EDIT: I decided in favor of Capitalism Plus! Thank you so much for all of your help! I'm keeping the thread up for a little while, in case there are others with the same question or just interested in finding more games. You're all truly wonderful. I appreciate ya'll :)

Hi there! The sale's on, but I'm the stereotypical dummy who can't figure out what to buy. The issue isn't that I need to buy anything, but I really want something new and I feel like these types of games are extremely buried in the store, so it's hard to get a good lineup of these types of games.

What I'm interested in is specifically something that has company management or some sort of grander tycoon stuff.

I'm not looking for the most simplistic Game Dev Tycoon or Game Corp DX types of clickers either. But that doesn't mean it has to be the most complex game either. Personally, I'd say a good example would be

The visuals don't have to be anything special, as long as it's not 100% text-based. I still can't get around needing a small bit of visual stimulus.

The theme can be anything. Office buildings like in Project Highrise? Prisons like in Prison Architect? Varied software like in Software Inc.?

Just as long as there's some reasonable depth, I'm happy.

Also, I'd appreciate it if the game was under 10€. If anything comes to mind, I'd appreciate it :)

A lvl 0 giveaway to even partially compensate for your time. :)
Alien Spidy

4 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

Do you enjoy company management or tycoon games?

View Results
My favourite genre.
I like it.
I only like the more simplistic ones (Game Dev Tycoon, Youtubers Life).
I don't like them, but I can tolerate those mechanics in other games.
I absolutely hate them.

Unfortunately, I haven't run through any deep ones to recommend. I like Game Dev Tycoon, but as your said, that's too simple for you. All the same, have a bump.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Simple stuff has its time and place too. I liked every game I mentioned and I'm basically using the links as recommendations :)

But currently, I have a primal urge to get my hands on something a bit meatier. Thanks for the bump! :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I take it back. It's been way too long for me to clearly explain the details, but I did enjoy Industry Giant, though I did not play the sequel. Maybe that works better for you?

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Oh, interesting! Added both to my wishlist since they both look nice!

Thank you! :)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You can try Mad Games Tycoon, it's more complex than Game Dev Tycoon ;-)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ooh, I got ahead of you there! An awesome game and an even better recommendation! It definitely has a pretty comfortable complexity level where you don't have to worry too much and you won't have to be idle almost at all thanks to being able to bundle games and stuff.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Capitalism Plus is one of the best business sims made, but it is awfully dry.

SimTower/Yoot's Tower are two classics in the style of Project Highrise.

Monopoly Tycoon is an interesting mix of a business sim and Monopoly.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Capitalism Plus is something I've not heard of. What do you think of the second game?

Thanks for all the recommendations. Gonna look into Monopoly Tycoon since I have a weird soft spot for the original :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I don't have much experience with Capitalism 2. The two are fairly similar.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Plague inc

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Less of a business management or tycoon game, but regardless a great strategy management game. I'm currently stuck on the Simian Virus. That son of a bitch is tough <3

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I beat all of them on mega brutal.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Project Highrise was a ton of fun, yeah! The game actually made me interested in micromanaging routes and stuff like that. I'm thinking of getting some of the DLCs and giving the game another whirl :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yeah, they are pretty relaxed with their DLCs. Nothing huge, but the prices are also just $2 :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You might enjoy Transport Fever or TransOcean (1, not 2) or the games from Positech.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

TransOcean has a second game? Looking at the reviews it's pretty bad though compared to the first. I should give the first one another shot. Got a bit overwhelming with the constant micromanaging, but I might get more used to it this time around.

Added Transport Fever to my potential cart. Thank you so much for outlining this one since I completely forgot about it!

Production Line would be a very likely choice for purchase if it weren't as expensive as it is. I'm pretty set on my 10€ budget since it's way too easy to over-indulge :D

I appreciate all these recommendations. Literally all of them are top notch, lesser known gems :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ohhh, I love playing tycoons!

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend Two Point Hospital (getting 3 stars can be tough, especially in the later levels) and Rescue HQ: The Tycoon. You get to manage your staff in both games and technically, you are running a business so I guess they might fit your criteria?

Adding: I've not played Overcrowd - A Commute 'Em Up yet but it looks interesting. Not your typical management sim though!

4 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Really great recommendations. Unfortunately they're out of my budget. But regardless, I wouldn't be surprised someone else got an idea on what to buy from your comment! Cheers!

