Turmoil

Turmoil is a charming and intentionally silly simulation game inspired by the 19th-century oil rush in North America. The visual style is hand-drawn and tongue-in-cheek, but the underlying simulation is genuinely deep — leasing land, prospecting for oil deposits, building pipe networks, managing storage, timing market sales, and gradually outmaneuvering computer and human opponents for control of a growing town.

The gameplay loop runs through clean stages. Lease land at the town auction, prospecting tools in hand (a dowser for surface indications, a mole for shallow surveys, a scanner for serious investigation). Build derricks, design efficient pipe networks to bring oil up to your silos, and sell at the right times to maximize profit. Reinvest in essential upgrades to handle the obstacles each terrain presents — rock, gas pockets, ice in winter.

Town shares are the long-term game. Acquire more of them than your competitors and you become the new mayor. The stock auction is a competitive arena where outbidding rivals matters as much as drilling success. Natural gas can be used strategically to boost oil prices at the right market moments, and the saloon hosts shady business deals with the town's characters that can swing your fortune in either direction.

A campaign mode walks you through a rags-to-riches oil baron career with dozens of upgrades, new tools and improving operational capacity. Single Game mode generates one of literally millions of procedurally generated levels and challenges you to earn as much as possible in one year. Multiplayer pits you against computer opponents, friends or random online opponents — and the inherent rivalry of the era translates surprisingly well to actual humans competing for the same land. Steam achievements, badges, trading cards and cloud saves round out the package.