All posts tagged in management game
Mar 14, 2024
Ever wanted to be the proprietor of your very own grocery store? Now’s your chance! Supermarket Simulator by developer Nokta Games is a relaxing first-person simulation where you do exactly that. Take on a very hands-on role in your supermarket by not only designing it, but stocking all your goods, too. You can even hire some employees to take the stress off you!
Optimize your shelves and displays for efficiency and aesthetics by placing your shelves where you want them. Then, use the computer in Supermarket Simulator to order items to sell in the store. Stock each item where you want it to go, and even set the prices. You want to make a profit, but also want to satisfy customers and earn more business. You also act as the cashier, ensuring each customer has a great overall experience. As you earn money, upgrade your shop’s space and interior decorations!
Release Date
Supermarket Simulator is on Steam now!
Or perhaps you’d prefer to run your very own vampire hotel in Bloody Hell Hotel!
- Mar 13, 2024
Immerse yourself in a delightful pastel world of coffee shop management! In Coffee Caravan by developer Broccoli Games, you run your very own mobile coffee shop. Choose your daily menu to cater to customer tastes while experimenting with different flavors. Brew a variety of different coffee recipes. Then, serve up the tasty drinks to your customers. Be efficient in your tasks to earn the best outcomes!
Coffee Caravan offers a great hands-on experience when it comes to running your coffee business. Not only do you choose your daily menu, but you make each drink yourself. Upgrade your machines to increase speed and proficiency so you can fast serve your customers. Serve premium coffee recipes to earn more money, too. And each time you play through the game, you’ll find a whole different experience. Pick customers with higher difficulty levels, discover appliance and recipe shops along the way where you can buy new things from, and encounter special events and challenges that add a uniqueness to each playthrough. Plus, you’ll encounter final boss customers who are far more demanding and have higher standards than your usual customers, adding even more challenges!
Release Date
Coffee Caravan is coming to Steam this year!
Want more coffee shop fun? Try Capybarista!
- Mar 7, 2024
In Bloody Hell Hotel by developer Unfold Games, you play as a vampire who’s just woken up from a coma that’s lasted centuries. Upon waking, you find your grand estate is in ruins. You decide to renovate it and turn it into a functioning hotel! That’s no easy task, of course. Times are tough and resources are scarce, plus you being a blood-thirsty vampire isn’t exactly helpful with customer satisfaction. But none of that will stop you!
Beneath your estate is a crypt and cave system. They’re the perfect spot to forage, farm, and craft! Bloody Hell Hotel has customers that expect high-quality room service, which you can give them by gathering mushrooms, milking the undead cow, and collecting eggs from zombie chickens. Prepare tasty dishes for your guests and serve them to meet their satisfaction. Use your vampire powers to clean up the run-down estate. Then, upgrade, decorate, and furnish the hotel to make it more inviting for customers. Even hire staff to help you throughout the hotel. And if there’s a demanding guest you don’t want to serve, eat them! You’re a vampire, after all. Don’t forget to head down to the crypt to craft some weapons, and set out on a journey through the dungeons to earn some resources and upgrades for the hotel!
Release Date
Bloody Hell Hotel is coming to Steam, but has no release date yet.
Don’t forget to check out Moonlight Peaks for more vampire fun!
- Mar 6, 2024
Embark on an exciting journey in Brocula by developer Destroyer Doggo where you play as Brocula, a vampire who has just woken from a 500-year slumber. This world is bizarre and unrecognizable to him, plus his wealth has been stripped from him. Even his ancestral castle has been ravaged by time and is in ruins. Not everything is so simple and mundane as surviving in this new society, though. Can you figure out the times, settle in, and thrive?
You’ll need to navigate the unfamiliar capitalistic society in Brocula in order to be successful. Take on a series of part-time jobs at the coffee shop, garage, and restaurant to earn a little pocket money. Not only will you need this money to repair your castle, but you’ll need to wrestle ownership of it from the local mayor. You can also earn money by starting a farm next to the castle and selling your crops. Catch a variety of fish which you can turn into a bunch of tasty meals, too. And when you’re not busy with the mundane tasks of everyday life, you need to revive your cult. Restore the forgotten church and start giving sermons in order to attract members again. Or, go explore the everchanging forest to fight enemies and collect treasures!
Release Date
Brocula is set to Release on Steam March 27th. It is also listed on Xbox, and the developer’s website lists PlayStation, so hopefully that will come soon too!
Check out Voltaire: the Vegan Vampire for more vampire fun!
- Feb 28, 2024
I previously mentioned the adorable upcoming farm sim with a dark and gloomy twist called Grimshire. That’s actually the second game for indie developers Acute Owl Studio. Their first was a lovely little cafe management game called Bone’s Cafe! In this game, you play as Bones, a necromancer who runs their very own cafe. You’ll learn a variety of recipes, decorate and upgrade the cafe, and engage in some unsavory activities all in the name of success!
Bone’s Cafe appears to be an average cafe management game on the surface. There are 97 different recipes for you to learn. Design your menu each day to satisfy the different types of customers that come in. Arrange the seating area and kitchen to suit your needs, as well as decorate with different themes. However, this game has a grim twist to it. Some of your recipes need meat, and the only way to get that is to lure a customer to the corner and harvest them! Do it stealthily so you don’t scare off the rest of your customers or you’ll lose money. And if you need help cooking and serving food, use your necromantic powers to summon minions. They can be assigned to different cooking stations, as well as set to serve customers their orders.
Play this slightly bloody, yet charming cafe game solo or with up to 4 players!
Release Date
Bone’s Cafe is available now on Steam and Switch!
