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The Best Tycoon Games to Play

Tycoon games have been a staple of the gaming world since the dawn of the PC. Also known as business-simulation games, this genre has the player take on a management role and try to grow their business or empire. The games feature strong economic elements, and force players to decide when to pull the trigger on major investments, and when to play it safe. The genre has great titles for PC, console, mobile, and even web browsers. There are countless great titles that let you play the role of CEO, mayor, or essentially God. Below are some of the most fun Tycoon games you can play in 2024! And as always, if you’re trying to build a Tycoon game of your own, we at Argentics can help you at any step along the way.

A Blast From the Past: The Sumerian Game (1964) and The Oregon Trail (1985)

For history buffs and fans of vintage games, it would be criminal to skip over these two gems. Afterall, when’s the last time you played a game developed for the IBM 7090? The Sumerian Game is by far the granddaddy of this genre, if not one of the first PC games ever built. Set in ancient Sumer around the year 3500 B.C., it feels fitting to manage one of the world’s oldest empires in the genre’s oldest game. The game spans three distinct eras, where you play as supreme leader and manage workers, agriculture, and a few other kingly duties. The original game is solely text-based, with no visual aids. It plays more like a build-your-own-adventure novel than a modern game, but is still a thrilling and educational experience. If that sounds a bit boring for your likings, the title was recently remastered for its 60th anniversary with visuals and audio and is available on steam now!
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Micromanage a caravan along the Oregon Trail in one the most famously difficult games created. There have been numerous remasters since the 1985 original so take your pick between the timeless pixel renderings or a modern 3D version!

Another classic title that every old-school gamer, and most Americans are familiar with is The Oregon Trail. Developed using educational grants and targeted towards US history classrooms, the game was redeveloped in 1985 for mainframe computers and featured exciting animations and a crisp user interface. The game blends survival and tycoon elements, with the player leading and managing a caravan along the long and deadly Oregon Trail in the wild American West of 1865. Your difficulty level dictates your starting cash, which determines how many provisions you can purchase on your journey. In addition to money, you must manage the morale and health of your fellow pioneers. Do you risk wasting a week to heal a sick companion, or trudge forward with one less ally? The game is plumb-full of old time minigames that will affect your journey, which breaks from the tycoon tradition, but adds excitement for those not wishing to stare at numbers all day. The game can be played for free in a million places online, but doing so on Oregon’s official tourism site feels most authentic. Happy trails partner, and don’t fall dead of dysentery on the way!

Anno 1800: An Old World Take on a Futuristic Series

Like its most recent predecessors, Anno 2070 and 2205, this iteration of the classic series is set in, you guessed it, 1800. The game retains all of the previous city-building and economic elements from the series, but the setting adds a deep moral conundrum and even more business aspects than before. Being set in the midst of the industrial revolution and a time of great trade between Europe and the Americas, you will encounter social issues like labor exploitation and press censorship. Story mode follows a fairly set plot, but how you choose to navigate such issues in free play are up to you.

Gameplay takes place primarily in the Old World, where you will blueprint and build your city. You also have strong relations with a New World counterpart, who will want specific goods from you, and who will offer various luxuries and products in trade. This forces you to choose between becoming a powerhouse in one economic sector, or trying to diversify to please your top buyers and compete with other intelligent AI empires. Setting up production lines and trade routes is a mind-boggling task with countless possible approaches, but it is extremely satisfying once you set up an efficient network. Lastly, the game’s graphics are very smooth for the genre, and will have you wanting to organize your village into as cute a layout as possible. For fans of the series this is a must-play, and for those looking for a real-time tycoon game with historical elements, look no further. Smooth sailing!

Will You Play as the Good, the Bad, or the Ugly in Prison Architect?

While Anno 1800 points at social dilemmas, Prison Architect makes them a staple of the game. You play as the warden of a prison housing the most vile and godforsaken criminals on earth. How you choose to handle them is entirely up to you and will heavily impact your experience. The 2.5D game was released in 2012, but has added 11 huge DLC updates since, adding psychiatric elements, new buildings, and new specialists to recruit.
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In Prison Architect 2 the penitentiary is your oyster. Will you run a strict Foucautian panopticon, or a plush center focused on rehabiitation?
In the game, you play as the warden of a for-profit prison. This muddles your morals, as you need to chase the almighty dollar while trying to maintain order, and possibly reform, in your prison. You can try playing as a hard-nosed administrator who focuses on thick walls and strict security, or you can trust the goodness in your convicts and hope that education and recreation will keep them from revolting. The choice is yours, but stay safe out there. The game is available on PC, Console, and Mobile so the options are endless. Check out the official site to learn more.

