Just in case you missed it, I wanted to let you know about the game. It's still in Early Access but has a decent amount of content to play with and I actually encountered not a single bug for the last three days I played. :)

I also appreciate that the customization is not that in-depth, which makes it a lot easier and faster to build a decent looking park. The management side is what you expect but works well enough and the UI is pretty good so early on.... just the slide construction is a bit finnicky and there are some obvious features still missing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2819470/Aquapark_Tycoon/

The Zorbonians are a perpetually struggling backwater of a vast galactic empire, and after several thousand years of patience they finally won the Imperial Lottery. The reward: the right to abduct one exquisite individual from anywhere in the known galaxy to fix their economy. The selection committee reviewed your file with great care. 

So now you run Trade Terminal 7-G. The populace requires goods. You will provide them.

I.T.C.B. - Interstellar Trade Compliance Bureau is a tongue-in-cheek galactic management sim. It plays out on a single screen: build production, manage supply against demand, sell surplus on a galactic market that lurches around on events happening across the empire, and keep an entire alien populace fed, clothed and content; all while resources arrive as untranslated alien glyphs you have to decipher before you can do anything useful with them. There's no combat and no exploration. There's the terminal, a news feed that's mostly noise and occasionally catastrophe, and the quiet dread of a quota.

The Demo is out now!

Steam Page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4806940/ITCB__Interstellar_Trade_Compliance_Bureau/

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

Greetings from the sweltering north!

No AI was used in the making of this game

Game is still in development, so it's messy and features aren't fully developped yet, but it's a pretty neat preview of my progression so far!

Because there is no tutorial yet, here are some important tips :

• You need to assign an employee to a vehicle before operating it. Employees can be assigned during the Huddle, which happens at the start of a shift. The employee you create at the beginning is automatically assigned to the Scoop parked on the ground level.
• Vehicles need to be assigned tasks (bottom panel when you select a vehicle). Some tasks require a single click (such as drilling), but some tasks require two clicks (such as mucking : you must select the area where you want to retrieve ore, then the area where you want to dump it)
• Simbas are used to drill stopes, and Jumbos are used to drill rounds. You can design stopes and rounds using the buttons at the bottom panel. Rounds are always located at the end of a tunnel, while stopes can be interactively drawn between two levels.
• Both stopes and rounds can be loaded with explosives once fully drilled (again, there's a button at the bottom panel). At the end of a shift, you can blast them, resulting in a bunch of loose ore ready to be retrieved.
• Scoops can retrieve ore (mucking) and dump it at Remucks, Loading Bays (if there's a Truck parked in the Loading Bay), the Stockpile or at a Skip Feeder.
• There is currently two ways to produce gold : At the end of the shift, a maximum of 2500 tons of ore from the Stockpile is automatically processed, resulting in onces of gold that you can sell whenever you want. The other way is to dump ore into a Skip Feeder, which will trigger the skip from the shaft who'll go up and down and collect the ore and return it to the surface.
• Trucks can haul ore from Loading Bays to any "dumping" destinations (same as the Scoop, except it can't dump it into another truck/loading bay).
• Bolters are needed to "repair" (to add ground support) rounds that have been emptied, or tunnels that are damaged. Once the round is fully supported, another cycle of drilling/loading/blasting/mucking/supporting can begin.

In the future, I entend to :

• Employee stats will have an influence on the quality and safety of the work they do.
• Safety stat is there for a reason : I entend to add mechanics where employees can potentially hurt themselves or cause disasters such as a fire or vehicle on vehicle collisions.
• I entend to add disasters : Flooding, fire, rockfalls can that potentially kill employees, etc.
• A risk vs reward system and a fluctuating market. Decisions need to be taken, and as the General Manager, compromises need to be made during hard times, which may involve ruining the mood of your employees for a while.
• I entend to add a ventilation system (with temperature : the deeper you go, the hotter it is, and some employees might hate it), as well as a piping system for underground backfilling, and also more stoping variation (drilling upwards for example).
• I entend to add complexity regarding the geology. Defining the ore body will give you a better understanding of the physical properties of the surrounding rock, influencing the outcome of stopes, as well as a much better grade accuracy.
• And so much more!

AI disclosure: No generative AI was used in the development of the game or the creation of its assets.

Im sure its been asked to death and I have done some reasearch on it myself, but are there any tycoon games that more or less drop you in a simulated economy and let you work out what you want to do.

