Build Your Empire
Start with a lemonade stand. End with a space corporation. Business Empire is an idle tycoon that grows with you across ten tiers of progression, each unlocking new mechanics and challenges.
Your businesses need employees, inventory, and space to operate. Hire workers to boost efficiency, but watch the payroll. Stock inventory before it runs out, or watch your income dry up. Rent commercial properties or face space penalties that eat into your margins. Random events will test your resilience: fires, theft, lawsuits, product recalls, and employee drama all chip away at poorly-managed empires. Insurance exists for a reason.
Developed by a solo-developer, this game is going more for realism than anything else. As an economic game enjoy-er, I have always wanted to make stocks FEEL good to trade, and I think I have come up with a system that is satisfying and allows for various play styles! Take a look at all the cool features:
Businesses
55 unique business types across 10 tiers, ranging from Lemonade Stands to Space Corporations
Buy, sell, and upgrade franchises of each type
Stock inventory items and watch them decay over time if not sold
Hire employees across multiple skill tiers to boost efficiency
Hire managers to automate income collection, restocking, rebuilding, and insurance
Set restock thresholds so managers buy inventory at the right time
Toggle manager behaviors (auto-hire staff, auto-rebuild after disasters, auto-insure)
Use Hiring Blitz to spend a day's income for massively accelerated hiring for a month
Buy insurance to protect against disasters (fires, floods, etc.)
Rebuild destroyed businesses
Manually collect income for a 10% bonus when no manager is assigned
Efficiency scales based on staffing levels and available space
Tier Progression
10 tiers of businesses, each requiring a certain number of franchises from the previous tier to unlock
Higher tiers also require hitting company market cap milestones.
Unlocking tiers grants access to new game systems (stocks, loans, options, company creation, real estate, etc.)
Stock Market
200 stocks across 15 industries
15 industry ETFs for diversified investing
Buy and sell stocks with realistic price impact (AMM-style)
Options trading — calls and puts with full Greeks display (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, Rho, Implied Volatility)
Earn dividends from stocks and ETFs
Random market events — industry-wide disruptions, company scandals, earnings beats, trend shifts, volatility spikes
Company & CEO
Go public by creating your own company from your business portfolio
Add business types as divisions to your company
Set dividend payout ratios from net income
CEO Actions:
Manage company reserves (deposit/withdraw)
Capital moves: stock buybacks, special dividends, share offerings, debt issuance, stock splits
Operations: marketing campaigns, efficiency programs, restructuring, layoffs
Growth: acquisitions, adding new divisions, vertical integration, divestment
Corporate portfolio: buy and sell other stocks using company funds
Bid on government contracts
Set corporate policies: accounting methods, depreciation, tax strategy, capital allocation, investor relations, working capital, debt covenants, earnings guidance
Insider trading: buy or sell founder shares
Banking
Savings accounts with interest tied to the Fed rate
Loans to borrow up to 20% of your net worth with 12-month terms
Credit score system (300–850) influenced by net worth, loan history, savings, and debt
Automatic emergency loans when your cash goes negative (high interest penalty)
Random banking events: loan freezes, savings bonuses, market crashes
Central Bank / Federal Reserve
Dynamic Fed interest rate that affects all loan and savings rates
Bi-monthly FOMC meetings with rate change decisions
Economic indicators: inflation, unemployment, GDP, consumer confidence
Rate changes ripple through the stock market
Real Estate
100+ property types across residential, commercial, industrial, office, mixed-use, and special categories
20+ zoning codes determining what businesses can operate where
Rent properties to house your businesses (pre-Tier 5)
Buy and sell properties outright and earn rental income (Tier 5+)
Each business requires specific square footage and compatible zoning
Income scales with how much space you have leased or owned
Location scores affect property value and rent
Property Finder tool to search by zoning, square footage, and location
Research Tree
~530 research nodes across 10 branches: Business, Trading, Real Estate, Banking, Risk, Tax, Automation, Market Intel, Mastery, and Research Lab
Spend Research Points (earned from business income) to unlock upgrades
Bonuses include: income boosts, cost reductions, efficiency gains, tax advantages, insurance discounts, and more
Repeatable mastery nodes for infinite scaling
Random Events
Negative: employees quit, workplace injuries occur, inventory theft happens, among various other events
Positive: community support, free publicity, financial windfall, you get the drift
Casino
Play Blackjack solo or with other players
Adjustable bet sizes with min/max limits
More to come later based on user input.
Taxes & Financials
Monthly ledger tracking all income, expenses, and deductions
Yearly taxes with progressive income tax and capital gains tax
Capital loss carry-forward, losses offset future gains
Full transaction categorization: business income, wages, inventory costs, lease payments, loan interest, etc.
Balance Sheet view for a snapshot of your financial position
Multiplayer
Online lobbies with player list and chat
Up to 16 players, state is minimal, synchronization happens at the tick level.
Lagless experience, simulated locally with minimal communication between players.
Experience the EXACT same stock movements and impacts + trade against each other.
Compete to see who can get the highest net worth!
UI & Quality of Life
Windows-style desktop interface with draggable, resizable windows
Taskbar showing current money, date, income per hour, portfolio value, and open windows
Pause and resume the game at any time
Save and load games (import/export save files)
Event log showing recent happenings
Statistics window tracking your progress
Dashboard overview of your empire
Tutorial system for new players
Settings (mute audio, etc.)
Time & Progression
Time flows in hours, days, weeks, months, and years all matter
Daily operations, weekly listing refreshes, monthly ledger reports, yearly tax filings
Income, events, market movements, and all systems run on the in-game clock
