I know we're all well aware of the state of the gaming industry these days, particularly when it comes to half-baked launches, but I still think it's worth bringing up.

I've got around 1,800 hours across Planet Coaster 1, 2 and the original Planet Zoo. I've always been a massive fan of Frontier and their games, but after the disappointment of Planet Coaster 2, I was really hoping they'd learnt a few lessons.

Apparently fucking not.

I genuinely don't understand how some of the 'professional' reviews for Planet Zoo 2 have been so glowing. Are we playing the same game?

I couldn't stand it for more than an hour before punching out and requesting a refund. And that's coming from someone who's spent a ridiculous amount of time playing these games.

The controls and UI are probably my biggest gripe. Why do developers insist on changing things that already work? After hundreds of hours across the previous games, the controls were practically second nature. Now even basic tasks feel clunky and unintuitive. It feels like yet another case of the PC experience being compromised to accommodate consoles. It's an absolute dogs breakfast.

The animal selection is also pretty dissapointing. I understand they can't include every animal from the original and its DLC, but surely a sequel should feel like a step forward? Instead, we're back to a limited selection with the inevitable drip feed of DLC packs to come.

Then there's the general lack of polish. The game just feels janky. Reading through the user reviews, there's plenty of complaints about bugs, animal behaviour and frustrating mechanics. Yet somehow a lot of professional reviews seem to have glossed over these issues.

I'm also concerned with the direction Frontier are taking these games. They're supposed to be tycoon and management games, yet it feels like the focus is increasingly on elaborate building tools and pretty visuals rather than actual management depth. Don't get me wrong, the building tools in PC2 are impressive, but I want to actually manage something, not just spend 40 hours building a fancy enclosure while the finances practically look after themselves.

What really gets me is that Planet Coaster 2 should have been a wake-up call. That launch was pretty ordinary as well, and nearly two years later we're seeing the same complaints again. How do you manage to learn so little from your own mistakes?

I know the usual response will be 'just wait for the patches', and I'm sure in 12 months it'll be a considerably better game. But why has that become acceptable? We're paying full price on release, not signing up to be unpaid beta testers while they sort their shit out.

And I genuinely feel for the developers who've clearly put an enormous amount of work into the models, animations and environments. There's some fantastic work in there, which makes it even more frustrating that the overall experience feels so poorly thought out.

I'm not suggesting Frontier are the only ones guilty of this. The entire industry seems to be heading down this path, and frankly I'm getting pretty bloody tired of buying a first class ticket to do their bug testing.

It's particularly disappointing with tycoon games because there aren't exactly heaps of developers making them at this scale. Frontier should be absolutely smashing this genre with the experience and resources they've got.

Instead, I've gone from being excited about their next release to wondering whether it's even worth touching until a year after launch.

Maybe I'm being overly critical, but after 1,800 hours across their previous titles, I'd like to think I've got a reasonable idea of what makes these games enjoyable.

Anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone else find the gap between professional reviews and player experiences a bit odd, or have I just become a miserable old bastard?

Our little abandoned village is opening its doors, and we can't wait for you to roll up your sleeves and bring it back to life with your papercraft skills.

Your reviews, feedback, and suggestions will mean the world to us and help us keep improving and expanding the game. This is just the beginning!

Plus, the game will be available at a reduced price throughout Early Access, and to celebrate the launch, you can get it with a 20% launch discount!

So, what are you waiting for? Ready to rebuild the village, one papercraft creation at a time?

Play now on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3907910/Cutout_Village/

No AI was used in the making of this game.

I hope you enjoy the newly updated Demo!
Demo Link - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493130/SkiEO_Ski_Resort_Tycoon/
Thank you all so much! Ski-E-O! Ski Resort Tycoon releases November 12 in Early Access!

AI Disclosure:
Claude Code is used as a coding tool. I write the technical design and overview, Claude implements the underlying code.
GenAI was used for early concept art.
During prototypes, GenAI was used to write the initial UI string pass. Strings were rewritten by humans afterwards.

Hi r/tycoon! Solo dev from Korea here. English is not my first language (I wrote this in Korean and got help translating), so sorry if it's a bit awkward.

