Indie Hackers, The Game?
Soccer and other sports fans probably still know those manager games. Be a manager of a virtual soccer team, decide the team formation, pick your strategy, training, etc.
Wouldn’t it be fun to have a similar game for the startup scene? Like start your own Saas business, and have decisions along the way (hiring, invest in marketing/dev/sales, accepting investment rounds, etc) to make the most value in a certain period.
Starting as indiehacker, but becoming an unicorn. In a game though... :)
Would you play a game like this?
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I'm just going to leave this here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/606800/Startup_Company
And I will add this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o-VGnFaStg
Yes, I know that one. I tried but wasn't really locked in into that one. Did you?
Also, I don't think you need to see the sim-workers in your office. Just managing dashboards with remote workers (just like real life ;) ) could do the trick I guess. My main concern is if you could find enough variables and decisions to make the game interesting enough. WIth a football manager you have always players to change, strategy per match, etc. Setting up a startup is (in real life) not that existing day by day ;)
All Indie Hackers already play a game like this on this platform called "life" 😄
Jokes aside, your idea can be a lot of fun. To "ease up" the process of starting a startup. In games, things can happen faster and it's usually gratifying to see such advancement.
That said, as a gamer, who spent thousands of hours (tens of thousands maybe!?) playing games (MMORPGs, fps, whatever, strategy, MMORPGs, online chess, MMORPGs, oh and yeah MMORPGs). I looked for a mechanism to get the same adrenaline rush I got from games.
I found that if I force myself into the illusion that this is all a game, that real life is a game, then it becomes less heavy and I tend to speak with more people randomly (in-game characters), I get more creative and find loopholes, I embark on more adventures (quests), and I generally get more excited more often.
Oh, and the graphics are just amazing 😆
I know it sounds like a cliche, but it works for me... and it really is all a very nice game...
20 years ago, tycoons were very popular. There was Lemonade Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon. Games are for kids, they have something to learn about running a business from those games.
https://game.web-tycoon.com/ Did a nice job, got me hooked for a while :)
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Ah, Hipster CEO is still around and doing about that thing: https://apksdesk.com/gangstar-new-orleans-mod-apk/. Regarding the reviews it's a fun game but too many bugs.
Connecting to real data might be interesting. You working as some investor to buy parts of real startup companies. The downside here is that values of startup companies are hard to decide (or just pick the 'openstartup' companies). Next to that, football results are there weekly and lot of things can change. Startups in real life are pretty long term :)
It reminds me of the Hipster CEO app which existed (still exist?) a while back 😅
It would be really cool to bind it to real data (like Stripe account, or Audience count). I find that games bound to real data are super intriguing (in France we used to have Mon Petit Gazon - a soccer management game which trended really high).
Ah, Hipster CEO is still around and doing about that thing: https://apps.apple.com/app/hipster-ceo/id731368826. Regarding the reviews it's a fun game but too many bugs.
Connecting to real data might be interesting. You working as some investor to buy parts of real startup companies. The downside here is that values of startup companies are hard to decide (or just pick the 'openstartup' companies). Next to that, football results are there weekly and lot of things can change. Startups in real life are pretty long term :)
Seems fun! Good luck with that and keep us posted!
Playing games on startup themes excites me. I really wonder, how a platform like indiehackers can be used to simulate exactly same experience, Not as a game, but real world action. This would include actual output (Say, some company tried SEO with X $, but did not got result, while same approach worked for other player).
This can complement to build in public trend.
I bought something like this once. I think I became frustrated because I wasn't growing as fast as I want to and didn't have the money to hire the talent I want to hire 😂. #tooreal.
Sure, I like playing well-made sim games. Although I think I did see quite a few startup tycoon type games.
I'm not sure if it needs to be a sim-game / tycoon type of game( @huashu ). I though more about some dashboards (well designed of course, shouldn't be boring) to manage your virtual company. Don't believe we need to see sim-persons working in a sim-office ;)