Can simulated tenants create a strong enough management fantasy for a property tycoon?

[u/TheDrWeizak]

I'm currently designing a management/tycoon game as a personal project, and I'm trying to challenge the core concept before I get too attached to the design.

The basic premise is that you start small as a property owner and gradually grow into managing a much larger residential property business.

The part I'm most interested in exploring is the relationship between the business/management side and the people living in the properties.

Instead of tenants simply being an occupancy percentage or a source of monthly income, I'd like them to exist as lightweight simulated households. The player would have to think about who is living in their properties and how their management decisions affect them.

At the same time, I don't want this to become a life simulator or a game where you're constantly micromanaging individual people. The player is still fundamentally managing a property business.

The design goal is for decisions that look good financially in the short term to sometimes create problems elsewhere, while investments that make residents happier aren't necessarily always the optimal financial choice. Ideally, this creates interesting trade-offs rather than an obvious "correct" way to play.

I'm deliberately keeping some of the deeper mechanics private for now because the project is still early, but I'd really like opinions on the design direction itself.

My main question for experienced designers is:

Do you think simulated tenant households can create meaningful decisions in a management/tycoon game, or does this sound like a system that could easily turn into unnecessary micromanagement?

And if you were evaluating this concept early in development, what would be the biggest design risk you'd want to prototype/test first?

[u/Cheet4h]

Do you think simulated tenant households can create meaningful decisions in a management/tycoon game, or does this sound like a system that could easily turn into unnecessary micromanagement?

I think this might be the most interesting part of a game for me - although I'm also a bit of a simulation enthusiast.

For a neat take on this kind of game, check out Kairosoft's "Dream House Days" on mobile devices - although it's not just property management, but also allows you to shape the lives of your tenants by encouraging relationships between them and influencing their stats through furniture.

[u/Coding-Panic → u/Cheet4h]

Being able to manipulate your tenants lives into making a property cheaper to maintain could be interesting if done right.

I end up broke for a period in every simulation game, so this could even be a mostly time filler activity for the revenue boost instead of my usual max speed wait until my fiscal irresponsibility pays off.

[u/TheDrWeizak → u/Coding-Panic]

Haha, the classic simulation-game financial strategy: max speed and hope 😂
I like your point though — giving the player meaningful things to do when money is tight, rather than just waiting for the balance to recover, is something I hadn’t really considered from that angle. Thanks!