Empire Origin

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