|| REVIEW || Startup Panic! (PC)

 Developed By : Algo.Rocks                                                    Published By : tinyBuild
Category : Simulation, Strategy, Casual, Indie
Release Date : December 3, 2020

Chances are, if you've been a gamer for...well, any length of time, you're more than likely to have used games as an escape. Whether you've had a rough day and just want to gang up with some friends and go slaughter some zombies, or maybe get a minute taste of a life or career that is just out of your grasp. If it's the latter, the simulation genre brings a plethora of options to dive into, giving you endless opportunities to peek in at those careers and livelihoods that you might not otherwise experience. 

Take Startup Panic for example. The majority of us have, at some point, worked a typical 9-5 job. Whether those were your actual hours or not, we've all had a job that we needed to punch in and out of, and chances are it was far from a perfect situation. Those jobs all came with bad days, of dreams and imaginings of better things, and that's just what this isometric simulation lets you do.

 

In the opening moments, your character, lost in a sea of employees in a call center, stands up and announces they're quitting and storms out. They return home with grand ideas running and building their own start-up. Oh, and if you grew up using Microsoft Office through the 90's you'll be happy to know you're already familiar with your assistant in realizing your dream. Say hello, to Clippy. 

Right form the start, Clippy is there to help you along the way as you try building your startup from a bedroom dream to a world-wide big name. Initially he is constantly by your side teaching you the ways of everything you need. Eventually though, he'll let the reigns go and you'll be off to sink or swim on your own. He won't be gone forever though, as each time you encounter something brand new he'll poke his paper-clip head in to help you out again. 

To start, you'll be running things on your own, but as you gain some traction you'll move things into an office and get to hire employees underneath you. Whether its yourself or your staff though, you'll have a handful of stats to worry about. 

 

The most important are the trifecta of stats you'll need for working on all your projects : Technology, Aesthetic, and Usability. Everything you work on will be built by and around these three things, and it will be up to you to assign the best person or people for the job. Once the project or feature is completed, these three areas will be graded and an overall score will be leveled.

 

The work you undertake will fall into one of two areas for the most part. Mainly you'll be working on features towards your startup. These cost money, however, and the turnaround on how much profit it generates for you won't be beneficial until a ways down the road. Outside of this, you can also pick up side jobs and contracts from other people looking for help on their own work. These contracts will be how you supplement your income in order to bang out other features, but the person requesting the help will have a minimum grade/score you need to achieve in order for you to be paid. 

 

 You and your employees also share a motivation stat which is basically their energy level. The more energy they have, the more motivated they are to do their work and put in the best work possible. So, if you assign someone a project while their motivation is near-full you'll be getting the most out of their stats. However if you assign it to someone with their motivation down in the 60's or lower, this will effect the final outcome. 

Everyone's final stat is the marketing one. This one is utilized the least, at least I felt it was, but at the same time it's very crucial to advancing your startup. Certain types of features are unable to be worked on and developed until the proper research is done for them. Pretty early on though, your first use of this skill brings up a constantly moving slider that shows how well you are faring against your other competitors. 

All your stats can be improved through training. You can individually send staff off to get focused training on one of their stats, and when they return, the rating will improve 1-3 points. Motivation can also be "improved" by sending your employees off on vacation. Various vacations are available to recover different amounts of energy, and you'll eventually get to send people off on group vacations too. 

Managing your startup is definitely a task. I've played a handful of different simulation games, and in all the other ones I've been a single character managing a number of different resources. With Startup Panic you don't have to tackle so many things but you'll be in charge of a lot of people in your company. Your first office has a max capacity of five employees, while the second increases it to 11, and it continues going up from there. That's a lot of people to keep track of in terms of motivation and even their salary needs, because if you don't keep them happily paid they'll seek employment elsewhere. 

Along your journey for world-wide fame and riches, the game generates a handful of random scenarios for you to encounter. These range from hackers messing with one of your features, or a blogger giving you a bad review. The initial actions will have effects on your company, possibly deterring away would-be users from a bad review, or losing actual users because of something getting hacked. Additionally though, your response to these things can effect things too. For instance, if you respond by taking a jab at the bad reviewer it will look negatively on you compared to if you were to just let it go. So as you play, and as you build yourself up from the ground, just remember it's about every single thing you do in your endeavor to make something of your startup. 

 

 

Game Rating : 8 / 10

 

Pick up the game HERE on Epic Games Store

 

Also available on Mobile Devices

 

A code for this game was graciously provided

to the site for purpose of a review