Miss Management is, in fifteen words or less, one of the most entertaining, captivating and hilarious casual games I've played in months. Developer Gamelab has really gone out of its way to craft unique characters that fuel the game from beginning to end, making it play like an interactive sitcom rather than your typical time management game (such as Cake Mania or Nanny Mania).
The main character in Miss Management is Denise, the new office manager starting her first day of work. Instead of controlling one character doing dozens of tasks, you must manage an entire office of people. Each employee has a unique personality and his/her own likes and dislikes, creating work days that feel more like an episode of The Office than a casual game.
Four types of jobs appear on the table at the bottom of the screen, each color-coded for easy recognition. Your overall goal is to distribute these tasks to the employees to earn cash. Each employee has strengths and weaknesses in terms of doing work. For example, Tara is the artistic type and excels in orange art tasks, while the IT guy Winston is a whiz at blue tech tasks.
The really interesting part begins when the character's personal likes and dislikes interact with each other. Employees enjoy doing different things to reduce stress, such as making popcorn, playing videogames, or napping on the couch. But each also has his or her dislikes, and sometimes those overlap to create hilarious situations. For example, Mahavir loves to chat Tara up at the water cooler, but the poor girl can barely stand being around him. She gets annoyed when Mahavir sleeps on the couch, while Mahavir can't stand the smell of Tim making beef strognaoff all day. It's these subtle interactions that fill out each character's personality, giving the game a deep and wonderful flavor of fun.
Driving the whole mass of wacky employees is a set of goals that must be completed each day. Sometimes you'll have to make sure Tara spends at least 30 seconds drawing on the white board, or get Tim to do at least 15 jobs. The goals change each day and range in difficulty, driving the interactive sitcom and keeping you motivated. As the days tick by, characters grow and change, giving the game a definite feel of progression.
Analysis: Miss Management is an extraordinarily well-made game. It doesn't have any real flaws to speak of, though it would be nice to be able to cancel movements after clicking (you can only queue them), as sometimes you'll want to change tasks to handle a more urgent need but will be unable to do so. The music is extremely good and the play mechanics have been tuned to near perfection. The office setting is an environment seldom used in games, and Miss Management does a superb job of making it interesting and fun. It's easily one of the most unique and captivating resource management games released in a very long time.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
Sometimes it stinks to have a Mac. Oh well, I'm sending my PC notebook in for repairs tomorrow. Can't wait!
Thats what boot camp is for :)
At first when glossing over the review I thought, Oh my, Yet another restaurant server / assembly line clone. But actually its really nice! Its some kind of different, since the personal traits of the workers are really important. Actually getting the work done (assigning the tasks) proves to be one of the smallest of all worries during days :-)
For this time I'll forgive Bigfish games for their obstrusive behaviour of (re)installing their icons all over my system. <:)
The demo was so short, and it really made me want to buy the full game.
I love how each character has his or her own personality, and there's dialogue to support it.
You know, I might actually buy this. I really want to see how it ends!
I'd buy it if I had money.
It's a fun game, one of the best of its genre. The only problem is that there isn't an option to change the colors or label the reports. I'm red/green colorblind, and found it virtually impossible to tell the orange reports from the green ones.
I played the demo last night and loved it! Too bad I currently don't have the money for a full version.
Did anyone else catch the "Office Space" reference? The red stapler for Timothy? I loved that.
Oof. Boot Camp is a crappy option for playing Windows-only games, not only because you have to pay over $200 to even get Windows (at least a non-crippled version), and Boot Camp doesn't work for us Mac users who have a PPC processor, which is a bit under half of us.
It would be nice if Jay is Games featured a downloadable Mac-only game sometimes to offset the virtual certainty of the weekend download being Windows-only. Better yet, only promote games which are cross platform.
Simone - do you know of any Mac-only games out there worth promoting? Submit them and we'll take a look.
However, the suggestion that we feature only cross-platform games would reduce our relevance significantly in the downloadable casual game category.
You may know that I am a Mac user myself, one with a PPC processor, even.
