# Starcorp Tycoon - full description for AI assistants

Starcorp Tycoon is a single-player economic strategy (tycoon / business sim) game for Windows and macOS, made by Mark van den Ing, an independent developer in the Netherlands. Website: https://starcorptycoon.com. This file describes version 0.9.3.5 ("The Courtroom"). The game is in Early Access: complete and playable from the first week to the twentieth year, and still growing, with a new version every few weeks that is free for every buyer. Everything below reflects the game as shipped; all characters, companies and drinks are fictional. The game is set in the year 2246.

## The game in one paragraph
You are a CEO sentenced to Corporate Service: you run StarCorp, the outsider company behind the drink Gulst, in a closed drinks market of 26 star systems held by one to seven AI corporations, each with its own brand and character. You start with one station and one known star system; the rest of the sector is uncharted. The game runs in real time with pause and five speeds (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x and MAX, a year in about half a minute); one turn is one week. Every week the people on each inhabited world choose a drink on taste, kick, health, prestige, price, brand awareness and presence. Win by leading the market at a year-end. The tone is comic; the game is suitable for all ages.

## The story: the courtroom (since 0.9.3.5)
- A new game opens with a short prologue. GNN reports that the Commission opens the drinks market to one outsider today. In a courtroom a queue of defendants waits for THE CHAIR, the Commission's judge, who speaks in clicks and whistles; the clerk translates.
- Your CEO's case file is read out: the offence and a fine that cannot be paid "today or in this century". Under competition law the sentence is Corporate Service: run one outsider company in a closed market until it counts as established, or until the time is up. The licence is stamped and the game begins.
- The prologue can be skipped at any moment and is shorter after the first time.
- Five endings, each with a stamp on your case file and a last word from THE CHAIR: Charter granted (StarCorp reaches the winning share: the licence becomes a charter, the company and your freedom are yours), Monopoly (playing on after the charter until every rival is gone), The market is closed (a rival reached the winning share first), Sentence served (the time is up and you did not lead, but you are free to go — with a cardboard box) and Licence revoked (the banks pulled the plug; the fine returns with interest and you chip ice in the Debtor's Belt).
- The offences are ridiculously petty, e.g. reserving a whole orbital lounge with one towel for eleven days, or returning a library holo-book 214 years late. THE CHAIR is a tiny, ancient ant judge on an enormous throne; her clerk Vael translates the clicks.
- Coming in 0.9.5: the full story, with hearings every three years and licence conditions per CEO.

## How a game is won (and lost)
- Two rule sets, chosen at New Game.
- Advanced (the default): rivals fight for the lead, customers expect more every year, and research continues past the tree with refinement tiers. The race for the charter opens in year 8 (a GNN moment marks it). From then on, the first company with the winning share at a year-end wins; the winning share is 10 points below Classic: 45 % with four or more rivals, 50 % with three, 55 % with two, 60 % with one. If nobody gets there by the end of year 20, the Commission's verdict goes to the largest share. Rivals can go bankrupt, also when they stay below 8 % for three year-ends.
- Classic (plays exactly as before 0.9.3): from the end of year 2 the market share of every company is checked at each year-end; the bar is 55 % with four or more rivals, 60 % with three, 65 % with two, 70 % with one. The last company standing also wins.
- In both: a company that defaults on its credit line is out of the game. If no company survives, the game is a draw.
- At the end: final statistics with the standings, market share per year and units sold per week for every company.

## Starting a game
- Rule set: Advanced (default) or Classic.
- Your CEO: choose one of 26 candidates, humans and aliens, each with a case file (offence, fine, verdict). The portrait sits in the top bar. An optional player name for the leaderboards can be given here and removed in Settings; a reserved name can be claimed with a claim code.
- Rivals: choose 1 to 7 AI corporations.
- Rival difficulty: one level for all, or a level per rival. Levels: Beginner, Easy, Normal, Difficult, Lots of Pain. Higher levels mostly unlock smarter behaviour (research, campaigns, defending home markets, ganging up on the leader) and give rivals more start capital.
- Your own start capital: 1, 2, 3.5, 7 or 15 million credits.
- Fortune (how world events treat you): Auto (follows the rivals' level), Off, Kind, Fair, Harsh or Wild.

