Startup Era

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Recreate a polished browser-based business simulation called “Startup Era.” The game opens on a full-screen, dark blue/black glassmorphism main menu over a faint stylized 2.5D office background. Center a large rounded translucent menu card with subtle blur, thin white borders, soft shadows, and animated float-in entrance. At the top show the eyebrow “1994 → 2012 business sim prototype,” the large title “Startup Era,” and the subtitle “Build a company across computing eras with a 2.5D office, retro desktop UX, and era-specific software.” Include a rounded MAIN MENU badge in the upper right.

The main menu must have editable Company Name and Founder Name fields, each with a Generate button. Default values are “Pixel Harbor” and “Alex Morgan”; generated values come from combinations of company first/second words and first/last names. Let the player choose one of two selectable business path cards: Tech (selected by default) or Games. Tech is described as strict enterprise UI, networking tools, office apps, utility software, and infrastructure products. Games is described as a dev-focused OS, engine tools, content creation apps, audio tools, and game production projects. The selected card has a blue outline and blue-tinted highlight. Show a preview panel listing the build’s focus: animated intro/polished menu, clickable 2.5D office computer, 90s boot/login with fake code typing, and desktop apps changing by era and company focus. Include era pills for “1994 Startup,” “2002 Connected,” and “2012 Cloud,” with 1994 highlighted. A prominent “Enter Office” button starts the game.

After starting, hide the menu and reveal a Three.js-rendered 2.5D/isometric office scene. Use a fixed perspective camera with slight mouse-drag orbit, no pan or zoom, and constrained horizontal/vertical orbit. The office has a large dark blue-gray floor, a purple rug, warm directional lighting mixed with cool blue rim light, fog, a wooden rectangular desk with four legs, a chunky CRT-like glowing green computer monitor, monitor stand/base, keyboard, pale computer tower, blue mug, dark office chair, filing cabinet, blocky potted plant, back and side walls, a blue glowing window, and a purple wall poster. Make the computer monitor the clickable object, with a pulsing green emissive screen and a glowing ring around its base. The bottom-center hint says “Click the glowing computer to boot your workspace.” A top-left translucent HUD displays Era, Cash, Rep, and Research, initially 1994, 
2,000, 0, and 0.

When the player clicks the glowing computer, show a centered full-screen boot overlay over the office. It is a dark green CRT terminal panel with rounded border, green glow, scanline effect, vignette, VT323-style monospaced text, a top bar showing the current workstation title and company/path boot subtitle, and a progress percentage. Type the boot log character by character, including the era workstation title, company, founder, division, memory/storage/UI/network/render/user-profile checks, login acceptance, and desktop initialization. Display “Press Space to accelerate” in the footer; Space speeds up the boot. The 1994 workstation is “RetroSys Workstation,” the 2002 workstation is “NetSphere Business Desktop,” and the 2012 workstation is “CloudFrame Workspace.”

When boot completes, replace the boot screen with a large rounded translucent desktop overlay, still over the office. Its appearance changes by path: Tech uses a blue enterprise tint, while Games uses a purple developer tint. The desktop top bar shows the current OS name, a user label formatted like founder@company, and an ESC button. The desktop is split into a left sidebar and main workspace. The sidebar has an Apps section with clickable app buttons and an Actions section with buttons: “Ship Product,” “Run Research,” “Upgrade OS,” and “Read Newspaper.” The main area has a “Company Console” glass window with an Idle/current mode label and a scrollable event feed, plus a “Market Snapshot” window with a market trend label and scrollable news cards.

Implement the actual progression and economy. The three eras are 1994, 2002, and 2012. Each has an OS tier: Starter OS 1994, Connected OS 2002, and Cloud OS 2012. The market labels are Local, Web, and Global. Starting cash is 
2,000, reputation and research are zero. Tech and Games have different app lists in each era. In 1994 Tech apps are Spreadsheet, Terminal, Mail Client, DTP Suite; Games apps are Sprite Edit, Sound Lab, Level Tool, Build Runner. In 2002 Tech apps are CRM Panel, Web Stack, Analytics, Support Desk; Games apps are 3D Editor, Physics Lab, Build Farm, Patch Tool. In 2012 Tech apps are Cloud Console, Deploy Grid, Data Lake, Team Hub; Games apps are Live Ops, Engine Forge, Telemetry, Asset Cloud. Clicking an app changes the current window mode to that app and adds an event-feed entry saying it opened with a beveled enterprise or developer desktop style for the current year.

“Ship Product” immediately rewards the current path’s era-specific product. Tech products are: 1994 office utility suite for +
,800, +6 reputation, +5 research; 2002 SaaS admin platform for +$6,200, +11 reputation, +9 research; 2012 cloud workflow platform for +
2,500, +18 reputation, +12 research. Games products are: 1994 shareware game kit for +
,500, +7 reputation, +6 research; 2002 downloadable action game for +$6,700, +12 reputation, +10 research; 2012 live-service game platform for +
3,200, +20 reputation, +14 research. Add an event feed message describing the release and rewards.

“Run Research” spends 1,000 cash in 1994, 1,600 in 2002, or 2,200 in 2012, provided the player has at least 500 cash, and awards 20, 35, or 60 research respectively. If cash is insufficient, add a warning event instead. “Upgrade OS” costs 70 research to move from 1994 to 2002 and 140 research to move from 2002 to 2012; subtract the cost, change era, refresh apps/news/HUD, and add a migration event. At 2012, report that the latest OS has already been reached. “Read Newspaper” updates the current mode and adds a trade-news event. Show three era-specific headlines and explanatory stories: 1994 news covers dial-up demand, CD-ROM growth, and computer fairs; 2002 covers broadband distribution, digital storefronts, and search/portals; 2012 covers mobile ecosystems, streaming/services, and data-driven iteration. Display the era market label as the trend tag.

Allow ESC to close the desktop overlay and return to the office hint; clicking the computer again reboots the workspace. Use subtle hover/raise transitions, glass panels, blue/purple accents, warm 90s office lighting, CRT scanlines, green boot text, and polished animated transitions. Add light synthesized UI sounds on clicks and boot typing if supported. Keep the game as a focused vertical slice with no employees, payroll, contracts, inventory, detailed market simulation, or other systems beyond the menu, office, boot sequence, desktop apps, economy, research, newspaper, and three-era OS progression.