customer, and build other shops so you can make your own stock.
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
CryptoClickers: Crypto Idle Game
Very good idle game. Has little, in any kind of game-functional sense, to do with crypto currencies aside from using currency names.
Has multiple layers of depth, a number of interlinked levels that need to be opened up, all with good help/explanation and some even come with tips. Every layer of the game can be automated except for the “daily events”, but that’s ok because they are short duration (5 to 10 minutes), they aren’t mandatory but they do give an extra bonus that adds up over time, and the events change each day. The different sections of the game can automatically grind away and progress while you are in another area of the game working on that.
– Real player with 732.6 hrs in game
I have been playing the game everyday since I got it and I’m extremely rejoiced as the game has released on steam. It’s a free, fun to play game with a lovely community that will eat up your spare time with its seemingly endless progression and cool features. The game includes a simple yet elegant art style which is soft on the eye with smooth corners and amazing contrast as well as easy to understand mechanics that anyone can understand. The game includes a easy to follow tutorial which teaches you the basics of the game and is constantly being updated to fix any bugs and to change or create new and ever growing content. Furthermore, the creator (CryptoGrounds) is easy to contact if you need any help and is friendly when solving any problems with the game that you might have.
– Real player with 143.4 hrs in game
Pixel Shopkeeper
While I mark this ‘recommended’, make no mistake: This is a highly niche product, with limited production values, and it shows.
That said: while this lacks some of the fluff and visual charm of games like Recettear, it benefits from being more streamlined in some respects, and having more interesting mechanics in others. The act of adventuring, for instance, is essentially reduced to frantically shoving items into your bag while keeping the corner of your eye on your HP, in case you need to use a healing item. Combat is completely automated, and essentially handwaved (although gear and level definitely play a meaningful role in success). Still, bag selection and prioritization of items (which things do I want to multiply, which things do I need to convert to gold, which things do I just take as-is, which things do I leave on the ground) makes this more engaging than it sounds at first.
– Real player with 33.7 hrs in game
Cute RPG Shop Sim
Pixel Shopkeeper is a cute shop sim in an RPG world. Customers of various classic RPG classes come to your shop to buy the equipment and consumable items they need.
The basic cycle is to alternate dungeon diving with shop days. There are several different battle areas around the islands of the game, and each area has increasing levels of difficulty. The first dungeon level in an area is free; the others take a small fee that increases with level.
Whatever the dark dungeons and monsters your customers fight, you will only fight on the surface world and bash a few cute animals. The “dungeon” fights always consist of four regular opponents and a boss. The battle music here resembles something from early Final Fantasy.
– Real player with 19.9 hrs in game