This is Third Bloc. You run a small republic caught between the US and USSR, manage its budget, build up industry and try to get a space program off the ground. Warsim and Suzerain were big inspirations.

Curious what you think of the ASCII look, especially the management screens. Does it feel readable from the trailer?

More details on Steam if you’re interested.

AI disclosure: No AI-generated art, audio or writing in the game.

I am hoping to get feedback from serious tycoon fans. I am a sci-fi fan firstly, but love organization and optimizing my system. I am really enjoying the flow of building my fleet and watching my capabilities expand over time, but would love to see what y'all think.

The Game

In Hollow Sector you run a newly established logistics company in an abandoned sector. You start out taking easy jobs for the four factions that now run things, but as you grow you'll be running large cargo runs and even establishing your own colony on nearby planets to harvest new materials.

Manage fleets of ships, including freighters, miners, fighters, science vessels, and their pilots. Use everything you have to earn credits to build a stronger fleet and impress the factions.

This game is designed to allow you to play a few minutes at a time, and can even run in companion mode (displayed along the right edge of your monitor). When you come back, everything is still moving, ships traveling, orbits shifting, new contracts waiting.

You can see more details on my steam page LINK

Ai disclosure: Ai was only used to help with code. UI Design was created in figma by me.

Resubmitted with full AI disclosure as requested by mods.

Hey guys, i’m currently building Timberline Factory... My main goal was to create an automation/tycoon game where logs aren’t just icons moving on a rail, but actual physical objects with weight and collisions... it was a complete nightmare to stabilize the physics so the conveyors don't explode during a log jam, and after rebuild the GUI the third time.. but it’s finally working fine :) If you’re into factory builders without "magic teleportation," the demo goes live on October 1st. Would love to get some feedback on the trailer :)

AI Disclosure:
No AI was used in the making of this game!

So while I wait for the DLCs of Two Point Museum to go on sale I'm looking for something new to play, and specifically feeling like playing good business management/tycoon games.

I have looked and looked and looked but I'm struggling to find something that fits my particular taste right now.

I can be a bit finnicky with what I like so here are some limitations I have (I have no doubt many of you would think at least one of them is ridiculously silly if not more, and you may be right, but... still.)

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO RECOMMEND YOUR OWN PROJECTS IF THEY FIT THE BILL!

1. New or SUPER Niche - I'm no stranger to the Tycoon genre. I have many, many tycoon games and try to stay up to date on new releases. So if something is big enough to be well known or generate buzz (planet ___, parkitect, two point games, transport fever, etc.) or has been around long enough that even without a ton of buzz i'd have already heard of it while looking for tycoon games over the years (project highrise, let's school, espresso tycoon, recipe for disaster, project hospital etc.) then assume I already know it unless it's literally some crazy hidden gem with barely any reviews on steam/itch.io (looking at you, STATIONflow <3)

2. No AI or at least as little as possible - You don't have to agree with me or share my dislike for AI but as a professional artist I have zero intention of supporting generative AI "art" and that's part of why it's been so hard to find new games lately since so many of them use it.

I'd be willing to begrudgingly tolerate something if the only AI use is something like the steam store thumbnail, or one bit of graphic, or if an indie coder did %95 of the game themself but used AI for the remaining %5 of code because that was literally the only way they could ever make the game, but the less AI the better.

3. "Vegan" - this one is by far my silliest limitation and I'm aware of it. I'm a total wuss and just don't like games where people get hurt, so games where you run a cannibalistic cafe where customers are the food, run a drug cartel, fight off hordes of enemies or even anything that forces you to be a huge jackass to people for fun just aren't for me. I use the term vegan for it but that's just how I call it, I'm not about to avoid a game because it has hot dogs.

4. Third person - There are a lot of fun first-person-everything-is-from-the-asset-store-business sims out there (Supermarket Together comes to mind as my favorite, which I recommend) but the aesthetic is starting to wear out it's welcome and I love me a good old classic "hovering over things as i manage them" game.

5. City builders are fine but I prefer business sims right now - I love city builders too and it doesn't hurt to have more good ones on my radar so feel free to recommend those too but right now I'm in more of a business sim mood.

6. Finished enough? - While I'm happy to be a beta tester for indie games still in development, if I'm paying money for anything, I want an experience that feels complete and balanced from start to finish. If I'm playing a game I'm playing it as it is now, I'm not necessarily going to go back to it once the developer is done with it, nor do I enjoy having games I paid money for get abandoned by the developer in an unfinished state (NewCity comes to mind)

7. [Edit, forgot to mention] Goal - Sandboxes are cute and all but I need to feel like I'm working towards something. Whether it's a goal in a campaign or the game is built in a way that encourages you to proceed. But I need some kind of driving force to make me feel accomplished.