Dominate your Rivals in Railway Empire 2

One of the most highly touted games of 2023 was Railway Empire 2. With strong developer support and DLC still being released, the game remains fun as ever. You play as the head of an 1800s railway company in either America or Europe, and your goal is to expand your empire to as many cities as possible, while balancing your finances and keeping your employees and customers happy. You can haul freight, passengers, mail, and more! You can build a balanced company, or become hyper-focused on one sector.

The game uses a beautiful top-down map display, with geographic features and foliage giving areas their own feel. Likewise, zooming in on cities will reveal fun 3D buildings, carriages, and roads which evolve over time. There are hundreds of cities in the game, but you can also build remote stations to service mineral-rich areas or connect your rail hubs. Choosing where to run your rail lines is a lot of fun, as is micromanaging your larger stations, upgrading trains, and buying new ones!
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Keep your engines rolling and bank account full in Railway Empire 2!
The game can be played alone, or with a handful of AI or player competitors. Adding competition will see you battling for political control over regions and racing to service remote cities. The game’s economic system includes some crazy details such as annual inflation, control over employee wages, and fluctuating product prices based on real-world supply and demand swings. Managing your empire can be intense, but stress not, as you can also climb aboard and commandeer any of your trains across the rugged wilderness. This mode is relaxing, and is a great way to see how your hard work has paid off. The game is out now on Steam and Console, so check it out today!

Feel the Flash Game Nostalgia with Youda Marina and Youda Farmer

When Adobe pulled the plug on flash support back in 2021, it was a huge blow to the Tycoon genre. Hundreds of classic management games were suddenly unavailable. Since then, many classics have been resurrected through the use of emulators such as Kongregate and are either free or dirt cheap to play online. While these games don’t offer the depth of a 20GB large-studio production, they will still suck you in for hours with their unique themes and huge list of upgrades.

Youda Marina lets the player manage their very own resort town. The backbone of the game is building larger docks and more powerful radar systems so you can attract big vessels to stay in your marina. This generates income which you can then spend on your city to make it a more attractive destination, allowing you to charge higher fees. Saving for mid-game buildings like the police and fire station takes serious patience, but without these you risk losing pieces of your hard-earned empire to crime or disaster. Decisions about whether to build new or repair existing structures keep the player thinking forward, all while they race to lure in that next big cruise ship for a massive payday.
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In Youda Marina, you can build your empire on the classic coastal map, or opt for more challenging areas like the lagoon or island. The fast-paced game forces you to make quick, difficult decisions without having time to think them over.
Youda Farmer has similar in-game mechanics to its nautical counterpart, but lets you trade boats and buoys for green acres and a fishing rod. You will spend your time on a humble farm choosing which crops to grow, which buildings and equipment to buy, and when it's time to deliver your goods for the biggest payout. Though the setting and graphics look harmless, managing time in this game can be a brute. It’s easy to get sucked into fishing or tending crops while your previous harvest rots away in the back of a truck, so stay sharp!

Medieval Dynasty: A Unique Third-Person Adventure and Tycoon Mashup

If you’re tired of micromanaging empires, a fun addition to the tycoon genre is the Dynasty series, the best of which is the 2021 release Medieval Dynasty. In this game you play as a peasant in medieval Europe. There are two maps to choose from which both offer their own society, storyline, and more! The game is played in third-person, offering action elements such as hunting, archery competitions, and even combat against bandits. These action scenes are great fun, but the heart of the title is your eternal strife to build your own village. Choosing the location of your initial hovel is a tough decision – will you build near a town, or in the resource rich wilderness?
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Build and establish your village in Medieval Dynasty. Just watch out for roving bandits and dangerous animals trying to plunder your coffers!
Whichever location you choose, you will have your hands full trying to manage your dynasty. You need to manage your settlement’s residents, work schedules, resources, and more. To make things more difficult, you also must pay taxes to the local deity at the end of each season. You can either levee taxes from your villagers or pay with gold from your own quests. Either way, managing your dynasty requires a careful blend of village investment and human-resource management. Atop this, the open-world is beautiful and lets players light out to parts unknown in search of new villagers and resources. Though it’s not a traditional Tycoon game, the blending of genres is epic and we highly recommend checking it out!

As our selections demonstrate, the Tycoon genre has permeated so many areas of gaming. Whether you choose to play a title more true to the genre like Railway Empire, or opt for something less traditional and more hands-on like Medieval Dynasty, you’re sure to have a fun time micromanaging your resources and enjoying the excruciating amount of detail the the developers put into the game’s economic and resource system. If you’re building a Tycoon game of your own, check a few of these out for inspiration and don’t hesitate to reach out to our experts here at Argentics for support at any stage of development!
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