This is my second game, AIR EMPIRE: 1950 Airline Tycoon, inspired by Aerobiz Supersonic. The demo is in Steam Next Fest right now.

I love watching numbers grow. But I also wanted the feeling of "we fly to this city now." So I'm trying to make those moments feel like something:

• Opening a route is a small event. Your plane takes off and flies the line.
• Rivals have faces. When one moves into your home city, it's front page news.
• You're the CEO. Your planner and secretary disagree, and you decide.

The numbers underneath are serious (real city populations, fuel prices, inflation from 1950). But making a number feel like something is the hard part, and I'm still learning.

Demo (New York, London, Tokyo / 1950 to 1960): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4958590/

Was there a moment you felt "this is my airline"? I'd love to know.

AI disclosure: Pixel art made with PixelLab and ChatGPT, then edited by me. Sound and music by ElevenLabs. Translations are AI.

I'm one of the members of the small team of 5 behind [Monster Park Tycoon](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4556830/Monster_Park_Tycoon/). We would love to have you try out our demo, and hopefully get some of your valuable feedback to make it EVEN BETTER!

AI Disclosure: this game is totally AI free as we as developers only enjoy human made content! (thanks to u/pademago for letting me know that the disclosure in the title wasn't enough!)

Shelf-Made Tycoon is a cozy tycoon game about growing a tiny warehouse into a logistics empire. You start with one small building and not much money and every good deal you land turns into more space more clients and bigger ones, until trucks and trains and ships are all bringing work to your door. When money gets tight a local crime syndicate starts calling with big cash for a few unmarked crates *cough cough* but any one of their vans could be driven by an undercover cop and getting caught means losing everything. Even when it all runs smoothly it is oddly relaxing to just zoom in and watch it work.

It's on Steam as Coming Soon if you want to wishlist it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4325520/ShelfMade_Tycoon/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=coming_soon&utm_content=tycoon

AI disclosure (the same as on the Steam page): Shelf-Made Tycoon was created under our own creative direction: the ideas and vision behind it are ours, and AI was one of the production tools we used to build it. The game's code, text, 3D models and icons were created using AI tools, with every model built in Blender from concept sheets we briefed and approved. Its sound effects, ambient sound and translations into 13 languages were generated with AI, as were parts of our store page and marketing materials, including the trailer's music. Nothing in the game is generated by AI while you play.

Hey everyone!

I'm a solo indie developer working on The Borderless, a cozy floating island tycoon game where you build and expand your island, welcome visitors, manage your economy, and turn a small floating platform into a thriving ocean destination.

After receiving a lot of helpful feedback on my demo, I spent months reworking the game, improving the building mechanics, management systems, UI, and overall visuals.

Here's the new trailer showing how the game looks now!

I'd love to hear what fellow tycoon fans think, especially about the building and management aspects!

The Borderless is available to wishlist on Steam, and there's a free demo if you'd like to try it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3687370/

AI disclosure: Some opening cutscene images and some background music tracks were created with the assistance of generative AI during development. No live AI generation is used during gameplay.

Hi there 👋
It’s been a long time since I haven’t posted there, but I’m very happy to announce that I released the demo for Skingdom, the ski resort tycoon game I’ve been working on solo for almost 3 years! 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3839750

The game is inspired by Ski Park Manager and Planet Coaster and is focused around construction, management and the unique atmosphere of the mountain.

In Skingdom you build your ski resort by placing lifts (pillar after pillar), drawing slopes and constructing various buildings to satisfy the needs of your guests. I see the game as a middle ground between chill sandbox and light simulation. I want to give players a creative place to build their ski resort with believable lifts and slopes, with management mechanics that give some challenge, while being accessible and engaging (so … light management? does that make sense?).

The game features a unique adaptive soundtrack (composed by WYS, an awesome lo-fi composer and friend of mine) that changes based on time of day, weather and player’s actions (there are active and passive tracks based on how much players build in the game). 

The demo only features the sandbox mode (which is only building without any management constraints), career mode with money, research, loans and communication campaigns will be in the full game though. Staff hiring for mechanics and ski patrol is in the demo, and the full game will also feature slope groomers!

