Academia: A Game of Administrative Bloat 2026

Academia: A Game of Administrative Bloat is an engine-building, action-management game about running a university that uses a unique action-selection mechanism.

Players are the boards of directors of their universities, choosing the big strategic initiatives from year to year. Each turn represents an academic year in which the player will choose one of four strategic focuses (actions) for their university. When selecting a focus, players choose one of the four offices at their university. Each ready staff member in that office works, triggering their effect. Each focus requires players to exhaust staff, meaning the game is about managing which staff are ready and when. Over the course of play players build facilities, hire staff, advertise, recruit students, form faculty committees and so on.

Every four years, students will graduate and affect their university's reputation: star athletes improve athletics reputation, high performers academic reputation, and so on. Players then admit new students, and begin again. After three cohorts of students have graduated, players score prestige from reputation, communications efforts, faculty committees, and personal objectives, then the most prestigious university wins.

—description from the designer