Box Office War
A deep Hollywood studio simulation and tycoon engine. Run a major film studio, navigate box office wars, build transmedia franchises, manage streaming platforms, and broadcast linear television networks.
Play in Browser | Download Android APK v41.2 | License: MIT
Screenshots
Captured from the v41.2 build (headless Chrome, a career simulated to year 3). Regenerate with node scripts/capture-store-screenshots.cjs.
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| 2D studio lot | Executive command desk |
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| Box office | Development |
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| Empire — franchises and divisions | Library — the studio catalogue |
Phone layout at 844 × 390 — the Android build is landscape-locked.
Overview
Box Office War is an offline-capable Hollywood studio management simulation built entirely on client-side web standards. Players manage every dimension of an entertainment empire from a single production lot:
- Greenlight original screenplays and acquire high-profile intellectual properties.
- Package A-list actors, directors, writers, and producers through Hollywood talent agencies.
- Manage physical soundstages, virtual LED volumes, and audio post-production facilities.
- Navigate release calendar clashes, cannibalization risks, and seasonal holiday corridors.
- Monetize catalog libraries via theatrical runs, international territory pre-sales, linear TV syndication, consumer merchandise, and proprietary streaming services.
- Defend corporate standing against hostile board directives, corporate debt covenants, talent scandals, and rival studio espionage.
All simulation mechanics execute client-side with zero dependencies, zero microtransactions, and instant local storage persistence.
What is New in v41.2 — UI System
The interface had accumulated four palettes that disagreed (--cd-t*, --ts-*, --bow-*, plus ~960 raw hex) across 10,456 lines of CSS in 12 layers. system/ is now the single source of truth: tokens.css (palette, type and spacing scales, density), components.css (normalisation plus the ui-* set), and a generated legacy-map.css that re-points all 333 legacy variables at semantic tokens — so the existing CSS adopts the new palette without being edited. system/styleguide.html is the living reference (developer only, not shipped in the APK).
Landscape phones also stop scrolling: a phone held sideways leaves ~310px under the shell and the dashboard was using 627px. The shell is a fixed-height flex column and the deck takes exactly the remaining space, so the command desk fits one screen.
What is New in v41.1 — Compact Landscape Phone UI
The Android build is landscape-locked, but the mobile layout switched at max-width: 760px — and a phone held sideways is 640–940px wide with only 360–430px of height. Landscape phones therefore got the desktop shell inside a viewport barely taller than the header: at 844×390 the chrome alone ate 219px of 390, the 12-tab bar was cut off mid-word, and the section nav stacked into two rows.
landscape-phone.css now keys off viewport height (untouched on tablets and desktop) and compacts the shell:
- header on one row — 75px of chrome instead of 87, content starts at 141px instead of 219
- ledger keeps capital + calendar; liabilities and standing stay on their own desks
- section nav collapses to a single 42px row with 30px buttons — it was hiding up to 324px of sections behind the Studio tools
- tab strip stays one scrollable row with an edge fade; toasts move to the bottom so they stop covering the header
- one navigation everywhere: the full tab strip, not tabs plus a bottom bar
Verified at 667×375 through 932×430. The APK also stopped shipping the store screenshots (10 MB of art the game never loads), dropping from 21 MB to 19 MB.
What is New in v41.0 — Next Wave Studio Systems
The Studio HQ Next Wave desk turns several existing foundations into connected, actionable workflows:
- TV seasons now produce episode records with selectable arcs and focus, a scored finale, and a renewal readout comparing audience ratings with order value and production cost.
- The production calendar reserves shared cast, below-the-line crew and locations, finds clear shoot windows, warns on conflicts, and extends reservations for weather delays and paid pickup reshoots.
- Rival studios counter-program, react to hits, bid for talent (with player counteroffers) and can acquire a rival. Territory distributor offers retain minimum guarantees/revenue shares and now expire at explicit 13–104 week rights terms.
- ESG pledges are audited after a year with incentives or reputation consequences. A scenario editor saves custom start conditions, milestones and deadlines; the First Film Lab is the default guided first-run campaign.
- Seasonal challenge codes can be archived, imported and ranked locally. Cross-device/live leaderboards are not represented as online—the game has no leaderboard backend.
- Studio content packs use validated, versioned JSON for film pitches, genres, talent, rivals, franchises and scenarios (no executable scripts). Completed careers award optional New Game+ credits; backup/restore, a balance/regression dashboard, Marathi core UI, keyboard states and labelled workflows round out the desk.
