Above the Fold
Full Disclosure- I got my key at no cost, from the developer, to playtest the game, from Alpha 4 on.
This in no way affects my review of the game. If it sucked, I would be brutally honest about it. I call then like I see them.
Okay, that said, up there ^^^…
I don’t really tend to enjoy manangement sim games, I usually find them too simple, shallow, or just plain uninteresting.
This game is different. It may be because I have been inside, watching it evolve (and will continue to do so through Early Access, and beyond…), but this game has depth. The subject matter, a paper print newspaper from the 1980’s- (when I was a teen and young adult) is very relatable for me. The game is still in development, but it already very rich with details that hold your interest, tension that makes you hustle and make snap decisions, humor that pops up and relieves some of the tension, in a very silly way, and more challenge than I expected. I like challenge.
– Real player with 65.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Political Sim Games.
Its very early and developed by one person with a budget smaller then my allowance during all 4 years of high school combined. That probably isn’t true though.
Anyway, this game is a gem, and will be a gem in the future.
Yes, turn your music off asap or adjust using your systems audio mixer, that is a bit of feedback that can be acted on.
At the core this game is charming, you have a deadline you need to meet, an owner that can get angry with you, but also praise you. I imagine it is as similar to managing a news paper in the late 90’s was, and a news website today is. This is after all a simulation.
– Real player with 47.8 hrs in game
News Tower
News Tower is a news and resource management simulation game. Your goal is to build a newspaper empire in 1930s New York that is economically profitable, independent, and, most importantly, that covers trustworthy news. Check your sources, or don’t.
Manage your tower from printer to toilet. Hire new employees, discover the globe and stumble upon the world’s latest news. Assign the best reporters to the job. Search for exclusives, scoops and advertising deals. Keep an eye on your readers’ needs, increase subscriptions and earn big bucks.
News Tower is a game filled with tales of cultural and economic struggles, intrepid adventures and sporting victories. It will capture the interest of any simulation game lover.
New York, 1930. The USA is in depression. The biggest economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world and another World War are imminent. Newspapers are struggling throughout the country, as many of their customers are having to pinch pennies like never before. In this turbulent time, you are trying to become one of the nation’s most trusted newspapers, and to create one of Brooklyn’s most iconic buildings: News Tower.
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Build and manage your own News Tower, from printer to toilet
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Hire the best employees for the job
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Send your reporters all around the globe
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Put together your own newspaper – you choose the news
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Go for truth or spin the news and earn those big bucks
Studio Nul Games, founded in 2019, is a young video game company from Rotterdam,
The Netherlands. We love making games that are smart, welcoming, and immersive.
Everyone in our team shares the same ambition:
to have a good time through friendly gaming experiences that will test your skills
and let you forget anything else.
Read More: Best Choices Matter Economy Games.
OnTheWire
Sur Le Fil or On The Wire (OTW for Friends) is a game focused on the electricity / electronics, in an interactive and fun way, with 3D animations.
The goal is simple: Have fun while learning to understand the electron, helped by Prof’Fil, your mentor. But, be careful, for a good understanding , Prof will also give you explanations of physics, mathematics, chemistry, mechanics and even history since the game tries to respect the chronology of knowledges.
Sometimes Kelhann, one of Prof’s students, falls asleep and travels through time. You will play it in more or less ancient universes where the villagers will give you missions to improve their daily lives. It’s funny, beautiful, and you will be able to apply your knowledge gained in previous levels. You will have to reinvent great discoveries such as the telegraph, the telephone, the water pump, the lightning rod, the radio and so many other great inventions before you get to contemporary technology.
Prof will also teach you to weld and you will be able, via an experiment mode as well as kits of parts, to manufacture in real what you learned about the game.
No basic knowledge is required and the recommended age for the player is from 13 years old.
For PC, Mac and Linux computers.
Language: French / English (to start)
Read More: Best Choices Matter Education Games.
Terraform Inc
Terraform Inc is a well-known hyperspace terraforming guild with branches in every galaxy. It purchases, modifies, and sells planets across known space - no questions asked. As a fresh employee, you are opening a new branch in a recently opened region of hyperspace. You will be building a network of geomantic rails to connect the guild resources to your customers' desires. Making deliveries will earn new capabilities in the form of spending capital to buy new components. As you learn, you will create intricate networks, tweak each placement to improve reliability, and aim for even greater heights - or just build whatever giant process tickles your fancy.
In exploring the abstract dreamlike-world of hyperspace, you will make new acquaintances among your customers and learn their preferences. Making deliveries will earn the favor of those you serve. With time and effort, you can become a preferred supplier. This will open up new opportunities through information, introductions, and even personal hyperspace enhancements. Unfortunately, not everyone is on amicable terms, so as you acquire each new friendship, you will earn others' suspicion.
As you gain familiarity with your new territory, you can begin to explore the greater mysteries. You might explore the outer ring and make new acquaintances further and further from the hub. You might investigate the local hyperspace anomalies. You might find new ways to utilize the capabilities of your geomantic rails.
