Party Hard Tycoon Review - Find Your Groove

Party Hard Tycoon is a business simulation that expands upon the quirky, pixelated world of TinyBuild’s Party Hard. However, this time you’re tasked with throwing parties instead of crashing them. In Party Hard Tycoon, your goal is to throw profitable parties and expand your reputation as a party planning mogul. How hard can throwing parties be? Just bring out some beer, turn up the stereo, and make sure no one vomits on the couch, right? Wrong. After starting your career as a party planner in Party Hard Tycoon, you’ll quickly realize just how tricky good party planning can be.

At the start of Party Hard Tycoon, you’ll have to chat with a random associate party planner, who offers you tips on what to focus on while planning a party. This is basically the tutorial, so make sure not to leave the conversation too soon, otherwise you’ll miss out on important planning details.

The success of a party depends mainly on the theme, location, personnel, and layout of the party. Striking a good balance between each of these elements will ensure you have good reception from your guests and turn a profit. However, partygoers can be a bit fickle, and will leave your party for a number of reasons. If the music isn’t loud enough, the admission is too expensive, or there just isn’t enough hype, then guests will high-tail it out of your party just as quickly as they arrived. Your overall goal is to get guests to leave you ‘likes’ on social media, without breaking the bank.

For each party you plan, you’ll need to pick a location, theme, and staff for the event, all of which can cost money depending on your choices. The theme should make sense for the location, and the personnel you choose to hire should complement the theme. You probably shouldn’t throw a kid’s party at some grungy, abandoned crack house, for example. There isn’t technically a wrong way to throw a party, but your initial setup can greatly influence your party’s success.

When planning your first party, you’re given $25,000 to work with, and you’ll be tempted to blow a good portion of that on fancy speakers, light shows, and goofy decorations. Spending too much early on can certainly hinder your ability to earn money later, so try not to waste cash on too many items right away. The items you place will remain in the same spot and will roll over to the next party at that location, provided they haven’t been worn out, so you can always go back and add more once you’ve earned more money.

The electricity meter limits the number of electric items you can place, but it’s still easy to put down more items than you need, depending on the location. Money management is a huge part of the game, so if you’ve got bad spending habits in real life, chances are they will transfer over to Party Hard Tycoon. Resist the urge to splurge, at least on parties where you can get away with being cheap. If you get too low on funds, you'll have a hard time setting up future parties with enough items and features to turn a profit, causing your earnings to slow to a crawl.

You’ll also need to consider the way you place items, as this can allow you to control the way your guests move about your party. Guests tend to gravitate toward light and sound, so these elements should usually be put near one another.

You won’t be sitting idle during each of your shindigs, either. You’ll need to actively control the movements of your hired personnel once your party begins. The waiter needs to stock the food and refreshments before guests arrive, and will need to be manually told where to go. Dancers and other entertainers should be placed near groups of people to be more effective. Want a light show? You’ll need to manually select which lights you want to pop-off at a given time, managing their cooldowns in the process. 

Party Hard Tycoon has a bit of a learning curve at first, but complexity is to be expected from a management sim game. Watching your party come to life and seeing guests enjoy your creation is the most satisfying part of it all, aside from the musical earworms and vaporwave-inspired artwork that give the game personality. There may come a point where you feel as though you've hit a wall in terms of making money, which can be a bit discouraging. However, if you go into the game with careful planning in mind, then perhaps turning a profit won't be as much of a hurdle for you. 

If you’ve been craving a management sim with a unique art style and concept, then Party Hard Tycoon certainly will fulfill your needs. While Party Hard Tycoon may not be the most accurate representation of the party planning industry, you’ll at least become more aware of what separates a good party from a bad one. If you enjoyed the dark humor of the original Party Hard games and want to try a management sim that requires thoughtful planning, then Party Hard Tycoon should be right up your alley. 

Larryn Bell

Writer

Larryn is a full-time editor who has written guides and editorial features for various gaming websites. She is obsessed with Witcher 3 and is known to put hot sauce on everything.