Startup Panic Gameplay Preview – Clippy Returns

Startup Panic is a straightforward management sim about operating a start up. Your main goal is to balance earning enough income through contracts, developing features for your product to attract more customers, and managing your employees.

The game is more akin to management sims like Frost Punk, where you assign tasks for your employees and wait for them to finish their tasks. You can pause or speed up time but you don’t have direct control over them.

While the game may appear to be pretty simple, there is some complexity in managing your startup successfully. It is surprisingly difficult to maintain enough of a profit to both pay your employees a high enough salary and reinvest it into your startup. It also introduces new mechanics over time. For example, you will unlock the ability to manage and run ad campaigns to attract more potential customers based on demographics, which will in turn, increase your overall market share.

Overall, Startup Panic is a pretty simple and enjoyable management sim. The graphics are cute, and the game play is straight forward but has depth to it. The dialogue, narrative, and attempts at humor are probably the game’s weakest point but it is entirely serviceable.