All posts tagged in tycoon game
Dec 28, 2019
Before we reach the beginning of 2020, I’ve been taking a look back on all the games I have played and reviewed thus far. I’ve shared with you some of my favorite farming sims here and multiplayer games here., and have considered what other genres that I gravitate toward and that are the most wholesome. Today, I’ll be closing off the end of the year with a list of management/tycoon games that I’ve played the most in 2019. Whether it’s designing and managing a theme park, restaurant or clothing store, I just can’t get enough of creating and building, and making customers happy!
Megaquarium
Megaquarium is ranked in my top 3 most hours played on my Nintendo Switch this year because it is one of those games I just want to perfect. Gaining more and more Prestige with your aquarium parks allows you to buy better tools, equipment, items and fish! I’ve even laid out some advanced tips for the game because you must strategize and manage the species in your tanks, as compatibility and visibility are key to success.
Planet Zoo
Planet Zoo released on Steam last month and the graphics and details are everything I’d hoped they’d be. It does have a steep learning curve and you need to have quite the level of creativity and imagination, but it may just be the tycoon game for you if you love in-depth management and design choices. Frontier Developments also hosts online challenges on a regular basis to keep things interesting.
Two Point Hospital
I may be cheating a little by putting this one on my list because it released on PC in 2018, however there have been new DLCs this year (Close Encounters) and console versions will be coming in 2020. Once you have completed your main campaign goals in each level, you can still continue to reach 3 stars and watch the fruits of your labor. This cheeky hospital management game has unique illnesses, patients and treatments that make the gameplay just all the more fun.
Pocket Clothier
If you’re looking for an adorable clothing management game that can be played in small doses but is also addictive, this is for you. You can place various stands/shelves and choose the style of clothing to stock, hire staff, decorate with fixtures, and more! This game was released a little while ago on mobile for under $5 which means there aren’t any micro-transactions. I’ve added this to my 2019 list because it is now available on the Nintendo eShop (since September) for only $12! Pocket Clothier is worth the price and a great game to play on-the-go.
There are so many other management games coming in the new year that have already been added to my wishlist and include the following: Mondo Museum (creators of Boyfriend Dungeon), Onsen Master, Rolling Hills, Creature Resort and more! Here’s to wishing you a Happy Gaming New Year!
- Nov 12, 2019
So far I’m enjoying the improvements of Planet Zoo that Frontier Developments have made since Zoo Tycoon on Steam. However, I wanted to show people playing or currently watching videos not to get too discouraged by the vast amount of building choices and pre-made parks that are all so intimidating. Don’t worry, you’re not alone! I too could not believe how beautiful the parks were and was eager to build some of my own and thought, “this won’t be that hard because I’ve played tycoon games before.” Until I was told to make a fence while playing Career Mode for the first time. I’m still getting the hang of the controls for Planet Zoo, because it’s beautiful and worth it. Although, for now, I’ve added a video below which is a compilation of all of my first attempts and failures for your viewing pleasure.
It’s Hard at First!
At first, Nancy started me off with some pre-builds for my facilities and such. Looking at the amount of choices and possible shapes to utilize to make one building, made me nervous. I was hoping Nancy wouldn’t leave my side any time soon. However, when it comes to fences, you can’t just plop a cage down, you have panels you need to connect. The height also needs to be adjusted according to the specific animals you will be placing inside that habitat. Zoopedia has all of the information, always read Zoopedia. I did eventually learn how to paint the fences different colors but that didn’t really help me at that moment, although it’s a very nice new addition to the game that I’m going to enjoy later.
When I struggled to do the simplest of tasks, everything else seemed so daunting. If I can’t get these controls down, how would I be able to create an entire zoo? Poor Nancy was trying hard to explain things to me and I just wasn’t getting it. This could either mean two things: I’m horribly uncoordinated and terrible at this game, or there’s a very steep learning curve and the controls could have been simplified a lot more. I haven’t ruled either of them out yet since I haven’t gotten very far. It’s probably just me.
