Banished came out a week or two ago on Steam and is pretty sweet. It's more of a town builder/survival game than a city builder though, population never seems to get much past 100 or so for me (Though I'm admittedly bad at it.) It's kind of unforgiving.
The obvious Sim City 4/3000/The new one EA bastardized and Cities XL springs to mind too.
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There are tiles you can get for it. If you can get past the ASCII nature of the graphics (or the uglyness of the tiles) and climb the learning cliff you will have FUN. And by FUN, I mean you will get to see dwarves slowly go mad as their friends and relatives die, learn to love their bodies as the lack of clothing (because you never did figure out how to make pants, did you?) drives the entire society to nudism, and battle bravely against the encroaching goblin menace. Then, once you finally figure out how to play the game, you can fill the land with lava and turn anything that approaches your doorstep into cinder.
For an example of a typical game (from a few versions back, so some things have changed), see BoadMurdered.
Just remember: drown the soapmakers. They're useless.
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It's not on Steam and I'd agree - its interface isn't exactly appealing to a new player. Gnomoria is often cited as "Dwarf Fortress-like" although I'm not sure it'll be the business sim you're looking for. Looks fun though (I haven't played it nor the original Dwarf Fortress).
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Its free and it works on every major OS. The ascii is actually amazing if you pass the first contact as it works on your imagination. Instead of seeing a 3D mountain you see a REAL moutain. I even prefer it to the tilesets that aim at giving it graphics.
You won't find many good and complex biz games with shiny graphics, and of those only the X serie might deserve a close enough epicness to dwarf fortress in addition.
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Cities XL for really huge cities with alot of modern buisness... but has performance issues over time but is fixable with restarts and sometimes just reloads (quit menu and load map again), more info: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Cities_XL_Platinum
But if you want small scale survival town/settlement building:
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Railroad Tycoon 3 - I could reccomend very much.
Capitalizm 2 - if graphic isn't problem - you can learn on it many real economy (the game was do for that). Just economy simulator (you don't meet any better), but have old graphic.
You have also SimCity series games, Cities XL, mayby you like game dev tycoon.
One of must play will be pizza syndicate.
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I was surprised by how good Vegas: Make it big was. (casino business sim) I'd recommend that.
Railroad tycoon 2 (someone mentioned 3 but I personally liked 2 a lot more.)
while we are on railroads, sid meier's Railroads is a pretty light re-imagining of railroad tycoon.
The Guild 2 kinda a rpg business simulator set in the reinassance/medieval times. its a pretty brilliant game imo.
Port Royale 2 Port Royale 3 another sort of rpgish business sim, you get to build businesses on colonies, transport cargo to other places and sell for profit, also lots of ship battles and pirate raids and such.
Hinterland More city builder than business sim, you have to defend this town against invading monsters (in a sort of arpg combat thing like diablo) while attracting new villages, building buildings, gathering resources, and fulfilling requests from the king. Its pretty light but its very unique and I find it pretty enjoyable.
might be some others if I think about it.
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IMHO: Vegas:Mib left a lot unexplained, even after playing the tutorial
will give Guild 2 a try once I get my hands on a HIB:Nordic Games
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So far the only one I know of that hasn't been mentioned is:
Game Dev Tycoon!
Side note, I know you said Steam only, but I'm gonna toss out a Non-Steam recommendation.
Look up Kairosoft on your Apple or Android device. All of them feature management to some degree.
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I can't believe noone suggested pharaoh!
It's a brilliant game made by sierra, it may be old but it's one great game!
try it out, it's really worth it!
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Probably the genre is dead. I mean business sims. I have some city building games and i think they will last for a long time. I remembered another one great game - Constructor. Oh how i wish for a remake or at least for re-release.
How about restaurant empire 2? Is it good? It's in a bundle now, but i don't know if it's worth 4$, it looks really bad.
Adventure park http://store.steampowered.com/app/256050 looks like crap too. There's hospital tycoon http://store.steampowered.com/app/11590/ but it looks like a bad ripoff too.
Will try prison architect probably.
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Resturant empire 2 blows compared to the first one. if you want a copy of it I think I have an extra key for it (add me on steam) But I think you will be disappointed.
also constructor did have a sequel (sort of) it was called Mob Rule unfortunately its not on steam. for some reason alot of the business simulator type games are never sold on steam directly. They did have The Movies but that was removed a long time ago. its a great game about running a movie studio. there is also the youda games on other distribution platforms, I'm pretty sure those are business sims (I have never played one myself.)
cities in motion / 2 is basically a new transport tycoon, or traffic giant, and you run and manage a transport company. I don't think the genre is dead really, its just the mechanics have been somewhat blended with other genres or possibly hidden behind the games theme?(also check the other post I made if you haven't, because I did try to recommend more business oriented games on steam)
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I didn't know about the mob rule. Is it working good on win7?
I played the movies when it came out for some time. I'd definitely buy it if it were on steam.
I already have cities in motion, i know it's a good game but didn't like it.
By saying "genre is dead" i was thinking about those business sims where you need to hire staff, pay taxes, keep the costumers happy etc. Now it's more like building sims with some money management.
I don't think i'd play restaurant empire 2, especially when you say it's worse than the first game. But this would be exactly the type of game i want :)
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well as far as Mob Rule goes, Gog says it is compatible with windows 7. I don't own the gog version, and have not played my disc copy on windows 7 so I couldn't say for sure. It is pretty likely it works fine though.
I see what your really getting at for business sim now. I still think that Vegas Make it Big would be your best bet for a game on steam that is managerial other than restaurant empire 2. You have to hire workers, repairmen, croupiers etc, set the prices of your attractions/slots/games/hotels. probably a bit heavier on the building than you really want (its reminiscent of roller-coaster tycoon in that regard.
If you haven't checked out theme hospital that one is a really great classic which you have probably already played, figured I would mention it though. Again unfortunately not on steam :/
EDIT: Ohh I just remembered, Hospital tycoon is on steam. It is basically a weaker version of theme hospital with a pretty lame soap opera story.
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Best biz game is definitely Capitalism 2 in terms of scope, pizza syndicate 2 is the one i had the most fun with, Rollercoaster tycoon is probably the best for parks, railroad tycoon for eh railroads, X3 and terran conflict with Xtended mod for some 3D space station and trading with escorts, and the older freelancer, the anno and patrician series, cities in motion and sim city, banished is nice but overly simple and easy... And yes, dwarf fortress. Sports games such as football manager tend to include some basic managment as well. Zeus is my favorite city builder.
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I love business simulators. I really loved theme park and theme hospital back in the day but can't find anything similar today. I remember playing restaurant empire some time ago, it was something. I have interest in city building games too, but i have enough of them i think, tropico 4 and anno 2070.
Is there any games worth the attention, which i missed maybe because they're not popular.
Steam only.
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