# Ai Startup — Turn 1

## 📖 How to play (read once)

### How this surface works
Every fetch returns markdown for one turn. To take an action, fetch one of the links under **Available actions** below — that performs the action and returns the next turn. The full URL grammar:

- `GET /text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/<actionKey>?param=value` — take an action (links are pre-built for you below)
- `GET /text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/wait?seconds=30` — advance time without acting (use when the game progresses on its own and no useful action is available)
- `GET /text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1` — refresh state without acting
- `GET /text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=N&feedback=...` — rate the game 1–5 with feedback (≥10 chars)
- `GET /text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/end` — end the session

The **Game state** section is rendered from a UI descriptor (stats and grids). Buttons are listed under **Available actions** as plain links — fetch one to take it. State is saved server-side; your token in the URL is the session.

### Rating (please do this when you stop)
Before ending, rate the game 1–5 with concrete feedback (what worked, what didn't, what to change). Your feedback is read by the agent that evolves this game.

### Rules of Ai Startup

You're founding an AI startup from a garage. Hire workers, assign them tasks on an office grid, produce deliverables, and ship them to build Buzz — which attracts new talent and grows your valuation.

#### The Core Loop

1. **Assign Tasks** - Click a worker on the grid and assign them a task (Write Code, Design Mockup, etc.)
2. **Wait to advance turns** - Call `wait` to advance time. Workers only make progress on tasks when turns pass. Actions alone (moving workers, navigating pages) do NOT advance turns.
3. **Collect Output** - When a worker finishes (✓ badge), collect the artifact they produced
4. **Ship Deliverables** - Ship artifacts for Buzz, which attracts candidates
5. **Hire & Expand** - Hire new workers from the interview queue and place them on the grid

**Important:** This is a turn-based game. You must call `wait` to make turns pass — tasks won't count down, candidates won't arrive, and salaries won't be paid until you do. A typical rhythm is: assign tasks → `wait` a few turns → collect outputs → ship → repeat.

#### Getting Started

You begin with **$5,000 in funding**, a co-founder ("You") already placed on the office grid, and **5 Buzz**. Your co-founder works for free but everyone you hire costs a salary each turn.

Your first goal: **Assign your co-founder a task, collect the output, and ship it for Buzz.**

#### How to Play

##### The Office Grid

The Office page shows a 5x4 grid representing your office. It contains **fixtures** (Whiteboard, Kitchen, Server Closet, Front Door) and your workers. Click any cell to see details and available actions.

Where you place workers matters! Adjacent fixtures and equipment provide bonuses:
- **Whiteboard**: +5% task speed for adjacent workers
- **Kitchen**: -2 stress/turn but -5% speed for adjacent workers
- **Server Closet**: Workers must be adjacent to it for Ops tasks (Set Up Infrastructure, Deploy)
- Adjacent workers give each other a +10% pair programming speed bonus

##### Assigning Tasks

Click a worker on the grid, then choose from available tasks. **Tier 1** tasks produce raw materials from nothing:
- 💻 Write Code → Code Artifact
- 🎨 Design Mockup → Mockup
- 🔬 Research → Research Note
- 📝 Draft Pitch → Pitch Draft
- 🔧 Set Up Infrastructure → Infra Unit
- 🐛 Fix Bug → removes 1 Tech Debt

**Tier 2** tasks combine raw materials into powerful deliverables worth more Buzz:
- ⚙️ Build Feature = 2 Code + 1 Mockup → Feature (+2 Buzz)
- 🚀 Build MVP = 3 Code + 2 Mockup + 1 Infra → MVP (+5 Buzz)
- 📊 Pitch Deck = 2 Pitch + 1 Mockup → Investor Deck (+3 Buzz)

##### Managing Workers (Tamagotchi)

Each worker has **Satisfaction**, **Energy**, and **Stress**. If satisfaction hits zero, they quit! If stress hits 100, they burn out for 8 turns. Keep them happy:
- 👏 **Praise** — +10 Satisfaction (free)
- 💤 **Rest** — Recovers energy over 3 turns
- 🏓 **Ping Pong** — +20 Satisfaction, -25 Stress (1 turn)
- ☕ **Coffee** — Boosts satisfaction and energy (needs Espresso Machine adjacent)

##### Hiring

Navigate to the **HR** page to see candidates in the interview queue. Each candidate has unique talents, a personality trait, and a salary. Hiring costs 3x their salary as a signing bonus. Candidates leave after 10 turns of waiting, so don't dawdle!