Game’s release is still planned for the end of the year in early access 🏂

Thanks for reading this post, hope you’ll enjoy the demo if this is the kind of game you’d be interested in. Love from France, take care all 💜

AI disclosure : No AI was used in any part of the game creation (I’m strongly against any use of generative AI in fact, there’s even a disclaimer at the game startup 😬). I’m the author of all the game code and game design, the original soundtrack was composed by WYS. I purchased a majority of the sound assets used and the remaining ones have been recorded by yours truly in a real ski resort (they are not the best sounds in the world, but they were recorded with love and passion at least). All textures and 3D models are a mix of purchased, contracted work and custom modeling, same for UI and any other material in the game.

I’m trying to boil down economic strategy to its core and leave only this cool feeling of expansion.
The goal is to colonize a million worlds, there you will get a narrative ending depending on the upgrades you took and how you reacted to narrative events. But there are actually 4 million star systems, so if your civilization survives, you can have an economy with 4 million simulated worlds. Very proud of this optimization work, actually. 
I just released a Steam page, so… wishlist now, I guess. =)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5397130/Next_Million_Worlds

AI disclosure: AI will be used for making localization to different languages if I can't find free translators somehow

Hey. Hope you don't mind me posting here, but thought this would be a good place to find some Transport Tycoon fans. It was one of my favourite games growing up, and I've built a game inspired by it that runs right here in reddit. It's currently in closed alpha, and I'm looking for people to playtest it. I think currently the core issue is it needs balancing, but that's hard to test with bots.

If you're interested please request to join the dev subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/iron_commons_dev/

* Generative AI Disclosure

I'm an experienced game dev who has been working in games long before chatgpt came along. I did however get claude to write some scripts for generating the isometric art as svgs to help me along. I had to adjust the output / recreate in Affinity to get it right, so its a mix of hand made and generated I suppose (also chatgpt for the logo, again edited in GIMP, and for the record I hate it, it's ugly...).

But they are placeholders, I plan on paying an artist to replace them in time. Claude also helped with the HTML/CSS parts of the UI as my web dev skills are not strong. But programming is my thing really, I just used it to fill in the gaps, so don't judge too harshly :)

I feel like the type of person to like Tycoon games are ones that enjoy running businesses in real life + money. How many people actually ended up becoming business owners? Do you feel like Tycoon games influenced this desire?

I posted already today lol sorry for the spam but genuinely curious. Going first myself - I wouldn't say I'm a "successful" business owner but I am in real estate and olive oil.

There are those quiet moments when I check on my team, usually on my way to the office or even during a more private moment, thinking I'll just make one or two decisions.

But somehow I always end up wanting to sit at my PC and spend more time with it. I guess I get a little too attached to my teams.

As a developer working on a management game myself, I'm still torn between the two. Not sure which experience I should focus on more.

Hi tycoon community!

It's been a while since our last post, and we're back with some news! Many Redditors across different communities have been asking for Sandbox Mode in our city-building and economic strategy game, Age After Age. So we've added it to our demo! Feel free to try it out and share your feedback.

We've also updated the UI in preparation for upcoming controller support.

Right now, you can play a short Story Mode, Challenges (including Steampunk steam pressure management), and Sandbox Mode:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/438570/Age_After_Age_Demo/

And there's more! We've released a new gameplay video and would love to hear your thoughts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLfBWqYj_xE

Disclaimer: No AI was used in the making of this game. All art, code and assets are fully human made, same as localization of pages(game is still in process).

Thanks!
Farom Studio Team

This is completely subjective - it doesn't have to be in absolute terms. For example when I was 13 or 14, I thought Railroad Tycoon 2 was pretty difficult.

Hey everyone, Alex here, undiagnosed autistic train lover / tycoon / city builder and amateur developer

I started making Subway Tycoon back in July. Its heavily inspired by Mini Metro/ City Skyline and Transport Fever. What I originally had envisioned as a mobile game quickly became a browser game.

The gist of it is to start a Subway Company and start and manage a company in real world cities and by recreating real world routes and manage increasing passenger demand. Some features include:

• 3D trains
• 2.5D Buildings and Maps
• Career level from 1-10 with each level bringing new features
• 3 different train types to pick from
• over 50 different contracts to complete
• Atlanta / Copenhagen / Amsterdam / Caracas - Toronto and London all playable.
• Online leaderboard to compete with friends
• Demand and Disruption random events

Its definitely a work in progress and I would really appreciate any and all feedback. My hope is to continue working on it and release a full version which will have more features and more maps with more play time!