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Hmm, in that case, maybe you'd like to check out this instead? Another Brick in the Mall

The game's still in early access so I'm a bit hesitant to recommend it, but from what I can see, the game looks pretty good even as an EA :)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Capitalism 1, 2 and LAB.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Have you tried Parkitect?

I assume you have played (Open) Transport Tycoon Deluxe at some point?

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Parkitect's a bit too pricey for my tastes for now since my budget for this entire sale was 10€. But it looks dope.

I completely forgot about OpenTTD!! I need to still try it! :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I think Transport Tycoon Deluxe has a better AI than openTTD. I never managed to find a competitive one for openTTD...

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

not sure if the Guild [3] qualifies or Lobotomy coproration ;p

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

While I'm not too sure of The Guild 3 thanks to its reviews and price, you did remind me that I own The Guild 2 :D

Lobotomy Corporation fell into the unfortunate position for me where I started mixing it up with other games and so I only truly found out about the game a month or so ago, so I haven't tried it yet. Waiting for cheaper prices for that.

Appreciate the help!

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

the guild 2 is so much fun once you get into it i bought the guild 3 in ea when it was not finished but now it should be a lot better

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

What are your thoughts on Factorio ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/ ) and Offworld Trading Company ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/271240/ ) ?

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Factorio looks fantastic, but the "no sales" policy bugs me a lot since it's a very steep regular price for me. I've only paid that much for two games. Both were massive AAA endeavors too. GTA V and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. GTA V being one of my most played games on Steam and Kingdom Come being literally my favourite game so far. So it's hard to justify that purchase. But since it's so well reviewed, I might take the plunge at some point.

I thought Offworld Trading Company was a strategy game mainly and less of a classic business management game. I need to take a look at the game at that light. Thank you! :)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

As a long shot, you may also try checking out this developer: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Zachtronics

Many of their games feature similar optimization problems/puzzles as management games. You might find something that appeals to you in their game list.

No worries if this was off the mark!

4 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I'll take it you meant Zachtronics. I actually already own one of his games: Infinifactory. I haven't played it though since it always seemed like one of those complicated games where there's only a single perfect solution. The reason I like management and company tycoon games is because you have a problem, but you have many ways of solving it usually. But yeah, I appreciate it.

I'll have a closer look at Infinifactory then.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Huniecam Studio

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Only missing one achievement from being 100% with it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Oh... well can't really say that we're lacking games, that's for sure :D

Looked through all of them, around half of them seemed really cool! Thank you :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

where did you get all of these? Damn I wish I knew about them without stumbling about a random comment in a random thread on a random website

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I greatly enjoy tycoon games. My favorite one of all time is one my dad bought, and on which I have played over 1000 hours. It got an expansion pack, and Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum Edition has been released on steam. As a bonus, it is currently 75% off.
I absolutely love it. If the stupid region locks prevent you from buying it from steam, it routinely goes on sale for the same price from GOG
Between trains, history, random events, mod-maps, management, etc, it--and Civilization 3 (which is bit of a management game itself) --is among my favorite games of all time.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Haha, I even remember when you told me about Railroad Tycoon 2 in private :D
Skipped buying it this time though since a friend of mine already got it, but he couldn't run it on Win 10.

As to Civ 3, I didn't even think of that. Thanks!

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Ah. I did? Oh well, maybe someone else will read this and buy it. 😂 I wish my memory was as good as yours!

Also, this steam discussion seems to state that it runs fine on Win 10(x64)--and has some troubleshooting as well. There is this comment in particular:
Do understand that modern PC's DO NOT have the DirectX version used by older games. They emulate it in the code they've written for modern OS and hardware. IOW the program wants an old function and the GPU driver figures out which new stuff might work for that. What that means to us is for some folks there are combinations of modern hardware, modern drivers, and old code that just won't work for some but are not a problem for most everyone else. It's just bad luck.
(also, see this article for 64-bit.) This being said, we bought a disc (DVD case/boxed) edition of RT2 Platinum from Amazon, and in runs flawlessly on our various Win 7-32 or 64-bit machines.

You could always run a VM for XP, or at least in compatibility mode for it. At any rate, if you buy it from steam, you can try it, and refund if it won't load.

Also, You're quite welcome. I'm quite glad to recommend Civ 3 to all and sundry 😂. I strongly recommend the mod The Balancer Reloaded for when you eventually want a non-vanilla game. I have a bunch of other mods as well (6GB of them), but I can't remember their names, and TBR is one of the best. :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Dude, my memory's terrible, you just left a memorable impression :D

Thanks for the information. You went above and beyond with this one! Thanks for the Civ 3 mod recommendation too. I wouldn't have even thought to check the modding scene for the game since I always thought that Civ games didn't have a modding scene really.

