Game: TV Show Tycoon
Genre: Simulation
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers | Publishers: ORDA
Controller Support: None
Price: US $7.99 | UK £6.69 | EU € 7,79
Release Date: May 24th, 2024
A review code was used, and many thanks to ORDA.
TV Show Tycoon is a management sim in which you run a studio that puts together shows and writes scripts and films. You will need to manage every inch of your studio to keep it from going out of business.
The Gameplay of TV Show Tycoon
TV Show Tycoon is incredibly complex. You will need to name all the shows, figure out the audience and the stats for each show, hire a writer, wait for the script to be written, make financial decisions, and more. In order to make sure everything runs smoothly, you will first need to come up with a name and premise.
After that, it will ask you to put in the audience and age rating, then things like the time setting, number of dramatic or action elements, how much humor or intelligence is in the show, if there are any controversial things in it.
Needless to say, it’s a lot. Once you have made all those decisions, you will need to come up with a budget and hire a writer. You will then need to assign characters to the show, give it a director, and pick a composer to do the music. You also have to sign the show to the network and pay penalties if the show doesn’t perform as well as the network requires.
Hard to Play
This game is so hard to play. I couldn’t figure out how to create new characters and put them into my script. I cannot figure out how to play TV Show Tycoon, and I have done the tutorial about three times. It gives a great breakdown of what all the character stats mean, but not how to create new ones.
There is so much to keep track of, too; I know for a fact that this isn’t my type of game. I did my best to give it a fair shake, but I couldn’t figure out how to get any of it working. I made a whole new game and then realized that the reason I couldn’t make a character the first time was some kind of bug, I guess?
Either way, a lot of the time I spent fumbling around trying to figure out the controls could have been avoided with a more granular tutorial to demo all the features, how to build your own buildings, how to manage people, how to budget, etc. It’s pretty overwhelming the way they just toss you into this world with very little help.
The Look and Feel of TV Show Tycoon
The graphics of TV Show Tycoon are fairly simple; there are blocks, Minecraft-like people, a single overhead view of a studio, and a lot of text. The music is okay, but it does get a little grating after a while. After just a few minutes, I ended up turning it off and using my own music instead. There isn’t much sound design other than the music.
Overall, the design is pretty plain, but it’s not a bad look. It’s simple pixel art with some blocky characters and generic-sounding music. In other words, the graphics would be fine if TV Show Tycoon was a different game.
Conclusion
I still don’t understand how to play TV Show Tycoon, which means I can’t really review it. I would love to see some reviews from people who really dig these kinds of games. I have a feeling it could be really fun and interesting if you had a better tutorial that would really dig into the weeds of how to play this game. If it explained it step by step and walked you through your first show, I could see myself falling into the rabbit hole of making my own TV shows.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure.
Do you like our content? Support LadiesGamers on Patreon!
Check out our Tiers and Benefits and join us.