Engineering Business Game

Welcome to the world of shoes. You have taken over the running of a shoe factory and must turn its fortunes around. As tomorrow’s engineers it’s essential that you understand the important role you play in the life of a product based business. Through the fun of this game, we hope you’ll learn some basics of business and how sustainability, ethics and materials can impact the choices you make and things you do.

Part of the Responsible Engineering Practise course of 2023/2024 at the University of Bath. This game has been created to (hopefully) make these subjects engaging and enjoyable for all students. We’re so excited to be playing this with you this year, it’s been a lovely summer project and a real labour of love. We hope you like it!

Ed & Callum

Main Screen Navigation:

  1. The name of your team and the game name. If you wish to change your team name, go and speak to the “games master” running it.

  2. Memo : Your internal company news, every turn you’ll receive some advice or explanation from your factory assistant. They explain what’s going on and give lots of tips and advice.

  3. neobank : Your financial one stop shop. Track your finances, balance sheet & transactions. See the transactions of other teams, monitor the commodities market (the more of something that’s used the more expensive it becomes) and request bank loans.

  4. Biztech Pulse : The news and info from around the world. Keep up to date with the latest industry and tech news from articles and gossip to market analysts and industry reports.

  5. Previous Decisions Log : A scrollable history of all the decisions you’ve made.

  6. Current Influences : An up to date log of anything that is affecting you this turn. This could be factory running costs, new tooling being made or the impacts of legislation etc... It will show you how much everything is costing or the benefits and penalties you’re receiving. But do check in with neobank to see an overview as it can be hard to keep track.

  7. Team Decisions : What options do you have this turn? Some decisions can only be made this turn, some decisions you have several turns to decide if you want to do them, read their description carefully and check your memo’s for advice and clues. Once you click “implement” it can not be undone. So choose carefully. If you don’t want to do something, don’t click implement and the option will go away in a future turn.

  8. Manufacturing : A list of all the products you can make this turn. Click on each product and request to make the number you want.

Manufacturing:

Everything you need to know about the products you’re making. Starting at the top you have the product name and the price they will be sold at this turn. This prices changes up and down depending on demand and your current influences.

Then you have the amount you wish to make this turn. Use the + and - buttons to request more or less (holding the buttons down accelerates the counting). Remember to click “Request Changes” to send this instruction to your factory shop floor. If you ask to make more than you can afford a warning will appear but you’ll always make as many as you can if possible.

Next to the quantity is the recipe for this product. Which commodities are needed and in what quantity. Different products use different commodities and so as the market price changes different products may become more or less attractive. These prices are based on every team’s decisions, not just your own.

Cost, Revenue, Profit and Profit Ratio… self-explanatory for this product this turn. If the profit ratio is positive you should probably consider making some.

At the bottom is a graph that shows the historic change in prices and demand as well as a prediction of what the demand will look like next turn… red line going up means next turn the sales prices will be higher than now, going down means it will be less.

Memos:

Your internal news and updates. Sam Sole, your trusted assistant is with you from the start and usually knows what’s going on in the factory. They’ll help guide you each turn.

But they’re only human, mistakes can happen.

neobank:

Your trusty banking and financial portal. Everything money related flows through here.

On the left menu you have the following options:

  • The home page, showing you your latest balance and the net change that turn (up or down)

  • Your Transactions : The detail behind the top number

  • Market : The current price of all commodities

  • Market Transactions : What has every team been buying and selling?

  • Loans : If you need money, ask for it. Play with the loan calculator to see what the best rates are.

  • Chatbot : Got a question? Speak to the helpful banking chat bot.

Loans Advice… You are only eligible for a loan if the turn repayments are smaller than the amount of money you currently have. So get a loan in anticipation of problems, not after the problems have happened.

Biztech Pulse:

All the latest business news from around the world.

Look out for clues and hints as to what might be coming up in the future.

If you’re playing in a team, we recommend at least one person reads these each turn for clues.