Launch & Iterate 2014

You and your fellow engineers are working cooperatively to launch awesome products and grow the user base. In order to successfully launch products, you must develop the necessary infrastructure while keeping an eye on external events, which might help or hinder your efforts.

Launch & Iterate is a turn based cooperative card game. Tech cards are the primary type of card used in the game. Tech cards enable development of either core infrastructure (e.g. Data Redundancy), or offer one-shot benefits (e.g. Refactor). Tech cards are also used as the primary currency in the game, representing engineering effort required to develop new technology or to contribute to launching new products.

During the game, players focus on launching 1 or (potentially) more products at any given time. Successfully launching products increases the overall user base (in millions of users) and allows players to shift effort onto new products. Players attempt to maximize the total user base by the end of the game by strategically selecting the right products to work on at the right time. Each product has specific infrastructure requirements which must be met, along with a cost (in Tech cards) which must be contributed by players in order to successfully launch the product.

On their turn, players may select a Tech card to play from their hand (making sure that all requirements and costs are met), contribute any number of Tech cards from their hand to help launch an active product, and draw new card(s). At the end of each round, players reveal the next Event card, which can either deliver a benefit or incur a penalty, depending on the card as well as the infrastructure levels players have developed. The game is over after 11 events have been resolved.

A key factor in Launch & Iterate is developing infrastructure across 4 critical technology stacks, (F)eatures, (A)ccessibility, (S)torage, and (T)esting. Each stack is built up over the course of the game, from base level 0 to level 7. Developing infrastructure is critical to successfully launching products, but usually doesn't directly affect the user base. Each stack also offers specific benefits at higher levels, such as reducing or negating negative Event effects, increasing user base, enabling better allocation of resources or increasing development capabilities.