Jokes aside, there were some amazing moments of looking at my animals via Camera mode. They’re so majestic and they deserve everything I can afford to buy them. There are a lot of options for items, research, and more, which I’m looking forward to familiarizing myself with!
You can buy the basic Planet Zoo game and/or the Deluxe Edition on Steam right here.
- Nov 10, 2019
What I’ve seen from the developers of Planet Zoo, Frontier Developments, leading up to the Best Simulation Game‘s release, has been very impressive! From the very specific needs and behaviors of all animals to the challenging new modes, you can tell they really put a lot of love into this game! There’s so much more emphasis on animal care and education, including conservation efforts, that has me so excited to be a zoo keeper. I’d like to thank the developers for supplying me with a Steam Key so that I could put my tycoon skills to the test and show you all what you can expect before playing.
Zoo Tycoon Vs Planet Zoo
I’ve been a huge fan of creating habitats and taking care of my animals, all while making sure the guests are happy, for quite some time. I’ve put several hours into Zoo Tycoon back in 2001, which was developed by Blue Fang Games and published by Microsoft. They also went on to make a sequel and several amazing expansion packs. There was just the perfect balance of making the zoo your own and having some guidance with several tools at your disposal.
In 2013, Microsoft, along with Frontier Developments, released a Zoo Tycoon game for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I found that game to be hugely disappointing with the lack of animal variety, and almost no layout and design choices for habitats or facilities. For example, you had to place food and water bowls in pre-selected zones. It scaled way too far back on the creative freedom that it became real boring, real fast. However, I could already tell by the Developer Journals that Planet Zoo was going to be a huge improvement and was excited to try my hand at another zoo management game.
When I started to play Planet Zoo, I was already excited at the fact that I could customize my own avatar. Then, I decided to go for Career Mode first as I know I should get some tips before I go off on my own and start from scratch in Sandbox Mode. I could not believe how beautiful the parks were and was eager to build some of my own. It was a little intimidating in fact because there was so much to work with, more than I have ever seen.
Now, not only can you place whatever you want, wherever you want in your habitats, but you can also make everything from scratch. This might make the game harder to get used to at first, if you’ve watched my Planet Zoo Gameplay Bloopers you’ll know what I’m talking about, but it becomes very addictive if you stick with it. Sure the paths and fences are harder to use then they have to be but little changes, such as adding digital boards and speakers for your guests to learn about your animals, makes it worth it.
It is worth mentioning that I lightly touched on the fact that you have to have available power for all of your facilities during my first couple of levels of gameplay, which is also a new feature. Meaning, there’s a bit more to do this time around, similar to Sim City. I’ll be continuing to play Planet Zoo and will write updated articles when I find out how it all goes together! If this already sounds like fun to you, you can buy the basic Planet Zoo game and/or the Deluxe Edition on Steam right here.
- Nov 9, 2019
Little Big Workshop is an adorable simulation and strategy game developed by Mirage Game Studios and Published by HandyGames (THQ Nordic division). The game released on October 17th, 2019 on Steam which you can purchase here, for PC or Mac, for only $19.99! Manage your workers, stations, machines, and create awesome toys and items to expand your factory. Moreover, it’s almost as if you get to manage little workshop elves, Santa’s helpers, which makes this the perfect game to play this holiday season!
About Little Big Workshop
Imagine a magical factory, appearing right in your living room. A carefully planned masterpiece, where diligent workers throw together anything customers want. Rubber ducks and dressers, drones and electric guitars, scooters and other wonderful goods can be created from many different materials and sold for hard cash – cash you invest right back into your factory to get more machines, more workers and grow your business. In Little Big Workshop you become a factory tycoon!
Real Factories – Made FUN
You are the Big Boss and it’s time to take charge of your very own tabletop factory. Organize the factory floor, manage your workers, purchase machinery, and design efficient production lines – all within the time-limit and to your client’s satisfaction!
