Carnival Tycoon

Strategy Games » Tycoon Games » Carnival Tycoon

Increase game space Decrease game space
Rate Carnival Tycoon:
Rating: 4.26/5 stars (262 ratings)

Carnival Tycoon Instructions

Use the mouse and the left mouse button to buy, place and delete paths, stalls, attractions and scenery. Use the mouse to hire and release workers.

Carnival Tycoon Walkthrough

Carnival Tycoon is an excellent tycoon strategy game that will challenge you to build and run a profitable and entertaining carnival, balancing your income with your need to make sure your carnival patrons are happy. Your goal is fairly simple - build all of the attractions available to buy. Actually accomplishing that mission is a bit more difficult. You're going to have to plan a good strategy and figure out how to built a great carnival with enough features to keep your guests happy while still making sure it is profitable. Like most tycoon strategy games, this one isn't easy but will a little careful thinking, you will be able to go well. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from; Easy (the tutorial), Normal and Hard. Unless you're familiar with tycoon strategy games, I would recommend playing through the game on Easy to begin with. The tutorial will help you get a basic idea of how to play the game and the actual game isn't nearly as difficult as it is even on Normal. Beginners are likely going to have a hard time getting the hang of this one in the beginning, but as you play you'll get better. You'll learn from your mistakes and improve with every game. If you're a tycoon strategy game fan or simply a fan of strategy games in general, this is definitely a game you need to play.

Making sure your patrons are happy in Carnival Tycoon is the key succeeding in the game and for that reason, managing your money is vitally important. You'll need to staff your park and build stalls so that your carnival is popular enough that you earn enough money to buy all the attractions to win the game. In order to build more stalls you'll need to expand the area of your carnival by building paths so your patrons can reach the stalls. Paths also provide you with the opportunity to build the extra items that are important when trying to run a profitable carnival; trash cans, benches and street lights. Trash cans are extremely important. They help keep your park clean and tidy. No one wants to go to a carnival that has trash lying everywhere but people are also generally lazy. Place trash cans along paths frequently so people don't have to walk as far to throw our their trash. That will encourage them to use the cans. Benches allow your patrons to take a seat and rest when they get tired and also allow them to have a place to sit down while they eat. People are more likely to eat at your carnival if they can sit down while they do so. Street lamps will shed a little light on your carnival at night. Make sure you place an appropriate number of street lights on your paths. You need them to be well lit for your guests to be happy.

There are several different types of stalls in Carnival Tycoon, each offering benefits for keeping your patrons happy and providing them with a good experience at your carnival. The basic stalls are pretty easy to understand. You have food or drink stalls to keep your guests fed and hydrated as well as relief stalls that make your guests more comfortable. There are also several special stalls that are highly recommended if you want to make the best carnival possible. Infostalls sell your patrons maps so they can find their way around. Infostalls also offer your patrons access to cash. If the infostall runs out of cash, patrons will move on the the next one so it's a good idea to have more than one in place. Souvenirs are also a popular carnival stall patrons like to visit. These stalls sell balloons and hats which increase the happiness of your guests. As you gain popularity, increase the price of the items in your stall but only slightly. Increasing prices too much will hurt your sales. Increasing prices helps you make extra cash and get you closer to being able to afford attractions.

Those that aren't familiar with tycoon strategy games might have a bit of a hard time figuring out what attractions are all about in Carnival Tycoon. They're really like special buildings or facilities in other tycoon strategy games. Attractions amuse your patrons; make them happy and keep them entertained. If your patrons aren't hungry or thirsty, they'll ride your attractions. Building and placing attractions will take money though and can be a bit difficult. You'll need to place your attraction first and then build an entrance and an exit for it. Be sure to place it somewhere that allows you room for both of those things. Your entrance will need to be attached to a path using a 'queue'. The 'queue' is where your patrons will wait to get on the attraction. With the entrance completed, you'll need to build a path to the exit, so your patrons will be able to continue looking around your park once they get off the attraction. As the attraction gets more popular, you can increase the amount of money your patrons will need to pay to ride the attraction. This will help you earn money to place more attractions.

Scenery is also important in Carnival Tycoon. Aesthetics are important in most tycoon strategy games, but especially so in this one. Your patrons will get bored and leave if you don't have decent scenery for them to look at while they're walking through your park. To get the most out of your scenery, place it along paths where guests will be able to see it up close. Make sure you leave enough room for entrances and exits to your attractions though. There's no point spending money on scenery if you're only going to delete it later on. Your staff is also important. Although you are able to manually repair stalls and attractions, hiring a mechanic to keep an eye on things is a good idea. This saves you from having to repair things on your own so you can focus on improving your carnival in other ways. Workers are the most important staff members in the game, however. Workers stroll the grounds and keep your paths clean. They also empty your trash cans for you and will sweep your paths to make your park even cleaner.

As with any tycoon strategy game, watching your stats in Carnival Tycoon is extremely important. It's the only way you'll know what needs to be improved. Your guests' stats are shown on the top right of the screen and these stats will basically tell you how you're doing in the game. Keep their thirst and hunger down and their energy and happiness up. If your guests are tired, hungry, or thirsty; build stalls that will help you meet those needs. Money is the second most important stat in the game. Generally speaking, if your guests are happy you'll make money. If your guests are happy but you're still not making money, you may not be attracting enough patrons to turn a profit. Try running a marketing campaign to draw in new people. The items in your concessions may also be either too cheap or too expensive. Try adjusting your prices and see if that makes a difference. If you're not making money and your guests stats aren't that high you may need more stalls, benches or trash cans.

Overall, the most important thing to remember in Carnival Tycoon is that money is important. You need to keep an eye on how much money you're making (shown at the bottom left of the screen) and how much money you need to be making if you want to beat the game. Most of the actual attractions you need to buy to win are fairly expensive, but if you can find a good balance between the number of stalls and restrooms you build while saving money and working on accumulating more money. You need to keep the guests happy. Read the word bubbles over their heads. If a lot of them are saying they're hungry, but in an ice cream stand. It's fairly inexpensive and it will help to solve the hunger problem. Build it where the most people seem to be hungry. It's also important to make sure you reserve money for repairs. Pay attention to how much each stand or attraction you build will cost you to run each day or month. You don't want to end up in the hole and have something break down. There will probably be times in the game when you'll see you have a negative dollar amount but as long as you don't allow yourself to get too far in the hole, you should be able to make it back out.