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Built to Scale

Lead a 21-day startup sprint—juggle meetings, develop features, and keep the team motivated to ship on time.

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Game overview

Startup jam story

Made for GMTK Jam 2024, Built to Scale puts you in the role of a founder steering a fledgling company. Each day presents narrative events—investor meetings, bugs, team drama—and your choices shift stats like Cash, Product, Marketing, and Morale. Reach the end of 21 days with a healthy balance sheet to secure your future.

Built with Remarkable Games' Ren’Py template, the VN blends branching dialogue with light RPG mechanics, inventory, and day-night cycles.

Controls

Visual novel interface

  • Left-click: Advance dialogue, select choices, interact with UI elements.
  • Right-click / Esc: Open the Ren’Py menu to save, load, or tweak settings.
  • Scroll wheel / Page Up / Page Down: Review the dialogue backlog.
  • Space / Enter: Quick-advance through text when revisiting scenes.

Why play it?

Highlights

  • Jam-friendly runtime with meaningful management decisions.
  • Stylised art inspired by co-working spaces and startup culture.
  • Open-source Ren’Py project for devs wanting to blend VN storytelling with lightweight sim mechanics.

Tips

Ship on schedule

  • Keep an eye on cash reserves—investor meetings can swing your balance massively.
  • Boost team Morale before crunch days to avoid burnout penalties.
  • Save before big milestone choices so you can explore alternate strategic paths.

Our take

Why Built to Scale is a sharp startup story

Built to Scale does a good job of turning the ups and downs of a small startup into meaningful stat shifts without drowning you in spreadsheets. Choices rarely feel arbitrary—when you chase growth at the cost of morale or burn cash on a risky pitch, the consequences land in ways that feel grounded in real founder stories.

Because it is built in Ren’Py with open-source code, it also doubles as a template for narrative management games. You can peek under the hood to see how scenes, variables, and day loops are wired together, then adapt the structure to your own topics.

Who will appreciate it?

Players interested in startups, light management sims, or narrative design will get the most from Built to Scale. If you are chasing deep tycoon mechanics it stays compact, but as a jam-length entrepreneurial VN it’s insightful and easy to recommend.