An Open-Ended Sandbox-Experience
Take it easy, it’s a sandbox-experience where you think, ponder and poke at things until you get it to work the way you’d like. Supply products to clients and an ever-changing market, as you produce over 50 unique product types, built from multiple parts and pieces – all of which can be created with different materials and production methods. No two factories should ever look the same.
Tiny Hands, Big Dreams
Start out with just a small workshop and expand to a desk-filling factory. Unlock ever fancier machines, add even more production methods, and most of all, more room. Soon enough you’ll be running multiple production lines, producing hundreds of advanced products each day, and watching with joy as your cute workers do the actual work.
Key Features
- Four unique industries fully simulated
- Focus on practical problems, not on values, economics, or logistics
- Organize all steps of the production on a blueprint
- Factories grow as you unlock more desk space
- Day/Night-cycle with simulated working time
- Take care of your workers! Work them too hard and they may turn on you
- Cute model-town art-style
In the mood for more holiday shopping? Check out my article here: Nintendo Switch Perfect Gift Guide.
- Oct 24, 2019
As you might know from my previous review of Megaqurium, I have really been enjoying playing this tycoon management game on the Nintendo Switch since its release on October 18th, 2019. There are 10 levels in total for the Campaign Mode which I have recently finished on Normal and feel that there was quite the difficulty spike near the end of the game. If you are also currently playing and struggling with meeting the main goals, here are some helpful tips and tricks I learned to running the perfect Mega Aquarium!
My troubles started at Level 7 as ignoring the talents of your staff and placing whatever you wanted in your tanks just don’t cut it anymore. I’ll be specifically talking about Level 10 because if you can beat that level, you can beat the others even when they throw you a few curveballs. At Level 10 you can finally start your entire layout from scratch which is great but this also means you won’t have access to much and you need to research everything. Your ultimate goal is to reach Rank 12 in order to later receive a Huge tank, and the very demanding and delicate Whale Shark.
How to Not Lose Your Prestige
After the end of every in-game day, you’ll probably notice that your prestige will start decreasing quite a lot. This is because every time a guest leaves your aquarium, they take their points with them. Every gust will give you prestige for your tanks only once so this is another reason to always be keeping things fresh. Keep your eyes peeled at all times for the red prestige symbols as this usually means one or more of your fish in the tanks are stressed or there’s trash on the floor which leads to negative “untidiness” points. Everything can escalate quickly if you don’t take care of the problem as soon as possible so I recommend pausing and saving frequently. Here’s how to keep points from decreasing before you worry about increasing:
- Put trash bins where you frequently see your guest littering your floors. Better yet, put a lot around your planned routes, by the food and beverages, and near podiums where guests gather. If there are enough bins, they don’t have a reason to litter.
- When you select a talk for your podiums, be very careful with the ones that earn you prestige because if your guests have heard it a lot, they give you negative points instead.
- Hide ALL of your equipment as your guests don’t want to see any of it, even through the tanks.
- Do not put repeat decorations in other tanks as they get bored looking at the same thing more than once. That goes for fish and plants/rocks as well which will be explained below.
Trash bins, food/beverage machines, and benches everywhere! Planning Out Your Tanks
With rocks and plants you’ll need to cater to your fish’s needs first and foremost so if you’re placing say Plant Lovers, stick to plants only. This way you can save your rocks for another tank that might need a lot of them. Once you’ve chosen the size of your tank, you should place the ones that give you the highest number in small tanks (so you don’t run out of room and still meet the requirement), and place the smaller numbers in bigger tanks since you can put more of them in. Always stick to the same decoration; don’t mix and match. The same goes for fish to a certain extent.
Deciding on Which Fish to Put Together
When you toggle your view for your tanks (the eye symbol), it will give you a percentage on how many guests view the tank and everything in it. You want that percentage to obviously be at 100% to get the most out of it. In order to do that, you not only have to make sure of the basics such as not putting “Bully” and “Wimps” together, but also putting a lot of the same exact fish in the tank.
