Startup Panic brings personality back to the business management sim
Quit your job and get some Startup Panic! Classic business tycoon gameplay meets a sharp and absurd sense of humour in this business management sim from publisher tinyBuild, out now via the Epic Games Store.
Sick of your monotonous office job and looking for a way out, Startup Panic throws you into the fast-paced and unpredictable world of creating your own business from scratch with nothing but a computer and a supportive pet cat.
The scope of Startup Panic is bigger than it may seem at first glance, much like your ambition! With an expansive and diverse business customisation tree, a growing world map to drop your next base of operations onto, and full control of your office design – you have a wide range of tools to run your new business your way.
Working your way up from a small business in your parents’ house is a story featured in many a tycoon sim, but while Startup Panic grounds itself in the real world, with inspiration drawn from the journey of developer Algorocks, it soon breaks loose of the rules of reality – which is where the real test of your business begins.
“When we first started developing Startup Panic, I thought I could bring something to the game from my experience as a start-up founder,” Algorocks founder and CEO Adib Toriq reveals. “However, along the way, we found things that could spice up the game. We started to think, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if, aside from being poached by competitors, our employees could also be at risk of kidnapping by pirates when they take a beach vacation? What if the player could blackmail a hacker to get their data back? What if an employee gets caught stealing your favourite sandwich?’ And so the goofy side of Startup Panic grew.”
The personality of this tycoon management sim shines through its random chance events, item descriptions and features available to upgrade your business. Tired of competing CEOs soaring through the market? Why not make a deal undercover with a professional hacker to steal their latest research, or recruit a slick-tongued marketer to run a smear campaign on their most recent product? Sending a valued worker off on a beach holiday – make sure you have the ransom spare if they get kidnapped by eagle-eyed pirates!
Although the game is filled with fun, unpredictable events and ‘innovative’ methods to get ahead (there’s nothing illegal about hypnotising your customers, right?) the core gameplay of Startup Panic doesn’t skimp on the business management side. You’ll have to balance everything, from what features you work on, what furniture you buy – even the personalities and skills of your employees to succeed.
Overall, Startup Panic is a tycoon sim set in a world of its own that’s friendly to pick up, but tricky to master, making it ideal for players new to the genre – or veterans looking for a bit of personality as they take on the world of startup business.