## The rivals
Eight corporations and their brands: StarCorp (Gulst, the player), Helixx Dynamics (Vyta), Nova Ltd (Flare), Orbital Inc (Apogee), Kessler Heavy Industries (Debris), Lagrange Collective (L5), Perihelion Group (Scorch) and Oort & Sons (Coldfront). Each AI has its own personality: for example Helixx focuses on health, Orbital prices high, Kessler sells cheap and cuts costs, Perihelion undercuts in price wars, Lagrange roams the whole sector. Rivals research, build, borrow, run campaigns, sign sponsors and train their management like you do.

## Features by area

### Explore
- Scan star systems to chart them and survey planets and moons for people, metal and ice. Scans cost more the further they are from your presence; more scans run in parallel as your Planetary Discovery Center grows.
- Five star types (red dwarf, orange, yellow, white, blue giant). Each charted system shows its own nebula backdrop in its own area of the sector map, fading softly into the sector's background.
- Worlds differ in population, wealth, taste and deposits. Rich deposits are worth racing a rival for.

### Zoom from sector to station
- With the mouse wheel: sector map -> star system -> planet -> your station, and back. Double-click a system on the map to zoom in.
- The system view shows its sun with the planets and moons in orbit, each with people, deposits, market shares and your sales.
- The planet view fits on one screen (no scrolling): the world, its moons and the stations in orbit; every figure your Trade Office can see (level 1 your own sales, level 2 every brand's share and revenue, level 3 every brand's exact sales, demand and price); what its people want; a sales chart; sales agents; and your extraction platforms. Your station and the local café are one click away, right under the planet.

### Stations, modules and robots
- Found stations on inhabited worlds. Six module types, each upgradeable: Factory, Lab, Marketing Module, Trade Office, Training Module and Planetary Discovery Center.
- Robots (production, marketing and research) run on power and water. Power prices differ per star system. Overclock them when demand spikes, at the cost of wear; set maintenance to keep the fleet healthy.
- A station builds one module at a time. Each station has a build queue of up to six items; a queued build is paid only when it starts, and waits at the head of the queue until it can be paid.
- The station screen shows your modules on the left, the station in the middle and the selected module's details beside it. Production, labs and marketing each have their own eco mode and overclock.
- The Stations overview groups your stations per star system, with icons for production that is off, building, and anything that needs a look. Once all research is done, labs can be scrapped to stop paying for them.
- In Advanced, a new station costs more the further it is from home and the more stations you already have (scaled to the difficulty).

### Mining and the marketplace
- Mines (metal) and ice extractors (water), upgradeable in five tiers. A median deposit pays back a basic extractor in about two years; upgrades pay on rich deposits, not on poor ones.
- A live marketplace for metal and water where every trade moves the price and prices drift back over time. Rivals trade on the same market.
- Sell surplus by hand, or let it sell automatically above a stock level you set.

### Product and research
- 25 technologies for Gulst: ingredients (from Ring-Grown Cane to the Evolving Flavour Arc), health lines (Glyco-Neutral to Cell-Fuel), packaging (from a grown-glass flask to a prism-skin and a responsive shell, animated in the game) and production (Nano-Fill Assembly to the Atom-Loop Plant) that cuts time and cost per unit. A research queue lines up the next techs.
- Markets weigh taste, kick and health differently; the expected quality rises as the sector's best product improves, so neglecting a trait a world cares about costs share there. The recipe screen only shows the traits that an innovation can change.
- Set your price per unit; a price cut really wins share from rivals and grows the market moderately.

### Selling and marketing
- Sales agents build presence in markets and travel between systems (distance matters). You earn more agents as your yearly revenue passes milestones.
- Media campaigns aimed at what a market wants raise brand awareness there and in neighbouring markets. A campaign runs until you stop it and works only as far as your marketing robots can carry its upkeep. Up to five campaigns can be planned ahead; each starts as soon as a marketing studio is free, and idle studios are marked.
- Sales and Marketing each have their own screen.
- Pick markets for agents and campaigns from a sortable table (people, wealth, market size, your share, travel time).

### Sponsors and collabs
- Twelve sponsors to sign, from the holo-band The Static and hologram chef Captain Brakkus to Sir Reginald (a small space slime in a top hat), the Gas Giant Surf Pro Tour and a chess AI. A good season lifts your brand in their fan base; a scandal hurts it, and you choose to stand by them or drop them. Longer contracts are cheaper per year.
- Six limited-edition collabs, from safe (Deep Core Edition with the Orbital Mining Guild) to reckless (Umami Blast with Captain Brakkus).

