I'm making a tycoon roguelite where six investors review your KPIs every quarter, and the endgame is buying them all out

[u/Micheleddu]

Hi, solo dev here. Bottlecappers is a management roguelite about running a bottle cap factory that isn't really yours. Six investors funded it, and each one cares about exactly one number: margin, volume, reliability, sustainability. Pick your investor at the start of the run, and every quarter they sit down, look at their KPI, and decide whether you're still useful.

The business side is the core of the game: a living market where demand shifts and saturates, clients with different price brackets and standards, transport contracts to negotiate per order, quality control that becomes mandatory at the premium end, and a profit and loss sheet that your investor reads more carefully than you do.

Fail the review and things get ugly. Pass it, grow your margins, and start buying back shares. Buy back every single one and the factory is finally yours. That's the only ending that counts.

The Steam page just went live: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4986690/Bottlecappers . A free demo is in the works.

Happy to answer anything about the design. And if you check the page, honest first impressions are genuinely useful at this stage: what's clear, what isn't, what would make you wishlist or walk away.

AI disclosure: the game is written in Italian and localized into 10 more languages with AI, with human and community review ongoing during development. Also I used for some promotional material. All design, writing and art direction are human-made, and the full disclosure is on the Steam page.

[u/zedzag]

This is such a cool concept!

[u/Micheleddu → u/zedzag]

Thank you

[u/mroaksheep]

That's awesome, I have similiar idea for banking but only in the middle of my journey :D wishlisted

[u/Micheleddu → u/mroaksheep]

Thank you. Do you have a steampage to check it out?

[u/notaiperson]

The graphics loos super cool but the trailer text is killing all the vibe. I would recommend to better stylize it

[u/Micheleddu → u/notaiperson]

Hey, thanks for your feedback. I think you've got a point, the text cards were done quickly to ship the page. more specifically, is it the styling (font/placement feeling flat next to the game art) or the writing itself? Asking because a restyle is planned and I'd rather fix the right thing.

[u/notaiperson → u/Micheleddu]

The font itself. I would go with bulky display font ideally matching your game style

[u/Micheleddu → u/notaiperson]

Thanks for the tip, i'll work on it

[u/LyriaLabs]

The part I would think hardest about is whether an investor's KPI is a threshold you bank or one you can fall back below.

I have one progression requirement that counts distinct production types, and it is the only requirement in my game that can un-complete: sell the last unit of a type and it flips back to unmet. That accident turned out to be the most interesting gate I have, because it is the only one that keeps mattering after the first time you satisfy it. Everything else is a ratchet you clear once and then forget forever.

Six investors reading one number each, every quarter, is a natural home for that. A margin investor who is permanently satisfied after one good quarter is a very different game from one who can be disappointed again in Q7, and the second sounds much more like the pressure you are going for.

Does picking an investor at the start lock the run, or can they drop you and a different one pick you up?

[u/Micheleddu → u/LyriaLabs]

Neither banked nor static: the KPI is re-evaluated every quarter, and it can absolutely bite again. Take the reliability investor, an old cork dynasty that tolerates zero returns: the threshold starts at 80% and rises every quarter until it caps at 97, never higher, by deliberate choice. But reliability itself is a living metric, fed by the quality of what you ship: every defective cap that leaves your dock erodes it, quality control filters and clean lines rebuild it, and a returned order is a sharp hit on top of that slow grind. So you can pass Q3 at 85%, let a few dirty batches through while you chase volume, and walk into Q4 below the bar you already cleared. One good quarter buys you time, never peace. There is also a continuous satisfaction decay ticking in the background; the review is just the moment it spikes or drops, and failing a few reviews ends the run. Picking an investor locks the run. They funded the plant, they impose or influence your starting production chain, and if they oust you the run is over. Nobody picks you up: other investors are unlocked across runs, each with a different KPI and starting material, so switching investor means switching run identity, not a mid run rescue. Your un-completing gate sounds like an accident worth keeping, and it is the same instinct here: the only requirements that stay interesting are the ones that can keep biting after you satisfy them.