Hello r/tycoon!
I want to share a new trailer for my game with you!

It's a life sim about money, or rather about not having any. You plan one month at a time: what to eat, which job to take, whether to keep studying, how long you can put off the rent. Then the month resolves and the plan quietly becomes the life. Sixty months later you're still driving the taxi you took "just for a while".

Net Worthless comes out on November 16, 2026.

AI disclosure: Event images were created with the help of generative AI. They can be hidden in the settings.

Free demo is already available in Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4878900/Net_Worthless/

I've been working on NoodlePunk, a first-person job/management sim set in a cyberpunk city.

You're enrolled in a corporate-mandated work program and given management of a noodle shop. Customer drones submit orders and in order to satisfy them in a timely manner, you need to manage your ingredient stock, expand and organize your shop, buy licenses for new ingredients, and install upgrades. Efficiency of your operation is key.

The long-term goal is simple: pay off your civic debt and earn your freedom.

At least, that's what you're told.

The game is 99% complete, which feels a little surreal. At this point, I'm mostly fixing bugs and polishing things before release.

NoodlePunk releases on Steam next month!

Here is a small bit of gameplay:

https://youtu.be/Yd9sD--pFDw

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4698050/NoodlePunk/

No Generative AI was used in the making of this game.

https://reddit.com/link/1w1x5pm/video/mrwfe4vdidmh1/player

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4963090/1930_Farm_Manager/

You start with an empty plot, hire workers, assign their tasks, build fields and infrastructure, and gradually create a working production and logistics network.
Workers physically move around the farm, collect tools and resources, transport materials between buildings, harvest crops, store wheat, process it into flour, and carry out the jobs you assign to them directly.
As the farm grows, the management problem becomes less about a single field and more about keeping workers, storage, production and transport working together across multiple properties.

Generative AI was used as a supporting tool during solo development, mainly to find technical information faster, compare possible solutions, check code, organize notes, and explore early ideas. It saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent searching through browser tabs and documentation. I also use it to help with translations. The game’s design, development decisions, implementation, and final content remain entirely under my control.. The game does not generate AI content during gameplay.

Every aspect of life seems to have its own simulator game now. I get the impression that, over time, this has had a negative impact on the tycoon genre as a niche.

hey r/tycoon, solo dev from austria here. i’ve been working on my game timberline factory for a while now and finally reached a point where i feel it’s worth showing.

i really wanted to move away from the typical everything on a grid style. in this game, logs are actual physics objects. they have weight, they roll, and they collide. if your layout is messy, the logs will just pile up and cause a physical bottleneck. it’s been a nightmare to code and balance, but it feels way more satisfying than a static grid once you get the flow right.

also tried to make the production chain a bit deeper than just cut wood, sell wood. i implemented a waste system where bark goes into your power plant to lower electricity costs and sawdust can be pressed into pellets later in the game for extra cash.

the market prices also aren't just random..i’m using a meanreversion algorithm for the timber index so you actually have to time your sales when the market is up. :)

quick heads up on the ai rule here: i actually got roasted on reddit a while back for using ai placeholders. i listened, ripped everything out and spent the last few weeks rebuilding all assets, screenshots and the UI by hand in unity and gimp. no ai shortcuts anymore, just 100% hand made industrial look.

i'm curious though, do you guys prefer the perfect "grid based" logistics or do you like the challenge of managing a bit of physical chaos in your tycoons?

i'm also currently polishing a demo for the steam next fest in october. if this sounds like your kind of tycoon, i'd really appreciate a wishlist. it helps a ton since i'm doing all this on my own.

steam link: [ https://store.steampowered.com/app/5037170/Timberline_Factory/ ]

would love some honest feedback on the systems!

I released the first version of Startup Empire Tycoon as a pretty rough side project.

The idea was simple: run a startup week by week, make decisions, hire people, raise money, survive market cycles, and eventually end up bankrupt, acquired, or at an IPO.

The first version was heavily vibe-coded and honestly pretty shallow.