See the Next Wave desk for detailed in-game instructions. Existing Industry Systems, Creative Lab, awards, festivals, territory licensing, legacy and accessibility controls remain available.
What is New in v40.0 — The Industry Systems Expansion
A new Studio → Industry command desk links 24 studio systems in one place and adds
playable production-side investments for sustainability, press relations, ratings, legal
clearance, localization and production labels. Existing systems remain on their specialist
desks: series and live TV, the production calendar, talent chemistry and rewrites, finance/IPO
and M&A, guilds, franchises and parks, rival studios, executive hiring, story campaigns,
seeded challenges and the career Hall of Fame.
New decisions have real save-backed effects: ESG programs earn up to 10% shoot credits; press
campaigns improve awareness, opening buzz and reviewer standing; specialist imprints can lift
matching releases; chain-of-title audits reduce litigation exposure; ratings recuts trade a
small critic penalty for a wider audience; and territory localization shifts the international
gross mix. Browser, offline PWA and Android bundle all include the new desk.
What is New in v39.1 — The Stage Division
The studio can now take a lease on a theatre and produce live musicals. It is a new
Empire sub-tab (stage-division.js, ~900 lines) with its own economy, its own risk
profile and its own trophy — and it touches nothing that already existed.
Broadway, the West End and the road
- Three houses, leased in order. The Yard Workshop (340 seats, Off-Broadway), The Marquee
Theatre (1,000 seats, Broadway) and The Empire Palace (1,800 seats, Broadway & West End).
Each tier is gated on reputation and cash, each adds a fixed weekly burn — the room is
paid for whether or not anyone is in it.
- One house, one show. A show in rehearsal waits for a suitable free house, opens into a
Queens-style preview period, then gets the critics. Closing a show frees its house for the
next one immediately.
Greenlighting a musical
- Adapt the library or write an original. Any closed film with a $40M+ worldwide gross can
be turned into "— The Musical" with a built-in audience (a franchise entry carries a bigger
one). An original book is cheaper, wider in variance and entirely yours.
- Five decisions, live quote. Scale (chamber / Broadway standard / spectacle), composer
(six, with classical / pop / rock / indie traits), director (six, spectacle / intimate /
commercial), and an optional star above the title. The form recomputes capitalisation and a
projected review range as you change any of it.
- Previews are your only second chance. Three weeks of part-houses, and a Retool at
$2.5M buys +4 projected review points, twice per show.
The run
- Occupancy is driven by the reviews, the source material, the franchise, the star and the
musical-genre trend, minus a slow decay after week 10. Gross = seats × yield × occupancy;
the house cost is mostly fixed.
- Recoupment is tracked against capitalisation on every show card, and crossing it lifts
reputation.
- A show that plays to under 30% for six straight weeks closes itself. So does one that
reaches week 156. A flop bleeds for a few months before the landlord ends it.
- Tony season, week 24. The best-reviewed show in the building can take Best Musical —
occupancy, gross multiplier and studio reputation all move, once per year.
Parallel income
- National tours (24 weeks, needs 65+ reviews and 8 weeks in), cast albums (26 weeks of
royalties, ×1.6 if your music label is live) and staging licences to regional and
international houses (needs 16 weeks in).
Under the hood
- Additive state. Everything lives in
G.stage and is created on first touch, so old saves
load without a migration step.
- Honest ledger. Every dollar moves through
earn()/spend() under a new stage category,
mapped in the Treasury desk (revenue → Franchise, parks & merch, costs → Studio & empire builds).
- Tested.
test/stage-division.mjs (11 regressions), the headless smoke harness and the
full balance/scenario suites.
What is New in v33.0
The v33.0 release is a full-app visual overhaul. Every screen is rebuilt on one locked design system ("Arcade Hollywood"), the studio lot became a living 24-hour world, and a motion engine animates every tab, sub-tab and chart.
1. Full-App Restyle (bow-restyle.css, 1,450 lines)
- One locked visual system applied to all 14 tabs, the start screen, modals, toasts, forms and the broadcast UI: 3px slate borders with a lit top edge, heavy dark bottom edge, and hard offset shadows with zero blur — the 16-bit tell.
- Marquee chrome: gold bulb strips on the topbar and section headers, gold corner studs on every panel, engraved card headers, filmstrip tab rail with a lit active frame.
- Arcade scoreboard tiles for KPI readouts, gold-framed modals with an overshoot pop-in, recessed inset inputs, chunky 3D buttons that press 3px down.
- Safe-area insets for notches and home bars, gold focus rings, pixel scrollbars, and full
prefers-reduced-motion support.
