Boardroom
Make the call. See the truth. Learn the framework.
Business Context
Distribution-first beta — launched via Vercel with a Name-Your-Own-Price itch.io listing queued. Target audience: MBA-curious operators and product strategists who want case-study-grade decision practice in ten-minute sessions.
Overview
Boardroom is a mobile-first PWA narrative strategy game built on real-world business case studies — the moments where a single executive decision split a company's future in two. You play as the CEO in the room, you see what they saw, you make the call — then the dossier opens and shows what really happened, with a named framework spotlight so every case hands you a reusable mental model instead of just a score.
The launch build ships with five cases (Netflix 2011, Kodak 1996, Apple 1997, Blockbuster 2004, Nokia 2007), each roughly ten minutes, no grinding and no fail states — just decisions that matter and a frank debrief. Under the hood the game logic lives in pure TypeScript with zero React imports (engine, scoring weights, framework detection, outcome categorization), state runs through Zustand with localStorage persistence, and the UI is a Next.js 16 + React 19 + Tailwind v4 app with an executive gold-on-navy palette, serif body type, and cinematic reveal and debrief screens.
Key Contributions
- Five real-world case studies (Netflix 2011, Kodak 1996, Apple 1997, Blockbuster 2004, Nokia 2007) with a historically-grounded decision tree and named framework spotlight per case
- Cinematic reveal + debrief flow: after each decision, the dossier opens comparing player choice against history with a professor / CEO dual commentary
- Outcome categorization (strategic-match / partial-alignment / superior-alternative / strategic-divergence) rewards defensible reasoning over hindsight
- Pure-TypeScript game engine with zero React imports — dispatches actions through a case lifecycle (intro → playing → reveal → debrief → complete)
- Mobile-first PWA with executive gold-on-navy aesthetic, serif body type, installable offline
- Credential tracks surface repeated framework use — players build a personal library of the mental models they actually deployed in play
- Shaped by graphic-designer + art-direction persona reviews during the launch polish pass