Project Basilisk

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Very cool game, this is something uniqe that i actually enjoyed playing! Took me like 5 attempts to beat the narrative mode before 1.0 so takes some experience to beat the game, but the game needs an auto pause when you enter bankruptcy, as that has killed one of my runs right at the end. Now with 1.0 game definitly got better, and arc 2 was really fun, but i think is not very balanced, i feel like its much easier than arc 1 as there are so many more researches that buff you. But other then that the story was top notch, i was actually immersed into it and enjoyed it a lot, the game itself is well designed and i didnt see any bugs while playing. Rated this 5 stars and cant wait for new updates or new games from this author.

This game got me to really look into the current state of AI and try to understand it, the fact that the scaling laws are still in line today scares me until i see what people are building in the news and on twitter. Can't wait to see how the Alignment Problem is tackled in future updates, following closely.

"Active prestige bonuses now visible in Settings > Stats (guided mode only)
Removed prestige bonuses appearing on the ending screen in narrative mode"
I think this was a bad move, it no longer shows that there is any progression on a reset. The way it is meant to be played has 0 context that this is happening, the rewards are a little sub-par too. Or are they stacking per? The clarity to the user isn't really there.

I say this finishing the game. Yes it is hard. There is a little RNG it feels. There is no scale as to your rival and how far ahead they are is always dominant until the last year when your exponential scale is insane. You don't feel that satisfaction until the end though. That start and mid is just struggle all the time, even after you break even you are on a time clock you can't quantify. You just feel like you randomly lost. By the time I had reset so many times I finished only needing to unlock up to D. The narrative talked about F. I didn't ever get that far because the timeline pushed me to be better than the investors. I never sold more than 2% of my company for the sole purpose of unlocking more things because I needed them and I needed the investors to unlock it, I didn't need the money. Well except for D for Data. That was more greed in wanting it quicker.

Idk how guided mode plays, there is no way without a hard reset to switch to it. Most people playing probably forgot that it gave them the option to choose hard. 565 players and 496h played. The few dedicated people to finishing it like me spending many hours on it show a sad statistic which says its too hard and the clarity to the player isn't there for maintaining interest. The narrative I like, I'm glad I made it to the end. Also there is no idle about this. its is a very active game requiring active attention or you can easily research something new and lose in less than a second. Notably when the ammount of tokens you are making plummets instantly.

IMO there should be some narrative and incentive to get slightly further than before and having a satisfaction that going bankrupt or the competitors beating you out(which is harder than keeping your company afloat, which is hard enough.) gives hope to keep going. Right now it just looks like I restarted the game from scratch and I have to do everything just right. Also, reoccuring Data is too expensive. It really kills the mid game balancing the synth with the precariousness of $/Research when $=Data and Data=Research But you can't choose both so you end up with .5x Data and .5x Research just to keep enough Data around and your company from going under.

Cloud compute is so very important early game but players don't see that because of trying for the long game. Initially that sense of beating out the competitors isn't there. It is also expensive per TF so its better to buy the cheaper ones because I'm focused on sustainability. However Cloud compute is the only way early to balance the TF you need to make money and research. Most of my runs never used them till the cost per TF caught up. Then I bought 1 early and it changed the game, but it wasn't sustainable the second the investors funds ran out. I guess the point I think I am making is the balance is finite and doesn't allow for different styles of play. You either do it the right way or you see that your competitors are getting ahead, and after they are there, you restart ASAP because you are not catching up at that point. Maybe add some RPG into it to make the player feel more in control of who this character they are playing is so that they can work with the different pros and cons.

Also the decision for Early Deployment or Waiting. I haven't won once with Waiting. Only Early Development. That negative to market edge is nothing compared to the increase in demand and growth. not having it makes the game so much more impossible.

I was happy to learn that there are 5 endings. I haven't gotten all of them but the desire to go through and find how to get them is...tedious in my head because finishing at all is a challenge. 113y Playtime

This game single-handedly rekindled my love for free browser games. Too bad it's got such a low rating compared to its contemporaries

As someone who enjoys seeing the crazy that AI comes up with in creating games from scratch. I think this one might have got away from you a bit as it's got some real spaghetti type issues in the gameplay loop with a confusing start that's skippable. In complicated flow games, I would recommend not letting the tutorial be skipped but rather make it fake skip to at least tell the player a couple starting points.

I also agree the gameplay loop is incredibly slow paced to start. I'd prefer a moderate start up period of progression before it just leaves me waiting to check in on it.

wow! I really liked this game. Super fun. I wrote a reallyl long guide (by my low effort standards) because I really enjoyed it so much. This game has lots of soul. About you using generative ai, I think this is a great example of good usage. I liked the emails, liked what was going on, liked the systems. Whetehre you specifically had every idea first or whatever, you curated and fundamentally/finally created an awesome game. Incremental games as a genre despeaately need more games like this that actually have gameplay, ie, loss, risk, challenge that isnt "can i stand to wait/babysit this".

If youre having trouble, I had a fail and was having a lot of trouble figuring things out. I just beat the game, and I beat it taking the verification which afaik is just slower.

Basically, you need to constantly be trying to get applications, max your customers. So, there is market demand, there is your max demand, and then there is what youve actually acquired of your max. Afaik, I think, at least I treated it as such, that the market cap is essentially a hard cieling. Generally, push your cap up, and then meet that cap. Now here is the final piece you really need to make sure you get right. In your compute tab, where you choose internal vs external. Push external up, specifically, there is something like a provided compute / desired compute. ITs about your demand. You satisfy this desired compute to make money/please your customers.

Doing this, you will have shit tons of money. Make sure you are consistently buying the later guys, but only when you can afford them (obvious but easy to mess up tbh). They are orders of magnitude larger. 50k vs 5k for example. Notice that I said consistently not constantly. This game is forgiving. Just nudge things up.

Crucially, i had actually zero issues with the data integrity. Just make sure you dont poison it with the earlier low quality auto data. One thing I really, really prioritized with the boatloads of cash I had, which you should have too, was I bought tons of data. By the time data integrity wasnt a cocnern anymore, my research was multiplied by like .42. Like, my model's data was thousands and thousands behind where it should have beenm. Hoenstly, perhaps I was too worried about the quality, idk. It worked out.


So, imo, more or less always prioritize applications. Then prioritize customers and satisfying them.

Oh, also, I never took the e or f series because ada implied they were bad I thought. This has no effect on anything afaik. People referenced them as if I had done them.

To give you an idea of market edge, I think the least edge I had was .4 years ahead. By the end I was like 1.4 years ahead. This makes your demand sky-high.


To summarize, money is compute and staff, which is research, which is money. As long as you make sure the money is coming in, you're good. Always keep a buffer, be careful, but don't jsut keep money in reserve. Put the money where it needs to go, use it to grow. Money in your account doesnt make you money (except when it saves you from fucking up/lets you make big purchases).

Oh yeah, one last thing about market demand. AFaik, market demand explodes when you make certain researches or cross certain tiers. Idk, keep an eye on it. Whenever it shoots up, chase that. You need your slice of the market to win.

Further to my previous comment, I'm giving up after run 4. You really need to rethink how the playuer is expected to engage with this game.

Expanding your company after Round A is an active trap that ruins you down the line, and you never reach profitability while your rivals continue to flourish. I'm sure there's a golden line I can follow to actually succeed at this game, but I'm too frustrated to care about trying to find it across half-dozen 40 minute attempts.

This game single-handedly rekindled my love for free browser games. Too bad it's got such a low rating compared to its contemporaries

The game is a small treasure trove of the information on how a company works, and it deserves a full praise for it. But as a game, it has very little replayability.