Please leave any feedback here or on itch and if youd like to checkout the website its:

Subwaytycoon.com

V1.3: Major Update - Removal of AI / Addition of 3D models and more.
AI Disclosure:

AI-generated artwork, visual assets, 3D models, and written content have been removed or replaced with independently sourced, licensed, or developer-directed alternatives. Game design, gameplay systems, balancing, progression, maps, user experience, creative direction, testing, and final implementation decisions were made and reviewed by the developer.

AI has been used throughout development to assist with programming, debugging, technical implementation.

AI Audio - Currently is in the game but I am working on removing it as we speak!

I'm looking for games where you are managing something, be it an empire or a zoo. I remember playing a zoo tycoon game when I was younger that I liked. I'm a big fan of eu4 and those paradox games but really looking for something where you manage some sort of business or empire. Always though a criminal empire game would be cool if you know of any like that.

I hate when games play themselves.

In a lot of sims you somehow know exactly what your competitors are doing. What everyone thinks of you. Even what will happen before you make a decision.

So how much should a sim tell you before it stops being fun to figure things out yourself? Any sims that got this really right or really wrong?

Longer version below if you're curious.

I want to experiment and figure things out. Sometimes make terrible decisions because I didn't know enough. Something a bit closer to how business actually works.

Don't get me wrong. I love numbers. But in real life I mostly have my own. Sales, conversions and that kind of thing. I dont have stats on what competitors are planning or what clients really think of me. I have to figure it out by talking to people.

So I'm building Red Creek. A Western business sim/RPG.

It's a hobby project next to my day job. I have a master's in economics and spent 13 years as a startup CEO and advisor. Before that I worked with government data modelling. So I've probably gone a bit overboard on the economy 😅

The model is built around 180+ townspeople. Each has their own money, job, business, family, assets, motivations and relationships. They make decisions on their own and stuff happens whether you're involved or not. You can influence how things turn out though. Right now there are 23 in the game for testing. Build housing and create jobs and more people move in.

But you don't get to see the model.

You only know what you see or hear and what you manage to figure out.

Say a merchant is desperate for cash. If you find out you might be able to help him or negotiate a better deal. Or take advantage of it. If you never find out those options don't show up.

The journal keeps track of what you've learned and the ledger keeps track of your money. I don't expect people to remember every conversation. But you won't get popups or relationship scores explaining what's going on.

You can build businesses, trade, speculate, invest, work for people, become a criminal, or live in the desert with only your pet turtle for company. Personally I play toward money and influence until I can shape how the town grows. But that's just me.

There aren't really any rails. Unless you build a railroad.

I keep going back and forth on how much to tell players. I want mistakes to happen because you don't have all the information. But I don't want people spending hours wondering what the hell just happened.

So yeah. Where would you draw the line?

AI disclosure: I am new to game development, Blender and Unity so I use AI to help with coding, generating and refining some game graphics and polishing dialogue for those characters who need better English articulation than I can provide of course I am reviewing everything (most of the fun in building it is when everything clicks, dont want to miss those moments). I use it to improve my English, including this post, since it is not my first language. The economic model, game design and ideas are my own.

I'm currently developing an early-stage mining/quarry management game and wanted to gauge interest in the concept.

Think somewhere between Out of Ore and Captain of Industry, but with a stronger emphasis on actual excavation, earthmoving and running a mining company.

The main ideas are:

• Deformable terrain: Dig quarries, excavate benches, create haul roads and physically reshape the landscape.
• Autonomous machinery: Rather than manually driving everything, assign excavators and haul trucks to jobs and manage their operations.
• Business progression: Start with a small operation, take contracts, buy equipment and eventually expand into multiple sites.
• Logistics and processing: Manage stockpiles, material transport, crushing and washing plants.
• Realistic challenges: Ground conditions, weather, drainage, vehicle maintenance and operational costs, with adjustable difficulty.

The game is already in early technical development, with a working excavation and autonomous hauling prototype. It's nowhere near a finished game yet.