2. Living Studio Lot (lot-life.js)
- 24-hour light cycle — dawn, midday, golden hour, dusk and night, each with its own colour grade, plus per-room warm light pools (marquee bulbs, windows, street lamps, monitor glow) that switch on after dark.
- Per-week weather derived from the game week and season: clear, rain, storm with lightning, snow, and autumn leaves.
- Ambient life: drifting dust motes, birds crossing the sky, fireflies at night, camera flashes on the red carpet, volumetric light shafts, film grain and a cinematic vignette.
- Location card and an iris wipe on every room change.
3. Animated Cast (studio-lot-2d.js)
- Real walk cycles — bob, lean and squash driven off a single phase, so bodies weight-shift instead of sliding.
- Pause-and-turn at path ends with idle breathing, eased facing, and depth sorting so nearer walkers overlap correctly.
- Footstep dust, role pips, and one speaker at a time for chatter.
- 21 cast members (up from 12) with distinct roles, speeds and routes.
- Golf carts with visibly spinning wheels and spokes, a driver that bobs with the suspension, tyre dust, and a headlight cone that switches on at night.
4. Motion Engine (bow-motion.js)
- Staggered entrance on every panel in every tab and sub-tab, with ledger rows cascading in.
- Count-up on every numeric readout, keyed off a stable label so a freshly re-rendered DOM still ticks from the previous value, with a green pulse on rise and red on fall.
- Charts animate: box office bars grow from zero and cascade, weekly-gross and forecast bars rise, stock sparklines and donuts draw themselves in via stroke-dashoffset.
- Game-feel layer (
lot-feel.js): trauma-based screen shake (trauma² sampled from layered sines so it decays smoothly instead of buzzing), squash-and-stretch pops, and tiered feedback hooked into the game's own toast / confetti / advanceWeek events — by decoration, never by modification.
5. Build & Repo Fixes
apk/build-www.js was silently shipping a stale UI: its hardcoded file list was missing ui-v33.css entirely, plus every new presentation layer. Any new root-level .css/.js must be added to that list or the APK will not change. All five layers now ship.- Git repair: 17,259 macOS AppleDouble
._* sidecars had accumulated untracked, and two were being read as pack indexes, which corrupted the repository ("non-monotonic index"). They are now backed up, removed from .git, and ignored. core.fileMode was disabled to stop 602 permission-only diffs.
What is New in v32.13
The v32.13 release delivers a major 2D visual and mechanical overhaul, synthesizing deep simulation features from benchmark reference titles (Kairosoft Game Dev Story, Social Dev Story, Idle Sports Stadium Tycoon, and Box Office Sim 2) alongside persistent 2D simulation staging and landscape orientation locking:
1. 2D Kairosoft Studio Rooms & Simulation Lot (studio-lot-2d.js, kairo-theme-suite.js)
- 6 Interactive Studio Departments: Campus Grounds, Soundstage A, Writers' Bungalow, Post & VFX Suite, Cinema Marquee, and Executive Penthouse.
- Dynamic 16-Bit Scene Visuals: High-contrast, handcrafted pixel art scenes with animated department headers, pixel marquee bulbs, and CRT scanlines.
- Micro-Animated Department Workers: Desk writers, boom mic operators, video editors, preview screening audiences, and penthouse studio executives animated in real time.
- Seamless Stage Switcher: Live navigation header with direct department shortcuts, room stats badges, and simulation HUD.
2. Box Office Sim 2 Cast Integration (box-office-sim-2-cast.js)
- Extracted Reference Roster: 72 unique character species, 121 specialized talent abilities, and over 4,000 real-world actor, director, writer, and producer names extracted directly from Box Office Sim 2 APK data.
- Dynamic Ability Tagging: In-depth talent quirks including Box Office Anchor, Method Legend, Franchise Magnet, Festival Darling, and Critical Shield.
- Backward-Compatible Talent Mapping: Integer ID translation layer ensuring seamless integration with existing save games and casting pipelines.
3. GameStudio GDD Engine (gamestudio-gdd-engine.js)
- Game Dev Story & Tycoon Mechanics: Complete Game Design Document (GDD) production cycle with Topic x Genre synergy matching (e.g., Cyberpunk RPG, Fantasy Strategy, Superhero Action).
- Target Audience Weighting: Age-demographic balancing across Young, Teen, and Mature gaming markets.
- Proprietary Engine Builder: Design custom 2D/3D game engines with custom technology and design allocations.
