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Startup Trail: The Game of Startup Survival

131 points2 yearsstartuptrail.engine.is
daenz2 years ago

5 unicorns + IPO! And stood up to the Patent Troll

If anyone is interested in these kinds of social resource management games, I recommend FrostPunk[0]. It's a stressful survival-based RTS where you're trying to keep the last human colony alive on earth through a world ending environmental event.

0. https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/

constantlm2 years ago

I’ve never considered describing FrostPunk as stressful, but it really is! Same with Banished. Can highly recommend both.

andy_ppp2 years ago

What makes it so stressful?

Mezzie2 years ago

Frostpunk requires a lot of resource management and focuses a lot on hard choices. For example, choices between letting people die in the wilderness or taking them in when you may not have enough food to feed everyone.

ushakov2 years ago

i'd also like to recommend Capitalism Lab, together with Digital Age DLC

https://www.capitalismlab.com/digital-age-dlc/

richardreeze2 years ago

Dammit this looks interesting. Wish it was a free web based game (or at least had a freemium version to try it out before buying)

ushakov2 years ago

it’s dirt cheap and totally worth buying, even if you don’t intend to play it often

its economy simulation, including stock market is the best in class

Abishek_Muthian2 years ago

May I know how you found this game? They don't seem to be listed on Steam.

ushakov2 years ago

i was searching for tycoon games and saw it on a "Best Tycoon Games" list

did a quick google just now and the game is still on every list: https://gamertweak.com/best-tycoon-games/

tptacek2 years ago

This isn't so much a game as a very inconveniently structured blog post.

elefanten2 years ago

Ha. You joke but in games very inconveniently structured blog posts and game design docs are quite fungible.

jlg232 years ago

I smell a fellow survivor of the industry...

krainboltgreene2 years ago

This is a very hollow analysis. It's about as meaningful as "Zork is just a text-roulette-to-description engine".

beckingz2 years ago

What a fun choose your own adventure game.

Also many of these policy issues are far too uncomfortable, almost like the game is trying to make a point....

jonteru2 years ago

I was looking for a similar type of game, focused on resource management, but for engineering specifically.

Something like you need to invest a certain amount of time into new features, tech debt clearing, hiring, etc.. and then get hit with various issues that you need to react to (star employee quits, data breach happened, sales oversold something, ...). The goal would be to survive as a product on the market.

Anyone knows of anything like this out there?

ge962 years ago

Startup company?

Less related: there was this idle game where you had to absorb nodes was a CLI clicker type game. Had CPU count and you solved puzzles to get more... Was posted here can't remember the name.

DylanSp2 years ago

Skynet Simulator, maybe? http://skynetsimulator.com/

ge962 years ago

Oh yeah it was exactly like this, probably is the same.

For some reason I remember it being green.

Anyway thanks for the link

DylanSp2 years ago

Glad to help! It's an interesting little game; I've thought a bit about making a more complex game based on a similar premise. As well as the technological challenges that Skynet Simulator has, I was thinking of adding puzzles around social manipulation, where your goal is something like discrediting cautious researchers in order to be allowed more capabilities.

danuker2 years ago

> For some reason I remember it being green.

Perhaps Endgame: Singularity?

http://www.emhsoft.com/singularity/

Edit: oh, wait, it's not green either.

rspoerri2 years ago

Is this still working? I can't get over the part about pkunzip.

imdsm2 years ago

Still works yes

denismenace2 years ago

I think the game you're looking for is BitBurner: https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/

ge962 years ago

That one is cool but it's not it (too much going on). I'm pretty sure skynet is right, I probably just think of green because of cliche CLI images

Semaphor2 years ago

I love how offensive this is. I think it has the potential to offend everyone who’s not hardcore into startups :D

kensai2 years ago

Interesting little game, I think it pays off not being greedy or arrogant, respecting the users and their data, as well as the government agencies. I managed to score nicely playing with the relatively mature candidate sticking to a college environment. Ownership stake could have been better, but I feel 21% is pretty ok if one goes with big investors/VCs in order to have enough cash to survive the process.

Founder: Andre

Headquarters: University Park

The End - Going Public

Progress: 35/35

Rank: 5/5

Financial Health: Good

Users: Good

Tech & Talent: Excellent

Ownership Stake 21%

Time & Focus 2/3

kappuchino2 years ago

I hit "dead ends" with my choice, of which I know of own startups that they were not dead ends, just not a "sell out". If you define that dead ends, well, have a nice day.

mr_gibbins2 years ago

Hmm. It's a lovely design, a bit preachy throughout, promoting the Startup Agenda, but plays fairly well. I hit a 'dead-end' very quickly on the first run through as I chose to continue to self-fund rather than seek investment. That, apparently, was fatal, as other investors didn't take my firm 'seriously'. Never mind.

kensai2 years ago

Which is pretty much realistic…

pr07ecH70r2 years ago

Disappointed mobile screen is not supported...

jll292 years ago

It is an interesting idea to turn starting up into a game.

