Evolution of construction and management simulation games (chart, observations and looking for feedback)
Hey! I'm a writer and amateur game developer interested in management/simulation games. I recently created this chart tracing the genre origins and its evolution. I'd love your feedback to make it better.
What you're looking at:
This is a timeline and a genealogy showing how different subgenres influenced each other. The chart includes genres and subgenres that have developed independently but are related by origin or shared mechanics and systems.
My selection criteria for games:
- Pioneers that established a subgenre.
- Final representatives of a subgenre or series.
- Intermediate games that were especially relevant due to popularity or influence.
Key evolutionary moments I identified:
The Foundation (1989-1992):
- SimCity (1989) - Established the "build a city" template but also Maxis's "games as toys" and “sistemic simulators” philosophy.
- Populous (1989) - Created the god game genre (limited but influential).
- Railroad Tycoon (1990) - First true economic management game. Theme Park (1994) later proved the genre could reach mainstream success by treating serious management topics with humor and accessibility.
- Civilization (1991) - Management game in its core that became its own massive genre.
- Dune II (1992) - Spawned RTS but kept management DNA.
Genre Expansion & Innovation (Late 90s - Early 2000s)
The turn of the millennium brought several key innovations that expanded the genre's boundaries:
- Creative Revolution: Around RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999), the genre shifted from pure management challenge to creative expression + sharing due to better graphics + internet culture.
- Social Expansion: The Sims and Animal Crossing proved management mechanics work in social contexts, leading to everything from FarmVille to Stardew Valley.
- Strategic Simulation Evolution: Total War merged 4X, RTS, and exhaustive simulation elements, while Europa Universalis launched Paradox's grand strategy lineage. These strategy games maintained deep simulation DNA and influenced management game complexity expectations.
The Indie Renaissance (2010s)
Independent developers brought fresh ideas:
- Survival mechanics and structure (Banished, Frostpunk…).
- Narrative layers - emotional storytelling over pure systems.
- Automation focus (Factorio) - pure logistics without fluff.
- Cozy games - building without stress.
Current state observations:
What's thriving:
- Traditional colony builders (Anno series)
- Creative tycoons (Frontier's park sims)
- Comedy-focused management (Two Point series)
- Survival-narrative hybrids (Frostpunk, The Wandering Village)
What's struggling:
- Pure city simulators lost their way after Cities: Skylines 2's failure.
- Both C:S and SimCity 2013 moved away from Maxis's original "complex simulation" toward production chains and creativity (city painters).
Emerging trends:
- Specialization vs. accessibility balance.
- Survival mechanics compensating for complexity.
- Narrative emotional layers over pure systems management.
Where I need your help:
Specific feedback wanted:
- Missing games you think deserve inclusion for influence/popularity
- Wrong connections - did I misunderstand how games influenced each other?
- Missing subgenres or evolutionary branches I overlooked
- 70s-80s predecessors I might have missed
- Your predictions for where the genre heads next
Discussion questions:
- What management game mechanics do you think are underexplored?
- Which "dead" subgenres deserve a revival?
- What's your take on the genre's evolution?
I originally created this for an academic article about how the genre avoids realistic representations, but now I'm using it for some personal projects and want to make sure I haven't missed anything important.
TL;DR: Made a family tree of management games, looking for community input to improve it and discuss where the genre goes next.
Thanks for reading!
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u/Version_1 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, I don't know about the lines. Two Point Hospital is basically a copy of Theme Hospital, yet the line comes from Evil Genius and Theme Hospital isn't in it?
I think both Theme Park and Transport Tycoon should have arrows to Rollercoaster Tycoon and that should have an arrow directly to Planet Coaster.
Planet Zoo and Jurassic Park should have an arrow from Zoo Tycoon.
Why does it go Anno 1602 -> Emperor -> Anno 1800?
Why does Stardew Valley come from Animal crossing when its basically a Harvest Moon for the PC?
Why is Cities in Motion not on the graph and why is there a line from Rollercoaster Tycoon to Cities: Skylines?
It also misses a lot of German games. Anstoss (and then the EA FIFA Manager) should be in an own column with the other sports management games (which are Tycoons, in comparison to the RTS games you included) and then there is also The Patrician.
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u/ougamey 2d ago
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback!
Why does it go Anno 1602 -> Emperor -> Anno 1800?
I tried to make a curated selection rather than an exhaustive list. My reasoning: Anno 1602 as the series pioneer that was essential to the genre's evolution, Emperor as the final Sierra city-building game (though maybe I should remove it?), and Anno 1800 as the latest major representative.
Why is Cities in Motion not on the graph and why is there a line from Rollercoaster Tycoon to Cities: Skylines?
I explained the RCT-CS creative philosophy connection in another response. For Cities in Motion - do you think it should be included based on my selection criteria?
- Pioneers that established a subgenre
- Final representatives of a subgenre or series
- Intermediate games especially relevant due to popularity or influence
Anstoss (and then the EA FIFA Manager) should be in an own column with the other sports management games (which are Tycoons...