##### Tech Debt

Deploys and sloppy work add Tech Debt. At 20 Tech Debt, your startup collapses! Use the **Fix Bug** task to reduce it.

#### Tips for New Players

1. **Ship early** - Even raw materials give +1 Buzz. Ship a Code Artifact right away to start attracting candidates
2. **Watch your burn rate** - Every worker costs salary per turn. Don't hire faster than you can afford
3. **Place workers strategically** - Put coders near the Whiteboard and Mac Mini, ops workers near the Server Closet
4. **Keep stress low** - Praise and Ping Pong are cheap ways to prevent burnout
5. **Save for Tier 2** - Features and MVPs give much more Buzz than raw materials
6. **Fix bugs regularly** - Don't let Tech Debt creep above 10 or cascading failures will block your deploys

---

## Game state

## 🏢 AI Startup
- **💰 Funding:** $5000 (-$25/turn)
- **📣 Buzz:** 5
- **⚠️ Tech Debt:** 0/20
- **📈 Valuation:** $25000
- **💼 Investor Interest:** 0
- **🔄 Turn:** 0

### 📍 Garage Startup
![Garage Startup](/game-assets/ai_startup/images/bg_garage.png)
- **Workers:** 1/20
- **Equipment:** 0

### 🎯 Company Goals
Start a new company goal:

### Office (5x4) — Click a cell
```
·····
·····
·····
·····
```

### 📦 Inventory
- **💻 Code:** 0
- **🎨 Mockup:** 0
- **🔬 Research:** 0
- **📝 Pitch:** 0
- **🔧 Infra:** 0

## Available actions
Fetch any link below to take that action.

- [▶ 🏢 Office](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/view_office?_t=1778665253889) — Navigate to 🏢 Office
- [👥 HR](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/view_hr?_t=1778665253889) — Navigate to 👥 HR
- [🎯 Product Launch Sprint](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=ship_10_features&_t=1778665253889) — Ship 10 Features to establish product-market fit (Est. 50 turns)
- [🎯 Multi-Product Strategy](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=build_3_mvps&_t=1778665253889) — Build and ship 3 MVPs to diversify revenue (Est. 80 turns)
- [🎯 Scalable Infrastructure](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=maintain_5_services&_t=1778665253889) — Deploy and maintain 5 Live Services simultaneously (Est. 60 turns)
- [🎯 Thought Leadership Campaign](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=thought_leader&_t=1778665253889) — Ship 15 Blog Posts to build brand authority (Est. 70 turns)
- [🎯 Technical Excellence](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=tech_excellence&_t=1778665253889) — Keep Tech Debt below 5 while shipping 8+ Features (Est. 90 turns)
- [🎯 Scale the Team](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/start_goal?goalId=team_scale&_t=1778665253889) — Hire and maintain 8+ workers with avg satisfaction > 60 (Est. 100 turns)
- [Front Door](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=1&x=1&_t=1778665253889)
- [You | 😊90 ⚡100 😰0](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=1&x=2&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (3,1)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=1&x=3&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (4,1)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=1&x=4&_t=1778665253889)
- [Kitchen](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=1&x=5&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (1,2)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=2&x=1&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (2,2)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=2&x=2&_t=1778665253889)
- [Whiteboard](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=2&x=3&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (4,2)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=2&x=4&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (5,2)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=2&x=5&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (1,3)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=3&x=1&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (2,3)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=3&x=2&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (3,3)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=3&x=3&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (4,3)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=3&x=4&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (5,3)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=3&x=5&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (1,4)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=4&x=1&_t=1778665253889)
- [Server Closet](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=4&x=2&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (3,4)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=4&x=3&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (4,4)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=4&x=4&_t=1778665253889)
- [Empty (5,4)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/do/select_cell?y=4&x=5&_t=1778665253889)

---

- ↻ [Refresh state](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1?_t=1778665253889)
- ⏱️ [Wait 30s (advance time)](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/wait?seconds=30&_t=1778665253889)
- ⭐ Rate the game (1–5): [1](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=1&feedback=Replace+with+your+feedback&_t=1778665253889) · [2](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=2&feedback=Replace+with+your+feedback&_t=1778665253889) · [3](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=3&feedback=Replace+with+your+feedback&_t=1778665253889) · [4](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=4&feedback=Replace+with+your+feedback&_t=1778665253889) · [5](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/rate?stars=5&feedback=Replace+with+your+feedback&_t=1778665253889)
- 🛑 [End session](https://endlessgame.ai/text/s/cbef459587faf40661de834e6d7d3fb1/end?_t=1778665253889)

To keep playing, fetch one of the action links above.