- Feb 21, 2024
The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is a lovely pixel graphics innkeeping game by developer SeaPhoenix. Play as Elinor who is visiting a beautiful small town. After a particularly disastrous stay at the only beachside hotel in the area, you decide to convert an old farmhouse to an inn. Of course, renovating an old building isn’t cheap! So, you accept a loan from some mysterious tycoon that demands you pay up by the end of the month. Now you need to renovate the inn and make it turn a profit in order to earn enough money to pay back that loan.
Meet a cast of vibrant, fascinating guests as they come to your new inn. The Hidden Art of Innkeeping features biologists, adventurers, a pirate, and even a vampire. You might even see some familiar faces from the prequel game. Spend your days exploring and gathering items like paintings that will be displayed in the inn. Discovering these items will help you understand the past and who the former owner was. Complete different quests for the townspeople, and even recruit some new villagers. Then, spend time renovating your new inn and turn it from a dilapidated old farmhouse to a beautiful, luxurious inn. Configure the guest rooms, hire employees, stock your supplies, and create some tasty meals for your guests.
Will you be able to repay the loan in time?
Release Date
The Hidden Art of Innkeeping is listed on Steam. You can add it to your Wishlist, but there is no specific release date. It’s projected for some time this year.
Alpine Lake is another upcoming cozy innkeeping game you should check out!
- Feb 15, 2024
Bronzebeard’s Tavern by developer The Mermaid MenZ is a goofy restaurant management sim. Play solo or team up with up to 7 other players to run your tavern. Step into a number of different roles and serve customers. Manage customer seating and take their orders. Then, deliver their food and get paid!
Of course, serving food isn’t all that you need to do. Design your menu every day in Bronzebeard’s Tavern. There are a variety of diverse customers to encounter, and you’ll want to make sure you have what they like! Set up your menu based on the day’s forecast and food sales to achieve success. Plus, food doesn’t just magically appear once ordered. You and your teammates need to prepare the drinks and cook the food, too! Just be sure not to burn anything. Upgrade your tavern as you earn money. These changes will help you progress through tougher days. More customer seating, new kitchen gadgets, or a new expansion can all be helpful!
Release Date
Bronzebeard’s Tavern is available now on Steam and is free to play!
Tavern Manager Simulator is a great management sim alternative to this fun co-op. - Jan 31, 2024
Cat Cafe Manager by developer Roost Games is an adorable and casual cafe management game full of cats, decorating, and fun customers. You return to the little village of Caterwaul Way, home to your grandmother’s old cat cafe. You’ve recently inherited the place and it’s your job to renovate it to get it back up and running. Impress the locals with your business savvy, while befriending and caring for the local stray cat population. Even adopt out the cats to forever homes!
Graphics
I really enjoy the visuals in Cat Cafe Manager. It looks like a hand drawn game, and the backgrounds and character designs all feel unique. They fit in with the sleepy little village vibes and enhance them, even. Every visual works together to create the cozy vibe that this game goes for. The cats are adorable, too. Plus, the main characters each have their own designs and personalities. The regular customers are just carbon copies of each other, which works for this game as they only serve to earn you money. Their designs are nice, though. You can tell who is a fisherman, a witch, and so on.
The Gameplay
Cat Cafe Manager is a fairly short game, clocking in around 10-15 hours depending on your play style. It’s reminiscent of Diner Dash, which I played a ton of growing up, just without the time constraints. Instead of dashing around as fast as possible to appease customers and keep them happy, you can take your sweet time taking orders, preparing drinks and food, and delivering to customers. There’s no reason to rush around. Everyone is there to relax and enjoy their time. Plus, they want to hang out with the adorable cats you’ve collected. However, it is a bit grindy and repetitive. Day in and day out is filled with opening shop, serving customers, buying resources, rescuing cats, and upgrading the shrine’s upgrade trees. That’s it.
You get to lay out your cafe’s floorplan yourself, so you can create the perfect little space to suit your needs and design vision. It’s a nice touch to the game to give you almost total freedom from the get-go. Cat Cafe Manager also lets you decorate the space using several different sets of furniture and appliances. However, the decoration options are severely limited. I want spooky, moody wallpaper and flooring to match the harvest and vampire tables, but that doesn’t exist. It’s all up-beat and perky pinks and greens, which are perfect for a plant-heavy cafe, or there are other unsuitable colors. This type of game should be heavy on the decor options, especially when sets are a thing already. The sets should go all the way into walls, floors, etc.
Another element to Cat Cafe Manager is hiring staff to help you in the cafe. This is useful if you’re tired of running around taking orders, making items, delivering to tables, cleaning, and making friends with the local strays. The staff can be tasked with any of those things, taking a load off your plate. However, it really veers into idle game territory once you do that. There isn’t much need for you to do anything besides befriend cats and shop for necessities or decor when you have staff. So, if you’re looking to be more hands-on, don’t hire so many staff members, or any at all.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I did enjoy Cat Cafe Manager. I did struggle with keeping the desired items stocked so customers could order them, but that could just be a skill issue. The different types of customers are very well interconnected with the rest of the game, otherwise. Each type pays in a certain kind of money, which can then be used at specific shops in town. Having different types of currency added a level of necessary management that the game otherwise doesn’t have since it’s so laid-back. Sometimes the item collision boxes were annoying as they aren’t very apparent, but caused me to get stuck on tables and chairs that didn’t appear to be in the way.
What really got to me, though, was that upgrading the shrine in town didn’t visually appear to change anything. Cat Cafe Manager emphasizes that you’re restoring the shrine by running the cafe and adopting out cats, and does give you upgrade trees to buy into. However, it doesn’t ever visually look run-down, nor does it look improved as you “restore it”. That would have been a super satisfying addition to the game.
This game is cute, but not extremely engrossing. I give it:
You can find Cat Cafe Manager on Steam and Switch!