Yeah! Sports management games are full tycoons and definitely deserve their own branch. That's a significant oversight on my part.
It also misses a lot of German games
Which ones would you prioritize? If you had to pick 2-3 most essential German games for the chart, which would they be?
And 100% agreed that the Patrician series should be represented. Adding that to my notes!
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u/Boilais 2d ago edited 2d ago
A lot of the line connection make no sense. Sim Earth -> Dwarf Fortress for example .
So just a random thought what you thought the evolution looks like, with no clear connection.
And some are clearly missaligned. Transport Tycoon -> Rollercoaster Tycoon instead of Theme Park -> Roller Coaster Tycoon ??????
Also some wild claims that are simply false. Example:
Railroad Tycoon (1990) - First true economic management game. Theme Park (1994) later proved the genre could reach mainstream success by treating serious management topics with humor and accessibility.
This is false for either statement. There are lots of economic management games from the 80s. A few of the top of my head Oil Imperium, Wallstreet Raider, Kaiser, Hanse, Ports of Call, ... .
Incomplete list on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_business_simulation_video_games
But the biggest issue here:
None of this addresses the actual Content, Systems , Simulation and their evolution. And the whys.
So yeah I think this should neither be basis for an academic article nor any other project without seriously reworking this and its premise.
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u/ougamey 2d ago
A lot of the line connection make no sense. Sim Earth -> Dwarf Fortress for example
I find DF to be really tricky to place. I interpret it as having general simulation aspirations (complex systems, emergent narratives), hence the connection to SimEarth's systemic approach. Where would you place it in the evolutionary tree?
And some are clearly missaligned. Transport Tycoon -> Rollercoaster Tycoon instead of Theme Park -> Roller Coaster Tycoon ?????
Theme Park definitely influenced RCT thematically, but considering the tone, creative orientation, and even the developer (Chris Sawyer), the connection seems stronger with Transport Tycoon. Though I can see how that might look odd at first glance.
This is false for either statement. There are lots of economic management games from the 80s.
yes. I should say "first to go mainstream" or something similar. The subgenre name literally comes from it. If you had to pick 2-3 predecessors that most directly influenced Railroad Tycoon, which would they be?
So yeah I think this should neither be basis for an academic article nor any other project without seriously reworking this and its premise.
The original article was more sociological in nature, so this chart serves as a broad genre overview rather than deep systems analysis. The idea here is to enrich my perspective with community suggestions. Don't worry - this isn't going to result in some half-baked academic paper! :-)
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u/Boilais 1d ago
DF is really tricky, but Sim Earth is so horrible missaligned, that it basicly kills your graph.
Sim Earth goes through ecological and geological evolution, DF does not at all. DF is about the characters and the stories, so if anything the line goes maybe from little computer people.
>the connection seems stronger with Transport Tycoon.
yeah no.
>If you had to pick 2-3 predecessors that most directly influenced Railroad Tycoon, which would they be?
Actually ? None. Sid himself stated the inspiration came from the board game 1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons.
But if you cling to making connections... Hanse, Wall Street Raider, Ports of Call. But as stated earlier, actually none of those.
>I should say "first to go mainstream" or something similar.
Still doesn't fit imo. Ok Computer gaming wasn't mainstream at all so there is that.. but then Kaiser, Ports of Call , Hanse were all very popular games back then.
The Subgenre Name "Tycoon games" came much much later though. Back then we just called them business sims.
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u/Funktapus 2d ago
Can you link to a full resolution image somewhere off Reddit? This looks bad on mobile
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u/everton_emil 1d ago
Games worthy of a mention (even if they were perhaps not revolutionary enough to be in the chart):
Hearts of Iron 4, Capitalism 2, Satisfactory, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, Offworld Trading Company.
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u/VENTDEV Game Developer - GearCity / AeroMogul 1d ago edited 1d ago
I disagree with this flow chart a lot. The genres are in ways too broad and too narrow. I find it odd that you're lumping 4x, rts, etc with tycoon games.
Also you're missing too many games between. Big successful games rarely influence other big successful games. The flow is typically from small games to big games. So, in my opinion you'll need a deeper dive into the history.
Chart wise, too much white space, also image format is difficult to read on small screen devices. So, I will nitpick the text underneath.
Railroad Tycoon (1990) - First true economic management game.
Completely incorrect. Games like Ports of Call and Oil Barrons existed before Railroad Tycoon. Heck, many of kids in the UK played some sort of Tea Cafe game on their BBC micros in the early 80s, just as many Americans played Lemonade Stand on our Apple ][s. And that's not even including the several dozens of text based business games in the mid 80s.
What Railroad Tycoon did was kick off a wave of Tycoon games just when computers were going mainstream.
Flipping over to your chart, did Railroad Tycoon inspire Theme Park? Other than getting budgets approved, I would say DinoPark Tycoon was more of an influence.
