Hi all, we are building our first game. AI Disclosure: **we don't use AI in the development of our game. The art in the screenshot is a placeholder and will be replaced.** We are in a super early stage (no gameplay yet), and I decided it's time to start sharing. So would appreciate any comments, suggestions, or roasting you have 🙏

👉 **About**  
AI Lab Tycoon is an isometric-2D management & simulation game satirizing the OpenAI story. You start from the co-founders' apartment, complete research & contracts, and build your own LLM with products on top of it.

👉 **Art & Tone of voice**  
Our inspirations for both are Rick & Morty, Ugly Americans, and South Park. So we are using the handcrafted line art and are trying to be funny and satirical in our text. W

Besides the core mechanics of Game Dev Tycoon, we have:

👉 **Product development**  
The LLM development will be similar to GDT (you set tech priorities with a slider and generate bubbles), but product development is a completely new mechanic built around managing a kanban board. You have 60 seconds to prioritize tasks between TO DO - IN PROGRESS - IN REVIEW buckets and make sure your completed tasks don't have any bugs.

👉 **A branching story that is based on real AI industry event**  
Didn't pay too much attention to Safety & Alignment? One of your teammates will leave you and start his own company - Workaholic (Anthropic).

Stay non-profit or move to for-profit? If for-profit, get ready for your friend, Evon Husk, to become your enemy and create a rival AI lab.

The board doesn't agree with your vision and has decided to remove you from the CEO position. Choose to protest and get back, or say F you and start a new AI Lab.

And so on and so forth, all of the decisions, from small to big, will have consequences.

👉 **Rogulike element**  
I'm a fan of roguelikes, that's why we have them :)

Upon level up, each of your teammates will get a permanent perk ranging from Regular to Legendary that will directly affect the performance during the dev phases. E.g., "Microdosing Specialist" – randomly produces 50% Research Points during any dev phase for 5s.

On the other hand, if you make immoral choices or ignore your teammates' requests for a salary raise, they can get a negative perk – e.g., "Procrastinotor" – during the dev phase, they start scrolling TikTok for 10s instead of working.

❓ **Questions I have**  
1. What do you think about the game concept in general? Is that something you would play? If not, why?      
2. Do you like/dislike/don't care about game UI?      
3. Does the storytelling seem fun and engaging to you? (Evon Husk modal, Pip's (mascot) chat)      
4. What are other game mechanics you would add/remove/modify?  

And if this sounds interesting & you would like to participate in playtests, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/MqKgQ4Ugh (just created it btw 😅)

Feedback on the Game Dev Tycoon inspired game needed