Startopia
Be warned that this game is old and the interface feels all 20 years of its age.
However, if you can stomach old games, this is one of the true classics from its era. A space station management/tycoon game with a lot of heart and humor. Numerous ways to build your station, several ways to challenge yourself or just relax and mess around.
I’ve played this off and on for two decades and still own the original disc so my hours on Steam only reflect buying it again here for convenience.
–-
Of interest to fans: The original development company obviously went out of business, the game transferred ownership for a number of years to Square-Enix who did nothing with it and then released the game back to the care of one of the original developers.
– Real player with 91.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Base Building Games.
To date, I have purchased just over 15 games on Steam. Some of them have been complete wastenados of my money - one in particular I shelled out a lot for and only got a couple of hours of semi-enjoyment out of it. Startopia is the exact opposite of that game - I paid very little for it and, so far, I’ve gotten more hours of fun out of it than any other game I’ve purchased on here.
You’re managing a space station which is being visited by nine different alien types, each with their own preferences and skills. You have to build facilities to ensure these aliens are healthy, well-rested, well-fed, entertained and other things like that, make sure any aliens who cause trouble get rehabilitated, keep the station clean, and make sure you have enough energy to keep it all running. You’re aided by this artificially intelligent being called VAL who often peppers his advice with a degree of snark and you get occasional visits from a trader named Arona who I swear is a cross between a Vogon and Moneybags from Spyro 2.
– Real player with 74.2 hrs in game
Free Agency
Free Agency is the life simulation where the agents gradually become self-aware and try to find meaning in their lives. Meanwhile, you have to keep them too busy to think about it.
Bring about their social and financial failure as you micromanage their careers, hobbies, friendships, and romances; all while you find your way around the simulation’s powerful user interface. It’s like The Sims meets The Truman Show.
The world of Free Agency is a computer program. It is inhabited by autonomous intelligent agents: subjects of study in a life simulation. Each agent has a room. Each room has objects. Each object has actions. Each action has consequences.
Approachable & short comedic simulation with point & click and management gameplay.
FEATURES:
-
Fix the 4th wall.
-
Upgrade the simulation itself.
-
Level up in piano, cooking, writing, photography, sleeping, and more.
-
Have them call each other on the phone.
-
Have an existential crisis or two.
-
Pet the cat and dog.
Read More: Best Management Life Sim Games.
Husbandry
This game is pretty cool. I played it for a long long time and couldnt stop! wish there were more animals to unlock and i wish there were more to the game cos i really enjoyed it and i hope the creator makes more games.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Management Relaxing Games.
Very fun game with cute graphics and relaxing, enjoyable gameplay. Bought it yesterday and have already played 3 hours! The music is nice, too.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Empire TV Tycoon
I’ve been looking for a modern version of Mad TV for a long time, so I was quite excited when I stumbled upon Empire TV Tycoon on Steam. I had a lot of fun with it, but there were also some frustrating moments which I will explain in a moment.
How do the game mechanics compare to Mad TV?
The similarities are immediately apparent when looking at the interface. You are a tiny person using an elevator to navigate through a high building which houses your offices, film studios, a movie library, an advertising agency and so on. There are two AI opponents with their own channels.
– Real player with 48.3 hrs in game
Empire TV Tycoon is an easy to learn fun simulation where you run a tv channel.
As you increase viewership and make those important decisions on what to play and what ads to show, you can climb the ranks from a simple local channel to the world of satellite broadcasting.
Part of the game is programming your day’s viewing - which sounds more tedious or daunting than it actually is.
You will recognise some movie titles, and the spoofs of well-known award shows and film festivals. This adds to the immersive side of Empire, and it can be quite fun (if not diabolical) to plan a day’s tv viewing based on your favourite films… or least favourites…
– Real player with 21.8 hrs in game
Two Point Hospital
Great fun game, reminds me of Theme Hospital from when I was younger. Was happy to find out that producers were former Bullfrog team who did make Theme Hospital
– Real player with 198.0 hrs in game
Amazing game - great humour!
Some supposedly obvious things don’t work as you’d think (e. g. when it comes to which skills to teach staff), but figuring this particular logic out is half the fun.
– Real player with 188.7 hrs in game
Actor Tycoon 2
I have enjoyed this game a lot, but please please please add more stuff to do otherwise replay value goes down. I am having a blast playing this game and loved the first one, but I really would like more to do.