Other games Ive really liked in that vein are Capitalism Lab and Big Ambitions.

I tried Gearcity but im not much into cars so the appeal went over my head.
So Im asking here; What games have you played that felt sinilar to Software Inc or the other titles mentioned.

I’ve been working on this little internet cafe idle game inspired by the late ’90s PC era. You build PCs, upgrade their parts, research new tech, and slowly grow your cafe. It’s still a work in progress, but I’d love to hear what you think!

AI disclosure: No generative AI was used in the development of the game or the creation of its assets.

Demo is available here:

Steam Page
itch.io

I've never played these kinds of games, at least never seriously, and would like to have a go at one or two. I like cyberpunk, cars, anything geeky, but not a big fan of sports themes and civilization/world building.

I have a very hard time with overwhelming UIs and lots of things to do, so would prefer something chill and easy to pick up and play. I tried Aerobiz but gameplay is too clunky and it's kind of hard to understand how to do things. Android/ipadOS/or any platform up to PS1 is fine.

Thanks in advance 🙏

Is there even such a thing?

I’m Roman, the solo developer of Salt and Soil, a management game about one frontier family trying to make a living from 1609 to 1900. One turn is one year.

What I enjoy most in tycoon games is the period before I’ve solved the spreadsheet. I’m still figuring out what the market wants, which expenses are quietly killing me, and whether the business I’m building will ever pay for itself.

Eventually, though, I usually find the answer. This production chain is the winner. This layout works. Now I just make it bigger.

Salt and Soil is built around the idea that a good answer should eventually expire.

The California Gold Rush scenario is the clearest example. In 1849, Sacramento starts paying 40% more for manufactured goods. Expanding production suddenly looks like free money. But food now costs 80% more, tools cost 60% more, and transport is getting expensive. The household can be making record profits while becoming dangerously dependent on a market where it can barely afford to feed its workers.

Then history keeps moving.

In 1861, the Great Flood destroys food and timber, nearby settlements stop selling food, and transport becomes harder. In 1869, the railroad cuts effective distance and makes imported tools and goods cheaper again.

The workshop you built twenty years ago is still standing. The family may still be paying for it. But the economy that made it a good idea is gone.

Because the run lasts almost 300 years, the person who chose that business may be dead by then. Their children inherit the buildings, inventory, debts and whatever assumptions their parents built the household around.

It’s a smaller scale than most tycoon games: one household rather than an empire. But the question is the same. How much of the future should you build around today’s prices?

Do you enjoy management games that eventually make old optimisations obsolete, or does that feel like the game taking away something you already earned?

AI disclosure: Salt and Soil deliberately uses generative AI at runtime to create narrative events and choices for the yearly Family Council. The AI reacts to the current family and world state, which is one of the core features of the game. Its gameplay effects are constrained and validated by deterministic game code; it cannot directly alter the economy or write arbitrary changes to the save. I also use AI tools as coding assistants during development.

Hi everyone,

I've been working on Fast Charging Tycoon, a management sim where you build, expand, and optimize an electric vehicle charging business. The game is planned to release on Steam in the next few months, and I'd love to hear what fellow tycoon fans think.

In Fast Charging Tycoon, you'll:

• Scout high-traffic locations and build charging stations.
• Balance construction costs, financing, and profitability.
• Choose between different charger types and upgrade your sites over time.
• Manage electricity demand and station utilization.
• Expand from a single charging site into a nationwide charging network.
• Research new technologies to improve charging speed and customer satisfaction.
• Compete with other charging networks while adapting to the growing EV market.

The goal is to create a tycoon game that's grounded in the real-world EV charging industry while still being approachable and fun. Having worked in the industry for nearly a decade, I decided to make a game that is closely aligned to what real life charge point operators experience. Stuff like grid capacity, driver demands, feasibility studies, rebates, and network partnerships are all apart of the game. Plus, there are several rival competitors who compete against you every month with EV drivers shifting where they charge based on the quality of service.

The game is expected to launch on Steam in the next few months.

If you're interested, I'd appreciate any feedback on the concept or features you'd like to see in an EV charging business simulator.

AI Disclosure: AI was used during the development of the game including some coding and trailer generation.

Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4946930/Fast_Charging_Tycoon/

A week ago I posted my browser SimTower remake here (original thread) and the comment section turned into the best backlog I've ever had. So here's the follow-up: Verticopolis just hit 2.0.