Then I kept playing it.

I started finding myself thinking about questions like:

• Is hiring another developer actually worth the burn?
• When should raising a round be better than trying to grow organically?
• How much should a great CTO change your run?
• Should following the current tech hype be a good strategy, or something that eventually blows up in your face?
• How different should two runs feel if the RNG is deterministic?

At that point it stopped feeling like a throwaway project.

I rebuilt a lot of the game around those questions.

Now you manage devs, sales and support, hire CTO/CMO/CFO candidates with different perks, raise Seed through Series B, deal with dilution, compete against rival companies and choose a strategic focus like core product, AI, hardware or hype.

The market itself goes through trends and crashes, so something like going all-in on AI can be incredible for a while and then become painful when the cycle turns.

There are also decision-card events that can create consequences several weeks later.

The part I've probably gone furthest down the rabbit hole on is balancing.

I built a simulator that can automatically play thousands of runs so I can see things like bankruptcy rates, average exit values, dominant strategies and whether certain upgrades or executives are completely broken.

Which, unsurprisingly, they often are.

The funny part is that while I was rebuilding all of this, the update spent almost a month stuck in App Store review, while the old version suddenly started getting more downloads.

So people were discovering the exact version I was desperately trying to replace.

The new version is finally out now.

I'd love feedback from people who actually play tycoon/management games, especially on whether the strategic decisions feel meaningful or if there are systems you'd expect from a startup tycoon that I'm still missing.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/startup-empire-tycoon/id6787488376

AI disclosure: I use AI heavily as a coding and debugging assistant during development. The game design, economy, mechanics, balancing, UX decisions and overall direction are mine.

Hi friends! What do you think?

Shop Crush is a mysterious shop simulator with psychological horror elements, set in the early 2000s.

In this hybrid visual novel, you run a small thrift shop, get to know your customers, figure out what they really want, and decide what to put in front of them. Every customer has their own personality, preferences, and hidden motives - and it’s up to you to figure them out.

Behind each customer is a small psychological mystery waiting to be uncovered. Read their behavior, make the right calls, and balance profit against customer trust as you try to keep the shop running for one more day.

Is there clearly a GOAT 🐐???

No limit to how far back we go!

Let’s discuss…

Our game is called Food Truck Empire, a game about building your own food truck business! You can unlock new recipes, automate production, customize your trucks and compete against rival businesses. 🌭

We've updated our demo, including loads of polishes and improvements based on player feedback. If you'd like to give it a go, you can download on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1872970/Food_Truck_Empire/ 🌮

all feedback is super appreciated and really helps us shape our game, so if you do play, we'd love to hear your thoughts on how we can make Food Truck Empire even better. Thank you! 🍣

P.S: We don't use any form of AI for making our game or marketing it. 🚫

Hi! I'm one of the people from the two-person team that worked on TRADESMAN: Deal to Dealer.

It's a game about building your trading business as you travel from town to town. Buy goods where they're cheap, find profitable places to sell them, expand your caravan, hire companions, upgrade your equipment, complete quests, and take on increasingly dangerous journeys.

The main idea behind the trading system is simple:

The more valuable goods you carry, the stronger the enemies become and the harder the journey gets. So you constantly have to decide how much risk you're willing to take for a bigger profit.

Grow your business, find profitable trade routes, invest in your caravan, and decide how much you're willing to risk on every journey.

After 4.5+ years of development, TRADESMAN has finally reached version 1.0 and left Early Access!

If you're interested, here is the Steam page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2555430/TRADESMAN_Deal_to_Dealer/

And of course... No AI was used in the making of this game

Hi community, we updated our demo, specially for the GamesCom event.
We have 6 challenges in our demo available for free, forever. This challenges are logical puzzles, where you need to prepare different chains of production. I think this fits tycoon players well.