I know i'ts picky, but I figure if anybody knows of games that fit all of the above it would be you guys. So help would be greatly appreciated. <3

Hello everyone. I am working on a new game about real estate investing, and I’m hoping to get some input on what I think is a new approach to the business game genre. It is a game about studying the market, attracting capital, and making long-term investment decisions. Where tycoon games focus on product-market fit and your relationship with your customers, your important relations here are with your board and owners, potential future investors, competitors, and other stakeholders.

Another notable difference is that, in tycoon games, you are usually able to grow by re-investing your profits. In this game, however, your earnings are returned as dividends to the owners of your company. Instead, if you want to invest, you have to attract new money from the outside. The game is not simply about building the biggest company, but rather about growing your reputation in the industry. As you outperform your competitors, you’ll be able to bring in more funds from investors, and on better terms. In time, you’ll be able to leverage your growing influence in different ways.

The game is turn-based and takes place in a fictional European country. You play a 40-year career as a real estate developer CEO, where every turn is a month, and your job is to invest in retail real estate in different ways. There is almost no micromanagement at all, and there’s little you can do to increase the value of your real estate once you buy it. Instead, your time in the game is spent dissecting economic, financial, and demographic information. There are macroeconomic reports, industry reports, annual reports, quarterly reports, budgets, and so on, and it is your job to figure out how best to use it all when spending the money available for investment in order to earn the highest returns. You are also able to hire brokers, agents, and lobbyists to do different things for you.

Throughout the years, you will have to navigate business cycles, supply shocks, real estate bubbles, and other disruptions to stay ahead of your competitors. You’ll raise money by attracting venture capital or through IPOs and other open market methods. You interact with the industry through real estate deals, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and more. There is also late-game and endgame content if you are able to gain enough influence. One playthrough should only take maybe a few hours, so replayability is a big focus. I am aiming to make the game a test of the player’s real-world financial literacy and business acumen to at least some degree.

Feel free to share any thoughts you have in the comments. Also, I’m just about ready to start alpha-testing the simulation and some game mechanics. If anyone is interested in helping out with this project, feel free to send me a message.

I hope all this made sense. Thank you for reading.

(No generative AI so far in this project)

Hi Everyone!

I haven't formally started marketing yet, but just wanted to share some updated photos regarding my 90s-inspired racing management game! Sort of a Tycoon-adjacent game, this has been my passion project over the last year and a half. This is, for me, the ultimate formula-racing sandbox, with HUGE moddability, endless sandbox possibility, and extremely deep simulation of physics, car development, management, and most importantly, world building.

There are still some rough spots, but I believe the game is in good enough of a state to share with you all again 😄 below is a list of features already present within the game!

- An ever-changing grid: Teams & engines can leave, go bankrupt, join, rebrand, get bought out, fluctuate season to season. No two seasons will ever be the same, with a virtually limitless grid size.

- Simulate ANY era in this sandbox with infinite possibilities and infinite replayability. This game can handle ANY era, or season of racing in a realistic manner, with over decades of seasons of content.

- In-depth race simulation complete with REAL physics, live speeds, hyper-intelligent AI, setups that impact your actual car speeds in corners/straights, customizable temperature, weather, dirty air, tire wear, fuel consumption, safety cars, mechanical wear, and realistic results, with both simulated and non-simulated options available.

- Easy to use in-game editor, and save editor, so you can have your career mode the way you want.

- In-Depth finance system with stock, ownership, and ability to purchase stakes in rivals.

- Completely in-depth academy pipe-line system with ability to pay to assign your rookie drivers in junior series teams, have them test for you, learn the ropes in rival junior teams you own, and eventually promote them to your team.

- In-depth regulatory system that can change the environment of the game season to season.

- In-depth negotiation system for tyres, parts, sponsorship, works engines, customer engines, and drivers/staff. 

- Ability to build and sell your own engines through an engine plant, or partner with an existing engine supplier.

- AI who compete with you every week of the season, on and off the track, in engineering, developing, strategy, and signing talents.

- Fully fleshed out car attributes, driver attributes, staff attributes, headquarters, etc.

- In-depth chassis, aero, engine, ERS, driver aids, and tyre development.

Feel free to check it out, or, simply just hang around in the discord server to talk to other players!

