Blooming Business: Casino Review

 Blooming Business: Casino is a casino tycoon game developed by Homo Ludens and published by Curve Games. I don’t know what else to say here because what you see here is what you get. It’s a casino management simulator.

The campaign's story is that after gambling away your last dime, the Owlner of the casino (a casino owner who is also an owl) liked you enough to give the place over to you and retires. However, inheriting it also inherited his debt to the mob and the government, so it's up to you to pay it off by managing other casinos throughout Las Venas and turning them into… well, blooming businesses. There are only 11 in total to manage, but it serves as a long tutorial on how to properly build up your reputation, please gamblers, and meet all the VIP characters. I liked the writing, it's fairly funny, and I liked all the characters and their personalities. Although, for such a cute-looking game, it mentions murder a lot more frequently than you'd expect. Last but not least, I want to give special mention to the music. It’s really good with fitting tunes for the 1950s. When certain characters enter the casino and their theme starts playing, it makes the experience all the better for it.

On to gameplay. Most casinos in both the Campaign and Sandbox modes will be empty with nothing in it, so you’ll need to spend the starting cash on hiring staff and building essential areas. I found the controls easy to understand and get used to, with laying out zones for arcade machines, bars, and card games only requiring a click and then placing down the required objects. Casinos can have multiple floors, however, only certain facilities can be built on them. For example, staff rooms are only available on the dark dingy basement level, while restrooms can only be on the ground floor. I found this a little weird but interesting as you have to take advantage of the layout and squeeze every bit of space you can get, especially in the basement, where you have to fit a lot of important rooms that keep the casino running.

There are a variety of customer times — from Mobsters with money to burn to Truckers who want a quick pit stop, and you need to keep track of and cater to them if you want them to leave the casino satisfied but, hopefully, broke. It’s tricky to please everyone, as every type has its own likes, dislikes, and a special trait that will either help or hinder you. For example, one type has a very short temper, and if they lose too many times, they’ll break machines. It becomes a balancing act of how you want your casino to be; do you only want the richest bigwigs to come who require very specific tastes, or do you want the everyman to spend their life savings on slots? However, the ones to look out for are VIP customers, who can be very hard to please, but satisfying them will allow them to do special actions such as spreading chips around or arresting cheaters on sight. Now this would be great… if the game was slightly harder and required such attention.

I didn’t find myself all that challenged, even when set on the highest difficulty. Once you have a good casino going, there’s no incentive to improve it, and you can walk away and let the money roll in. Sure, you won’t please every customer, but the almighty dollar is the only thing keeping you from losing, and there isn’t much that can stop you. The only thing that would seriously hurt your bank account is closing the casino’s doors for any reason – where you have to kick everyone out and refund all the chips customers have gained. I couldn’t find any situation to shut the business down for any reason, and anything urgent can easily be attended to by just pausing the game and taking care of it. I also noticed some issues with pathfinding, where my staff would occasionally get stuck on objects. Not frequently, but I have had to move a couch or two so they could relax in the break room. Also, some missions in the campaign were really annoying to complete, since a few just required me to wait until I had enough research points, for a number to go up, or get a VIP to do something. Fast forward isn’t quite fast enough. 

Blooming Business: Casino is more of a time-killer than a serious tycoon game. It’s fairly easy to make money even if you don’t please everyone, and after a while, all you can do is just watch as the numbers go higher. Still, if you want a more relaxing experience and watching people destroy their lives, then this game is for you. However, for those who want a serious challenge that makes you learn how to manage a casino well, such as SimCasino or Casino Inc., then I can’t recommend this.