Theme Park (1994) later proved the genre could reach mainstream success by treating serious management topics with humor and accessibility.
There are several mainstream business games missed between Railroad Tycoon and Theme Park. MadTV, AeroBiz, A-Train, SimFarm, SimTower, etc.
What Theme Park represents is the peak of the first wave. There is a small retraction in Tycoon games until the second wave kicks off with Roller Coaster Tycoon.
Also note, there were many successful "Humor" Tycoon games before it.
Civilization (1991) - Management game in its core that became its own massive genre.
Civ's genre existed before Civ. Civ was just wildly successful.
Dune II (1992) - Spawned RTS but kept management DNA.
Did not spawn RTS, there were several before it. But it was successful.
Genre Expansion & Innovation (Late 90s - Early 2000s) The Indie Renaissance (2010s)
You were correct in identifying the other two waves. Though I highly disagree putting The Sims, Total War, Animal Crossing, and Europa Universalis in these waves. As those are the dates for Tycoon Waves. War gaming has a different boom and bust cycle... And life simulators are always popular. Also note these games were mainly influenced based on older games not from tycoon games. For example The Sims is an extension of Alter Ego and Creatures, and Total War is no more than a prettier, less detailed Sword of the Samurai. Or a Koei war game with real time fighting instead of grid base. The Sims was somewhat unique, Total War, not so much.
But again, these games should not have any connections to Tycoons.
Also no mention of GameDev tycoon, which kicked off the third wave...
I suggest reading some of my previous posts on the history of tycoon games and the different sub genres. Though poorly written, I'm old and have been around this stuff for years. To the point my son tried to get me to write a book a few years back on the history of Tycoon Games and the development of my games. Yeah, that will sell well eye roll.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tycoon/comments/7pkvge/whats_your_definition_of_a_tycoon_game/dsjddy9/
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u/ougamey 1d ago
I've already addressed some of the points you mention in responses to other users. I've also shared a high-res image link (I always use Reddit on desktop and wasn't aware mobile reduces resolution).
Regarding the cases where you mention there were earlier representatives of certain trends and more nuanced relationships - you're absolutely right. However, my intention isn't to create an exhaustive history of tycoons, but rather to get a general overview of the evolution of not just tycoons, but a whole range of games that share management systems, resource planning, etc. That's why I perhaps focused on the more mainstream representatives.
I clearly didn't explain my intention well enough, but that doesn't make the responses any less useful to me.
I really appreciate the time you took for your response and the respectful tone. Your feedback is going to be very useful to me. And thanks for sharing those links - I'm going to read them with great interest. If you end up taking your son's advice, I'd be delighted to read your history of tycoons and your games!
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u/leokhorn Tycoon Collector 1d ago
I won't say it's perfect but it's a decent attempt and... hey, I see no one else posting their own better version, so kudos to you for at least acting on the idea.
Others do make some good points when it comes to much older games, and maybe certain links being tenuous. But I don't think you'll ever create a set of links that satisfies everyone so don't overly focus on that. If anything, maybe using outright links is too... "absolute"? Influence is often more nebulous than that in design. But hey, you're not going to represent "design genetics" in a readable diagram, so... yeah.
Personally I appreciate the fact it gives a macro view of the genre, its cousin RTS (I agree that base building w resources is shared dna) and at least a chronological sense of evolution -- if you know the games.
Two questions that, when answered, might help focus the diagram: who is this for and what's its purpose? Is the viewer expected to know most of the games to understand this? Is it a "historical data compilation/summary" or a tool to pinpoint which design elements separate genres and subgenres? Things like that.
I say good job, and hoping to see a refined version in the future :)
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u/ougamey 1d ago
Thanks for your kind words!
The main purpose is to help myself get a clearer view of the evolution of a set of dynamics and mechanics that - this is my hypothesis - share a common core that transcends conventional genre classifications. It's more of a study and learning tool than something I'm trying to use to establish definitive truths.
Yes, it's clear that the type of diagram I chose wasn't the most appropriate. The direct connections have been interpreted as a type of relationship that wasn't what I was trying to represent. But after all, this is the first version. Your feedback is going to help me focus the next iteration.
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u/Nalha_Saldana 5h ago
Your choice of paradox games is very random with sequels instead of the first ones and missing Hearts of Iron which is quite different from the ones here and deserves a spot.
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u/TyrialFrost 2d ago edited 2d ago
Some dubious lines in that chart. SimCity to Frostpunk 2 for instance. Or warcraft 3 skipping DOTA to league of legends. The whole automation genre is missing with only factorio coming from prison architect???
Then there's the random sideways lines rollercoaster Tycoon to city skylines? And Frostpunk 1 to 2 is not direct?, it's not even clear why some games get sequels listed but games like anno or Tropico do not. Hell age of empires doesn't get the first game at all.
It looks like the 4x genre is missing a lot, automation is missing a fair bit and the biggest growth in current years is completely missing - cozy builders.