I'm curious about three things:

1. Would you actually play something like this?
2. Would the lack of manual vehicle driving be a dealbreaker?
3. What's one feature you'd love to see in a game like this?

I'm not advertising or selling anything. Just looking for honest feedback from people who enjoy these sorts of games.

Hello fellow tycoons,

I need some fresh games to play in the genre. Assume I have played the classics but I haven't played anything in the last five years or so. (I have actually played Big Ambitions and Software Inc., which I greatly enjoyed)

I am looking for games where you have the usual tycoon game loop, complex production chains and more, but with a specific twist: you are some sort of inventor. So you have an avatar and you design stuff that get built.

They may be tanks or dresses, like in Dressmaker, whatever really.

To answer your burning questions about Star Trek: Outposts Unknown, we are running an AMA with Magic Fuel Games' Kip Katsarelis (General Manager) and Zach Zampetti (Lead Designer).

We will be answering your questions for one hour on October 15th at 18:30 BST/13:30 ET/10:30 PT/17:30 UTC

Lead your crew across strange new worlds in this narrative driven outpost builder! Research, explore, and build as you face a mysterious cosmic force that threatens a new ally. Your adventure awaits, Captain!

Star Trek: Outposts Unknown releases on October 20th!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3469910/Star_Trek_Outposts_Unknown/

No AI was used in the making of this game.

Hi team,

I'm back after working on the tutorial based on some of your feedback store page! YouTube trailer

Since I was last here I've been getting outside feedback on Manifest and it kept coming back to the same complaint. One tester said they felt "assaulted by information". Another put it as "I just want to play." I think they were both right. A new company opened with every page lit up, and the guidance was a checklist you had to sit and read.

So the first hour is a played tutorial now, and it's most of what I've worked on since.

Some context if you haven't seen it: Manifest is a freight dispatcher in one solar system. You take cargo with a deadline, pick a ship and plan the flight yourself on fusion torchships, while the orbits keep moving under you. Ships wear out and captains get tired.

Tutorial is a switch on the New Company screen. With it on, the pages start locked and light up one at a time as the game first needs them. Finance opens when your first payment lands. The shipyard opens once your ship is earning again, so buying a second one doesn't leave the first sitting idle. Nothing new lights while your only ship is waiting at a berth, since a captain left idle too long will quit.

Each step in the tutorial Is press by press, the pop up card explains what to do, and the control to click is highlighted in magenta. The tutorial get you flying from one ship to three. You fly a first job, tow in a derelict you find on the way and crew it, service a worn hull, buy a third ship after you have made some money, and fit an upgrade for good measure.

There's a ? key now as well. Press it and then any control in the game for a short note on what that control is and what it reads.

AI Disclosure

Code. Most of the implementation is written by AI coding tools, working from my design and under my review.

- Arts and visuals. Inside the game, none. The UI is drawn by code, there's no image art, and the logo is text-art. The store capsule and header art on Steam and itch is AI-generated.

- Audio. No generated audio that I know of. Sound effects are a licensed Bluezone "Cargo Spaceship" pack plus a few Kenney CC0 clips. The seven ambient music tracks are licensed from Pixabay. None carries Pixabay's AI-generated label, and that's as far as I can attest to how they were made.

- Text and writings. There's no story or dialogue in the game. The in-game UI labels, notification lines and the guide steps were written alongside the code by the same AI coding tools, then reviewed and edited by me. I'm listing them here even though they could arguably sit under the code exemption.

- Marketing. My devlogs, the store description and this post were drafted with AI help and edited by me. The trailer is raw gameplay capture. Screenshots are straight from the game.

- Live-generated content. None. No model runs inside the game and nothing is generated at runtime.

I absolutely loved zoo tycoon as a kid and still play it now on my old PC (in which is too old to run decent games). I am getting a new gaming PC this year and would love similar games or recommendations for management/tycoon games as someone that has not much experience.

I did play sim city and roller coaster tycoon when I was younger too. I know planet zoo and planet coaster had mixed reviews when they released (maybe that changed with updates). City skylines is on my wish list.

I’m good with any games set in a zoo, park, city, hospitality etc. I don’t want anything too intense or with a steep learning curve (aside from city skylines).