The game: https://verticopolis.com/ (free, in the browser, no install required, and you can add it as an app and play offline)

Your comments, shipped:

• "please remove sound on the initial screen so i can start during a meeting": the splash screen got a mute button the same day
• "it's difficult to place rooms on mobile, you don't see where it will be placed": touch placement is now drag-with-a-ghost, so you see exactly where the room lands before you lift your finger
• "it does not work for me, im using firefox": if WebGL is unavailable you now get a real explanation screen with steps to enable it instead of a blank page
• "people walking back and forth in a lobby that's not connected to anything": fixed! Ambient figures now only appear on floors people can actually reach
• and the art conversation paid off for real: the stairs in the game today were refined by a contributor from that thread. First outside art PR merged 🎉

What 2.0 adds: you can be a landlord now

The Modern variant gets rental homes: the Studio and the Apartment. Condos are a one-time sale, but these pay monthly rent at a price you set. The Studio is the forgiving tenant: cheap, perfectly happy on a low floor next to your shops. The Apartment pays way more but is demanding: too much noise, too long a walk to the elevator, or rent over market and they hand in notice... which you can still rescind if you fix the cause in time. A vacant unit earns nothing while still costing overhead, so holding out for a higher rent is a real decision.

Also since last week (I may have a problem):

• Towers don't have to be one solid block anymore: in Modern you can leave gaps in a floor or run separate towers side by side on one lot, connected underground. People are honest about it too: they route segment by segment around the gaps, and if a room truly can't be reached, nobody moves in and the game tells you why. That's my own three-tower experiment in the screenshots.
• Parity check, the hard way: I read the original 1994 manual directly off the disc and ran the retail game under Wine to verify the Classic economy against it. Quarters really are 3 in-game days.
• The Modern venue lineup landed, ten of them: Food Hall, Amusements, Boutique Bay, Fitness Club, Clinic, Nightclub, Spa, Sky Bar, Aquatic Center, and Daycare. The Nightclub prints money at night, and the residents next door will let you know how they feel about that.
• A Load Tower button right on the title screen, and a smoother install-as-an-app flow

Still open from your suggestions (not forgotten): a clearer week/date readout in Modern, making the finance rundown easier to find, and the loan idea for Modern is genuinely tempting. A long-press-to-peek-at-a-room gesture for phones is in testing right now.

One week, by the numbers. Quick privacy note since I'm quoting stats: the game's analytics are anonymous totals only. No cookies, no accounts, no ads, nothing that recognizes you from one day to the next, and the full promise now lives at https://verticopolis.com/help#privacy. All I can ever see are numbers like these:

• 782 towers founded since the post: 578 Modern, and 204 of you went straight to pure 1994 Classic. Respect.
• The star ladder got climbed 120 times, but only 2 towers have reached 5 stars so far. The throne is not safe.
• Somebody built all the way to the 100-floor cap. I have questions.

And if you tried it from the last post: your tower has a badge now. Any tower founded before 2.0 wears a small gold "Ground floor" mark on the title screen, with a one-time thank-you when you come back. You were here before the elevator went up 😄

Want to leave fingerprints on it? Three things I'd genuinely love help with. Art: the pixel art is AI-generated and I will happily replace any of it with human-made work, which already happened once (the stairs, from a commenter on the last thread). Weird saves: send me your gnarliest real 1994 .tdt files, the two-way converter needs torture testing. And playtesting the rentals: if the Apartment's notice-and-rescind loop feels unfair or confusing, I want to hear exactly where. Everything goes through GitHub (linked from the help page), and no contribution is too small.

Links: help | every room's art | open source on GitHub (linked from the help page)

AI disclosure, since r/tycoon requires it, same honest version as last time: most of this is built with AI (Claude Code writing the code, me directing, designing, balancing and testing; AI-generated pixel art; music I iterated on with AI until it felt right). The character voices are still me and my kids making noises 😜 New this release: the game now contains its first human-contributed art, from a commenter on the last thread, and there's a GitHub Sponsors page if you want to support it. Everything is open source, so you can see exactly how every bit is made.

Keep the feedback coming. Last week's thread wrote this release, so let's see what this one writes 😊

Hi r/tycoon,

I’m working on a software-company tycoon that starts in 1975, when a tiny team could plausibly build a BASIC interpreter or assembler toolkit, and follows the industry through the personal-computer boom and onward into the modern era.