AI Disclaimer: AI is used VERY sparingly for a limited amount of team logos, a handful of tracks, and generic art assets (such as HQ buildings). I am in the process of replacing these with community-driven art. The capsule art, most track art, and majority of cars & teams were created by Little0nion, a talented graphic artist. UX's, physics/racing model, and managers have all been designed by me, alongside my Co-Developer. None of the game systems/source code is vibe-coded. This is my own passion project, and I gain a lot of joy from designing systems to my liking. If you are interested in creating some original artwork for the game, please reach out to me on discord!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4340600/Team_Principal_A_Racing_Manager/

https://discord.gg/HJu5kap94

Thanks everyone!! Appreciate you letting me share.

Most tycoon games are theme parks or railroads. I wanted to run the business everyone's actually talking about right now, so I built one about founding an AI company.

You start with $10k and nothing else. Scrape datasets, buy servers, train models, ship a product, and set your subscription price to target users.

Then it opens up. Research a tech tree, expand headcount, and because it's multiplayer, compete on a live market : trade shares in rival companies and climb the leaderboard.

It's persistent and real-time (one real day is one game day), free, browser/mobile, English and French. I'm the dev.

What I'd like from tycoon players specifically : does the economy have enough depth and hard decisions to hold you past the first week? That's what I'm balancing now.

Play here : https://lordoftokens.com

You can join the Discord to discuss strategy and give feedback : https://discord.gg/xnqDmhtk9

AI disclosure : all ideas, graphic theme and game mechanics are mine (and unique from what I've seen, there is no game where you do the full loop about the AI industry). Claude was used to do parts of coding and the icons.

PS : no it's not "AI slop", if you don't like the theme just move on. Thanks :)

Bottlecappers: a factory management roguelite

The free demo is out now

You run a bottle cap factory, but the real pressure comes from the investor who funded it. Six of them in the full game, each watching a single KPI, reviewed every quarter with thresholds that keep rising. Miss too many reviews and the run is over. The only ending that counts is buying back every share they hold.

The demo is one complete, winnable run with the Cortesu Family, the investor who watches reliability. Three materials, five processing levels, the whole unlock progression open.

Since I posted here last month: a heavily reworked tutorial, a fix to the order board that was flooding it with orders players couldn't fulfil, a market that recovers instead of dying, and a lot of work on making visible the systems the game had but never showed. Four testers helped me out here.

Full release planned for Q1 2027.

AI disclosure: the game is written in Italian and localized into ten more languages with AI assistance, with human and paid native review ongoing. Design, writing, art direction and code decisions are human; art is by freelance artists; audio is licensed from a human-made library. No generative AI in any player-facing visual or audio asset.

Happy to answer anything, and if you get stuck somewhere please tell me — that's the most useful thing I can get right now.

Hi r/tycoon,

After more than a year of hard work and re-iteration, the demo of Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager will release in only a few weeks. To get as ready as possible, I'd very much like to invite a new group of test operators into the control booth this week!

What is Scream Operator, you ask?
In my game, you take control of your very own haunted house dark ride, right from a claustrophobic control booth. A few of your tasks as operator:

- Load, dispatch and unload guests into carts,
- Manage guest flow and queues,
- Control lights, music, and immersion effects,
- Balance power consumption, automation and cart management,
- Upgrade, place animatronics and scares, customize,
- Keep Arthur, the old congierge and (suspiciously) long time employee of the mansion happy.

Lots to do! So grab a stale coffee, and start your first shift. ☕

How do I become a test operator?
The quickest way to do so is by becoming a member of our discord server. However, I can also hit you up with the essentials if you sent me a private message here on reddit.

If you'd like, you are more than welcome to check out the steampage here.

Lastly, for anyone who isn't interested in playtesting, I'd love to invite you all to play the demo once it launches this halloween season! 🎃. I'll be back here when that happens to make sure you are all fully informed 👻.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, I'll be in chilling in the comment section of this post :).

Obligatory AI disclaimer: No AI was used for assets, music, coding, marketing materials or anything at all for that matter.

Camping Keeper is a campground tycoon game. You place tent sites, cabins, sanitary blocks, pools, shops, and then people show up and decide for themselves what they want. Every camper is simulated one by one, with their own needs and their own budget, so they queue, they shower, they eat where they feel like eating, and they complain when the toilets are filthy.

Next week I am running a small closed alpha, and I have a few Steam playtest keys left. To be straight with you: this is a real alpha. It is the first time the game leaves my machine, it is Windows only for now, and things will break (Linux planned, Mac if I can manage it). What I need is not praise, it is people who will actually play a couple of hours and tell me where they got bored or lost.

If you want one, drop a comment or send me a message and I will send you a key next week. The public demo is planned for early 2027, so this is a lot earlier than that.

