I did appreciate the sound effects which popped up now and again. The audio is mostly background music which I found peaceful and quickly blended into the background while playing. And it does work well with the colourful locations and some of the more fantastical aspects of the game which come later so I won’t spoil it.
The choice of 16 bit does well for the game as I felt it ran smoothly in the several hours I played. The settings all come set in stone except for resolution ranging from 480 up to 1080. Startup Panic has a retro feel to its 16-bit graphics which I didn’t mind as the setting doesn’t call for anything complex. Moving into the big leagues now Graphics & Audio
I enjoyed the rivalry as it drove the narrative woven through the game, very David & Goliath especially early on. In this case, less money meant more problems with keeping the lights on. Early on, I met a rival and competitor whose efforts to one-up me caused peaks & valleys with income & reputation. I learned my lesson with these challenges, especially as they were often recycled over and over. Even on easy mode reaching a couple of the timed goals felt punishing and demotivating. Startup Panic isn’t shy about throwing curveballs your way in terms of decisions having consequences, good and bad. The staff, yourself included, have their own strengths and weaknesses which you can manage with training, salary bumps and giving plenty of vacations. Leaving the comfort of home meant juggling responsibilities from paying rent & bills to managing employees. My first review, going right on the fridge This became very frustrating as this mechanic wasn’t very well explained and could set you back quite a bit. I found there to be quite a bit of guesswork in which skill to focus on when working on projects. The visuals and narrative made Startup Panic feel engaging but a few of the mechanics felt clunky and awkward at times. Kicking things off, there is the tutorial that periodically pops up throughout the game as more options unlock. The dialogue has a very tongue in cheek sense of humour throughout the game, occasionally poking fun at the real world too. Game Dev Tycoon, I found Startup Panic adds a little of its own flavour to the this genre. Having played similar life sim games e.g.
The TC team and I would love to hear what you think of the game, so feel free to leave a comment below about your experience and opinions. I have played some games in the same genre so I was excited to dive into Startup Panic. Earning that first dollar is the easy part Startup Panic – If it were easy being the boss then everybody would do it
Startup Panic is Algorocks debut game and is available now on PC as well as Android & iOS. In this single-player sim, even the game tells you success is unlikely but odds are meant to be beaten.
Soon you go to renting office space, hiring employees and even becoming rivals with the head of a giant corporation. Starting off humbly in the characters home with a dream of building an online platform company like WordPress or Squarespace. The game begins with the protagonist quitting their soul-crushing job to start their own company from scratch. Startup Panic is a life sim game from the Indonesian indie developer Algorocks and published by Tinybuild.