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game
The game has virtually no content and very quickly becomes repetitive. While there are a bunch of different countries they all play pretty much the same and the handful of events in game have no real impact on anything. If you’re just looking for something mindless to play while you’re listening to a podcast it kind of works but I wouldn’t pay more than 2-3 bucks for it.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
**** Key was provided by developer for review purposes ****
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! is an amazingly fun simulation and management game where you craft weapons for heroes. The game is full of numerous references to games, movies, and literature. I will add a TL;DR at the end.
Gameplay
You are the grandson of the great blacksmith Batata and you are informed by Agent 46 that he has passed away. Agent 46 informs you that you now own 0.01% of the shop while he own 99.99% of the shop. You start off with 3 different smiths to help you out. Each smith you can hire is essentially a parody of one character or another. Hulk Hogan becomes Bulk Bogan and so on. Throughout the game you craft an enormous amount of different weapons for heroes. There are legendary heroes and smiths who most people will recognize. There are 4 main stats that your weapons will use which include Magic, Speed, Accuracy, and Attack. The smiths have expansions into classes which improve their stats at improving certain aspects of a weapon. There are different regions to sell in and different heroes who will buy your weapons. The storyline is enjoyable and there are random events where you have to make a choice which will reward you or punish you. You can send your smiths to sell, shop, explore, train, and vacation. This is a game that will slowly make you want to play more and more with its interesting features.
– Real player with 33.9 hrs in game
This game could have been good. It starts out fun but it gets tedious and boring. You have to do research to make new weapons but it renders all the old weapons useless so it just becomes a grind. With your money you can upgrade your place. Normally the upgrade thing ropes me in, but there isn’t enough to it to make it interesting. It’s too bad, I see a lot of potential in this game. It just has phone game syndrome I think, too simple.
Edit:
(response to devolper that was too long for a comment entry)
– Real player with 19.9 hrs in game
Steamulator 2019
Disclosure: I’m friends with one of the conceptualizers of the game.
Enjoyable game for the price. Simplistic in nature but a generally addictive nature will make players want to keep coming back to the game. The game has you running your own Steam storefront where you have to monitor your stats to assure they aren’t too high or too low, otherwise its game over.
The game suffers from some bugs such as no matter what the event is, every time you swipe right on a card, your game count will increase by 1, even if the choice doesn’t involve publishing a game to Steam and the confusing stat adjustments made in correspondence with your decisions (how does accepting games have the same positive influence on developers as when you deny them?)
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Well I originally wrote a long rant about why I hate these devs after they’re first success that was half-decent, but then I realized I would probably get deleted for it, so here’s my attempt at a reasonable and constructive review for this game.
Don’t buy it, Reigns is better. Long story short, it just seems like a cash grab to me, as was their last game after the initial lootbox simulator success that was alright but probably not worth the cost. It’s a half baked concept they put a price on to cash in on. Or perhaps an attempt at a game inspired by games like reign that they gave up on either out of boredom or inability to manage to work out kinks and bugs. I would suggest Game Dev Tycoon or other similar rip offs if you’re looking for the steam-esque simulators. I have a degree in computer game development that I haven’t used in 3 years because I wasn’t a fan of it, so I have a basic understanding of how to make a game. If I bothered to do research I could probably make this myself for free. Anyway, not worth a look if you ask me, if you’re looking for anything from these guys, the only good thing is I can’t believe it’s not Gambling, the first one, not the second.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
The Stonks Market
A charming meme game that manages to capture my experience in the stock market frighteningly well. The writing from Vagabond Dog is what you expect, funny and well paced. It’s a relatively short playthrough, but it’s worth to go through a second time if you lost it all when you yolo’d in $JANC the first time. 10/10 would hold again.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
A short, but comical story about a clueless man flirting with the stock market for the first time.
The trading platform sections are enjoyable and are critical to directing the narrative one way or the other. Are you going to lose more than just your money, or will you triumph and end on a high? The story being tied to my trading performance made me care about doing well to potentially get a good conclusion.
I’m about to go through it again and see how my story differs if I YOLO it all!
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Bugs!
Funny game! You should follow the tutorial in order to understand the game, otherwise, it may be a little difficult at first. You play as a bug exterminator that has to take different jobs around town and do disinfestations in different buildings. Some buildings have animals or people inside so you must be extra careful in order to finish your task and take the money. There are plenty of gadgets that you can unlock and use to kill those beasts. I reccomend it!
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
It’s a nice game and i really like it. It’s not super complicated but not to simple. Also if you find the game to easy you can make it harder or make it easer. Has a nice tutorial and helps you through the basics. So it a great game 10/10
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game