- Gaming Press Reviews & GameCon: 4 simulated gaming review publications (PixelPolygon, HyperJoy, BitCollider, EdgeOfPlay) with dynamic quotes, GameCon booth marketing, and Research Points economy.
4. Social Viral Network (social-viral-network.js)
- Social Dev Story Mechanics: 4 active digital platforms (InstaBuzz, VidTok, ChirpNet, StreamTube) featuring algorithmic trend velocity, hashtag momentum, and organic audience reach.
- Viral Marketing Campaigns: 6 campaign tiers from Grassroots Leak and Meme Blitz to Influencer Premiere Screenings and Global Trend Takeovers.
- Creator Ambassador Deals: Contract digital creators for multi-week studio endorsement pacts that amplify film buzz and OTT subscriber acquisition.
5. Sports Stadium Megadome Deals (sports-stadium-deals.js)
- Idle Sports Tycoon Mechanics: Expand and operate a state-of-the-art sports arena (Seating Capacity, VIP Luxury Skyboxes, Concessions Court, and Broadcast Jumbotrons).
- Corporate Naming Rights: High-value annual naming rights agreements with Fortune 500 corporate partners (Apex Energy, Horizon Tech, Zenith Capital).
- Exclusive Live Sports Broadcast Packages: License tier-one live sporting events (Sunday Football, Championship Basketball, Grand Slam Tennis, Sunset Grand Prix, Apex Esports) for studio streaming services.
6. Landscape Orientation Lock & Offline Android APK
- Android Manifest Lock: Native Capacitor Android configuration locked to
sensorLandscape mode.
- Complete Offline Bundle: 55 modular engines, sound suites, and pixel art assets packed directly into the APK distribution without requiring internet connectivity or external servers.
Simulation Architecture: 36 Modular Systems
Box Office War is structured into 36 decoupled simulation modules operating on an event-driven weekly tick loop:
| Module File | Simulation System | Core Mechanics |
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engine.js | Core Simulation Loop | 52-week calendar, weekly financial clearing, talent availability, box office decay, rival studio AI turns. |
data.js | Industry Data & Balance | Talent pool (actors, directors, writers, producers), genres, archetypes, themes, awards, and historical milestones. |
ui.js | Executive Interface | Responsive dashboard, wizard modals, tabs navigation, glassmorphic HUD chips, keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+K). |
studio-facilities.js | Studio Lot & Soundstages | 4 facility tiers (Soundstage Complex, LED Volume, Atmos Mixing, Historic Lot), quality buffs, rival lot rental income. |
syndication-tv.js | Television Syndication | Linear broadcast monetization (Primetime 26w, Matinee 39w, Cable 52w), catalog rights, advance fees. |
talent-contracts.js | Multi-Picture Deals & Quirks | 3-picture and 5-picture talent retention pacts, 6 psychological quirks (method_actor, crowd_puller, award_magnet). |
bond-market.js | Corporate Debt & Bonds | AAA to CCC corporate credit rating engine, 52-week securitized debt issuance, weekly interest service. |
clash-analytics.js | Release Clash Radar | Opening weekend cannibalization analysis, audience overlap calculations, counter-programming bonuses. |
cinematic-universe.js | Shared Cinematic Universes | Multi-franchise IP bibles, crossover event multipliers (+65% buzz), lore consistency tracking, fatigue control. |
location-scouting.js | International Production Hubs | Global production locations (London, Atlanta, Iceland, Tokyo, New Zealand) providing tax rebates and quality bonuses. |
production-insurance.js | Completion Bonds | Risk mitigation policies (Overrun Shield, Key Cast Indemnity, Full Completion Bond) against budget spikes. |
awards-campaign.js | FYC Lobbying Campaign | For Your Consideration trade advertising, screener mailings, voter receptions, and guild momentum tracking. |
Reference Parity Breakdown
Box Office War synthesizes gameplay systems from classic business simulations into a coherent, modern framework:
Game Dev Story & Tycoon Parity
- GDD Formulation: Topic x Genre synergy mechanics with target audience demographics (Everyone, Teens, Mature).
- Custom Game Engine R&D: Allocate technology, design, and graphics resources to build proprietary game engines.
- Gaming Press Reviews & GameCon: 4 simulated publications (PixelPolygon, HyperJoy, BitCollider, EdgeOfPlay) and annual GameCon booths.
Social Dev Story Parity
- Multi-Platform Social Ecosystem: InstaBuzz, VidTok, ChirpNet, and StreamTube with real-time algorithm velocity and hashtag trends.
- Viral Marketing Campaigns: 6 campaign tiers from Grassroots Leak and Meme Blitz to Global Trend Takeovers.
