A free game to help tackle burnout in entrepreneurs

Founder Life is a new game to teach entrepreneurs how to manage their time, energy, morale, and money to ensure that they can keep going, even through difficult times.

The game has been released for free as a gift to the community, available on the Steam download service, and can be played on PC, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Founder Life has been a labour of love for Nell Watson, a tech entrepreneur and ethicist. "Along my own startup journeys, things sometimes seemed very bleak. It was a struggle to keep going, even when so many things didn't go as planned. I resolved to take meaning from those experiences by somehow making it a little easier for others who might also be in my position. The development and release of this game is the fulfillment of that promise."

The game presents various dilemmas as are typically faced by those in startup life, as they seek to transition from a traditional job towards a 'ramen profitable' business, and then to the questions of whether to take investment, and from whom.

Unusually, compared with other many business simulation games, the focus of Founder Life is on managing the personal resources of the entrepreneur themselves, rather than the business.

Watson and her team aim to ensure that the game can reach those experiencing challenges in startup and freelancing life.

"We're hoping to find organisations in the Mental Health and Startup Support spaces that can help to share this resource with communities which can make best use of it."