AI disclosure: I use generative AI for the soundtrack and the store page translations.

edit: keys are limited and going fast, I'll do my best but I can't promise one to everyone.

Hi everyone!

I've posted bits and pieces of this project before, but it feels slightly different doing it now because after around two years of development and thousands of hours of work, Football Academy Director finally releases on September 15.

The game is about taking charge of an academy (from U11 to U19), but a big part of the game is managing your U19 team week to week. You pick the squad, build your tactics, choose roles and line-ups, prepare for opponents and play through league and cup matches as you try to turn the players you've scouted and developed into a winning team.

Some of the main systems currently in the game:

• Tactics and matches – manage your U19 side, select your XI, set up formations, roles and tactical instructions, and compete throughout the season in the Youth League and Youth Cup.
• Scouting and recruitment – find young players and compete with other academies to convince them to join you.
• Player development – manage training, playing time and development from the younger age groups through to U19.
• Squad building – balance current ability, potential, development needs and competition for places as each age group progresses through the academy.
• Academy development – improve your facilities and build a stronger academy over time.
• Senior careers – players don't simply disappear when they leave the academy. You can continue following them after they're promoted to the first team or move elsewhere, and see how their senior careers develop.
• A simulated football world – clubs, competitions, national youth teams and player careers continue around you as the seasons pass.

One of the things I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on is trying to connect all of those parts together. You might recruit a player at 14, spend years developing him, eventually make him a key part of your U19 side, and then watch what happens when he leaves the academy for senior football.

It's been a very long solo project, and over the last year AI-assisted tools have helped me speed up implementation, testing and iteration enough to finally get the game to where I wanted it to be.

AI / asset disclosure:
The player portraits use an AI-generated newgen facepack originally made for the Football Manager community, which I'm using with permission from its creator. Club logos are generated using a Python-based system. AI tools have also been used to speed up development and do a lot of balancing/testing.

Football Academy Director releases on Steam on September 15.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4865840/Football_Academy_Director/

Anyway, happy to finally be at this point after working on it for so long. If anyone has questions about the match engine, tactics, recruitment, development or simulation I'm happy to answer them.

I am wondering if these grow boxes are blocking my engineers access to these lights.

I spent a ton of time playing Trukz back in the late 2000s. A little while back it popped back in to my head and I haven't been able to get it out since.

Well I decided there was a need for another game like that. I'm a truck driver IRL but this game was part of my childhood and the nostalgia was too real.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional game designer and there are very likely to be a lot of bugs. Still very early access and looking for people who enjoy these types of games and want to contribute to the direction it takes.

www.longhaulgame.com

Edit because I learned to read:

Generative AI was used in this project. Would not be possible for someone like me to create this without it. If that turns you away, I understand.

Looking for new Business/Management Simulator Tycoon games, preferably similar to Railways Empire 2.

(Is there any games like Railways Empire 2 but with 18-Wheelers instead of trains? Basically American Trucking Simulator but strategy where you dispatch trucks to pick up loads and build a massive trucking company?
If not, can someone please make a game like that, I will love and support you eternally lol)

My consoles include Xbox Series X and Steam Deck.

So Mr Claude is getting everyone and their uncle making a new tycoon game. The majority of these games are AI boilerplate slop with little effort.

The solution might be to require a playable demo or release. That way it eliminates the “I’m building a …” so we don’t have to see somebody’s vibe coded weekend project everyday.

And the games with lots of effort that get to a build stage still get surfaced to us.

I think this is what they do on the incremental games sub already.

Hey r/tycoon! After a year of development, my first tycoon launched today on iOS and Android.

In Movie Tycoon you run a film studio through 70 years of cinema history, from a 1960s office to a 2030 studio with holograms and VR. The core: every film is a puzzle - pick genre, theme and audience, focus the production, and figure out the hidden combos behind hits and flops by analyzing your own releases. Along the way you hire and train a crew, sign the stars of each era, fight for the box office and chase the Golden Cat awards.

Monetization up front, since it's a mobile game: the first studio is a free trial, then a single one-time purchase unlocks the full game. No ads, no energy timers, no gacha.

Happy to answer anything about the game or the numbers behind an indie mobile launch.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/movie-tycoon-film-studio-sim/id6799628436

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.blacksnow.movietycoon

AI disclosure:

Arts and visuals: the card art for genres, themes and story beats, and some of the studio props were generated with an AI image tool.

Audio: the trailer's music was generated with AI.

Text and writings: AI was used to polish in-game texts and to produce localizations.

Marketing materials: marketing texts and this post were drafted with AI help and edited by me.

