Big Tech Tycoon vs Burn Rate

The future of computing is under new management. Unfortunately, that management is you. Found a technology company between 1975 and 2000, then guide it from garage startup to global giant. Research technologies, hire employees, design software and hardware, build factories, launch campaigns, survive industry crises, and compete against rival corporations determined to own the future. BUILD THE STACK Create operating systems, productivity apps, browsers, developer tools, social platforms, and communication software. Design personal computers, servers, phones, smartphones, processors, graphics cards, memory, storage, displays, and more. Balance performance, compatibility, security, reliability, cost, and style. Rush a launch or polish it for years. The reviewers will have opinions either way. RESEARCH TOMORROW Advance through technologies spanning software, hardware, company operations, and semiconductor fabrication. Start with 8-bit processors and command lines, then progress through graphical interfaces, mobile computing, cloud platforms, machine learning, autonomous agents, and stranger futures. Lead the market, follow it, license it, or confidently miss it while explaining that consumers “weren’t ready.” BUILD IT OR PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO Construct assembly lines and semiconductor factories, design custom components, manage inventory, and expand production. Or outsource manufacturing and discover the timeless corporate tradition of blaming the supply chain. PLATFORM WARS Operating systems are products, platforms, and ecosystems. Create your own OS, license a competitor’s, attract developers, grow your installed base, and fight for market share. PLAY GUIDED SCENARIOS Start a custom sandbox company or jump into handcrafted scenarios with unique starting conditions, objectives, rivals, story events, and custom challenges. Rescue a chaotic 1990s computer maker in Pear In The Red, survive platform drama, rebuild developer trust, simplify broken product lines, or learn the basics in a gentler first-launch campaign. COMPETE FOR EVERY DESK, POCKET, AND SERVER RACK Five AI-controlled rivals research, manufacture, advertise, and launch products independently. They can dominate markets, copy your ideas, rush broken hardware to shelves, create successful platforms, or collapse under the weight of their own vision. SURVIVE THE INDUSTRY Face dynamic events involving shortages, leaks, lawsuits, security breaches, celebrity endorsements, whistleblowers, patent disputes, market crashes, tax audits, and viral memes. Products can run into trouble before release, including beta leaks, scope creep, architecture failures, QA concerns, and release-candidate panic. Your choices create immediate and long-term consequences. WATCH THE REVIEWS Your products are judged by fictional publications and suspiciously familiar industry personalities. Reviews consider quality, pricing, reputation, technical debt, ecosystem strength, trends, competitors, and launch-day bugs. Marketing calls them “unexpected user journeys.” READ THE NUMBERS Track customers, product reception, platform momentum, market share, revenue, reviews, rival releases, operating costs, and company health through detailed dashboards and statistics pages. RUN THE COMPANY Hire engineers, researchers, designers, marketers, managers, QA staff, support specialists, and advisors. Manage salaries, morale, loans, departments, projects, contracts, manufacturing, finances, and product lifecycles while trying not to run out of money. Premium Game: * One-time purchase shared between macOS and iOS * No advertisements * No subscriptions * No microtransactions Build products. Build fabs. Build platforms. Build an empire. Just remember to save before disrupting the industry.

Start with a used laptop and a handful of AI agents. Turn your own ideas into products, ship updates, grow recurring revenue, and keep the company alive while compute, upkeep, and marketing eat into your runway. Build specialized agent teams for planning, coding, review, and shipping. Reallocate them as projects change. Upgrade from secondhand machines to cloud GPU fleets and eventually your own data centers. Products keep earning after launch—and keep evolving. Improve quality, reliability, and demand over time, enter recurring hackathons, react to startup surprises, negotiate acquisition offers, and collect event stickers for your founder laptop. Burn Rate is an agentic startup simulation about making smart tradeoffs between speed, quality, cost, and ambition. Build agents. Ship products. Beat the burn.