Fish Visibility
There’s a background percentage in-game regarding visibility for your fish. That magic number is that there’s a 40% chance that your guest can even see the one fish. Every subsequent fish you add (again same one, not a different kind) will give you a 10% your guests will “enjoy” that fish. With that in mind, put 7 of the same fish in your tank to guarantee visibility and to receive the prestige on that fish. This doesn’t apply to the fish that can’t be placed with any fish of the same genus but their visibility percentages are at 60% so they’re still worth it if you have room to fill.
These Fried Egg Jellyfish are for real. They also have to be alone. Feeders and Types
Above is all in regards to your prestige and not stressing out your fish. What you want to also pay attention to is how fast your staff can feed your fish before they go hungry. This can become a big problem later on the more tanks and fish you have in your aquarium like in Level 10. You’ll want fast staff and easy and clear paths from your food to your tanks but something you may not have already thought of is how many different food bins you need.
The more different types of bins you need, the more your staff have to go back and forth to feed all of the fish. Meaning, when deciding on which fish to house together, you’ll have to take into account what they eat. Example: Unicorn Surgeon fish pair up nicely with certain Angelfish as they both eat Green Pellets. Therefore, try not to have more than 2, maybe 3, food types per tank. Once you have access to an Auto-Feeder at Rank 12, this method will be even more helpful.
Auto-feeders need to be directly attached to your tanks and out of sights. How to Gain More Prestige
If you’ve followed the steps above, you will at least not be losing any prestige while you try to gain some. All of that and careful layout planning might even be enough. The best layout for your entire aquarium would be to make it circular and in one direction. If there are too many choices for places to walk around, your guests might walk right past some aquariums. This is especially true if you don’t put enough items to address their needs as they will walk toward the nearest facilities and skip everything else along the way.
Sell shark hats, they’re worth a lot and hilarious to look at. Place a lot of benches or seating items as they tire fairly easily. You’ll also want to place food and beverages along the way near your tanks often enough. Toilets last long so you won’t need as much as the other facilities. Every time your guests use these items when needed, you gain prestige. The gifts may not give you prestige but will earn you much needed money in order to buy everything else so keep everything fully stocked.
A Winning Layout
Other than that, hire staff that have high Fitness for your Gift talents, high Empathy and Precision for your Feeding talents, and high Memory for your Fixing talents. Don’t be shy to hire more than you need to succeed. Hope that helps and don’t forget to enjoy planning and decorating along the way! You can unlock a lot of fun fish the more you gain ranks!
My Entire Aquarium
- Oct 18, 2019
Megaquarium is a management tycoon game created by Twice Circled and Auroch Digital. Become an expert in aquatic life and run your very own theme park by managing tanks and staff all while keeping your fish and guests happy! Megaquarium was previously released on Steam in 2018 with very positive reviews. Now, Megaquarium is available on consoles starting today (October 18th, 2019)! I’d like to thank Auroch Digital for providing us with a Nintendo Switch copy of Megaquarium for the purpose of a review which you can read about below!
In Megaquarium you can choose to play in Sandbox mode where you can play around with settings and random challenges or Campaign mode with 10 levels of main goals and tutorials. You might be thinking it will be easy enough to learn everything on your own if you’re familiar with the genre, however, there’s a lot more to it than just placing fish in tanks! Fish will have very detailed needs and types that will have you taking extreme care with size, temperature and design of your tanks. In the beginning you are very limited with your choices of livestock, equipment and tools and I originally thought the game was slow-moving but the more I unlocked, the more I was thankful for taking smaller steps to make sure I fully understood everything.
Fishy Information
Every fish has a number for their size which has to be taken into consideration when building the size of your tank as it will have a maximum amount it can hold. Not only that, the size will factor in when dealing with predators and the possibility of those bigger fish eating the smaller ones. Although, some of those smaller fish may have an extra size added due to their “armor”. Next, you’ll want to know if the fish requires a certain number of plant-life, rocks or shelters so as not to stress them out.