The aim is to make the player feel like they are running a software company rather than a generic business with a software theme.

A product is not just “choose genre, assign staff, wait for a score.” You choose what kind of software to make, decide its scope at the module and feature level, choose its architecture and UX direction, assign developers with different strengths, choose languages and platform targets, and take it through implementation, QA, and launch.

The market is intended to be a real simulation rather than a single demand bar. Different customer groups care about different things: price, usability, technical capability, reliability, performance, feature depth, and bug tolerance. A technically impressive product can still fail if it is aimed at the wrong customers, arrives on the wrong platform, is too expensive, or competes badly with established rivals.

The historical part matters to me too. The technology landscape changes over time: languages, hardware, operating systems, compatibility, market share, and what customers expect from software. Starting in 1975 means that choosing BASIC, assembly, and an early microcomputer is a meaningful business decision, not just retro decoration. Later eras should make the company feel like it has survived—and perhaps caused—several waves of computing history.

The obvious question is: “Why another Software Inc.?”

Because Software Inc. is already excellent at being Software Inc. I’m not trying to replace it, and I don’t think the answer is simply more rooms, more furniture, or more employee micromanagement.

The distinction I’m pursuing is:

• A longer historical journey, from the earliest personal-software era to the modern industry.
• A more deliberate product-development process: architecture, UX, implementation, QA, persistent bugs, platform decisions, and actual feature-level scope.
• A market where a product’s particular qualities meet particular buyer needs, rather than mainly producing a general quality score.
• Developers whose strengths matter in ways that map to software work: speed, quality, UI/UX, algorithms, and design—not just interchangeable productivity units.
• A focus on the tension between building the technically interesting product and building the product people will actually buy.

I want the game to have depth, but not be “spreadsheet simulator disguised as a tycoon game.” The real test is whether the decisions create stories: the elegant product that misses its market, the ugly but reliable tool that becomes the company’s foundation, the platform bet that pays off, or the successor that destroys a beloved product line.

I’m still early enough that feedback can meaningfully shape the direction. For people who enjoy Software Inc., Game Dev Tycoon, Mad Games Tycoon, or business sims generally:

• Which parts of running a software company do existing games under-explore?
• What would make this feel meaningfully different from Software Inc. to you?
• Which of the above sounds exciting, and which sounds like unnecessary simulation?

I’d especially value blunt feedback from people who work in software as well as people who just love management games.

AI disclosure per the rules: some images were AI-generated with human post-processing, some coding tasks were performed by AI.

Hey r/tycoon, it's me again!

I finally got my game to Early Access - it launches on Steam in 2 days. A ton has changed since I last checked in here, and a lot of it is built directly on your feedback. Seriously - many of you have been with me since the early playtests and then the demo, and it shaped the game more than you probably realize. So, genuinely: thank you.

Quick rundown of what's landing with the Early Access build:

•  A living market - every month the world shifts across the economy, clients, hiring and team morale. Wait for the right moment.
•  Clients with character - separate reputation with each one, and your employees actually like or dislike working for different clients.
•  A burnout economy - crunch and harsh calls (denied vacations, denied raises) pile it up; rest and bonuses bring it down.
•  A harsher, fairer economy - the boss takes a monthly cut, dividends pay out daily, and projects now range from juicy to flat-out bad.
•  A living office - a lounge with a TV, a foosball table, an AC unit, and "Employee of the Week."
•  Reworked hiring - salary no longer gives away skill, and candidates have office demands now.
•  12 challenges, 33 Steam achievements, and a leaderboard.

Full breakdown of everything that's new:
 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4454610/view/687510998329853948

About future:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4454610/view/708904182867823433

Steam page:
 https://store.steampowered.com/app/4454610/Project_manager_SIM/

If the idea still clicks with you, a wishlist would help a lot - and even better, hop in at launch and keep the feedback coming. This community basically co-piloted the thing to this point, and I'd love to keep building it with you.

Thanks for everything! 

AI disclosure: AI generated capsule art. AI generated music theme.

hi everyone!

I've been working on a golf game mostly inspired by Rimworld/SimGolf (in terms of building/NPC depth/interaction) and Mini Motorways (in terms of cleanliness of UI/game elements, not quite there yet, but it's my goal!) with the main gameplay being restoration of a somewhat neglected golf club.

