MapEsc
pathox.rixlayer.dev ↗

Pathox

Found a startup. Try not to break it.

I wanted a company-building game where the numbers were not the point. Pathox gives you two options a turn and lets the story show you what they cost.

One choice, then the costA scene decodes in, I pick one of two options, and the gauge it touched flashes with how far it moved.
When the money runs outPush a gauge past its red line and the next wrong call ends the run. The ending is written from what happened along the way.
The front doorThe title screen glitches on purpose. Every menu item does the same when it gets focus.

The less bad option

Most management games hand you a dashboard and a goal. Running a small company never felt like that to me. You pick the less bad option, then find out a few months later what it did to the people around you.

Two options, four gauges

Every turn is a short scene and a choice between two options. Each choice nudges cash, morale, client trust and stability, and the screen shows you how far. Option order is shuffled each round, so you read before you tap.

Choice labels are an action and an object, five words at most. No clever names. You should know what you are agreeing to.

Consequences that arrive late

The gauges are only the visible part. Underneath, quieter systems track the shortcuts you took and the people you leaned on too hard. The game never names them. A rushed delivery in round seven can come back as a resignation in round eleven, told as a scene, not a number.

Now it is mostly writing

The engine is finished and deterministic, so a saved run replays exactly. The work now is writing: more scenarios, more crises, more variety between runs. That is the part I enjoy most, so I am in no hurry.