The genuine game that I bought is still in beta stage. Because I am very interested in this kind of business game, and I also do this business with myself. It's a one-time pass. Let me rate this game.
Played for over 5 hours. Play from level 1 to level 15. All content is unlocked. The number of employees has grown from one to hundreds. From a small workshop, it developed into a 5-story building.
Kind of like a real startup. Played a total of 132 game days. It's a startup simulator. From a programmer's point of view, this game is fun.
A tech company will be filled with people with different divisions of labor:
- designer designer. Used for structural design, graphic design, interface design, etc. Designers are always used when taking on outsourcing projects at the beginning.
- developer (coder) for UI, backend component, network component, database component, encryption component, semantic component, video component, filesystem component, smtp component, i18n component, search algorithm component, compression component
I have tried most of the above. If they can do it, it is fullstack engineer. I have to say that the salary of the programmers in the game is not in arrears, and it is settled weekly and monthly, and it is not low in the industry. Otherwise, who would throw away the family business and develop it for me! It doesn't exist in real life either.
- lead developer lead engineer. Responsible for merging and synthesizing the above modules for further development. For example interface module, frontend module, backend module, content management module, input module, authentication module, seo module, api module, video playback module, storage module, email module, database layer, notification module, payment gateway module, localization module, search module, bandwidth compression module.
I have basically done all of the above. I haven't done much except for the video. The database side has also written ORM, and used custom TCP/IP to do instant messaging in the project. The underlying development of the interface API and the encapsulation of modules are commonplace. This game gives a deep sense of how tech companies work (combined with personal experience) in the first 3 hours.
- sales executive marketing specialist. At the beginning of outsourcing, such a person/role was needed to give the designer and developer a survivable task to make a living. In the later stage, lead developer came out to expand. At the beginning, sales just pulled projects for the developers of their own company, negotiated the price, and the people of their own company went to the development. As for the company's private projects, such as e-commerce platforms, it is necessary to cultivate a group of people called marketers in the later stage. Marketing and sales execution are not the same.
- DevOps is currently a slightly popular job that has little to do with hardcore development. At present, the work of devops is virtual hardware, operating system, firewall, etc., and some work with a little CI (sustainable development). There is no such thing as a developer who deals with algorithms and low-level program code on a daily basis. Instead, it focuses more on operations, maintenance, containers, and virtualization. Startups don't need DevOps very much at first, but in the medium term. DevOps can improve the utilization of CU (computer Unit) by optimizing and upgrading the server, so that the unit server resources can obtain higher access volume and stability. You are a fighter, but climbing requires a good pair of hiking shoes. DevOps is a good pair of hiking boots.
- Researcher researcher. This will also appear in the mid-term. The research institute outputs all aspects and new information resources of the industry for innovative companies to let everyone know the trend. Do not blindly develop something. Researcher is not product development. The researcher is to study the future of the company, thereby assisting the company to upgrade as a whole.
- Marketing in the middle and late stages of Marketer is here. Midterm to be exact. At this time, startups need to promote their products (such as e-commerce platforms). Marketer's skills include copywriting, text format, image format, video format, audio format, contract agreement. In simple terms, it is to do some propaganda that is beneficial to the company, and make beneficial content, text, pictures, etc., or communicate with third parties. The platform cooperates to promote the brand of its own company. This allows people to pay more attention to their company's content and bring traffic. Hot video or something. There are several types of ads: text ads, banner image ads, video ads, email ads, etc. These require the assistance of development engineers and lead developers. If the number of registered users and visits is large, the company's valuation will increase. After it becomes higher, investors are willing to invest more money. If the number of visits is large, the usefulness of DevOps will appear at this time. Reduce the machine overhead paid by a single user and optimize performance.
- HR Human Resources bar. In fact, at the beginning, these individuals recruited in front of the company can be found, introduced by the CEO, or recruited by themselves. You don't have to go to war with HR. But HR can actually be there from the beginning. But in many cases, most things are undecided at the beginning, and no one is willing to spend too much money to hire HR for startups.
- Finance this section. There is no clear position given in this game simulator. In fact, the company can invite or outsource it at the beginning. In the initial situation, at least one person who understands finance is needed, and it is very necessary to know what the company is in!
- Manager Then the company expands, and when it gets bigger, it needs to be managed well. Managers are needed to automatically manage employees. The manager and HR communicated directly, and the manager was in charge of several employees, with clear rewards and punishments, and asked for help. HR is responsible for execution, and the manager has jurisdiction over orders and work progress, requirements, such as our commonly used ERP, etc. These functions will be included.
- The CEO was not idle from the beginning to the end. All things and all contexts have to be worried about. When I started playing this game, I thought I would go bankrupt after playing for a while. The result is not. It's crazy to find that the investment is also huge. But sales are strong. It also exhausted many engineers. Increase the benefits little by little, give the engineer a good mood, and then save up for a bigger house and office. There is also an episode in the game, and it is found that if a male engineer is fired, a female engineer will be in a good mood. Interesting. But looking at the big picture, no matter who is fired, the morale of the company as a whole will drop somewhat. Therefore, managers will be asked to seek rewards and punishments for these employees to "please ask for warmth" to improve the overall enthusiasm of the company. But later on, as the company gets bigger, managers have more control over it. A start-up company suddenly becomes an enterprise that does not work overtime to engage in literature and art. It will find that the cash flow cannot keep up, the employees are relatively "slack", the overtime is too relaxed, and the business begins to drag. Call out a few managers, make three chapters, and have other employees come back to warn against slack and improve a little perk, like free fitness. The employees are relatively stable when they come and go. Kind of like reading a military book.
Startups start with a PPT or an idea, a piece of code. Just like this game that supported the company at first, it may be necessary to outsource some projects to survive and expand slowly. I feel deeply. Then you have to go on your own projects and build up your strength. Following a milestone and investors cashing in on the next investment plus the profits earned by their own company as a backstop for the expansion. Just like this, step by step, from a company that consumes (loss? Whatever you say) tens of thousands of dollars a day, to a profitable company with several million cash flow, a net profit of more than 400 dollars per day (excluding all employee corporate expenses). Through means to increase the number of users, increase the valuation, and then make a profit, the last way is definitely an IPO. Many technology companies can IPO with some users, which is an interesting era!
Haha, this game/tech startup simulator is very interesting! The first 3 hours are the most fun to play. I like it very much!