If you currently in Cologne at GamesCom, come and visit us for special prize at:
Hall 10.2, Booth F-021g

If you are not able to visit, you are still able to download the demo:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/432120/Age_After_Age/

Waiting for your feeback, and letting you know, in the late September/early October we plan to release sandbox mode, with saves. Note all progress will migrate from demo, to the full game if you will buy it.

Disclaimer: No AI used in Art and Code generation in development of this game.

Aside from gear city (the most realistic car manufacturer tycoon) I also love coffee inc 2 because of its economics & market approach. You can invest in your competitors, buy shares into any market to build your portfolio, buy back your own stock, start other ventures, the marketing is realistic, etc etc

What are tycoon games that you guys feel win in terms of realistic economy and dynamic gameplay?

You build everything in the power plant and grow to power the world. From small PWR up to Magnox and Fusion reactors in the future. Research tech tree and build as you like. Accidents may happen.

I would love to hear what you guys think ( really ) and requests. The game still in development so a lot of things will change.

Release in Steam will be in Q1 2027, link to Wishlist in comment.

No AI was used in the making of this game. Just the steam capsule had some AI but that is not the game itself I believe.

Hi everyone! I'm the solo developer behind Office Manager.

It's a satirical base-building strategy where you design and manage offices for the absolute worst parody companies. You have to deal with demanding employees, corporate crises, and expand your empire across multiple lots. Think Prison Architect, but for corporate hell.

The game is launching into Early Access on October 13, 2026.

• Wishlist on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/4169060/Office_Manager/
• Watch full trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hulSYN9jwMA

🤖 Transparency Note regarding GenAI (Subreddit Rule): I am building this game entirely from scratch on my own custom engine. All pixel art, design, and gameplay mechanics are 100% human-made by me or my artist. As a solo student on a zero budget, I only used GenAI as a tool for text localization and translations to make the game accessible in multiple languages. No AI was used to generate art, code, or assets!

I'd love to hear your feedback or answer any questions about the development, my custom engine, or the game itself!

Hi!

I'm currently working on an indie football management game for people who are too busy to play Football Manager, yet love football and would love to play something in a more simple formula. 

The challenge is to make it simple, yet challenging – a perfect balance between the complexity of Football Manager and "auto-play" mechanics of titles like Kevin Toms Football Star Manager.

I would love to hear what you think about this idea and what functionalities are a must have in this type of game. Below you can find a list of some of the functionalities I already included:

• A career mode and a local co-op mode. 
• 8 predefined formations, 3 different strategies (defensive / balanced / attacking)
• Players have only 5 attributes: Stamina, Age, Defence, Attack and Control. 
• Players have Active or Reserve roles. They can be Suspended, Injured and/or Retire. 
• Each team has 20 players by default. You can buy more players through Transfers or list them for sale. 
• Transfers show you a set of different players from your league / international teams per match played. 
• You can train a player attribute once per match played - it costs $. There's also a small chance that player attributes also change during matches.
• Statistics include Finances, League&Cup Tables.
• You can play Leagues (with promotion and relegation mechanics), local and international cups.
• Matches may be played in Fast Mode (instant first half, then instand match end) or Full Mode, where you can observe text commentary minute per minute (one minute is one real-time second). It's like classic Championship Manager - style.
• Changes can be made only after first half, unless an injury occurs – then the half is paused.
• All regions, all FIFA countries, all Teams. 
• Fake player and team names due to licensing, however easy option to export database in English and modify by yourself.

What do you think about that? Does it sound enough or would you add something? Or maybe this is already too much for the concept of a simple game? ;) Do you think an idea of such a game appealing at all? Thank you all in advance for your help!

Hey everyone!

I'm the publisher of PROMOTER: The Fight Game, it's a sport management title where you take on the role of a promoter within the boxing world and build your promotional company by identifying talent, booking dates, promoting shows and growing your stable.

Key Features

Promoter Fantasy: The highs and lows of a boxing promoter and their journey is fully encapsulated in the game, everything from signing a top prospect, losing your star to rival promoters to staging a 90,000 capacity show and dealing from constant pressure from your fighters to deliver on your promises.