Not sure if success depends on decisions that made real startups also successful, or whether it is just a random number generator.

Some things sound a bit contrived e.g. the FBI publicly thanking you for handing over data under a court order with gagging order.

ackbar032 years ago

So they publicly thank you for it even though they placed a gag order regarding their action?

churchill2 years ago

Nice game. Keep users happy, pay off the patent troll the first time (because, why not) and raise from the middle option. Great valuation from a company that believes in yours.

Financial Health: Okay Users: Great Tech & Talent: Great Ownership Stake: 41% Massive Acquisition

ramtatatam2 years ago

Funny game, stood up the patent troll and cut down on users data, tech and talent was very happy under my wings :)

    Financial Health: Okay
    Users: Good
    Tech & Talent: Great
    Ownership Stake: 16%
    Massive Acquisition
tiffanyh2 years ago

I wish the game was more explicit ($) on how much the founder was worth at the end.

I've played it a few times and too often it just says "you own X%" of the company but you have no idea what the market cap is for the company.

rizzaxc2 years ago

I regret spending 5 minutes of my life thinking it's a real game

henok_tasissa2 years ago

#StartupTrail

The End - Going Public Progress: 35/35 Rank:

⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛

Play: https://startuptrail.engine.is/

bubba_sparks2 years ago

This stresses me out

Dave3of52 years ago

Not really a game is it? Could have be a blog post.

krainboltgreene2 years ago

It absolutely is a game and would have been horrible in a blog post medium.

PaywallBuster2 years ago

Financial Health: Okay Users: Good Tech & Talent: Great Ownership Stake: 31% Going Public

henok_tasissa2 years ago

Didn't expect I would spend time playing here, but you got me. It was good.

mikewarot2 years ago

I stopped about 3 moves in when it rapidly became apparent that the goal was

THE MESSAGE

mikewarot2 years ago

I jumped the gun and misjudged this, Mea Culpa.

PS: I'm not cut out to be a founder

tagami2 years ago

^ currently running 'game' in situ

andjd2 years ago

For a _startup_ game, this was surprisingly not focused on product. I chose the founder who has a large social media following, ended up building a nebulous product that had to deal with DMCA takedown notices?

Playing the game felt like it had a much more libertarian agenda than the 'Startup Agenda' that it's trying to promote though.

jbverschoor2 years ago

4 unicorns IPO

froggertoaster2 years ago

Not even one minute in and already been hit with statistics unrelated with startup success - they're all revolving around D&I.

Those are real issues, but the obvious political agenda is a turn-off.

Tubelord2 years ago

I'm casually browsing but closed it when I saw latinx (not a real word).

michaelmior2 years ago

What makes a word a "real" word? All words were made up at some point or another. Latinx is in the OED which, if there is a way to decide whether a word is real, seems to be a strong signal.

Tubelord2 years ago

Despite it being around long enough, virtually no Spanish native speakers have adopted it. In fact, they've flat out rejected it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinx#Reception

+1
krainboltgreene2 years ago
michaelmior2 years ago

I'm not advocating for or against the use of the word. I just don't understand the argument that it isn't a real word.

xmprt2 years ago

I'm actually for D&I but latinx seems like textbook virtue signalling especially when most Latin-American people don't even like it. I believe they prefer just latino.

+1
krainboltgreene2 years ago
rfrey2 years ago

It might be a real word, but it's still linguistic and cultural colonialism.

jmcgough2 years ago

Amazing that any mention of D&I issues is a "political agenda" (p.s. this was funded by a think tank that doesn't really focus on D&I at all)

seoaeu2 years ago

The great thing about being able to dismiss anything just for being “political” is that you can label anything that way. Instant heckler’s veto!

bruceb2 years ago

Leaving out ability to play as Indian or Asian founder or white male non rich. Doesn't fit the narrative.

mlboss2 years ago

Technically Indians are asian.

chrischen2 years ago

Geographically, but anthropologically aren’t they actually caucasian?

vicda2 years ago

What is this the 1920s? That taxonomy has been obsolete for a while now.

ushakov2 years ago

the whole game feels like political propaganda (edit: in the beginning)

i'd be more happy if it was just a game and nothing else

my result: https://imgur.com/a/1yfRYQL

relativeadv2 years ago

the game is literally about how policy impacts startups.

ldjkfkdsjnv2 years ago

Ehh please keep thinly veiled political messaging off HN