Read all of the information provided because some extra alerts will be important when you start placing different species together. For example, some fish are “wimps” and others are “bullies” and they obviously can’t be placed together. There are also warnings that will outright tell you if the fish are a danger to softer livestock such as starfish or corals. There are also some fussier fish that need to be the only one of their kind in a single tank or others that need to be with a school of fish with a base number to fulfill.
Choosing and Building Tanks
Different styles of tanks will be unlocked the further you play the main game which will mostly be for aesthetic purposes with the exception of the Kreisel tank which is the only one that can be used for jellyfish. All tanks are pre-built with where the window panes for viewing and the walls that are up for privacy will be. Some tanks will go deeper into the floor and others will be tall and need a platform with stairs so your staff can access them. You have control of where you want to place your tank and the size so have an idea of your aquarium layout and design when deciding on which tank to use.
Your fish will either be tropical or cold and need equipment for the tanks accordingly. All tanks will require filters to enhance your water quality. The amount of equipment needed depends on the size you’re using (small, medium, large), as well as which fish and how many you plan to put in that tank. You’ll soon discover that your guests dislike seeing your heaters, chillers, filters and the like, and therefore you’ll need to hide all of it behind walls! This becomes really fun to place when you have access to pumps which can reach tanks from a distance rather than needing to connect your equipment right next to them. Just attach your equipment to pumps, adding more as needed in order to reach all your tanks. Your individual fish will have a number of water quality and temperature minimum in order to survive.
Guest Needs and Prestige
Your prestige comes from happy guests and everything in your aquarium which is important to increase. This will unlock new facilities, tools, decorations, livestock, etc. After a specific amount, you’ll “rank up” which will either give you access to those items right away or allow you to research them. Research adds yet another layer to your choice of fish and decor because all of them will have points that go toward “ecology”, “science”, both or neither. Ecology research allows you to discover new livestock and science research allows you to unlock more or better equipment. Every single guest that views your individual tanks will contribute to adding up all of these points just once. Therefore, even if your fish don’t require plants and decor, fill up your tanks with them anyway to get the most out of them!
You can really go in-depth with the thoughts of your guests, or you can simply look over their heads for handy icons that display whether they need to eat, drink, rest or go to the bathroom. Vending machines (garbage cans to go with them), seating and toilets will do the trick and they don’t take up that much room either! Your decorations can be placed both in tanks and out but I like to keep my aisles clear for my staff to get to places faster and my guests to not wonder around aimlessly. I do wish I could put up paintings or something on the walls but you can at least change the colors as you unlock them. However, doing that is a bit of a pain because you can’t paint multiple walls at the same time.
Hiring Staff
You’ll need staff first and foremost to feed your fish and fix your equipment when it breaks down. When choosing from a list of a few people you can hire, there are set skills and traits that need your attention. I ignored all of the traits and it hasn’t affected me while playing on “Normal” although I’m sure they have their uses when trying to master the game. What you need to worry about is how many points they already have in the following: Feeding, Fixing, Cleaning, Gift Shop, Talking, etc.
Managing Staff, and Tools
You can adjust the priority of their tasks once you’ve hired them if they are more skilled in specific areas. Eventually you’ll be able to level up your staff and either upgrade their current skills or add new ones. You can also assign them to certain areas but I find that also unnecessary at this stage if you have planned out the layout of your aquarium properly (i.e. tools close by and unobstructed). Also, if you place your equipment behind walls as you should, make sure to create “staff doors” so they can access the rooms.
Everything in this game has been really helpful when indicating in red if something you are trying to do is not going to work out and why. Your staff need to be able to reach all of your equipment and therefore you cannot bunch up everything together. To fix these broken down machines you’ll need to place toolkit stands nearby which allow for only one staff member to use at one time. I find it beneficial to place one toolkit per cluster of pumps and equipment. Your staff will also need brooms for cleaning up trash, sinks for cleaning toilets, among other tools that become available later on. Make sure you have the right food containers out for your fish so your staff can feed them. Again, if your tank needs anything, make sure to pay attention to the icons above them.