I appreciate it :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Lol, ok. 😁

You're more than welcome! I'm happy to share with others about my favorite games. Civfanatics.com has a literal ton of mods (and WIP) on it for all versions of Civ since Civ 2. Another outstanding mod for Civ 3 Complete is Rise And Rule Revisited. i have played an earlier version of it, and highly recommend it as well. i currently have a game running using the TAM mod.

If you are at all interested in baseball (or American football), and since you asked for management game tips, I cannot help but pass on another of my favorite games--"Baseball Mogul" (or the Football variation, "Football Mogul"). It is easy to learn, can be played 15 minutes (or less) at a time, and can also give entertainment for hours at once. Baseball Mogul was the original baseball text-based sim back in the 90s, and has been updated every year since then to a truly wonderful game. If you go to the official website (not steam), you can get select old (2017 and earlier) full versions for free. A single-season "full-feature-demo" is ALWAYS free, even of the most recent copy. You can start your franchise at any year--as far back as 1901, or create your own fictional league. (I like the game, in case you couldn't tell. 😉)

Again, you're always welcome.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Tropico's a great management game for sure! More of a city builder, but the economic aspect of the game's really awesome. I really like it!

Completely forgot about the "X" games. I think i already have one of them too. I should boot it up and see what's what.

While I remember the business aspect in The Sims 2, I'm not too sure what business aspect Ambitions adds? I own the DLC and even have The Sims 3 permanently installed on my computer, so perhaps I missed something. If I did, I'm glad to jump in again :D

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Project Hospital is pretty good, with a fair amount of depth.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Looks very interesting. Like a more serious and in-depth version of Two Point Hospital. Thank you! :)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

If you are into building cities, I'd recommend Cities: Skylines, which I enjoyed a lot. This game has city management as well as transport (public and private) management. But if you want a more complex transport management, I recommend something like Cities in Motion 2. And if you also like politics, then go for Tropico 5 (any Tropico is awesome, specially 3 and 4, I didn't play 6 but it goes over your budget anyway).

If you don't like cities, other good games are Prison Architect and Motorsport Manager.

I wouldn't recommend Project Highrise because it's quite simple, at least was for me, though original and enjoyable.

4 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I appreciate all the recommendations! I own Cities in Motion 2, but I haven't actually played it yet... something I need to fix.

I haven't played Motorsport Manager, but the game looks like a total banger. Added it to my wishlist!

For Project Highrise, the nice complexity usually came in with making the perfect layouts and trying to min-max yourself. Otherwise it's not too difficult, yeah.
It's the type of difficulty Cities: Skylines has. Easy to learn, hard to master, etc.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Never going wrong with the classics: Rollercoaster Tycoon 2/3, Simcity 4 (still the most complete city managment game so far), Railroad Tycoon 3, Transport Tycoon and Tropico 3.
Some more modern suggestions are Prison Architect, Cities Skylines and Tropico 5.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is a great game, but it's too bad that the engine just can't handle much. Build a couple of sections for the park and odds are you're running at 20fps already, another couple and the game's unplayable. The game still looks beautiful though thanks to the great water graphics and lighting engine. That game needs a remaster ASAP and it seems that Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo are aiming for that, especially since it's done by Frontier.

Haven't tried Railroad Tycoon 3, though I am thinking of getting the second one after multiple recommendations.

I actually have Simcity 4, but I've not played it yet... Been mainly sticking to Cities: Skylines, but I should branch out.

Everyone's recommending Tropico 3 and 5, yet no one's recommending my boi Tropico 4! Best soundtrack, best voice acting and best campaign, for sure! >:(
I kid though. I've played 3 and 5 as well, liked 3 a lot, but the campaign missions took ridiculously long. 1-2 hours with 30-40% of it being inactive due to the time scaling not speeding up fast enough. 5 felt a bit simple, but I need to give it another shot. I was a bit unfair to that game.

Thanks for the comment. Great recommendations! :)

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I am lurking for good recommendations! BUMP!

If someone got a game that is not fitting for zeruel's budget, feel free to reply to me because i am potentially willing to spend more than 10€.

4 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

hotel giant 2 - The Spatials - House Flipper - Banished - the guild - Depraved

4 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 4 years ago by zeruel132.