Turmoil

Turmoil is a charming and highly addictive casual business simulation game developed by the Dutch studio Gamious. Inspired by the high-stakes 19th-century oil rush in North America, the game tasks players with becoming a successful oil entrepreneur through real-time strategy, resource management, and shrewd business acumen. It features a visually appealing, tongue-in-cheek style that perfectly complements the frantic, time-limited nature of the gameplay.

The Campaign: From Rags to Riches

The game's main campaign sees the player start from humble beginnings, competing against three ruthless rival AI tycoons to buy up land, extract oil, and amass enough wealth to purchase the majority of the town's shares, thereby becoming the new Mayor. The campaign is structured over a series of years, with each year representing a new plot of land to exploit.

The core gameplay loop is split into two phases:

1. Town Management: Between drilling sessions, players return to town to spend their hard-earned cash. This is where they visit various buildings to buy crucial upgrades and new tools. These upgrades include wider pipes for faster oil flow, scanners to better pinpoint deposits, larger silos for storage, and specialized drills to bore through rock formations and ice. Players can also visit the Saloon to make shady deals, pay bribes for better market prices, or gamble for extra cash.

2. The Drilling Rush (Real-Time Strategy): This is the core action phase, where players have one in-game year to extract and sell as much oil as possible from their leased plot. The process involves:

   • Exploration: Hiring dowsers, moles, or using scanners to locate hidden oil and gas pockets underground.

   • Extraction: Building oil rigs and manually drawing an efficient, non-overlapping pipe network to connect the rig to the oil deposits.

   • Sales Strategy: Once oil is flowing, players must decide when and to whom to sell it. Prices offered by the two competing companies (Left Inc. and Right Inc.) fluctuate in real-time. Storing oil in silos allows players to hold out for a price peak, while connecting to natural gas pockets provides a temporary boost to the selling price.

Strategy and Competition

The genius of Turmoil lies in its simple, yet deep, strategic tension. Every level is a race against time and against the rival tycoons. Players must constantly weigh the cost of investing in better technology versus maximizing immediate profits to outbid competitors in the town stock auctions.

The game also features the "Heat Is On" DLC, which introduces new mechanics like magma (which affects drilling) and collectible underground artifacts, adding complexity to the challenge. With randomly generated levels, Turmoil offers high replayability, forcing players to adapt their strategies for millions of potential oil-drilling scenarios.