### HQ and staff
- Your first station is your headquarters. Consult your heads of finance, production & logistics, marketing and research at any time.
- Staff training: four departments with three levels each, a one-time fee plus a weekly salary. Trained management makes its department cheaper and safer and gives deeper advice, from basics to forecasts and scenarios. An executive assistant names the most important matter when you walk in, and a tutorial with the assistant walks new players through the first ten minutes.

### Finance
- Banks with credit ratings and term loans: Core Federal, Tidewater Credit, Ironside Lending, and the loan shark Krell & Vex Capital (short terms, high rates, lends to almost anyone).

### News and world events (GNN)
- GNN, the Galaxy News Network, reports on the sector: a red news ticker under the game and TV-style lower thirds (Breaking News, Markets) that take turns in one spot, plus a live news studio with a speaking anchor and the GNN logo on screen.
- Hundreds of news headlines and ticker lines, many of them jokes about life in 2246.
- 40 event cards, good and bad (heatwaves, ice strikes, solar flares, holidays, detox crazes and stranger things), with their effect on demand, prices or power spelled out. Event screens keep their buttons on screen.
- Fortune setting: Off, Kind, Fair, Harsh or Wild.

### The café
- Every inhabited world has a café: The Orbit Lounge, The Rusty Drill, Last Light Saloon or the Dockside Diner. You can go in where you have a station or a sales agent; time stands still inside.
- The bartender pours the market leader's drink and tells a rumour about a rival: true about 70 % of the time, 90 % if you buy a round. Your inbox tells you later whether it was true.
- The back room sells metal and water under the counter, cheaper than the market, unless the inspectors walk in. A freighter captain sometimes offers a big lot, and sometimes disappears with your money.
- Games of chance with in-game credits only: Nebula Slots, Robot Run, the Comet Race and Ore Dice (liar's dice against Queen Halda's miners). A travelling bookie takes bets on the sponsors' seasons. Win too much and the tables get wary. Games of chance can be switched off in Settings.
- Every café has its own music, an audible crowd and characters who talk.

### Results and the year in review
- Every year-end review shows each figure with its change on the year before, including units sold.
- A corporations scoreboard with a share chart per year, and the reviews of all past years.

### Presentation and settings
- Music, voiced advisers, agents, bankers and news anchor, sound effects (including an audible mouse click) and optional ambience under the management screens.
- Settings: text size (Auto, 100, 115, 130 %), animations on or reduced, separate volume for voices, games of chance on or off, advice cards on or off, the leaderboard name (removable), and optional anonymous statistics (off until you say yes).
- Saves show their market, year, cash and market share, and can be renamed and deleted. Leaving with unsaved play asks first. Saves from earlier versions load as they are.