Graphics and Animations
At first it bothered me that the background outside of your aquarium is completely bare, however, once I noticed the level of attention to detail of the fish, I’m glad that that’s where the focus was placed. I love tycoon games that allow you to not only have an overhead view, but to zoom in as if you were a guest as well. You can really look inside of your tanks and see your different colored fish move around!
It seems like the developers took extra care in learning the different movements and behaviors of the hundreds of livestock provided. You can really feel like an aquatic-life expert yourself once you have several tanks and fish living in harmony! The guests can use a little more variety in appearance but I find it kind of hilarious when they purchase, say a drink, and there’s a large bottle that appears in front of them while they walk around until they are finished.
Music and Sound
I’m pretty sure there is only one song that continually plays on a loop in the game but I found myself concentrating so hard on making sure none of my fish get eaten that I hardly paid attention. The sound effects are kind of loud and abrupt so I recommend turning that down a little. Since there is quite a lot of text that needs to be read on your screen in several different menus, it can be difficult to see if you’re a potato like me with poor eyesight. It’s a shame that you can’t zoom in on the text and that the menus aren’t color-coordinated to make things much easier.
The amount of intricate gameplay in Megaquarium makes it so that you do not miss taking care of other animals, and rather enjoy specializing in aquatic-life only. With so much to do for your tanks, it can be so much fun designing your entire aquarium! If you’re interested in trying out this game for yourselves, here’s the link for the Nintendo Switch version.
- Oct 11, 2019
In Parkasaurus you’re in charge of an amusement park, and the attraction is dinosaurs! Design and construct exhibits to keep your dinosaurs and guests happy in this management/tycoon game created by WashBear Studio. To learn more about the basics of the game, you can check out my previous article here. Parkasaurus is currently on Steam Early Access here and it just received an update worth checking out for this Halloween. Below you’ll find all of the new items that have been added, which can only be bought from the in-game stores at night!
Ghouly Guests
Check out the Gem Store at night to buy your own Scary Pumpkin to invite an entire new crowd; Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts. Here’s the thing, Zombies love balloons, and Ghosts love dinosaur gazing. Who knew? All you need to do is purchase a Pumpkin from the Gem Store at night.
Pumpkin Toy
Smashing pumpkins in real life is such a mess, how about you let your dinos smash for you? Toy balls are out, pumpkin tossing is in.
Halloween Hats
We all know the true meaning of Halloween is dressing up in scary, hilarious, and weird costumes. Your dinosaurs want in on the fun – so check out the range of Halloween hats you can find in the Hat Store at night. Let your dino best friends pretend to be a witch, or maybe a space-dino.
For more Halloween fun this month, check out the newest trailer of Luigi’s Mansion 3 right here!
- Sep 24, 2019
Megaquarium is a tycoon game at heart where you build and manage your very own public aquarium and hopefully lead it to success.
In Megaquarium you are not only building a single aquarium, but you are essentially managing a full public place for visitors to come by and learn more about the fish you showcase. You have full control over the creative side in your aquarium as well. Place fish tanks and fill them with the fish and decorations items of your choice.
The game will even teach you about how to care for fish and everything else you need to know about aquariums, if you are a big fish lover, this game might just be right for you. It will be available on the Nintendo Switch eShop starting October 18th if you can’t wait that long you can check it out on Steam.
For more tycoon games check out Mondo Museum and upcoming indie game where you build, manage and run a Museum.
About Megaquarium
Megaquarium is an economic simulation game in which you grow your aquarium to a thronging metropolis filled with hundreds of guests, tens of staff and almost 100 different aquatic life forms such as fish, sharks, crustaceans, corals, jellyfish, other invertebrates, and turtles.
Originally released on Steam, Megaquarium features a campaign mode with 10 levels in which you will learn how to design and manage an aquarium. Additionally, the game contains a sandbox mode with customisable settings and a random challenge generator.
Every decision you make in Megaquarium – your choice of animals, filters, tanks, staff and layout – has consequences. You’ll have to master both creativity and economics to make your business succeed and keep your guests happy.
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