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Build your tech startup from scratch as CEO, hiring employees and developing services to compete against parody versions of real-world tech giants. The game layers business simulation mechanics—managing work rates, leveling up to unlock new roles, and strategic company building—into a sandbox where progression opens new possibilities. Best suited for players who enjoy detailed management sims and don't mind early-access polish.

About this game

Players, last 30 days

Peak 45 · Low 16

Daily peak concurrent players, sampled once a night from Steam.

What players are saying

▼ Not recommended 1 hrs

You must follow the "milestones" or lose the game, which effectively makes the entire game a tutorial as you are forced into playing the game as the developers intend instead of how you want. Your main source of income is completing the "milestones" for magical cash that you must then spend to reach the next "milestone", which makes doing anything in the game feel forced.

There is no room for creativity like in other sim/management games. You have employees create modules for other employees to create modules to upgrade the features of your website. The features of your website are meaningless and only serve to increase the potential amount of users and do nothing to make you feel as if you are making a design choice. There is literally no difference for what type of website you want to make, because there are no design choices. Each employee is just a cog in the machine of spitting out components. You can literally queue up all of the components on an employee and they will endlessly make them. The gameplay you get is waiting for them to make the components so you get to click the upgrade button on your feature. That is it.

The game is very unrewarding. I cannot stress enough that there is absolutely no creative freedom in this game both in how you manage your employee production and the features of your website. If you want a simulation, management, or strategy game, this is not it. The video and screenshots for this game do a really good job of making it seem like there is depth, but there is not. After having played the game, the video on the store page is laughable.

255 found helpful Steam ↗

▲ Recommended 35 hrs

In Startup Company you have the role of entrepreneur and CEO and a mission to start your very own tech company from scratch. The goal is to compete with titans like Gugle, Friendbook and Amazine - the names are just recognizable in the game universe without causing the copyright bells to go off.

Your level rises and opens up new employees, such as managers that set work rates for one's employees, designers who can produce graphical modules and HR managers that can regulate your employee's working hours.

One element of the game is that your employees get sad and unproductive if they work for a long time without holiday or if their contract does not include things like healthcare and free drinks or if the office is not equipped with meeting tables in heavy oak and a pair of unbearably expensive sofas.

As the game progresses, you move on to more website features and server hosting centers. The marketing functionality is like the real world, where your campaign’s success will be based on your ability to correctly target the relevant audience.

You’ll also have to improve features based on user feedback. The total satisfaction is based on the average of all features. Satisfaction will directly impact your conversion rate when running marketing campaigns. Running a website with just a landing page won’t be very interesting. Marketing campaigns can be Text Ads, Banner Ads, Video Ads and Subscriptions.

I love the aspect of running your own company, and this is one of the best polished and thought through games I have played in the business simulation game genre.

THE GOOD
- Nice tutorial
- Reflects real life business
- Different types of website services
- Easy to learn / Hard to master
- The music is nice

THE BAD
- Can get repetitive
- When your business is getting successful you really don’t have much to do

9/10

If you like this review, then please consider giving it a thumbs up. I've also reviewed other games that you might find interesting. If so please follow Top of the Chart.

231 found helpful Steam ↗

▼ Not recommended 4 hrs

A glorified Cookie Clicker. You start slow, you have to click your Developers manually and click the modules you want to make, you take on easy simple contracts by manually clicking your sales exec when they find a contract, you earn money little by little. The progress is pretty much streamlined, what's with the tier level unlocking new staff and chairs.

Closer to the end there's no need for contracts, managers do your dev clicking work for you, you basically print money automatically, with almost no input. All you have to do is keep Hype level for your own products high by clicking either Update or Marketing buttons.

When/If the dev of this game adds the feature of selling your startup to start anew, this is gonna look pretty much like a Prestige/Ascension thingy from Cookie Clicker et al. I don't even know what can be done to move from the concept of Cookie Clicker at this point, I hope the modders will figure it out through the Workshop, and I'll try the game again at some point in the future, when there's a lot of mods and the promised random event system, but for now I don't want to boot it up again. It's even cut short of the promised 8 hours of playtime, 5 hours were enough to get to the "print money" phase. Really wished for it to be deeper than that.

