About SiliconHalli

The Game

SiliconHalli is a satirical idle clicker game that captures the beautiful chaos of building a startup in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley. From navigating Silk Board traffic to pitching skeptical investors, from managing team drama to the eternal quest for decent filter coffee – this game is a love letter to everyone who's ever tried to build something in this crazy ecosystem.

The Origin Story

This started as a fun experiment. I saw a Y Combinator-themed idle game making rounds on LinkedIn and thought, "Why not Bangalore?"

Four prompts and less than 10 minutes later (thanks, Claude!), SiliconHalli was born. What began as a quick fork turned into something that resonated with founders, developers, and startup folks across the city. Turns out, we all share the same beautiful struggles.

What's Next: The Board Game

SiliconHalli is evolving. The next iteration will be a physical board game that brings the startup journey to your table.

The Vision

Imagine a board game where 2-6 players compete to build the next unicorn out of Bangalore. Here's how it could work:

Game Board Layout:

• A map of Bangalore with key locations: Koramangala (startup hub), Indiranagar (client meetings), Whitefield (tech parks), MG Road (investor offices), Electronic City (operations), and of course, Silk Board (the dreaded bottleneck)
• Funding round tracks: Pre-seed → Seed → Series A → Series B → Unicorn
• Resource meters: Cash, Team Morale, Product Quality, Market Traction

Game Mechanics:

• Movement: Roll dice to move around the city. Land on different locations to trigger events
• Cards: Three decks
  • Opportunity Cards: Client deals, partnerships, press coverage
  • Challenge Cards: Server crashes, co-founder conflicts, regulatory hurdles, competitor launches
  • Investor Cards: Angel investors, VCs, each with different terms and conditions
• Resources to Manage: Cash (obviously), Team tokens (hire developers, designers, marketers), Morale points (keep your team from burning out), Product development tokens (ship features to gain traction)

Win Conditions:

• First to raise Series B with positive unit economics, OR
• Highest valuation after 12 rounds (quarters), OR
• Achieve profitability with 50+ employees

Special Bangalore Mechanics:

• Traffic Tax: Certain routes cost you extra turns (looking at you, Silk Board)
• Chai Break: Land on select spaces to recover morale points
• WeWork Wednesdays: Community events where players can form alliances
• Investor Gauntlet: Pitch rounds where you present to other players acting as VCs
• Pivot Power: Once per game, completely change your startup's direction

Sample Scenarios:

• "Your developer got a 2x offer from a FAANG. Pay ₹5L retention bonus or lose 2 product tokens"
• "You met an investor at a Koramangala cafe. Roll 6+ to schedule a meeting"
• "Traffic jam on Outer Ring Road. Miss your investor meeting. Lose one turn"
• "Your LinkedIn post went viral. Gain 3 marketing points"
• "Co-founder wants to relocate to Goa. Resolve or split equity"

Physical Components:

• Game board (map of Bangalore)
• Player tokens (different startup archetypes: SaaS, D2C, Fintech, EdTech, etc.)
• Resource tokens (cash, team, morale chips)
• Three card decks (150+ unique cards)
• Dice (standard six-sided)
• Funding round tracker
• Player dashboards to manage resources

Expansion Packs (future):

• The Delhi Pack: Navigate government regulations and enterprise sales
• The Mumbai Pack: Bollywood partnerships and consumer market dynamics
• The Global Pack: International expansion challenges