Tycoon Games

News Tower | Early Access Release Trailer

Fantastic Haven - Fantasy Zoo Tycoon - Prologue Out Now! [Demo Trailer]

Fantastic Haven: Prologue | Gameplay PC | Steam [20 minute first impression] by GandaCu

Grocery Store Simulator: Prologue [Demo]

Citadelum - Official Reveal Trailer

I Think This New Ancient Rome City Builder Has Mechanics More Games Need! [60 min first impressions] by Raptor

Portobugia is a casual river port management sim, with inspection gameplay in the vein of Papers, Please, albeit with less a developed inspection mechanic. The game is set in the interwar period in eastern europe.

This mini review is based on ~4 hours of gameplay in the first two missions (sandbox is included but was not tested). It is important to note that subsequent missions seem to have novel mechanics and buildings (e.g. creation of a wartime dock).

The core of the game revolves around building up port infrastructure to facilitate faster and more efficient inspection of incoming ships (and unloading of goods). The overarching goal is to provide the town adjacent to the port with food and goods to maintain (and grow) its population.

Portobugia includes light building mechanics revolving around the receipt/storage/shipment of goods and construction of various port facilities (ship repair, fishing dock, housing etc.). Employee management is also a component of the game, but it's relatively bare-bones; there were no employee-specific skills or traits in the first two missions.

The inspection gameplay works fine, but it is a bit more basic than in say Papers, Please. One notable sub-mechanic is the infection system. You want to make sure that you don't get bugs in your port storage as this can be quiet damaging in the early to mid game. Overall, it can be somewhat exciting when you are low on supplies and you need to make a call around whether to take a risk with allowing a ship to dock (this is true even though the game is paused during inspection).

Portobugia is fundamentally a spreadsheet optimization game, with the exception of the inspection mechanic and some other minor gameplay. That being said, the 3D world and the art does add to the overall experience of the game and arguably makes it much more viable.

The tutorial is borderline non-functional; I am assuming this will be fixed in the 1.0 release. It does not explain how you can accept a ship into port and that problems with ships' papers are irrelevant as long as you can correctly identify them. It took me until the late part of the second mission to figure out that you can actually inspect the certain parts of the ship (this is critical for the 2nd mission). The tutorial also doesn't explain the relationship between the port and the city; the port is merely a transhipment point and does not consume food and goods (only money and some other port-specific resources).

Portobugia also has some problems with pacing. The early and mid game can be challenging, but at least in the first two missions, it is very easy to get to a "no loss" type situation very quickly. This was an issue in the second mission where I didn't realize that you could directly inspect the ship; the only way to get artifacts. You need to collect ~28 artifacts and they are pretty rare (maybe 1 in 10 ships have them); the end game was just waiting on ships to appear with artifacts. The random events also lose any gameplay impact in the mid to late game.

The various gameplay mechanics feel like they need to be fleshed out a bit more. One area for improvement would have been to more implement some sort of feedback loop on the growth (and decline) of your town. Currently it's just a population number with a certain set of demand for food and goods. One idea would be to allow you to leverage port-specific resources (scraps, "antibugs" and research points) to develop the town and build new buildings that would impact the core gameplay loop. Having more types of goods (or fleshing out scraps more) could also add to the depth of the game.

There is one issue that made me consider whether I should even write this review (or include this point in the review), but in the end I decided to include it. There is a subtle imperialist undercurrent to the game that is likely not going to obvious unless you live in Poland or Ukraine.

The russian developer claimed that:

The game is based on the Western part of the Russian Empire during the "Russian Civil War". At first, the game originated from a game jam and the theme was "bug". So the game takes place along the river called "bug" in the Russian empire part.

The river Bug goes through Poland and Ukraine. At the time that the game starts (1919), both Poland and Ukraine were fighting against the russians for their independence. Poland was able to defeat the Bolshevik forces in 1920 (until the russians collaborated with Nazis to split up Poland in 1939). Ukraine (as a unitary state) failed to defeat the Bolsheviks, but the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne became part of the Polish Republic; this includes the river Bug in its entirety.

I understand that many players (myself included) play tycoon games to disconnect and avoid "drama" that you often find in other genres (particularly multiplayer games), but there are real world consequences from such imperialist thinking.

I am not sure if I want to play the 3rd mission where you are building a warship; since russian is used in the game world I am assuming you would be building a ship to fight Ukraine and Poland? Pick the river Volga or set the game in the Second Polish Republic (an excellent and unique setting).

In conclusion, the game does offer some unique gameplay in combining port management (with light tycoon and building mechanics) and inspection gameplay. The core gameplay loop does need additional refinement in terms of pacing and some expansion of scope. There is a solid core to Portobugia, but it may best to wait for the 1.0 release unless you are curious and looking for something different. That being said price in US/EU seem to be $7 / 6,89€, so the price is arguably reasonable for what it is.

Major Update - Update #11 | Events & Roles (Steam News)

Croakwood on Steam (currently wishlist only)

https://www.croakwood.com/

Magic Research 2 version 1.3.2 is out! (June 6th, 2024, Steam News)

I Can Never Say No To Incremental Wizard Simulators - Magic Research 2 [Demo] by Wanderbots

June 6th v0.1.a6 update content (Steam News)

Internet Cafe & Store Owner Life Begins ~ Internet Cafe & Supermarket Simulator 2024 by Grillmastah

Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge – Launch Trailer – Nintendo Switch

NEW COZY GAME - Building a home for frogs by MadMorph

Seems like a pretty large update considering this is a point release.

Also many of the changes address some of the points (e.g. "side mission" not making sense, rough early game start) raised in this 0.9.3 review:

Summer Islands (resort tycoon/sim) 0.9.x Review

They are planning a 1.0 release on June 20th.

Start Your Own Empire In Old Market Simulator... By Floppy Sword

Blockbuster Inc. - Official Release Trailer

Blockbuster Inc. review by godisageek.com

WE’RE RUNNING OUR OWN MOVIE STUDIO AGAIN! - Blockbuster Inc Gameplay! - 01 by Charlie Pryor

Our BEST Movie Yet! | Blockbuster Inc by Geekism

Note: Many early reviews suggest the game needs more work to be a spiritual successor to The Movies.

Parkitect is probably the closest modern reincarnation of Roller Coast Tycoon 1/2. The focus is very much on tycoon gameplay in an isometric worldview.

Originally released in 2018 (after more than two years of early access), the game continues to receive many updates and has a strong community of custom content. Multiplayer support was added in December 2020.

Kaiserpunk | This Great War City Builder is the Most Ambitious Grand Strategy RTS I have ever seen.. [60 min demo first impressions] by Raptor

A World War City Builder & New Grand Strategy | Kaiserpunk [AD] [1.5 hour demo first impressions] by GamerZakh

Note this is mostly UI/spreadsheet management game. Also includes "community scenarios" using existing brands/personas.

Journey of Wrestling is coming to Steam [15 min review] by attackslug

The ULTIMATE Wrestling Sandbox! | Journey of Wrestling [30 min early impressions] by Wrestle Labs

The game seems to be open source. The sourceforge link also includes a Java download for Windows if Steam is not your thing.