The field guide · Web game

How to play
BOSS.

BOSS runs inside Presidential worlds. Every company, yours included, sells into one living economy that real presidents steer. This guide covers founding, game time, products and supply, markets and exports, your team, money, tenders and petitions, and what happens when things go wrong.

The short version

Five things that actually matter.

  1. 1
    Real presidents set your costs.Your home country’s taxes, wages, interest rates and tariffs come from its president: a real player, or an AI government until one takes the seat.
  2. 2
    Never run out of stock.Empty shelves cost you the sale. Keep materials coming and production running.
  3. 3
    Sell where the landed price works.Freight and tariffs add to what shoppers pay abroad. Trade deals cut them.
  4. 4
    Watch your cash.Payroll, bills, interest and tax come out every game-day. Five game-days below zero puts you in distress.
  5. 5
    It keeps running while you’re away.Sales, deliveries and tasks settle every game-hour, and Autopilot can handle the routine.

Getting started

From guest to founder in a few taps.

No download and no sign-up form. You play as a guest in one tap, join a world, and found your company in a few choices.

  1. 1

    Play as a guest

    One tap and you’re in. Link Google or an email address later from the Account page.

  2. 2

    Join a world

    You land in a Presidential world where business is open. Its presidents are real players.

  3. 3

    Pick a home country

    Each country shows its president, corporate tax, loan rate, tariff, stability and how many companies are already there.

  4. 4

    Pick an industry and a product

    Choose from 287 real products, each with its own recipe of materials.

  5. 5

    Choose quality and price

    Basic, good or excellent. You see the unit cost and a suggested price before you commit.

  6. ✓

    Name it and found

    Name your company and your product, pick a logo colour, and you’re open for business.

What you start with

  • $10,000 in cash. Materials, wages, bills and marketing all come out of it.
  • Opening materials for your first product, bought from that cash and shown on the receipt.
  • A first batch made from them, so you have something to sell straight away.
  • One product at the price you set. Sales start within the first game-hours.
Pro tip

Your opening receipt reconciles every cent: what you started with, what the materials cost and what’s left. Read it once and the money side of the game makes sense.

Your world and its presidents

Real presidents set your costs.

BOSS runs inside Presidential, where real players run countries. In a business world, the presidents set the conditions and you run the companies that make up the economy they govern.

One role per world

In each world you are either a president or a trader, never both. You can be a president in one world and run a company in another.

Human or AI

A country’s president is a real player, or an AI government until one takes the seat. Your country card says which, and your exposure card shows what their choices mean for you.

What a president’s levers do to you
LeverWhat it changes for your company
Corporate taxTax on your daily profit, paid to your country’s treasury.
Minimum wageThe floor under every wage you pay.
Interest rateYour loan rate, plus a risk spread for your company.
Fuel subsidy and energyWhat it costs to run your production line.
VAT and the economyHow much shoppers in that country spend. Unemployment, inflation, stability and approval count too.
EmbargoesClose export lanes and material origins both ways. Those customers are out of reach.
Treaty tariff capsA trade deal caps the tariff between two countries, sometimes at zero.
MFN tariffThe country’s import tariff. It protects home companies and raises the cost of imported materials.
Capital controlsStrict controls stop new export lanes out of the country.
InfrastructureFinished ports, rail, airports and logistics projects lower freight and speed up deliveries.
Special economic zonesA finished zone gives companies founded after it a corporate tax holiday.
TendersGovernment purchase orders you can bid on.
It works both ways

Real company activity (value added, jobs, exports and the tax you pay) nudges growth, unemployment, the treasury and approval in your country. Presidents have every reason to court you.

Game time

The world runs on game time.

Time in BOSS moves fast. A game-day is 10 real minutes, and a game-hour is about 25 seconds. Durations in the game are always game time: a task that takes 4 hours takes 4 game-hours.

24 game-hours in every game-dayThe day boundary: payroll, bills, interest and tax

Every game-hour

The market round (your sales), production output, deliveries arriving and tasks finishing.

Every game-day

Payroll, bills, loan interest and tax. Your books roll up, and tenders that closed are decided.

Your company keeps running

Close the tab and the world carries on. Sales, production and deliveries keep settling, and Autopilot can restock and pay bills while you’re away.

Products, stock and production

Make it. Stock it. Sell it.

Every product comes from one of 287 real templates, each with a recipe of two to four materials. You choose the quality tier and the price; shoppers decide if it’s worth it.

Unit cost

The recipe at landed material cost, plus processing, times the quality tier. Better tiers cost more and win pickier shoppers.

Price and quality

Set any price. Quality, appeal and awareness in each region decide how it stacks up against everything else on the shelf.

Stock target

Set how many finished units you want on hand. Production and Autopilot aim for it.

Up to 8 products

New product slots unlock with your lifetime sales and the size of your team.