Still, with 91.84% of the traffic coming to JIG using Windows, it just isn't practical for us to ignore the vast majority of excellent games being made available for the Windows platform.
Normally I'm quite cheap when it comes to these 60 minute games, never wanting to purchase them afterwards even if they are as great as Diner Dash.
But I have to say, this one in my opinion is above even Diner Dash. It talks to me. The Diner Dash gameplay, mixed with a comic-like interface and a sitcom feel to it, it makes me beg for more. So I'm definitely putting my money into this game asap. :D
This game is so funny I couldn't believe it. I almost never buy games but I had to have this one.
I loved the demo, but when it kicked me out after the hour was up, my screen stayed in the same mode. I don't know the technical terms, but everything is bigger and looks more cartoonish. (how's that for technical?) Does anyone know how to get it back to normal??
The full version is amazing!
I finally beat it today and started over for personal bests!
Monienon, playing the game changed your screen resolution to a bigger screen. To change it back, right-click on your desktop, and click on properties/settings, then drag the slider for screen resolution to the right, probably 1024 x 768 or so. You can keep trying that until it goes back to what your resolution originally was.
Thanks Renee, got it!
has anybody figured out how to finish the level where duncan basically wants everybody to do nothing?
This game was fantastic and quite hilarious! I'm so glad I finally gave this game a chance. It gives you hours of playing time and I found it to be quite original. Great Recommendation!
Hi everyone, I finally decided to purchase the game , it gets even more addictive, ginger, yes you have to keep everyone's temperament as low as possible, It gets worse , especially with Pearl , I actually am stuck on episode 28 it's a really hard level, anyone here get past 28 and if so any advice on how to finish the level?
I finally got the full version... it's really good, it's got a storyline and I luff the characters. Ok, maybe not Duncan, but I luff the others.
Shannon, try having Pearl and Timothy not to do anything on day 1, and Luke and Ashley not to do anything on day 2. You can complete those two goals on separate days. Just try to keep everyone's temper low, I used lots of doughnuts on that level.
samira21 im stuck on level 28 too, i have been trying for ages, have you done it yet? if so any hints please?
For level 28, for what I got stuck on for a while as well, realize that towards the end of a day (30 seconds or so) you can let the tasks pile up and not get done (while you are doing something else like chatting at the water cooler), and 4 to 6 brownies eaten in pairs can keep you quite sane. :)
I have also been stuck on level 28 forever. Been trying for well over a month or two and can't yet do it. It would be nice to figure out what would keep Denise's Stress level down to pass this level.
I played the demo, and normally I don't buy games after that. But I also will with this game. I find myself enjoying the storyline and characters too much not to. They're all funny, lovable, and remind me a bit too much about some of the people I work with.
I sure wish my manager would let me spend my whole workday playing video games...
The witty storyline combined with the easy to understand gameplay make for a unique and fun experience :)
I purchased the game, and this is one worth shelling out the money for.
It's the perfect difficulty for the average gamer.
If you can play diner dash on endless hard mode for hours on end, this game might be too easy for you.
Oh boy, this is the only game I've come across that I'd be willing to pay money for. I love this game! Beat it in two days with three stars in everything. That's not to say I enjoyed every second of it!
Good art, great characters, and I liked the writing, too!
i'm annoyed that it's only 60 minutes is there an online version prehaps?
didn't work for me, I have XP... it popped a window up and i heard sound, just no picture... all black!! :( I checked my 3d video card, it's up to date and working fine. Plenty of memory available. I'm in 600x800 resolution... What's the deal?
I would really like to be able to play it, with all these great reviews!
This game is possibly one of the most fun I've ever played. Instead of you running around trying to do a thousand things at once, there are your awesome employees you can get to do things for you. I love how the game is like a comedy sitcom itself.
Oh how I envy Mahavir, he gets to sleep all day as a task...
Fun game. I was stuck on 28 for a while. My advice is do one task at a time and keeps lots of donuts and brownies on hand.
How in the world to pass 29? I can hardly make it through half the day.
