Measure your skills against other players in a virtual economy? Do you want to own a production, retail or research company which pays out the best? It all depends on the current conditions in the virtual economy and how skilful you are in spotting business opportunities.

Sim Companies is an extremely versatile browser game that allows you to experiment with various resources and test your skills against other players in the game. Sim Companies is a business simulation strategy game aimed at giving you the fun and experience of managing a company using real-world economic principles.

The goal of the game is to create a profitable and competitive business. Each player receives a starting capital and few assets. Players' day-2-day tasks consist of managing the resource supply chain, from production to selling in retail, procuring business partners, ensuring financing, etc. For players to do really well, they would have to be able to read market conditions and take some trading shortcuts here and there, maybe buy their input resources on market cheaper than if they produced them or sell them on the market with a higher profit than in the retail.

We thought about what makes company management fun and what makes it tedious. Sim companies' philosophy is to let you take interesting decisions while building your own business without having to fill in tons of extra settings. We do not want to simulate the real world with all its laws and accounting quacks, but rather give players the freedom to make decisions that actually impact their standing.

People playing Sim Companies are gaining knowledge and improving their skills in teamwork, business operations, leadership, and business development. Learning by active involvement is an established method that guarantees long term skill retention. The game rewards players with achievement badges. Companies are rewarded for employing people, building infrastructure, making profits off the market and other activities. This gratification ensures positive feedback when the right decisions are taken and provides good and viable short term goals when starting your business from scratch. This is similar to government incentives for small businesses that you would expect in the real world.

Sim Companies gets its edge from an advanced economic model that simulates retail industry response to the supply and pricing that virtual companies provide. The players have control over quantity and price when offering goods in their stores. Retail parameters of all players are combined to simulate how fast the goods sold. Players can withdraw from selling for a period of time to temporally increase the demand which would allow them to sell at higher rates later.

There's no linear path to success, the decisions are good and bad based on the current market and retail conditions. There's no sure strategy of winning and even if you found the right strategy, there are always ways to improve it. More importantly, if other players found your strategy; it will become less and less profitable especially if everyone starts doing it.