Design, build, and manage a high school with terrific teachers and fantastic facilities or simply let your students poop in the bushes? Academia : School Simulator is a management/tycoon game where you get to decide!
Players praise the simulation depth, noting they must carefully manage various aspects of running a high school. The game tasks players with building and maintaining facilities like science labs, basketball courts, and art rooms to cater to students' needs for hygiene, hunger, and discipline. Players report properly balancing these needs is essential to progress.
One key draw is the ability to design and customize the school. The game provides a wide variety of room types, from classrooms to cafeterias, as well as furniture and decorative elements. Many reviewers highlight the joy of planning the school's layout and aesthetics, from positioning classrooms to decorating common areas.
As players progress, they encounter various objectives and challenges to overcome. These include grants that task the player with meeting criteria like high student satisfaction or enrollment targets. Progressing through these objectives provides a sense of accomplishment, as players transform their basic school into a prestigious institution.
While the core management loop is present, players find entertainment in the unpredictable scenarios that arise. This includes dealing with student misbehavior, teacher shortages, and budget constraints, which require creative problem-solving. These emergent events keep the gameplay fresh and engaging, according to reviewers.
Many players compare the game's appeal to other popular tycoon/management titles, particularly noting the similarities to Prison Architect. The top-down, 2D visual style and focus on building, staffing, and maintaining a complex institution resonate with fans of the genre. Reviewers who enjoyed Prison Architect have found the game scratches a similar itch, providing a new setting to explore their management skills.