- Creator Ambassador Network: Retain digital influencers to amplify theatrical opening buzz and streaming subscriber influx.
Idle Sports Stadium Tycoon Parity
- Megadome Facilities: Upgrades to Seating Capacity, VIP Luxury Skyboxes, Concessions Court, and Broadcast Jumbotrons.
- Corporate Naming Rights: Multi-year commercial sponsorship contracts with Fortune 500 conglomerates.
- Live Sports Streaming Packages: License exclusive broadcasting rights for major sports leagues to drive OTT growth.
Box Office Inc Parity
- Hollywood Talent Agencies: Tiered agency representation (CAA, WME, UTA) with packaged star bundles and volume commission structures.
- International Pre-Sales: Regional minimum guarantees (MG) that offset production exposure before principal photography wraps.
- Crisis Media Spin: Formal PR war room protocols to navigate talent scandals without scrapping multimillion-dollar productions.
Box Office Sim 2 Parity
- Extracted Cast Database: Over 4,000 real-world actor, director, writer, and producer reference names with 72 species and 121 abilities.
- Box Office Clash Radar: Direct computation of screen cannibalization between competing releases sharing identical demographic quadrants.
- Dynamic Decay Curves: Realistic box office legs calculated from the spread between critical reviews and audience exit-poll word of mouth.
- Windowing Tradeoffs: Explicit choice between 17-day, 45-day, and 90-day theatrical windows with exhibitor relation consequences.
Silver Screen Story Parity
- Lot Infrastructure Development: Permanent physical upgrades to production lots including soundstages, digital mixing suites, and backlots.
- Theme and Genre Chemistry: Hidden synergies between 266 genre and theme pairings discovered through production experience.
- Talent Progression: Directors and actors earn XP on every shoot, leveling up technical execution, charisma, and speed attributes.
TV Studio Story Parity
- 24/7 Linear EPG Grid: 24-hour programming grid scheduling across 8 television networks with format blocks and prime-time ad rates.
- Broadcast Syndication: Secondary broadcast rights monetization for catalog films past their primary theatrical and streaming cycles.
Installation & Deployment
Web Application (PWA)
Box Office War runs directly in any modern web browser without dependencies or build steps:
# Serve locally using any static web server
python3 -m http.server 8080
# Open http://localhost:8080 in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge
Android APK (v41.2)
- Download the latest signed release APK from GitHub Releases —
BoxOfficeWar-41.2.apk, 19 MB.
- Install the APK on your Android device (Android 7.0 Nougat or higher —
minSdk 24).
- The application operates 100% offline, caching all scripts, audio synthesis engines, and SVG assets locally.
- Updates install over the previous version without losing saves: every release is signed with the same key.
Building the Android APK from Source
Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, JDK 21, and Android SDK command-line tools.
# 1. Prepare web bundle into apk/www
node apk/build-www.js
# 2. Synchronize web assets with Capacitor Android
cd apk
npx cap sync android
# 3. Compile release APK with Gradle
cd android
./gradlew assembleRelease --no-daemon
# The signed release APK will be generated at:
# apk/android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
Test Suite & Verification
The project enforces automated test coverage across headless economic simulations, full UI state verification, and long-range scenario balance:
# Execute entire test suite
npm test
# Run individual test harnesses:
npm run test:engine # Headless 5-year economy simulation (smoke.js)
npm run test:ui # Full UI click-through & modal interactions (ui-test.mjs)
npm run test:balance # Economy invariants across 6 seeds x 120 weeks (balance.js)
npm run test:scenarios # Automated 200-week playthroughs for all 5 scenarios (scenario-playthrough.mjs)
npm run test:library # Catalog and M&A bulk action validations (verify-library.mjs)
npm run validate:slots # Save slot structural validation (validate-slots.js)
Architecture & Design Principles
- Zero Framework Overhead: Written in standard, high-performance vanilla JavaScript (ES6+), semantic HTML5, and pure CSS custom properties (
design-tokens.css).
- Deterministic State Serialization: All game state is encapsulated in a single global object
G, validated via schema migrations (migrateSave), and serialized to browser localStorage and IndexedDB.
- Keyboard Power Tools: Built-in Command Palette (
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K), arrow-key grid navigation, and comprehensive keyboard shortcuts for high-speed management.
- Accessibility & Internationalization: Screen-reader live regions (
role="status", role="alert"), system motion preference detection (prefers-reduced-motion), and English / Hindi / Marathi localization dictionaries.
License
MIT License. Open source for modification, study, and distribution.
