Smartphone Tycoon
- March 1, 2019
- Roastery Games
- 6h median play time
Get on Steam"Smartphone Tycoon" is a simulation game where players design and manufacture their own customizable smartphones, competing in a virtual market with other companies. The game features a variety of components, styles, and marketing strategies to help players' devices stand out. With a focus on innovation and business management, players must balance cost, performance, and consumer demand to succeed in the competitive smartphone industry.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a fun concept of designing and managing a smartphone company.
- The graphics and user interface are visually appealing and well-designed.
- Despite its bugs, some players find the game enjoyable and addictive for short periods.
- The game is riddled with bugs, including crashes and issues with saving progress.
- Gameplay can become repetitive and lacks depth, leading to boredom after a short time.
- Many features are poorly implemented or do not function as intended, making the game feel unfinished.
- gameplay57 mentions
- 5 % positive mentions
- 84 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been widely criticized for being repetitive, buggy, and lacking depth, with many users reporting issues such as save deletions and broken mechanics. Players find the game unchallenging and poorly designed, often comparing it unfavorably to other titles in the genre. Despite some appealing visuals and customization options, the overall experience is marred by technical flaws and a lack of engaging content.
“Gameplay/replayability: 75%, amazing customizing in the phones tab, but it gets old and boring to replay.”
“It is far more than perfect to be called 'tycoon.' The feels of the game still rigid, the UX needs to be developed more, but it has nice reality in gameplay for those who really want to try to become the next Steve Jobs.”
“- overall it is a great experience. The game has some longer load times on some parts, but it doesn't really affect the gameplay that much!”
“The gameplay is repetitive and lacks any real challenge or depth.”
“Obvious money grab and poorly put together buggy game, heavily unpolished and limited gameplay features after a few hours.”
“Basic mechanics of the game are broken and/or redundant and have no effect on the gameplay whatsoever.”
- graphics43 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising their realism and visual appeal, while others criticize them as outdated, bland, or buggy. Many users report performance issues, including low frame rates and graphical glitches, which detract from the overall experience. Overall, while there are moments of aesthetic success, the inconsistency and technical problems hinder the game's graphical quality.
“Best game of 2022; the graphics are so realistic.”
“Smartphone Tycoon is a genuinely fun game with modernistic visuals, a good soundtrack, and a good amount of customization.”
“This game is graphically beautiful and seems extremely realistic; however, that is the only good thing to say about it.”
“The graphics are outdated and bland, making the game feel unappealing and uninteresting.”
“Too many bugs, graphics are all over the place, devs don't care and awful gameplay.”
“It feels like a 2-year-old's playpen; its graphics are horrible.”
- stability36 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is widely criticized for its severe stability issues, with numerous reports of bugs, freezing, and lag that significantly hinder gameplay. Many users describe it as an unfinished and unpolished experience, lacking essential content and updates from developers. Overall, the consensus is that the game is too buggy to be enjoyable, making it difficult for players to recommend it.
“Takes a while to load simple stuff, it just freezes for like 5 seconds when you try to go to the 'main area' and I use a very good computer!”
“If the developers had spent a little more time optimizing and fixing the game it might have been a worthwhile tycoon simulator, but instead we're left with an unfinished, buggy mess of a game two years into its life cycle.”
“Very, very, very laggy game, lots of glitches and barely works. When I first went to open it, it took 15 minutes before I could see the main menu; would not recommend at all.”
- story25 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 32 % negative mentions
The reviews indicate a consensus that the game lacks a meaningful story, with multiple users noting that it primarily focuses on making money without any narrative depth or engaging plot elements.
“There is no story.”
“It's not like Game Dev Story where the employees go to sleep and have conferences; the game is just about making money with no problem.”
“There is no story.”
- optimization17 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 29 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with users reporting severe performance issues such as long loading times, low frame rates (20-30 fps), and frequent bugs, even on high-end systems. Many players feel that the game is poorly optimized overall, requiring significant improvements to enhance gameplay experience. Despite some acknowledgment of the developer's efforts, the consensus is that the game is not ready for purchase due to its optimization shortcomings.
