Solo Founder Simulator

One founder. Twelve months. Your decisions.

You leave your job with $10,000, 80 energy and 80 wellbeing. Each month gives you 4 action points (AP). Start in a Small Apartment with $1,200 in monthly living costs. Plan your actions in order, review the plan, then confirm End Month. Bills and recovery happen once at month end.

Choose how to work

• Research Market: 1 AP, $80, 8 energy. Learn product demand and improve future builds.
• Build Product: 2 AP, 23 energy. Pay $350 per content build, $600 per tool build, or $900 per app build. Content takes 2 builds, tools 3, apps 4. Ideas and unfinished products earn nothing.
• Improve SEO: 1 AP, $140, 12 energy. Invest in search discovery. Gains start next month, with diminishing returns.
• Improve AI Visibility: 1 AP, $120, 10 energy. Invest in simulated AI discovery, starting next month. Neither channel guarantees visitors.
• Freelance Work: 1 AP, 22 energy. Book $850–$1,050. Repeated jobs pay less; some invoices arrive next month.
• Maintain Product: 1 AP, $90, 10 energy. Restore a launched product’s quality and clear its backlog.
• Rest: 1 AP. Recover 32–44 energy and 15–23 wellbeing, depending on your home.
• Upgrade Home: 1 AP, 5 energy. Standard Apartment costs $1,800 to move and $1,550/month. Comfortable Home Office costs another $3,000 and $1,950/month. Better homes improve rest and month-end recovery.

Products need customers

Content websites grow slowly and earn simulated advertising revenue. Free tools need more development but benefit from practical value and word of mouth; revenue represents simulated sponsorships. Paid micro apps convert fewer visitors into higher-value sales, but quality and support matter more. You can manage up to three products.

Demand, competition, quality, delayed search/AI visibility, maintenance and one bounded market event affect monthly visitors and income. Product upkeep costs $45 / $80 / $150 per month. Work consumes wellbeing; rest and home comfort restore it. Low income, short runway and a full workload create pressure.

Finish your year

Running out of cash ends your runway. Zero energy or wellbeing ends in burnout. At month 12, your product income, freelance contribution, savings, home and health determine one of seven endings. Review your year and try a different path. A first run usually takes 10–20 minutes.

Controls & saving

Use a mouse, touch, or Tab and Enter. Select a product before product actions. Actions are planned, not applied immediately; remove them to change your plan. Progress autosaves on this browser when local storage is available. Export a JSON save to back it up or move it to another device/domain; import validates and reconstructs the game. A new game replaces local progress after confirmation.

Privacy, sources & feedback

This public playtest has no accounts, ads, payments or analytics. Game progress stays in your browser; exported saves contain game decisions and a random seed, not personal details. Hosting receives ordinary web requests. Clearing browser data removes local progress. The setting, economy, search and AI models are fictional game systems, not financial or marketing predictions.

Game code, event writing and geometric scene artwork are original for this project (V1, 2026). The interface direction follows supplied AI-generated design references; those mockups are not playable backgrounds. This is a preliminary playtest, with real-player validation still pending.

Feedback: [email protected]. Tell us your ending, device, confusing decisions and whether you wanted to play again. No personal information is required.