Tycoon and business games

Business games where you do the work

Most tycoon games have you click upgrade buttons. In ours you make the thing. In Copper Pot Kitchen you chop, sear and plate every dish. In River Clay Studio you center the clay and pull the walls of a bowl with your finger, then glaze and fire it. In Sprocket Shop you find the fault, swap the part, tighten and test a bike, a radio or a toaster. Petal & Twine has you cutting stems and tying bouquets, Lantern Cove Inn has you making beds and fixing a dripping tap at a harbor inn, and Bramble Bug Museum sends you out with a net to fill museum cases.

Each job is a short run of steps, each step is graded, and the average decides one to three stars. Better work sells for more, earns more reputation and builds a combo. Reputation unlocks new recipes, designs or jobs, new rooms and new locations, and every level gives you a skill point to spend.

What keeps you coming back

• Regulars with stories. Named guests drop by again and again, and in most of these games a few good visits earn you their signature piece, one you can't get any other way.
• A team that works while you're away. Hired staff keep earning when you close the game, up to two hours' worth in most of these games.
• A long tail of goals. Mastery medals for cooking the same dish well, renovation stars for each location, awards, and in Copper Pot a food truck, pop-ups and cook-offs.
• Calm modes. Every one has a practice room with no clock, and most have a Relaxed setting where guests never leave.

Grant Central Station, the train tycoon

Grant Central Station is the classic big-map kind. You start in 1852 with $520K and a continent of farms, mines, mills and villages with no track at all. Haul grain to the mill and food to the village, and the village grows. New engines unlock as your earnings grow, and every train costs money each day it runs, so an empty train on a bad route loses you money. Station master Grant hands out three goals a day, your start town's depot grows into a grand terminal, and 26 real kinds of trains wait in the Engine Shed, from a 4-4-0 steam engine to a maglev. Two short hands-on modes let you drive a train to a platform stop or play dispatcher at the switches. The Daily Contract drops every player into the same small valley for 150 game days, scored on your trains' profit.

Daily challenges and saving

Each game has a daily challenge that's the same for every player, with a leaderboard that resets at midnight UTC. Your shop or railroad saves on your device as you play. Sign in with a free account, no email needed, and it's backed up so you can pick it up on your phone or your computer. If you'd like a head start, our three-star cooking tips and rare bug guide go deep on two of them.

Questions