Production

  • Materials in, units out. Your facility turns materials into finished units at its hourly capacity.
  • Runs take time. A run reserves its materials when it starts, and the output lands in stock when it’s done.
  • Expand for capacity. A bigger facility makes more per hour, with higher daily upkeep.
  • Keep it maintained. Condition drops with use; a maintenance task brings it back.
  • Energy is policy. Your energy cost follows your home country’s fuel subsidy and energy situation.
Empty shelves cost you

If you run out of stock you miss the sale, and a rival takes the customer. Watch the hours of stock left on each product and keep materials coming.

Supply

Real materials from real places.

Materials come from real origin countries. Each origin has its own price, distance and politics. The best landed cost wins, and a player supplier wins a tie.

Landed cost

Base cost times the origin’s factor (and its commodity price where one is linked), plus freight to your home country, plus your country’s tariff on that origin.

Lead times

Deliveries take game-hours, based on distance. Hazards on the route can delay them.

Blocked origins

An embargo, or an origin’s own export ban (like a grain ban on food materials), blocks that origin until it lifts.

Player suppliers

Companies can make a material and list it on the exchange. You buy from a player first when their landed cost is as good or better.

Become a supplier

Once you’re making products, you can start a supplier product: make a material and sell it to other companies’ production lines. That’s the player-to-player supply chain.

Markets and regions

You’re not selling in a vacuum.

A market is a region and a category: eight regions and 38 categories. Demand comes live from the region’s real countries: their spending power, their conditions and whatever just hit them.

  • North AmericaNorth America
  • Latin AmericaCentral America and Caribbean, Southern Cone, Andes and Amazon
  • EuropeWestern, Nordic and Baltic, Southern, Central Europe, Balkans
  • EurasiaBlack Sea and Caucasus, Eurasia
  • Middle East and North AfricaGulf, Maghreb, Nile and Levant
  • Sub-Saharan AfricaWest, East, Central and Southern Africa
  • South AsiaSouth Asia
  • Asia-PacificEast Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania

You receive your own price on every unit. Freight and tariffs make you less competitive abroad; they don’t come out of your margin.

Who shops in every category

30%

Budget shoppers

Price first. The cheapest good-enough option wins.

50%

Mainstream

A fair price for something good.

20%

Premium

Pay more for quality.

Established brands

Every category has nine computer-run brands, three each at budget, mainstream and premium prices. A market is never empty, even on day one.

Rank and share

Each market has a leaderboard of brands and players. Your rank and share move every game-hour.

Exports

Open a lane, sell further.

You sell in your home region from day one. To sell in another region, you open an export lane: a one-off setup cost, then freight on every unit.

  • Setup grows with distance. Freight is paid per unit and is part of your landed price.
  • A region’s tariff for you is the average over its countries, weighted by how much each one buys.
  • Same bloc, no tariff. Countries in one bloc trade tariff-free, roughly like the EU, EAC, Mercosur, GCC and ASEAN.
  • Everywhere else it’s the importing country’s MFN tariff, or a trade deal’s cap if that’s lower.
  • Embargoes take those countries’ customers out of reach, both ways.
  • Strict capital controls at home block new lanes.
Ride the deals

A trade mission opens a lane at half the setup cost. And when presidents sign a trade deal, check your landed prices: tariff cuts change sales within a few game-days.

Your team and tasks

You can’t run it alone.

Hire from a pool of candidates with names from your country. Each hire has a role, a skill from 1 to 5, morale, and a daily wage of at least your country’s minimum wage.

Five roles

Operations, marketing, sales, product and finance. A task goes best in the hands of the right role.

One task at a time

You, the CEO, and each employee run one timed task at a time. More people means more moves at once.

Skill and morale

The assignee’s skill match and morale shape the result. Pay, workload, wins and missed payroll move morale.

From the toolbox

Tasks take 2 to 8 game-hours and land in your feed with a receipt. A few of them:

  • Social campaign3 hours+10 to 20 awareness in the region for 2 days, and a little that lasts
  • Search ads4 hours+7 to 16 appeal and +2 to 6 awareness in the region for 2 days
  • Creator collab6 hours+8 to 25 awareness for 2 days and up to 6 that lasts; appeal could dip
  • Market research5 hoursA 3-day read on one market; a product you launch there starts with +4 to 8 awareness
  • Improve quality8 hours+2 to 8 quality for good (less the closer it is to 100)
  • Negotiate suppliers5 hours4 to 10% off materials from origin countries for 3 days
  • Trade mission8 hoursOpens the lane for half its price, and +3 to 6 awareness there for your products
  • Lobby the government6 hoursPushes a petition up the president's desk; +2 to 5 standing with officials for 3 days

Autopilot

Your company works while you’re away.