Also, the framerate gets choppy closer to the end of the game, and the game's crashed on me once while at it, probably something with the amount of elements and animations from all the employees, the desks, different windows etc. No big deal, it's Early Access, just wanted to point it out.

EDIT: since somebody asked me to compare Startup Company to Game Dev Tycoon, here's the link to the comparison: https://pastebin.com/uRWPPhaF

220 found helpful Steam ↗

Reviews are by Steam users, hosted on Steam.

Latest updates

Steam Deck-optimized version of Startup Company

1255 days ago

Dear Startup Company players, We have some exciting news to share with you. We are introducing a new version of the game that has been optimized for use with controllers. This means that the game will be fully compatible with the Steam Deck and other controller-based devices. We recommend that players on desktop computers continue to play the regular version of the game as it provides the best experience in terms of gameplay, modding, and overall performance. However, if you prefer to play using a controller, the new controller-optimized version of the game will provide an equally immersive and enjoyable experience. Please note that the controller-optimized version of Startup Company will not support modding, and savegames between the two versions are not compatible/shared. To choose between the two versions, simply start the game as usual and you'll be prompted to select the desired game version: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/f967cb4fdbb6e0d647eac7e7337a1ff6451c834a.png Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for Startup Company. We hope you enjoy the new controller-optimized version of the game! Sincerely, Hovgaard Games

Our new game "Big Ambitions" is now available on Steam Early Access!

1286 days ago

Hi everyone, We're incredibly happy and equally scared to finally release our new game, Big Ambitions, into Steam Early Access. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331550/Big_Ambitions/ Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim Big Ambitions is the successor to Startup Company. While Startup Company was all about large internet-based businesses, Big Ambitions focuses much more on the small retail businesses that grow to become huge empires. To quickly give you an understanding of the game, here's a list of its key features: Huge Business Sandbox - Go from nothing to the most prominent tycoon in New York. Whether one business or multiple, work smart and make them thrive. Grow any Business - Start your own gift shop, supermarket, coffee shop, or law firm. Whether it’s a single shop or making millions developing websites from a basement. Incredibly In-depth - Take out a loan, rent multiple buildings, design their logos, renovate your stores, grab stock, manage your money, hire staff, and create your infrastructure. Life Sim on Steroids - Need a delivery truck? Travel to a dealer and buy one. Need food? Head to a supermarket, just make sure you have a refrigerator back at home. Own New York City - Enter any building in New York and buy it. Go from a small apartment to a dream penthouse in midtown or buy a series of skyscrapers. Fast Cars or Investment Funds - Spend your wealth however you wish. Buy a big SUV, a speedy sports car, or the new luxurious Mersaidi S500. Maybe even risk it all at the casinos. Make it to Retirement, or don't - Make sure you get enough sleep and stay healthy and happy. Enjoy the journey, for as you grow older, you’ll discover that money can’t buy you time... or can it? If you want to read more about our journey developing Big Ambitions, as well as its Early Access Roadmap, I recommend checking out the official Steam announcement: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1331550/view/3653020827586553519 We really hope you'll like...

Startup Company coming to PlayStation 5|4, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch

1387 days ago

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28693489/ed19499866c95a96b2044a4b83a588cc3f014f2d.png Hey everyone, We have exciting news to share! Startup Company will expand business to PlayStation 5|4, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023! It is available to wishlist now: Xbox: https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/startup-company-console-edition/9n43wgrsm8nx Playstation: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10004684 Nintendo: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/startup-company-console-edition-switch/ If you’ve been a fellow entrepreneur with us on PC over the years, we can’t thank you enough. We’re so happy that over 400k of you have been enjoying the businesses you’ve built. When bringing this dynamic corporate environment to consoles, we will present Startup Company in a new light with new UI/UX features. While the original version of Startup Company was built using HTML/Javascript, Startup Company Console Edition was developed in Unity. You’ll be creating a fresh company from scratch with the features you know and love, all perfectly suited for console platforms. Get ready for a new class of corporate competition! We can't wait for you all to experience our new console edition. As always, we are available via Discord, Twitter, Email, Instagram, or the comments below. Thanks for reading, and thank you for your continued support! - All of us at Hovgaard Games

Posts come from Steam's official announcements feed.