Learn About Task Management Games

What Are Task Management Games?

Task Management games (also known as Time Management games) involve the player managing a variety of tasks at once, usually to serve customers in a restaurant or shop.  The game starts out slow with the player only performing a few tasks at a time such as seating customers at a table in a restaurant and then taking their orders.  The game gets more complex as the player must serve more customers or perform more tasks in a short amount of time.  For example in restaurant type task management games, players will seat customers, take orders, deliver orders, clear tables, take checks, cash checks, clear tables and serve more customers with similar demands.  Game play is usually fast paced and hectic and great for those who love multitasking.

The History of Task Management Games

In the early eighties, a quaint game popped up in bars and arcades. Known as Tapper, this was the precursor of today’s Task Management games. In Tapper, sometimes called Root Beer Tapper, the player took on the role of a bartender with several customers sitting at multiple bar tables. The game is filled with sliding mugs, dashing for tips and, if the player is not careful, drinks crashing to the floor. Tapper is lightning paced, even before the can-can girls started dancing and the game launches into turbo mode. A good Tapper player keeps the taps flowing, slides drinks to customers, and catches empties to work his or her way up to higher more complicated game scenarios.

Tapper inspired Diner Dash, the game that launched the task management casual game frenzy on the Internet. Released in 2004, Diner Dash centers on a stockbroker named Flo who has had her fill of the stress of Wall Street and starts over again buying a dilapidated old restaurant. You take on the role of Flo and run the restaurant, seating customers, serving food and making improvements to the restaurant. If you are good, customers start to flock in, the money starts flowing and, before you know it, you are looking to be the next world-famous restaurant magnate.

Diner Dash has been one of the most successful game models in Internet history. Countless clones have recreated the Dine and Dash experience in different settings. Today, you can choose from among such varied Task Management game themes as the management of feeding and fighting predators in an aquarium populated with exotic fish; the planting, plowing and harvesting of a thriving farm full of livestock and crops; or the development of a successful small business.

Who Will Like These Games?

If you like to manage multiple tasks, like fast paced and hectic game play, and take pride in seeing customers served quickly and efficiently, then Task Management games is the right type of game for you.  Most of these games are quite easy to learn and only involve using the mouse to click on varying tasks to accomplish, making them suitable for a wide age range of players.