Venture's Business Simulator

This game was created for the Retro Recreation JAM - Summer, and the objective was to recreate (and improve upon) an old business simulator from Reality Technologies, originally published in 1985/1986.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/business-simulator-aa

Executive Training Tool places the player in the role of an executive responsible for running a company over several years, making decisions involving pricing, production, advertising, financing, expansion, research, sales force, and strategy.

The premise is simple to understand but difficult to master. Rather than offering a sequence of isolated choices, the game operates on a system where virtually everything is interconnected. Increasing production can help meet demand but may also generate excess inventory and pressure cash flow. Cutting prices can boost market share but erode margins. Investing in advertising can stimulate sales, yet returns depend on the company's positioning, competition, and capacity to handle the additional volume.

The Business Plan sets targets for different phases of the company, and performance is not evaluated solely by profit. Growth, shareholder value, financial stability, management quality, and strategy execution also factor into the assessment.

Another novel element in this remake is the presence of AI-controlled competitors. Each rival company has its own characteristics and adjusts pricing, advertising, research, capacity, and other factors in response to the market. This prevents there from being a completely static formula for winning. A successful strategy in one period can lose effectiveness when competitors react.

Executive memoranda add a layer of human and institutional management, and this functionality is an exclusive feature of the remake. The player must decide on issues such as quality problems, safety, supplier relationships, governance, privacy, commercial conflicts, and reputation crises. These choices influence factors like morale, customer trust, reputation, innovation, and governance, making the simulator broader than a simple financial exercise.

The game demands attention. It is not an experience aimed at those seeking quick action or constant rewards. Much of the satisfaction comes from interpreting reports, observing trends, anticipating capacity needs, managing debt, and seeing how a decision made years earlier begins to produce effects later.

There is also a considerable learning curve. In early games, it's entirely possible to make seemingly reasonable decisions and discover, a few years later, that the company has run out of cash, accumulated too much inventory, taken on excessive debt, or grown faster than its structure could sustain. This punitive character may discourage casual players, but it's precisely what makes the experience interesting for those who enjoy more serious economic simulations.

The final evaluation system is also a remake novelty. The game avoids reducing business success to a single number, such as revenue or stock price. A company that grows rapidly but over-leverages itself may end up in a fragile position. Similarly, an extremely conservative management approach may preserve cash but fall behind in market share and innovation.