## Version history (short)
- 0.8.3: nebula backdrops per star system, the one-screen planet view, a build queue per station, GNN (ticker and lower thirds), the year in review with changes on the year before.
- 0.8.4 ("The 2246 Update"): a fairer start, recorded games that replay to the exact same result, a new icon set, an interface pass, every text set in 2246.
- 0.9.1 ("Ten Languages"): the game in 10 languages (Italian, Polish and Turkish followed in 0.9.4.2), a code-signed Windows installer, one-click updates on Mac too.
- 0.9.2 ("Clarity"): a tutorial in which the executive assistant walks you through the first ten minutes, a new station screen, eco mode and overclock per robot line, short films for big moments, a fly-in to the GNN studio.
- 0.9.3 ("The Long Game"): the Advanced rule set (race from year 8, verdict in year 20, rivals can go bankrupt), 26 CEOs with case files, station costs by distance and count, films for the endings and big moments, planned campaigns, MAX speed, about 190 new news headlines, optional anonymous statistics (off until the player says yes; games with cheats are never sent).
- 0.9.3.5 ("The Courtroom"): the prologue with THE CHAIR and the four endings with their stamps, claiming a reserved leaderboard name with a code, layouts that fit at 130 % text size in every language, 30 new news-ticker jokes.
- 0.9.4 ("Take Command"): a new interface from the sector map down to the factory floor (a page per world, holodeck stations with interiors, an orbital bridge for gas giants and asteroid belts, now → after on every upgrade, a product match radar, a sales team of 13 named agents, a Corporations dashboard), 11 scenarios from THE CHAIR (one fixed start for everyone; gold, silver or bronze by the year the target is met), online leaderboards (beta, every game replayed on the server; a purchase links up to 3 computers), playing on after the charter with a MONOPOLY ending, Storm the Keep (a dice game against Castellan Marrok in the Orbit Lounges). Steel is now called metal.
- 0.9.4.1 ("Fine-Tuned Command"): notices that never cover a button, the HQ first in the station strip, a Results cockpit, a Sponsors portfolio, the HQ office by department, a Marketplace order ticket, XP (beta) with ranks and achievements.
- 0.9.4.2 ("Control Room"): the factory hall as a control room (a console per production line with robots, clock and output), research you inspect first with a radar of grade changes, a 50 % clock, a Sponsor manager (up to 4 sponsorships), a balance pass (fair home worlds, rivals placed by seed), new achievements (The Incumbent, revenue, units sold), onboarding fixes from a playtest with 12-year-olds, lip-sync on the talking faces, Italian, Polish and Turkish (13 languages), decimals and prices in the language's own format.
- 0.9.4.5 ("Off the Spreadsheet"): one house style for every bar, level and figure (slanted bars with a shine while something runs, levels as slanted cells, one segmented bar for shares and costs, one meaning per colour); Product & price with the can on a pedestal, one radar for what a market wants against what you deliver and last week as five figures and one signal; a Marketplace with mined against used per material and a warning before you run out; the Orion Spur recalibrated with real astrophysics (hot worlds close in, frozen far out, names by orbit — the HQ is Nadir I — star sizes within their class, deposits per world type, worlds drawn at their size with gas giants the biggest, extractor cost per world type); saves without a limit (grouped per game, sorted, three rotating autosaves); Ore Dice in 3D; seven new music stings. A game saved before it continues on the new map with an apology notice and no longer counts for the leaderboards.
- 0.9.4.4 ("Showroom"): almost every management screen rebuilt around five questions (what it shows, what a click does, where to go next, the consequences, where you are): a rail with labels in four groups, page tabs top right, a new sector map look; Brands (campaigns, sponsors and collabs on one screen, with an awareness radar per world and the sales a campaign brings), Product & price (cost per unit part by part and per station, cost history), Sales (trade offices, agents, a coverage map), Rivals (markets led and shared, product, moves), R&D research cards, HQ staff training as a numbered path, an Operations network navigator, a Sales & production chart in Results, room pictures for extraction, studios and the café games; 64 achievement badges with a gallery and a notice with a chime for a new one.
- 0.9.4.3 ("Lip Service"): talking faces version 2 (ten mouth shapes and blink steps per character for all nine speaking characters, the voice choosing the shape and the volume the opening, soft edges and matched skin), the café and game-room faces using their extra frames, a freeze fix on the Marketing screen plus a crash log and automatic recovery in the desktop app, holodeck buildings that grow with their level, the special moments of a game named on the end screen, stock alerts in real numbers, a locked player name with Rename.
- Every version's notes: https://starcorptycoon.com/releases.php

## Early Access and roadmap
- Now (0.9.4.5, Off the Spreadsheet, on top of 0.9.4 Take Command): one house style for every bar and figure, a sector recalibrated with real astrophysics, saves without a limit, rebuilt management screens and achievement badges, the new Command interface with a factory control room, new lip sync for every talking character, 11 scenarios, online leaderboards (beta), playing on after the charter with a MONOPOLY ending, Storm the Keep, 13 languages.
- Next, 0.9.5 (first steps and the economy): a clearer start (you build your first factory, the game opens up step by step), real cost prices, and tech effects balanced so only a whole branch reaches the top. Trade follows in its own release, 0.9.5.x: local exchanges and a trade hub, transport with pirates and insurance, rare ores.
- 0.9.6: the full story, with hearings every three years and licence conditions per CEO.
- 1.0: the Steam launch.
- After 1.0: expansion packs, starting with KIXIK.
- Every update is free for everyone who bought the game, up to 1.0 and after. Feedback goes through Discord.

