History Main / SpaceManagementGame

* With Service Games your facility is expected to give services and/or care to customers, who begin arriving as soon as you open the doors. Your customers will wander around the facility, paying money for the various services you provide. Generally, each customer will require different services and behave differently while visiting. Each has a certain amount of money they can spend, and will react differently to problems they encounter during their visit. Keeping everyone happy, and keeping the cash coming in, is your main objective. This is similar to TowerDefense games, except you're trying to ''avoid'' anyone suffering damage. ''VideoGame/ThemePark'' is probably the TropeCodifier for this sub-genre.

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}''

* ''VideoGame/ThemePark'', the original Service Game.
* ''VideoGame/ThemeHospital''
* ''VideoGame/ThemeParkWorld''
* ''VideoGame/SpaceColony''
* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon'' included management of the animals themselves in order to make them comfortable, requiring you to put extra effort not only into setting the facility itself, but also customizing each enclosure to the animals' exact preferences.

* ''VideoGame/RollerCoasterTycoon'' the most popular Service Game. Popularized the subgenre as "Tycoon Games".

* ''VideoGame/SeaWorldTycoon''

* ''VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries'':

"Space Management Games" are{{Simulation Game}}s in which the player has to make the most out of what little space they're given. The default premise is that the player is the head of some organization or business, and receives a set amount of resources (sometimes abstracted to money or generic points) with which to construct a facility. This can be a business place, a secret lair of evil, an amusement park, or even a city - depending on the genre of the specific game involved. The player is allotted a limited amount of space for construction of this facility, as well as access to the various "pieces" that must be placed down in order to make the facility work. These pieces (which are usually called "Rooms", "Buildings" or "Zones", depending on the scope of the game) are often oddly-shaped, and some must be placed in close proximity to specific other pieces in order for the facility to achieve peak efficiency. Deciding what to put where is the whole point of the game, and it is often necessary to make compromises in order to fit everything in.

* ''VideoGame/TransportTycoon'' and its many counterparts. Although most tracks and roads will easily run uninterrupted for miles over open fields, Space Management is crucial when constructing stations and intersections, in what can occasionally be a very tight space.

* ''VideoGame/CitiesInMotion'' and its sequels.
* ''VideoGame/CitiesSkylines'', made by the same developer as ''Cities in Motion''.

** ''VideoGame/ImmortalCitiesChildrenOfTheNile''

* ''VideoGame/{{Factorio}}'' forgoes the use of Denizens altogether, replacing them with self-operating machines. Commodities (and fuel) must be brought to the machines by means of elaborate conveyor belt systems.

* ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}''

* ''VideoGame/OxygenNotIncluded''

* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'' (AKA ''Serf City'') and its first three sequels. After that it becomes... different.

* ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'' and its sequel.

* ''VideoGame/ZooTycoon''

* ''VideoGame/PrisonArchitect''

No, this isn't about [[VideoGame/EveOnline Business Simulators played in the cold dark vastness of the stars]] (though it can be sometimes). The idea behind a Space Management Game is for the player to figure out how to make the most out of as little space as possible.

"Space Management Games" is the collective name for a respectable number of {{Simulation Game}}s which all follow very similar core gameplay. They usually share the same premise: The player is the head of some organization or business, and receives a set amount of resources (sometimes abstracted to money or generic points) with which to construct a facility. This can be a business place, a secret lair of evil, an amusement park, or even a city - depending on the genre of the specific game involved. The player is allotted a limited amount of space for construction of this facility, as well as access to the various "pieces" that must be placed down in order to make the facility work. These pieces (which are usually called "Rooms", "Buildings" or "Zones", depending on the scope of the game) are often oddly-shaped, and some must be placed in close proximity to specific other pieces in order for the facility to achieve peak efficiency. Deciding what to put where is the whole point of the game, and it is often necessary to make compromises in order to fit everything in.

* ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'' (AKA ''Serf City'') and its first three sequels. After that it becomes... different.
* ''VideoGame/AnnoDomini'' (AKA ''The Anno Series'') features islands which are for the most part fixed in size and shape. It's up to the player to build and manage the logistics of cities and colonies on those islands.
* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'' is a rare game of this genre produced after 2010.

* ''VideoGame/{{Flotsam}}''
* ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}''
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfMan''
* ''VideoGame/CliffEmpire''

* ''VideoGame/ShapezIO'' simplifies the ''Factorio'' model.

* ''VideoGame/TwoPointCampus

* The further the player gets into ''VideoGame/EverOasis'', the more it becomes a mixture of Mayor and Commodity. At first, the player will have no issue placing down just about every shop they get, and if anything, running out of money to place them. You have to have a variety of shops to attract more residents, which itself allows you to build a wider variety of shops. But later on, the Oasis level-ups that increase the amount of space you have become fewer and far in between, resulting in the player being forced to try and decide whether or not they want to use that space for more plants that boost sales of nearby booths, where to place them for maximum effect, whether to place them ''period'' (as placing them in any spot but the end forces the player to essentially give up a shop that a new resident might want), which shops to keep (since shops become more profitable as they level up), and whether to keep the new shop you just built once the interested resident has moved in. Players must ''also'' get stock for their shops, since keeping your shops well stocked will keep your Oasis Morale high. Naturally, since shops require different items that can be obtained in-game through different ways, a player will be forced to decide whether or not it's even worth ''keeping'' the shop, since shops that are out of stock will lower the morale and your potential day-to-day earnings. While you are able to make seedlings who are ''not'' tending a shop work on the garden, your space in the garden is also limited as well. Oh, and finally, Morale - you absolutely ''must'' keep your morale high, as a higher morale translates to more health your characters have in the field. Festivals are also a great way to boost sales and morale (even allowing it to persist), but [[RealityEnsues they will absolutely wipe out your stock]], meaning you have to keep a steady flow of even basic early-game supplies at hand.

* ''VideoGame/CitiesXL'', the current rival series to ''[=SimCity=]''.

** ''VideoGame/{{ZeusMasterOfOlympus}}'' and ''Poseidon''

* ''VideoGame/ThemePark''

* ''VideoGame/RollerCoasterTycoon''

* ''VideoGame/Citystate'', an indie game that also give you complete control over the government.