News Tower (PC) Preview

Covered in more dust than the inside of your granddad’s underpants, the SimTower-like genre hasn’t been milked for all it is worth just yet. Sure SomaSim’s Project Highrise is the closest one-for-one but we’ve rarely gotten some delineations that focus on specific jobs, such as a publishing empire built off of old news and many tired journalists that you’ll fire so ChatGPT can poorly write the articles instead. Digs at the publishing industry aside, Sparrow Night and Twin Sails Interactive’s early access title News Tower released recently. Starting on the verge of the biggest economic crash, until 2008 and 2020, Seymour Butts News brings New York the finest mafia-influenced headlines.

Well, almost. Old news, poorly written stories, a lack of editing early on, and shoddy printing that lets the ink leak from the pages in your hands, are all major faults with your paper that will work against you if played “inefficiently.” Your goal, of course like all of these business-sim/management titles, is to grow and expand your business to where the only place left without your $0.20 of capitalism is where you don’t publish. You’ll do so with relevant, timely, interesting news that engages the readership through a variety of stories that may be fictional or realistic and highly influential to your success.

Though it is in early access, the scope and balance might seem a little off to truly feel like you are allowed to do as you please. However, it must be said that I’m impressed with Sparrow Night’s initial outing with its expansive progression and reasonable gameplay for only just launching into Early Access. As I’ve said, playing “inefficiently” can lead to you having quite a horrible time; something News Tower rarely likes telling you about. It will tell you there is a problem, but not how to fix it.

Publishing on a weekly cycle, you’ll start your Monday hoping enough stories come through the wire that fit your editorial direction and throughout the week, you assign writers to stories you want covered. Once stories are written they’ll then be handed off to the typesetting desk, over to the assembling table, then back to the typesetting desk if need be. Again, set in the wake of the Great Depression, the advent of computer technology wasn’t so much a thing, so production was done by hand before printing.

It is through expansion via the “area map,” showing lower New York and east New Jersey, that you gain new tech, more tools, better equipment, and comforts. You also gain challenges and discounts through relationships you build up over time. Most importantly, you expand your readership by meeting certain editorial directions desired by certain areas. Of course, Wall Street wants politics and economics, the East Village wants hopeful and triumphant stories, and Flatbush wants crime and sports. Meeting readership goals opens up buildings such as the Harrison Library and the AD agency offering the editorship and sales desk.

Some stories or even ADs need editing after reporting, though this is where I think the time management becomes a bit of an issue. Each article takes X number of hours to write, X hours to edit, X hours to typeset, X hours to assemble, and with only 168-ish hours on the clock, you have to cram enough journalists, enough production staff, and enough utility staff in the tower. Not to mention all the desks you need to fit into your growing tower, which can make a small dent in this time management problem you’ve to solve.

To call News Tower “casual” would be accurate, but more so in the mid-2000s sense with Diner Dash, Bejeweled, and Peggle: games that need some input but you can sit back a little. The point I’m trying to make is that as much input as you have to place desks in the right place, work out the balance, put journalists on stories, and eventually set the layout, I must say that time management feels like the least input you have. After a bit of progression through the unlocks in the map, you unlock a rush button for the print day. This will negatively affect staff mentality, and push them to extremes.

Mentality is a major part of employee management, and there are some systems in place already with a couple coming later in Early Access development. The central focus is bathroom, food, and comfort, with noise pollution and heat contributing to discomfort alongside the access to food and a toilet. Of course, using the same person on every economics story will make them break mentally too. Their writing gets sloppy and will ultimately become a negative to the paper’s sales and reputation. As I said, some of the whole system is there but not all, and already it can be difficult to contend with.

News Tower’s balance, as of right now, seems like something that will be addressed over time. As Alexx noted in a news article several weeks ago, this launch Early Access period is only 1930 (October ‘29 for the tutorial) to December 1932. The final release is expected to reach throughout the whole decade. September 1939 is going to be fun, I wonder if the February 1939 MSG rally will be covered? Joking aside, the breaking news events currently do include the Lindbergh baby, the 4th Academy Awards, the Bank of US collapsing, and even the death of Knute Rockne.

There are some real and fictional stories mixed in throughout. There was no Chief Justice Jackson on the Supreme Court or actress Annabel Ethel Norman, but there was a gaming bill passed in 1931 for Nevada that allowed gambling once again or Hoover’s economic policies. The reason I bring this up is that there is a hint of historical accuracy, but like all games or otherwise, there is a little leniency allowing for fun. Despite a couple of things I’ve mentioned here or there, I think News Tower is quite fun.

If you want a more relaxed experience, there certainly isn’t that at present. The current build is quite limiting overall due to balancing and the time you are given. However, I can’t help but love the SimTower-esque building matched with the mini-games of bribes or see-sawing graphic showing “Am I going to get a lawsuit/fine/protesters,” topped off with the editorial aspect of planning the paper’s layout at the end of the week. Partly creative and partly dictated by making money, there are multipliers and combos that result in the gameplay aspect overthrowing your editorial desires.

If there is a big story that week, you’ll get a hot topic modifier that increases sales within that topic: Politics, economics, sports, entertainment, crime, whatever it might be. However, if your layout contains multiples of the same topic on the same page, there is a bonus for that as well, selling more papers and gaining more money. The more topics in a headline story, the more papers you’ll sell in the first place; it casts a wider net, gaining more readers. Though sometimes you’ll have the Mafia, the Mayor, and maybe a jeweler pressing you to print (or not to print) certain stories in exchange for cash or influence points.

The groundwork for this tower of your publishing empire is certainly there, and is fun for a couple of hours with a podcast or two. As a whole over the last week, I’ve put in a considerable number of hours to being an editor and I could make a joke about then playing News Tower in my considerable spare time after. Where I think the improvements should be made over this Early Access period is exactly where they are going to be made.

The balance seems to be fit for how long News Tower currently is, which is going to expand over time and allow you to explore a little more, allowing for the area map to be filled out a lot more. If there is one thing I would want, maybe selfishly, is a more sandbox-orientated mode. Preferably something to allow me to expand the tower into the heavens and really hire as many journos, editors, and so on as I’d like. Filling out every page with that week’s news and see what that’s like without being shouted at for sloppiness.

Ultimately, News Tower in its current state is a great start to what is a wonderful management title already. I could do with a little bit more control over the editorship, at least from experience, though the layout editor allows for creativity and functions in the gameplay loop well enough. I’m looking forward to seeing the final release and what (if any) of the additions that are made throughout Early Access.

A PC preview copy of News Tower was provided by Twin Sails Interactive for this preview.