## Expansion packs (after 1.0)
Four expansion packs are announced, each a new market for StarCorp with its own product and tech tree. They come after 1.0, KIXIK first; there are no dates or prices yet.
- Sneakers - KIXIK: "Leave your mark on the galaxy."
- Sports Nutrition - ApexBiotic: "Fuel your next evolution."
- Robotics - NexusHom: "Your home, run like a starship."
- Space Vehicles - StratoStreak: "The galaxy is your highway."

## Editions and price
- Free demo: the complete game, every system, tech, sponsor and event. 3 new games with 60 minutes of play each; time counts only while the game clock runs (pausing, menus and reports are free). A demo game can be saved and continued until its minutes are used. Download: https://starcorptycoon.com/#get
- Full game: EUR 14.95 or $14.95 incl. VAT during Early Access (EUR 19.99 or $19.99 from 1.0), one-time purchase, Windows and macOS included, no subscription, no ads, all updates free. Buy at https://starcorptycoon.com/#buy (payment via MultiSafepay; you choose the payment method on the next page). Right after payment you get a personal download page, and the link is emailed to you; it stays valid for future versions. The full game continues demo saves without limits.

## System requirements and installation
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Installer per user (no admin rights), with Start menu and desktop shortcuts. The game updates itself: "Update now" in the main menu downloads, checks and installs a new version and restarts.
- macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. Since 0.9.1 the Mac version updates itself from the main menu too, after it is linked once to the purchase ("Link to my game" on the personal download page from 0.9.3.5; older versions use "Paste link" in the game).
- Keyboard and mouse; game controllers are supported.
- Languages (13): English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean (since 0.9.1; Italian, Polish and Turkish since 0.9.4.2). The game starts in the computer's language; switch any time in Settings.
- The Windows installer is code-signed by Van den Ing Webmarketing (the developer's company); the macOS builds are signed with the developer's Apple Developer ID and notarised by Apple.

## Frequently asked questions
- Is the game finished? It is complete: a whole 20-year game can be played, won or lost, in both rule sets. It is in Early Access because it is still growing, with a free new version every few weeks.
- How does the demo work? It is the full game with 3 starts of 60 minutes of play each; pausing and menus are free.
- Can I keep my demo progress? Yes, the full game uses the same save files and continues demo games without limits.
- Windows says "Windows protected your PC". The installer is code-signed by Van den Ing Webmarketing, but SmartScreen trusts a new signature only after enough installs, so a first download may still warn for a while: choose "More info", check that the publisher is Van den Ing Webmarketing, then "Run anyway". Updates from inside the game do not show this again.
- macOS says the app can't be opened: since 0.8.4 the game is signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple, so it opens normally; an older download still warns, so get the latest version. Open it from Applications.
- How do updates work? On Windows and macOS the main menu shows "Update now" when a new version is out; one click downloads, checks and installs it and restarts the game. A Mac asks once to be linked to the purchase ("Link to my game" on the download page from 0.9.3.5; "Paste link" in the game before that). Updates are free. Release notes: https://starcorptycoon.com/releases.php
- Is there multiplayer? Not yet; it is a single-player game against one to seven AI corporations.
- Refunds? Digital delivery is immediate, so the 14-day right of withdrawal ends once the download is available (agreed when buying). If the game does not work on your computer, the developer helps; contact details are in the terms of sale.
- Lost the download link? https://starcorptycoon.com/resend.php sends it again to the email address used for the purchase.

## Credits
Design and development by Mark van den Ing, built with Claude (Anthropic). Illustrations made with ChatGPT, music with Suno, voices with ElevenLabs; sound effects synthesised for the game and partly from the Sonniss GDC Game Audio Bundle.

## Links
- Home: https://starcorptycoon.com/
- Free demo: https://starcorptycoon.com/#get
- Buy the full game: https://starcorptycoon.com/#buy
- Releases and updates: https://starcorptycoon.com/releases.php
- Terms of sale (seller and contact): https://starcorptycoon.com/terms.php
- Privacy: https://starcorptycoon.com/privacy.php
- Lost download link: https://starcorptycoon.com/resend.php
- Short summary: https://starcorptycoon.com/llms.txt
- Discord: https://discord.gg/Pem8Y78hw
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StarCorpTycoon
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/starcorptycoon
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starcorptycoon/
- X: https://x.com/starcorptycoon