“It could definitely benefit from some serious optimization, but for a first game, I must give the dev props; it must have taken a newbie like that a few good weeks to get it running.”
“The game is not at all optimized and will often run at about 20-30 fps later on in the game, even if you have a beefed-up PC.”
“It needs some more work (at least I think!), the game has super bad optimization (13 fps in Intel HD graphics), funny but hard.”
“The performance is a disaster for this kind of game, several seconds loading time when you want to go from one menu to another in a round.”
“The game is not at all optimized and will often run at about 20-30 fps later on in the game even if you have a beefed up PC.”
“Very badly or not even optimized lags on an i7-8700k and a 1080.”
- grinding14 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Players overwhelmingly express that grinding in the game is excessively time-consuming and tedious, often requiring an unrealistic commitment akin to having a "second life." The lack of shortcuts and frustrating interface elements, such as difficult-to-use sliders, further exacerbate the grind, making progression feel laborious and unenjoyable.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“It's a tedious progression with no shortcuts in strategy; you just have to grind 'points' to research new phone features, and the only way to get them is by developing new phones.”
“Moreover, GUIs with sliders are equally as annoying because you cannot simply click on the bar to shift the slider; you rather have to tediously navigate the mouse to a very small sliding part to move it.”
- music12 mentions
- 58 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The music in "Smartphone Tycoon" receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the enjoyable and relaxing soundtrack, others find it generic and lacking originality. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's atmosphere, but it may not be memorable or worth purchasing separately.
“Smartphone Tycoon is a genuinely fun game with modernistic visuals, a good soundtrack, and a good amount of customization.”
“This game is very fun, I like the music and the vast amount of customization.”
“About this PC version, it has amazing style, great music, fine graphics, and the amazing creator to create your own smartphone.”
“I would never splurge for a soundtrack.”
“Not to mention the music in the game was music that I was able to recognize due to the fact I used it in a video I made for school because it was free, generic music.”
- monetization8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game has been widely criticized for being intrusive and overly aggressive, with many users labeling it a "cash grab" due to excessive in-game advertisements and microtransactions. Players feel that these elements detract significantly from the overall experience, and some suggest that the game is unplayable due to bugs and a lack of developer support, further exacerbating the negative perception of its monetization approach.
“The in-game advertisements and microtransactions are intrusive and disruptive, taking away from the overall experience.”
“It's actually terrible, a complete rip-off, just a cash grab. Don't buy it unless you have $1000 to spare.”
“It has potential, and I think the devs honestly put work into it, but at the same time it feels like it's just a cash grab, especially when the screen keeps glitching.”
- humor6 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is noted to be initially entertaining, with some players finding it genuinely funny, but it tends to wear thin over time. However, many reviews highlight that the humor is overshadowed by significant bugs and poor optimization, leading to frustration rather than laughter. Overall, while there are moments of humor, the game's technical issues detract from the overall experience.
“This game has nice graphics; although it's funny as hell, it is also more buggy than a 98-year-old grandma on life support.”
“(It would also be funny if we could do the fingerprint scanner on the power button like it is on some phones.)”
“It's funny in the beginning, but it gets boring after some hours.”
“Couldn't even get the rivals' names right (not funny or silly).”
“The game is good, but there are so many bugs it's just not funny...”
- replayability3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
The game offers some customization options that enhance replayability, particularly for tycoon elements; however, many players find that it becomes repetitive over time. The lack of updates and mod support contributes to a sense of stagnation, leading to a generally low replay value.
“The game has amazing customization options, which enhance the replayability.”
“Without mod support and updates, the game feels stale and lacks replayability.”
“The game doesn't seem to be receiving any more updates, so I doubt any of this will change, and the lack of mod support leaves the game with a stale, non-replayable vibe.”
“Tycoon games benefit from replay value, while microtransaction games do not.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is negatively impacted by the inclusion of employee photos, which clash with the overall graphic style and disrupt immersion.
“The employee photos ruin the atmosphere; they're not in line with the rest of the game's graphics.”