On the second level, the new employee's file pops up automatically and I don't know how to close it and get back to my game. Can anybody help?
i really love dinerdash, this game i can play for hours.
I love this game. I really do. I went into it thinking that it was just another Dash clone, but when I tried it wound up to be much more than I expected. This is definitely one of those games you'll want to invest in. ;D The characters are so great. I love them. XD
Heh, this one's fun-ny! See, Tim gets calmed by Beef Stroganoff (wtf?) While Mahavir hates Stroganoff. Mahavir calms by sleeping on the couch, while Tim hates people goofing off, so one's mood goes up while the other goes down. the best way to keep them calm, have tim beef stroganoff while Mahavir works, and when Tim is refreshed, swap them, so Mahavir relaxes on the couch while Tim works. Or have tim cook while mahavir relaxes. Experiment, and watch the results! Oh, and... If Tim and Mahavir are relaxing at the same time, the bar goes upwards slowly.
I'm thinking of buying this. It emulates my dad's loony workplace. That's why he won't play it.
oh ohohoo she have my name!
i must play it...
is there other gameslike this online?
This game looks so fun. But I am a mac user. I'm bummed now.
OK...this episode is tough!
("Down with Delegation!")
In this level, Brooke gets annoyed if anyone else does any tasks.
Goals: Raise budget to $180
Make sure Brooke does all the jobs for a day
Make sure Nadine does all of the financial (green) jobs in a day, with nobody stressing out
Make sure Winston does all of the technical (blue) jobs in a day, with nobody stressing out
Let Mahavir talk to Denise at the watercooler for 60 seconds in a day
This makes my head hurt. Anyone, help?
to AKVO, i have tried that level about 20 times, and i finnally made it past every main goal except the one where denise and mahavir talk at the water cooler
hi i'm also having so much touble with the down with delagation level, its impossible to talk to mahvair for 60 seconds in one day without everyone (including denise) stressing out,
please help
I love it. I wish I had $20.00.
Timothy looks so funny when he's angry!
It was really funny when Timothy came in and said to Mahavir, "Yo, what up dawg!" or something like that. Too bad he's gone now.
I wonder what it would be like if Pearl and Timothy were together in the same level? Maybe Timothy would get annoyed by Pearl making popcorn, and Pearl would get annoyed by Timothy making beef stroganoff?
At the beginning of a level I always feel kind of confused until I get everyone working.
Hey, I got the full version and am on the part with the whole project PEARL thing and can't beat the 'Boy's Just Wanna Have Fun' level does anyone know how?
Oh, dang. Bummer. Why is it so hard to get all the best games on a Mac? GRAWR.
I am on Level 28 as well. The only task I have left is where Denise and Mahavir talk by the watercooler. I got down to 1 second left and Denise stressed out and I had to start over. Sigh....
Anyone passed this level? Any hints?
Its really a good game, the only problem is with the progression of the difficulty. There are 30 levels all together in the game, and until level 28 its easy, but after it becomes quite hard.. Too bad developers didn't work a bit more on that.
Is it possible to get three stars on level 18? I can get two stars no problem, but because of the sequential way you unlock the optional tasks, getting them all done within 4 days seems to be logically impossible. Or maybe I'm missing something. Help?
I have a major problem with Miss Management. I'm colorblind (and a female - go figure!) I can't tell the blue from purple or the orange from green. Well, I'm guessing they are blue and purple and orange and green. I noticed that there are bars on the books, though. It would have been really helpful if the bars on the books were related to that book only. I restarted my game and tried to identify the financial tasks as having two bars, etc. Well it didn't turn out that way. Please, please in the future, make color designs that are more contrasting or include a pattern - such as they did in Zuma. I love the game but really hate giving the person the wrong task then having to make them leave their desk to give the book to the right person. :-(
Miss Management is truly a game that I for one enjoy. It's fast challenging puzzle with silly sitcoms between each level, and the personalities of each of the characters adds a bit of depth into the game.
actually i have past all the levels for miss management
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