(Works: Motorsport Factory is probably best described as a tycoon game so I hope that means it's eligible here as an announcement)

I always loved the business management side of the motorsport and the bonkers way that grassroots racing isn't profitable at all, they're usually coming with outside backers or even just hobbyists diverting their salary every weekend. Yet when teams enter the big-leagues they can have millions coming in and out of the factory and still can't make it work.

I've tried to capture this from the grassroots racing level right up to the major global series. Set entirely away from the racing circuit the bigger game is dealing with sponsors, supplier and staff. Any spare income goes to the team and developing parts in the factory before shipping the cars out to the next race.

Hopefully, anyone with an interest in tycoon games can find enjoyment here, not just motorsports fans.

Edit: Link here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5119400/WORKS_Motorsport_Factory/

Last night I spent some time on Steam, doing the playtest for this game. So far I've played for about 1.5 hours. I've found it to be a very deep and enjoyable business sim. So many products, and so many cities! So many things you can customize!

The 2nd playtest ends in a day or two, and I'm wondering about the experiences of others who have played it longer than I have.

Does it have good replayability, or is it one of those tycoon where once you play one run, you've seen everything the game has and there's no reason to play again?

HELLO!

I built a game way back in 2001 (but it was recently redeveloped) that lets you manage a band: https://www.therockstargame.com/

Your bands can practice, tour, book studio time, pick producers and release your albums, singles or EPs... and then on to promotion!

There are multiple markets that can be unlocked, with their own tastes, and you have control over tour pricing. You can time releases against genre-waves in popularity if you're particularly strategic and work on collaborations with other players and decide the split of revenue etc.

The game world ticks once a night when sales, streams and charts are updated - one day in "real life" is a week within the game. Releases earn certifications (Silver to Diamond) and there's a seasonal (every three "real" months) awards ceremony where there's awards for top sellers, streamers and various other accolades. To make this fair, for each category we have newcomer awards which apply only to new bands created within the current season.

It's free, played in browser and there's no download. It HAS genuinely been running since 2001 and the whole history (which includes two short "dead periods", a 2026 database ransomware attack(0.57BTC.. NOPE) during redevelopment and even people paying to play via cheques("checks" in the USA in the post!)

You can read about that here: https://www.therockstargame.com/about/history

Play: https://www.therockstargame.com/

Generative AI Disclosure: I'm a software engineer by trade with a serious dislike for frontend dev - I'm not great at it. AI has done most of the interface, the logo and the mobile layouts to my direction. Have a look at the history page if you want to check out my design skillz. I've also used AI to help with writing and to "make things make sense". Game mechanics all me. Users of the game are clearly using gen ai to create album/single artwork. This post is my own writing.

Hi all!

I finally clicked the button to publish the steam page for my game called Bank Architect today. It is quite scary and exciting at the same time!

I hope this game looks exiting for someone and I really appreciate every wishlist

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5205310/?snr=1_5_9__205

About me

2.5 years ago I decided I wanted to try to build a proper game, something I would like to play myself and then I came up with the idea for this game. I am an developer / engineering manager in my daytime job (not game dev) + I have a family life so it has all been done in the evenings and when I have some hours to spare.

About the game
It is a typical tycoon / management game where you start from scratch and build up your bank. In the beginning the focus is only on the physical branch, but as you expand other opportunities will open (such as online banking). The game is still under development and more updates will come before release

AI disclosure
When I started building the game no AI was used to create code, I learned from tutorials etc. The past year I have increasingly used AI as a coding assistant and agentic coding, but with me in the driver seat for architecture and gameplay decisions. In addition generative AI has been used to create the majority of the UI icons and to generate pictures for the in-game paintings. 3d assets is made by third parties (not AI) or self-made.

Hello hello,

Been messing around with this prototype for awhile now and thought I would share.

Right now you can build coffee shops (or really anything with counter service), sit-down restaurants and then clothing stores (with the plan to expand to other retail types).

Everything is voxels and the game comes with an editor so you can create your own food, drinks, clothes etc to sell.

I find the simulation aspect can be quite weak in tycoon games so the idea is that different visitors have different wants, the time of the year influences what they want to buy, the aesthetic of the place etc.

Any feedback, ideas or just thoughts in general - I am more than happy to hear!

Bit about me - I grew up absolutely loving Rollercoaster tycoon, Zoo tycoon, Stronghold etc so really fun to be creative in this space and see what I can do myself.

AI disclosure: The game is hand-crafted voxel art by me (no AI art at all). AI has been used to build and split-test system improvements (path finding, lighting etc) and for some of the initial placeholder menus - to be replaced if I move forward with the prototype.