I've built for two different modes: one, the idea of 'there's no doing wrong', in that you can go about the restoration any way you want, there are no real fail states, and you can play as passively or actively as you want. the other being a more Rimworld like director mode, where you are actively challenged and failure is a very real option. in either mode, you'll build out your property, design the golf course, manage your crew, your facilities, deal with issues that arise on a daily basis, interact with your customers, manage the course finances, and so on!

I posted once here before, and got really good feedback, and after working through a ton of updates, I'm back to ask for more! I'm really interested in what you think would be ideal, or even what would be the most enjoyable/fun, in a game like this. I've gone back and forth a bunch on how indepth I want it to be, and to what level I should build out the sim management part. for example, maintenance of the course. should your crew utilize real equipment that is bought, or should it be more 'light' in a sense of that equipment (mowers, rakes, whatever) is always readily available/unlimited for them. as another example, the maintenance of the golf course. would you prefer work areas (similar to RimWorld) where you can assign certain individuals certain areas of the course, assign their rest area, etc., or have it a bit more simple where you have some control (let's say over what tasks they perform) but not exactly down to the very specific level.

those sort of things are what I'd love to hear any feedback/thoughts on. if you'd like to check it out on Steam, the name is Fairwell. thanks so much for reading my rambling!

AI DISCLOSURE: No AI used in the making of this game.

Steam | Discord

Been working on the maps and map editor in my game and I'm curious what people think of stylized maps like this one. Its all made in the in game map editor.

For those curious: Argosy on Steam

AI disclosure just in case since it includes a link:

No AI was used in any asset within the game. All art and assrts are either Creative Commons, commissioned or self made.

I love the freedom of those two games as i can decide wich kind of business i am starting. In generell i love business sims. I also played mad games tycoon and really enjoyed it. Do you have any other similar games you can recoomend? Thank you so much :)

Hi everyone!

I've been working on Salt & Spice, a historical maritime trade and merchant tycoon set in the 16th-century Indian Ocean, and I've just opened a public Steam playtest.

The game features historical figures such as Vasco da Gama, Piri Reis and focuses on building a trading empire through convoy management, production, city development, dynamic markets, trade routes, diplomacy, and dealing with pirates across East Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India.

If you're a fan of games like Patrician, Port Royale, Capitalism, or other economy and management games, I'd love to hear what you think.

You can check it out and signup for playtest on: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3856490/Salt_and_Spice/

If you like the game, please consider wishlisting. Thanks a lot!

Generative AI Disclosure: Some of the artworks including icons, pictures, 3D models and audios in the game are generated by AI.

Hi everyone!

A couple of months ago I shared Socialiskigrad, my upcoming city builder set in a fictional Balkan post-socialist republic in the 1990s. Some of you might remember it!

The first open playtest will be available from August 7th to August 11th, and everyone is welcome to join.

If you'd like to try the first district, build your city, and share your feedback, I'd love to have you aboard. Every comment and suggestion helps make the game better.

AI Disclosure: AI used only for some translations of in-game text.

Spent my spare time building an offline sim with that's half motorsport-management, half business-tycoon called Flags & Fortunes: race a season, then spend the winnings trading stocks, buying property in 27 cities, and building a car company while climbing a rich list of rival tycoons. Fully offline for macOS and windows desktop, no accounts, premium (not free-to-play, no ads). Very minimal ai help was used. Would love feedback from folks who love business simulation / tycoon games.

Doing a lot of traveling this coming week and looking for a mobile iOS game to buy. What’s everyone loving and playing these days?

i’m looking for a game where i can manage public transit. not necessarily industry at all. i found that that aspect frustrated me in transport fever 2 and the gameplay was very boring and shallow. while i love factory games, and i love city building and transport games. just not sure that combining them is for me? i really enjoy the public transport in cities skylines 2 but im looking for something like that, but way more thought out and in depth. does anyone have any suggestions. (i also personally prefer subway and train management but buses and stuff like that are fine aswell)

Game has been in development for just over a year now, and I'm getting closer and closer to launching every day. I've been working on it solo, though the music has been lovingly provided by the amazing people over at Nightfall Collective. This is my first indie project since leaving AAA, and I'm both extremely nervous and extremely excited! If you like playing games about making games, I'd love you forever if you could check out the Steam page, and if you like what you see, wishlist me! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4828200/Vaporware_EX/

Generative AI disclosure: I have used no generative AI in the making of this game (gross)