Karma Tycoon is a PC game that has its players helping people that need help. Players can choose from five different centers or shelters to establish, including animal shelters and youth centers. Players begin with a grant of tens of thousands of dollars and spend it on constructing and designing their first building. Each building has a number of traits that can be improved upon by sliding a bar from left to right. The further right the bar slides, the more money will be spent and the higher quality the feature will be. Each type of building has different features; the animal shelter, for example, includes outdoor area, veterinarian, and several sizes of cages. Players place their building on a map of a city that is covered in dots which represents people (or animals) that need to be helped. The higher quality the building is, the faster people or animals will flock to it. When the player has helped enough people various grants might become available that the player can apply for at any time. The player can also take loans from a bank and has a credit card to use, and between these methods the player collects enough money to start a second center, allowing them to help people at a faster rate. As players continue helping their Karma percentage eventually begins to go up. The player wins the game by getting their Karma to 100%.

Karma Tycoon's educational strengths lie in business skills and classroom facts. Players will want to make money as quickly as possible, and they have access to money in a number of different ways, but each has its plusses and minuses and the player must balance things carefully. The game is constantly feeding the player facts and statistics; information is given at the beginning of the game, and next to a number of options in the menus there is a button labeled "learn". The player can click these for real-life details on whatever type of aid the player is offering.

Karma Tycoon's goals and themes are clear, and they are relatively well executed. The game is relatively fun to play, and while its themes are clear, information would do well to be a little bit more in the player's face. As it is, the player must go out of their way and click a separate button to learn about various organizations. Also, while the game initially seems relatively complex with its multiple payment options and grant requirements, it is actually relatively easy to win even on higher difficulties by simply taking a loan near the beginning of the game, maxing out the attributes of the first building and then finishing the game without dealing with any sort of debt at all. In the end though, Karma Tycoon is a relatively solid game that can educate as well as entertain, and it earns recommendation as such.

Classroom facts are an important part of Karma Tycoon. The game features several texts explaining the problems of each of the cities the player may choose from, and they are accessed by clicking the "learn" buttons near each city's name. This triggers a screen that gives information on the status on whatever type of organization the player asks for in whatever city they specify. This leads to a wealth of information being available to the player; however, it is unlikely that a player would go through and read all of the information available.

The game also uses math extensively, including buying and selling as well as compounding interest and paying off loans, but players do not really need to make calculations themselves; the game tells the players how much money they have and how much things will costs and asks them if the want to do it.

The cities in the game are actual American cities, and all of the information and the organizations involved are taken from reality.

By the Player:

The player is given some room for creativity in Karma Tycoon. At the beginning of the game players choose one of the cities from the map. This also determines the difficulty of the game, as the cities are clearly labeled into three difficulty levels. Players then choose what type of aid center to establish: a homeless shelter, animal shelter, Performing arts center, senior center or youth center, and they even get to name each center that they construct. Each of these choices will change the types of buildings constructed, the traits that the player improves during the game and even the specific grants that are available, but the mechanics behind the game stay pretty much the same. Players can choose to improve any of a number of traits of any of their buildings as well as any of a number of ways to secure funds, but again, mechanics and strategy tend to stay the same no matter what choices are made, and the player isn't able to really change the course of the game.

By the Developer:

Karma Tycoon is creative for the message that it is attempting to get across to its players; it basically boils down to "help people that need help". It’s a good message, and it tends to be rare in video games. The themes of the game - setting up aid centers, helping people to build Karma until everyone has been helped and the player wins - is also unique. The game mechanics themselves are unique as well; using credit cards and loans, earning grants and improving various aid buildings are rare in video games. That said, the game and its mechanics are quite simple, and will be mastered by most players relatively quickly, though the game could easily be challenging for younger players.

Karma Tycoon features a heavy focus on business skills. Players have a number of methods to get access to money quickly including loans and credit cards, but they will have to pay interests on these loans and will be forced to pay them off gradually as time passes in the game. In addition, many of the grants that would normally be available to the player become unavailable if the player's debt has grown too large. Players must balance debt, grants, the price to run each center every time a month of in-game time passes, and the cost of building new or improving existing buildings, and all of this can be come a multitasking and planning challenge that can be both difficult and rewarding.

Multiplayer:

Karma Tycoon's main menu has a multiplayer option, but it wasn't available at the time of this rating.

Single Player:

Karma Tycoon is a game about helping people in various ways and rewarding players for doing so. However, players never actually interact with any other characters in the game.

Problems in Karma Tycoon revolve around business skills. The problem is efficiency; players want to balance loans, grants, improvement and time all at once in order to reach 100% Karma as quickly as possible. Players will likely fall into debt in order to get started, hoping to be successful enough to win some grants which will hopefully allow them both to pay off their debts and to improve their facilities, which in turn increases their Karma and allows them access to more grants. The cycle continues until the player reaches 100% Karma and wins the game.

The game is based on reality. Places and problems are real-world places and problems, and the game is meant to simulate the act of starting up and making successful a series of aid centers in a troubled American city. However the game really only simulates the financial aspect of this, and doesn't exactly put the players into the shoes of an aid worker or anything like that. That said that game can certainly spread its message to players, and it seems to simulate the financial aspects of running a non-profit corporation quite well.

Karma Tycoon is a game that is available to play for free online, and as such it is difficult to determine its popularity.

The game essentially has three difficulty levels, as well as standard options regarding audio levels.