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Construct: build a network of rails and parts in three dimensions
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Adjust: tweak slopes and positions to improve speed and reliability
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Automate: make intricate plans with production loops and alternate paths
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Profit: deliver planets to buyers to increase your budget and capital
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Interact: improve your relationship with your customers
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Advance: unlock new parts, buy more, and enhance your own powers
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Expand: open new territories and gain access to even more customers
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Survive: avoid the hazards of hyperspace and learn new tricks
Odenavirus Online
I had fun playing the game. Although the main story being almost only dialogues, it has fun characters and an
exciting story showing some things we all as people are going through… A new virus, quarantines, fake news, negationism… I took 2 hours to complete the game. The online mode is fun too, I played it with a friend… We danced, kissed and drank some booze LOL
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Devil, It’s me
Quite difficult dungeon management / short visual novel with cute pixel art
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game
Very fun to play, money well expend.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
World of Contraptions
The game has so much more potential. The art style of the components would certainly lend itself to a change of scenery, I was disappointed at the constant white and grey levels and white overcast sky.
In terms of building, its very difficult to make smaller devices as the snapping tools (while quite effective) were incredibly limiting. I wouldn’t mention it if it were helping with physics bugs, but it certainly does not. I can’t count how many times an otherwise very simple machine just floated away due to a clipping issue.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
if you’ve ever played and enjoyed ( i think it was an old 2d flash game ) called Fantastic contraption , well this is it but in 3D with so so much more.
a very polished physics builder to solve puzzles
the tutorial is just enough to get you started, without making it a cakewalk, letting you discover new pieces for yourself.
game runs very smooth no glitches discovered so far
if you like physics games just buy it
– Real player with 24.1 hrs in game
City Maker
I’m finding City Maker extremely addictive. Simplified compared to other city builders I’ve played in that there’s no complex micromanagement. I thought I would miss that, but actually it’s a pleasant change. With building up the city and economy, managing finances and meeting demands, there’s still plenty of strategy/forward planning and challenge to be well entertained.
The puzzle element is refreshingly different as you are limited to 1 of 3 available structures per turn. Initially, there’s just houses and farms and then a gradual unlocking of other structures. There’s quite a variety overall and I’m still discovering new ones! They provide services, have needs and give effects and some come in different shapes, a bit like Tetris. There’s no building rotation, which is good here, as it adds to the challenge of placing the structure you want where you’d like it to go and where it’s needs are covered. Without that cover, you’ll start to get demands with limited time to meet them. It’s game over after 10 failed demands or you’ve overspent.
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
Challenges too random. There appears to be no way to anticipate city needs. Crisis occur and solutions to problem do not appear in timely fashion, causing frustration. This game is only okay at the lower difficulty levels. Higher levels seem to take away players ability to adapt.
– Real player with 16.3 hrs in game
Red Brick Hotel
Absolute trash, as you’d expect from your typical lazy 12 year old kid who got the almighty GameGuru software for his birthday! And if this trash was actually made by an adult, then that adult needs to be locked up for trying to SCAM Steam users for $17 USD. Unreal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1nnlTt3-5U
Another GameGuru trash game clogging up Steam, and another M.I.S.S. video on you channel. ..Some things never change.
NOT RECOMMENDED. This game isn’t even worth a quarter, much less $16.99 USD. Absurd.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Game Guru continues to be the worst development program.
This game is notable in that it has NPCs.
The enemies shoot through walls and the ever present heartbeat of game guru continues to be annoying as hell.
Definitely avoid this.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Alpha One
In Alpha One you awaken from bio-stasis alone in an uncharted region of the galaxy. Aboard the United Colony Ship Alpha, you were part of an interstellar expedition gone wrong. To survive it was necessary to deploy the colony ship into station mode and outfit a space capsule with the ability to collect resources. After discovering a strange, crystalline substance, it allowed you to create an experimental jump drive that you hope one day can get you home to Earth.
With your limited jump-drive capabilities, you explore the region and find out there are many types of resources with the potential to build and unlock new technologies. However, you quickly learn you have an adversary. You meet an intelligent life-form pursuing those same resources and they see your very existence as a threat!
Find a way to control these systems, defend them, harvest and use them to research technology. It’s a race for you to defeat the enemy or stay alive until you can find a way home.
What you do in Alpha One:
GATHER RESOURCES
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Classic Newtonian physics; thrust in one direction, spin your capsule to angle your trajectory
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Harvest resources with your space capsule
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Use resources to build, repair and research
SPACE COMBAT
- Compete for resources in dogfights with hostile NPC ships (and escape if you have to!)
EXPAND TERRITORIES
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Each star system is a level that you have to clear in order to claim and deploy automated outposts (your opponent will do the same)
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Outposts will collect resources from the system they inhabit
DEFEND OUTPOSTS
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Defend your outposts, with your ship or leave it up to automated Gunship Defenders
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Build and strategically deploy Gunships Defenders on the map to protect your economy
RESOURCES
- Strategically expand by deploying outposts to systems with resources that counter your opponent!
- Use each resource for its own line of weapons and defense
COUNTER THE ENEMY
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Research tech to defend the enemy’s weapons
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Create weapons that your opponent can’t defend!
ATTACK ENEMY TERRITORIES
- Attack Enemy outposts to hurt their economy and hinder their ability to make repairs, build and research tech
MAPS
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Play a progression of maps that get progressively harder
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Includes a map editor to make your own levels
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or generate your own random map/settings for a custom randomized experience
