Voxel Tycoon is the latest dopamine distribution experience to fully capture my attention. This business simulation game is one of those games that subdues you into a flow state where time passes quickly and sleep becomes so much less relevant. For me as a player, this says something. While I typically do play the occasional simulation game, I often find their mechanics convoluted and the learning curves too steep for enjoyment. There is an underlying intuition into all of the mechanics here and a fool proof basic tutorial that gets you at least half way up the mountain before allowing you to wander off on your own.

Voxel Tycoon is a manufacturing, shipping, and materials fabrications game. You play as the owner of a company that seeks to make as much money as possible (like any tycoon game) through the efforts of your business. You start in a small territory with a handful of surrounding towns that require raw materials. At first the game is a shipping and logistics game. The initial goal is to mine out the materials and ship them to customers that need them. As you grow your business, you will need to optomise the shipping routes and diversify using both roads and train rail to get your materials to where they need to go. Towns will also being demanding more complex materials which will require manufacturing facilities in order to fabricate the materials to meet demand.

At some point in this process you will need to expands beyond your initial borders. This will purchasing access to surrounding territories to mine new raw materials and make even more complicated fabricated materials for your existing and new customers. One of the hooks here is that the game theoretically should expand forever. You should always be able to find a new territory and always be able to expand your business in a bigger and more profitable system.

While the game is launching into early access for now, it has been in an prealpha state for the last couple years on itch.io. Despite this, it looks, feels, and plays like a game ready for release. The developers are wanting to add more content for the initial release, and I did run into a couple minor (if not insignificant) bugs. There are a few improvements that could be made as well to smooth out the gameplay like adding some bulk actions and new hotkeys, but this is something I think could be handled after full release. That being said, I think it's admirable of them to be taking their time to develop the game right and maximize the quality of the final product. Voxel Tycoon is completely worthy and worth their asking price.


Steam ($25): https://store.steampowered.com/app/73...


The developer has provided a key for this product.