Closed testing · 12+ · Offline
You got
the job.
Now survive it.
You don’t know the people, you don’t know the politics, and you have no idea what tomorrow will bring. A workplace survival game about one thing: work.
Marcus
Rival
Priya
Friend
The pitch
If it doesn’t happen at work, it doesn’t exist in this game.
No home, no commute, no weekends. Just the hours between clock-in and clock-out, at a company you didn’t choose, alongside coworkers you didn’t pick. A logistics firm that runs 8 to 4, a chaotic startup, a bank, a newsroom, a government agency where nothing moves without three signatures.
Send the report and let them take the credit, or CC the boss and make an enemy. Do the work, read the room, manage your energy and climb before the ladder is pulled out from under you. You can climb ruthlessly, but the office remembers how you got there.
How it plays
One career at a time.
- 01
Get hired
A randomly generated company, a role near the bottom of its ladder, and a team you didn’t pick. You choose your name, pronouns and face. Nothing else.
- 02
Get through the day
Tasks, messages, errands, meetings and incidents land from clock-in to clock-out. Every choice costs energy and minutes, and some cost a lot more.
- 03
Climb the ladder
Reviews on the company’s schedule. Raises and promotions with visible odds. Get promoted and people start reporting to you, and become your problem.
- 04
Every career ends
Fired, laid off, resigned, poached or walked out. You get the story of how high you climbed, who you made into allies and who into enemies. Then a new company.
- 17
- industries, each with its own ladder and vocabulary
- 300+
- workplace situations
- 22
- storylines that unfold over weeks
- 5
- mini-games for the real work
- 0
- accounts, 0 connection needed
The office
Everyone has an agenda. Including you.
- Read the room
- Every coworker has a personality, ambitions, stats and a history with everyone else. The credit-taker, the mentor, the gossip, the boss’s favourite.
- They remember
- Help someone and their friends warm to you. Cross someone and their allies remember. Favours and slights stay on their profile.
- Measured like an employee
- Experience, competency, performance, reputation and manager standing. Salary moves only through raises, reviews and promotions.
- Raises and promotions
- Ask after a strong month and it might happen. Ask during budget cuts and it won’t. The odds depend on your record, your boss’s mood and the quarter.
- Human Resources
- File a report with the evidence you’ve collected, or without it. HR protects the company, word gets out, and someone might report you back.
- Karma
- Hidden, and always counting. It changes your luck, HR outcomes, layoffs, and whether anyone speaks up for you when it matters.
- The office moves without you
- Coworkers rise, land on performance plans, get fired, resign and get replaced. Restructures, audits, mergers and office romances run over days.
- Five careers at once
- Five save slots, five companies. Light, dark and system themes, tablet layouts, a lo-fi soundtrack, and the whole thing works offline.
Do the work
Five mini-games decide how your work lands.
Work above your competency costs more and lands worse. Rather just make the call? Set them to auto-resolve in Settings.
- 01
Reconcile
Spot the rows that don’t add up before the auditors do.
- 02
Triage
Sort an inbox that refills faster than you can read it.
- 03
Speak up
Find the gap in a meeting and get a word in.
- 04
Deep work
Swat the pings and protect fifteen seconds of focus.
- 05
Haggle
Find their number, and get a better deal than they wanted to give.
Screens
Every day is a fight.
Between clock-in and clock-out. Light, dark or system theme, on a phone or a tablet.
Now hiring
We’re hiring testers.
Corporate Politics is in closed testing on Google Play. Join the Corporate Politics Testers group, opt in, and you’re on the payroll (unpaid, sadly, like every good internship). iPhone players: join the waitlist and we’ll email you once, on launch day.
Your first assignment
- 01Start a career and play a few workdays: tasks, messages, meetings and the mini-games.
- 02Push for a raise or a promotion, file (or face) an HR report, and see how your career ends.
- 03Tell us about anything that feels unfair, buggy or confusing.
Found a bug, or something that feels unfair? Post it in the testers group or email corporate.politics@mlabs.ng.
Questions
When can I play it?
Corporate Politics is in closed testing on Google Play: become a tester to play it now. The iPhone version is coming, so join the iOS waitlist and we’ll email you once, on launch day.
Is it free?
Yes. It is free to play and supported by ads that appear at the end of some workdays. Personalised ads are off until you turn them on.
Do I need internet or an account?
No. The whole game runs on your phone and your careers are saved there. No sign-up, ever. Updates with new content arrive over the air when you are online.
Is there life outside the office?
No. No home, no commute, no weekends. Just the hours between clock-in and clock-out. If it doesn’t happen at work, it doesn’t exist in this game.
Can I lose?
You can lose a job. Two bad reviews in a row and you’re out, budget cuts bring layoffs, and burning out ends things too. Every career ends somehow. The question is how high you climbed and who you took with you.
Is it based on real companies or people?
No. Every company and coworker is generated and fictional. Sadly, relatable.
Who is it for?
It is rated 12+ and made for players aged 13 and over. Workplace conflict, office politics and references to harassment and discrimination as HR matters are part of the game, handled plainly and never graphically.
How is it different from 9 to Fiver?
9 to Fiver, our other sim, is a whole life on a planner: rent, love, family, health. Corporate Politics is only work: the job, the people and the politics, one career at a time.
Read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, or email corporate.politics@mlabs.ng.
Clock in.
It’s on Google Play for testers now. Join them, or hop on the iOS waitlist and we’ll email you once, on launch day. Your desk is ready. Your coworkers are not.