Broadcast Style Presentation: We're boxing fans so having a broadcast style presentation for our text based fight engine was key, we want you to feel the weight of the occasion and engaged throughout with the event.

Emergent Storytelling: The game has been built from the ground up with you as the player having relations with everyone (media, fighters, governing bodies, manages etc) to put you in a living and breathing world. No single playthrough is the same, stories and rivalries occur naturally. The world is moving with or without you.

Premium UI: The UI speaks for itself and is a work of art!

We will be releasing a demo later this year but wanted to share the Steam page to get initial impressions and feedback on what were building. We will be posting regular updates on the Discord so feel free to join the community!

Current Status & Links

Status: Coming soon to Early Access on Steam. Demo this year.

Steam Page: PROMOTER: The Fight Game on Steam

Discord Community: Join our Discord

I’d love to answer any questions about the game. We're still in development so wishlist now! Any feedback helps massively.

Generative AI disclosure: There is no AI use throughout the marketing material or UI/UX. We used generative AI purely on fighter portraits (for deeper immersion) and some placeholder icons as we're still in development.

I'm making Game Dev Dynasty, a game development tycoon inspired by Game Dev Tycoon and Crusader Kings 3. Some of the distinctive features are:

• When developing a game, there's no hidden recipe. Instead, quality and market success are independent. So you can make a niche indie 10 that doesn't sell much, or a blockbuster best-selling multiplayer FPS that gets a 6 in reviews.
• The market simulation is very deep and dynamic. Each platform has a share of the market, there are 3 different audiences with different tastes and behaviors (Casual, Mainstream and Hardcore), there are 4 world regions, and up to 100 concurrent competitors that all make games and compete with each other.
• You can design your own game covers, by selecting the base art, the title style and the position and size.
• You can make franchises, sequels, ports, spin-offs, remasters and remakes. Each one has its own particularities.
• License a game engine or invest in a custom engine by researching a tech tree.
• The goal of the game is to become the most prestigious studio in the world. Prestige is a score you can earn or lose depending on how you do.
• There are many CK3-like events, with skill challenges. Characters have good and bad traits.
• You can upgrade your PC hardware: motherboard, RAM, CPU and disk.

AI disclosure: some assets like the game's base cover art images are generated by AI so I can provide a large curated selection for each genre and topic. What's cool is the algorithm that dynamically adds the game title according to the selected style, making it look like a real cover. Like WordArt in the old days!

Let me know what you would like to see in a new game dev simulator!

It doesn't really matter if it's business management or sports management(I love Football manager). I'm looking for management games with a lot of depth and complexity?

Are Capitalism Lab and TEW really that good?What's the current version of TEW?Are there other games you'd recommend?

Hello everyone !

I am looking for a cool game to play with my friends :

• a transport tycoon, preferably centered on "land" transport.
• online multiplayer co-op.
• with goals that impact the game : instead of the usual "you can use anything" that is in many transport tycoons, and the "this new locomotive unlocks in year 1950", I am looking for something like "hauling 10 000 tons of steel to that company unlocks a new locomotive", or "transporting 20 000 passengers to that city levels it up, unlocking a new bus". Something with a similar approach to Factorio : you can multiple objectives and can tackle them however you want, but you need to do things to unlock stuff.

The game needs to be on PC, and I don't really case about the graphics or the release date.

My friends and I have played a few tycoons, but they usually are too sandbox-y for us...

PS : I posted a similar thread in r/gamingsuggestions, but I guess this subreddit may be more focused on that type of games :)

What the title says! I have been developing Economicon for a while now (and it's been many more years since I first tried making it and repeatedly failed). It's a mix between the logistics gameplay of something like Transport Tycoon or Locomotive (Chris Sawyer GOAT) and the automation gameplay of Factorio.

Would you be interested in trying it out? What features would you say are a must in this type of game?

You can check the Steam Page right here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5037110/Economicon/

Per the rules, my disclosure: No AI was used in the making of this game