Desk Wars

Desk Wars is a pixel-art corporate simulation that teaches operations, finance and revenue management the way you actually learn them: by making the call, seeing the result, and reading why. You start as a rotational analyst at a mid-size company with a cash position, a covenant to protect, and a floor full of people who remember what you said last quarter. Pick a track (operations, revenue management or finance), climb through entry, manager and leadership tiers, and try to earn the corner office without lying to anyone, including yourself. A MENTOR ON THE FLOOR Gene Okafor, a retired COO who now plays chess in the lobby, has a lesson for each of the game's 61 concepts: the short version first, then the formula, a worked example and the usual mistakes, as deep as you ask, with a quiz at the end. Open learner's mode from the title screen with no career and no grades, ask Gene about the problem on your desk, or let him debrief you after the call. How much he helps depends on the office you join: Casual Friday, Nine to Five or Up or Out. REAL MODELS, REAL MATH The problems on your desk are the ones from a business or industrial-engineering curriculum: Little's Law, Erlang C staffing, pooling, newsvendor, dispatch rules, price fences and overbooking, NPV and the three statements. A built-in worksheet calculator (NORMDIST, NORMINV, Erlang C, NPV) means you never leave the app to work a number. EVERY DEBRIEF SHOWS THE MATH After each decision you see the model's answer, your answer, and the gap. Luck and skill are separated: a good call with a bad draw is graded as a good call. Bad draws can slow your promotion. Only your own decisions can get you fired. TRIAGE LIKE A MANAGER Each week hands you an overfull board and a limited attention budget. Handle it, delegate it, defer it, or decline it. Analysts write memos with real confidence levels and occasional stale assumptions. Challenge them, ask for sensitivity, or overrule them and own the number. WORKSTREAMS, COALITIONS, EXECUTION Big problems become multi-week projects. Pre-wire the approvers, commit a plan, then watch it land (or not) as the org executes it. Sponsors shield budgets. Rivals claim credit. Burned-out owners hide delays. A PROMOTION CASE, NOT A SCORE Reviews look at performance, scope, sponsorship, visibility and whether a seat exists. Build the case quarter by quarter. The ladder works the way it works in real companies. FINISH WITH A STUDY PLAN Every career ends with a decision-quality report by concept and a post-mortem that tells you what to review. Everything you unlock stays in the Playbook, Gene's lessons included, and practice mode has no HR department. Three tracks. Three tiers. Three save slots. One honest climb.