Turn Autopilot on and your staff keep the routine going: restocking materials toward your targets, producing toward your stock targets and paying bills that are due.

Within your limits

You set a daily spend limit and a cash floor. Autopilot never spends below the floor.

The big calls wait for you

Loans, hires and price changes never happen on Autopilot.

Every move is logged

Each Autopilot decision is a line in your feed, with what it cost.

Hire for it

Restocking goes faster with someone in operations. With only the CEO, Autopilot still restocks, just more slowly.

Money

Cash is oxygen.

Every cent is booked. Sales come in every game-hour; payroll, bills, interest and tax go out every game-day.

The books

Daily books for the last 60 game-days, plus lifetime totals.

Loans

From your home country’s banks, at its policy rate plus a risk spread for your company. Interest accrues daily; you repay in daily instalments, or early.

60 daysof daily books, plus lifetime totals
Dailypayroll, operations bill, facility upkeep and product overhead
Your ratecorporate tax at your country’s rate on each day’s profit, paid to its treasury
Missed instalments

A missed loan instalment hurts your reputation and pushes you toward distress. Check your runway before you borrow.

Tenders and petitions

Do business with the state.

Presidents and AI governments post public purchase orders, and companies petition their president. It’s how traders and presidents deal with each other.

Bidding

Bid a price per unit. The best value wins, weighed on price and your reputation. Some presidents give home companies the edge on near-ties.

Delivery

The order ships like any shipment. On delivery you’re paid and its purpose pays out for that country. A failed delivery costs you reputation.

Petitions

Ask your president to cut a tariff, sign a trade deal, lower corporate tax, cut rates, open a tender, lift an embargo or build infrastructure.

Signatures

Other companies in your country can sign. With at least one supporter it reaches the president, who supports it or declines.

What can go wrong

Penalties, consequences and how to recover.

BOSS is honest about consequences. Most problems cost you something. One of them can close your company.

Day 0Cash drops below zeroBills keep coming. Borrow, sell stock or cut costs.
After 5 game-daysDistressA clear warning and a rescue path.
After 20 moreThe company closesYou can found a new one in the same world.
Serious

Cash stays below zero

After 5 game-days below zero your company enters distress, with a warning and a rescue path: an emergency loan or selling stock.

Get cash back above zero and you’re out of danger.

Serious

Distress runs out

After 20 game-days in distress, the company closes.

You can found a new company and start again.

Serious

You run out of stock

You miss sales, and a rival takes the customer.

Keep materials coming, raise your stock target, or let Autopilot restock.

Costly

A missed loan instalment

Your reputation takes a hit, and missed payments push you toward distress.

Check your runway before you borrow.

Costly

A tender delivery fails

The order is refunded to the government and you lose reputation.

Only bid on what you can make and ship in time.

Costly

An origin is cut off

An embargo or export ban blocks a material origin, and your landed cost jumps.

Switch to another origin or a player supplier.

Mild

Your facility wears down

Condition drops with use, and production suffers.

Run a maintenance task.

Mild

Morale slips

Tasks come back weaker.

Pay fairly, never miss payroll and give your team wins.

Mild

Policy turns against you

A tax rise or a tariff hike lands on your books.

Petition your president, or sell where the deals are better.

Starting again

If your company closes, you can found a new one. Your account stays, and so does the world.

Pro tips

From one boss to another.

  1. 01

    Pick your home country like a business decision: tax, loan rate, tariff and stability all count.

  2. 02

    Keep two weeks of bills in the bank. Everything gets easier with runway.

  3. 03

    Check your landed price in every region. Freight and tariffs add up.

  4. 04

    Read the news. A trade deal can open a region overnight.

  5. 05

    Hire someone in operations early. Autopilot restocks faster with them.

  6. 06

    Petition your president. Real players read them.

Quick answers

FAQ

Do I need to download anything?

No. BOSS runs in your browser on phones, tablets and computers.

Do I need an account?

No. Play as a guest in one tap. Link Google or an email address from the Account page to keep your company on another device. It’s the same account as Presidential.

Does BOSS keep running when I close the tab?

Yes. The world runs on game time whether you’re there or not. Sales, production, deliveries and tasks settle every game-hour; payroll, bills and tax every game-day.

Can my company go bust?

Yes, eventually. Five game-days with cash below zero puts it in distress, and twenty game-days in distress closes it. You can always found a new one.

Can I be a president and a trader?

Not in the same world. You can be a president in one world and run a company in another.

Is this the BOSS mobile app?

No. The original BOSS app keeps running with its own economy. This is the web game, played inside Presidential worlds.

Is any of the money real?

No. BOSS is a game. Companies, markets and money are simulated, and in-game cash has no real-world value.

Are these numbers fixed?

We tune the game as the economy grows. The examples here are illustrations; the game always shows the live numbers before you commit.

Your world is waiting

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