You can pretty much simulate any profession these days, from farming to scrapping intergalactic spaceships. But one profession has yet to be encapsulated into a video game, and that profession is music festivals.
Ever since the internet and free data duplication cratered the recording industry, music festivals are where musicians really make their bank. It’s where they get discovered, where they sell t-shirts, and where people throw themselves on stage to be tossed back into the crowd by angry security staff.
And now there’s a game that lets you control every aspect of the music festival experience. Festival Tycoon comes courtesy of Johannes Gäbler and the Vienna Business Agency and has just been released into early access on Steam.
In Festival Tycoon, you start with organizing your festival space. Set the entrance, mark the outhouse areas, and then create your main stage. After that, it's time to start booking acts and setting your schedule. Set ticket prices and time your events for maximum profits, or keep things cheap for maximum exposure. With your bands booked and ready, it's time to start the show, but be warned! Depending on the acts you've booked, you'll need to keep an eye on the crowd to make sure a fight doesn't break out.
Build your music festival's reputation over time to attract big-name sponsors. Build relationships with music executives to gain access to the biggest bands in the world so you can go from Fyre Festival to Lollapalooza.
Festival Tycoon is available for $10 on Steam along with a $5 "supporters pack" which gives you an in-game thank you card, a special role in the Festival Tycoon Discord server, flair, and a special in-game item. Gabler says that Festival Tycoon will be in early access for at least a year and the price will gradually increase as more features are added, so you're probably looking at the best price this game will ever have.