Originally part of Indie Games Uprising III as an XBLIG title, Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos is (almost) finally ready for its PC debut. Now, as I’m sure some of you are aware, running a real call center can be very stressful and hardly what most would consider actual entertainment, but in this SimTower-inspired video game, the only ones likely to freak out from stress are your employees. In fact, they might even quit unless you give them what they want (hint: paid vacations work wonders)!
I’ve played Andreas Heydeck’s Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos quite a bit already – both the original XBLIG release and beta testing of the PC port – and let me tell ya right now, this game is a LOT of fun! Even more so with the keyboard/mouse setup that the PC port brings, compared to the gamepad-controlled console version (note: the XBLIG version works just fine too, but I’d say a keyboard/mouse setup for this game is definitive).
A quick glance at the in-game menus might make your head spin with all that’s available to purchase/unlock, so it’s a good thing that each new game kicks off with a brief tutorial (which can be revisited at any time). You’ll quite literally be in charge of everything from hiring/firing staff, managing their schedule (once you’ve got HR on board), ensuring a healthy work environment, and of course, making sure they actually have a proper place to work – operators won’t say no to working in a service building or an office instead of an operations block, but they won’t actually be happy about it, so I’d recommend making sure you sort everyone accordingly; an unhappy worker tends to be less productive after all and you’re gonna need a steady income to stay in business.
If you fancy putting your skills as a call center manager to the test, which I’d highly recommend, the demo can be downloaded from here. There’s a 25-minute time limit, but you can speed up/slow down time in-game to make every minute count, and I’m sure that the full version will be out soon-ish anyway; maybe even on Steam, Greenlight willing? Alternatively, the XBLIG version is available right now, should you prefer console gaming over PC.
