Good Business Simulator games

[Spunt]

Sorry to tangent, but would I like A-train if I care less about the business aspects, but I really like Transport Tycoon and want something that requires more complex trainyards and signaling?


Or, actually this might solve that. I loved what TF1tried, but the flaws really killed it.

I was a total OpenTTD addict until I got TF2, now I barely play it. It doesn't quite have the complexity of OpenTTD's signalling system (all signals are path signals) but if you want to build autistic railways with colourful trains, then it's the game for you for sure, especially if you turn on sandbox mode and ignore the economy. It's RAM hungry though, you'll need 16Gb at least to keep a good framerate on bigger maps.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Sid Meier's Railroads

Sid Meier's Railroads is a fine game. But I always found myself wanting more from it. I can't put my finger on it. Two steps forward and one step back.

 

[Balr0g]

Port Royal 2 was quite good. Playing in the 17th century Caribean sea plying your trade as a merchant or even go pirate. Transport Fever and Transport Fever 2 are also worth a look

 

[MrJokerRager]

There was Grand Theft Auto 5 where you could invest in stocks and real estate and stuff.

There was career mode in FIFA where you buy players and upgrade the stadiums and decide ticket prices.

There is the steam marketplace where you buy and sell online tokens of shit.

There is Metal Gear Solid V where you like collect points to upgrade your infrastructure to protect your nukes.

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

If you liked Rollercoaster Tycoon have you tried Parkitect? It's basically a clone of RCT 1/2 except it adds in the necessity to plan the more functional aspects of the park. You have to construct a second network of paths and utilities hidden from the guests to do things like move food and supplies around and allow your staff to get around without being seen and breaking guests immersion. It's pretty damn awesome tbh.

 

[Truman the Jewman]

Dopewars is obviously the finest simulator ever made. And still runs on Windows 10 natively, hilariously enough. You've never lived until you've invested all your LSD money into kilo after kilo of sweet cocaine.

 

[2021Murder]

best info i've gotten. didn't know the argetinia trick.

If there was a simulation game about various parts of the modern world economy, like central banking, the derivatives market, commodities, futures, and supply chains, would you play it?

honestly i would love a more small scale thing, like a fast food franchise rouglike simulator. its perfect for a game, you can't really decide on the food, just who your employees are and where and when you put them. basically FTL in McDonalds.

but something like you're proposing sounds good too.

 

[Screw Danlon]

best info i've gotten. didn't know the argetinia trick.


honestly i would love a more small scale thing, like a fast food franchise rouglike simulator. its perfect for a game, you can't really decide on the food, just who your employees are and where and when you put them. basically FTL in McDonalds.

but something like you're proposing sounds good too.

Maybe Another Brick in the Mall?

It’s got some issues but it’s definitely trying for a more down close approach

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Rimworld can become one. There are mods that let you run a hotel, too.

 

[Shroom King]

In Grand Theft Auto Vice City you can complete side missions where you build businesses that give you protection money/a cut of their illicit enterprises if you visit them.

Once they are all open, just drive around Vice City and by the time you hit all the businesses 24 minutes will have passed and a new day begins to repeat the cycle.

I made a fuckton of money in that game just driving around stoned in a giant loop.

 

[heyitsmike]

I used to play the lemonade stand game on my TI-83+ instead of paying attention in class.

On that note, I bought that calculator for like $90 in 2003 and those fuckers still cost $90 today. So if you want to see a good business model look no further than Texas Instruments.

 

[Truman the Jewman]

So if you want to see a good business model look no further than Texas Instruments.

Texas Instruments inserted itself into the educational systems in order to ensure it maintained a monopoly on graphing calculators, in turn ensuring that it is allowed to dictate the price at which they sell... and this has been going on for almost 30 years. I've got no problem with a gentleman's competition, but TI are uncompetitive, manipulative scumbags that were never able to branch out any further into the computing market with any success.

 

[theshep]

I really liked Zoo Tycoon and its sequel as a kid. Still do. And I really want to play Planet Zoo.

I bought Planet Zoo a few weeks back and I like it.

However, it's not without its faults. It has a really fucked up pathing system, which is apparently the same as in Planet Coaster. Apparently it has something to do with their game engine. It took me about a fortnight to get the hang of it.

Also, when you build staff areas too close to where park visitors walk it gives a negative rating. In Parkitecht, if you build staff only areas you can disguise them with panelling or plants and it reduces that negative impact. It doesn't happen in Planet Zoo. So you have to give a wide radius to these back of house areas.

There is also an option to run a zoo franchise. Within that game option, you can buy and sell animals that you breed online. The interface is really clunky and slow to react. If you want to sell animals you can't do it in bulk and making individual sales can take multiple attempts to go through. Same thing with buying animals. By the time the server reacts, the animal has often already been sold, which can be frustrating, but it's a good game overall.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Transport Tycoon, A-Train, Sid's Railroads have all been mentioned but everyone always forgets about Chris Sawyer's Locomotion. After Transport Tycoon he made Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2, after that he made Locomotion, his final game and it should be instantly recognizable:


Yeah it's Transport Tycoon. It got lackluster reviews in 2004, has a "Very Positive" rating on steam, costs €5.99 but should probably be bought on GOG because you might want to run it in a virtual machine.

How is it better than TTD? I don't know. Is it better? I don't know, the game wasn't exactly the same as TTD so I stopped playing. Highly recommended?

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Eve Online. You can transport shipping contracts from system to system. You can buy cheap goods from one system and transport them to another where they sell for much more. You can sit in Jita and simply buy low sell high for hours on end while watching Netflix on your other screen.

If you want to go turbo autist you can get multiple accounts and serve as logistics manager for a small corporation or alliance, or stock certain high traffic markets.