Solar Energy Tycoon

1. Pick a scenario from the browser. The brief states property, objectives, budget, constraints, and deadline.
2. Design the system. Panels and mounts go in the Exterior View; inverters, batteries, and protection go in the Mechanical Room View.
3. Run time. The simulation advances through days and seasons. Weather, shading, degradation, and consumption act on the system.
4. Read the results in the Reports View, then revise: adjust the design, add capacity, maintain.
5. Resolve. Objectives met completes the scenario. A fail condition resolves it as failed, with restart offered.
6. Free play. The map stays open after resolution, with no further grading.

The player picks a scenario, designs the array on the property and the equipment in the mechanical room, runs time through weather and seasons, reads finance and production reports, then revises until the objectives hold — or free-plays after the scenario resolves.

Place panels under a moving sun, route power through converters and storage, and balance invoices against shading, weather, ageing, and real market rates. Scenarios grade objectives, then open into free play. Beginner through Expert set how deep the electrical work goes.

Every playable entry is a scenario (JSON). Lifecycle: Brief → Active → Resolved (Complete or Failed) → Free Play. Fail conditions disarm in free play. A banked completion cannot be lost. A scenario with no objectives starts in Free Play (Sandbox).

Objectives are a closed set of types — energy generated, system cost under, peak demand met, self-sufficiency, ROI, payback years, uptime, and related measured or projected variants with optional hold windows. Constraints fence one economy engine. Tunables, drift, and triggers express events as data.

Shipped library categories include Commercial, Finance, Puzzle, Residential, and Sandbox — about twenty scenarios (First Light, Under the Cottonwood, The Long View, Demand Charge, Sandbox, and others).

Complexity mode is chosen per scenario at launch. Completion is tracked independently per mode (trophy per mode).

A guided tutorial on the first scenario is offered and declinable. Mode guidance introduces Intermediate and Expert concepts on first run at that mode. Component inspector, in-game glossary, shading overlay, and briefs that name the lesson support learning.

Three views, switched freely. A fixed status bar carries date, cash, live generation, objective progress, notifications, and time controls.

• Exterior (3D). Dynamic sun path with real shadow casting; weather visible and mechanical; seasonal daylight; grid placement; roof and ground mounts (tilt, azimuth, setback); per-panel shading overlay.
• Mechanical Room (2D grid). Inverters, batteries, load centres, disconnects, protection; wire routing as a spatial puzzle at Intermediate and Expert; clearance and ventilation; room size is a property field and can be the design constraint.
• Reports. Finance (capital, invoice import/export, loans), live twenty-year projections (projected region shaded or hatched — hatch, not colour alone), production and usage charts. Projection uses climatological expectation; assumptions are exposed.

Per-panel hourly output resolves from irradiance, incidence, shading, temperature derating, soiling, and age, through strings and inverter efficiency. Each day draws a weather day type and temperature band from regional market data; storms can destroy exposed components. Degradation is continuous; maintenance restores about half of accumulated degradation at about a tenth of component price when enabled. Storage uses about 90% round-trip efficiency. Grid interaction covers net metering, export credit, peak demand charges, and time-of-use rates from market data. Property load uses twelve typical days per end use; the player does not control consumption.

One cash-flow model runs: daily energy invoice from hourly import and export; demand charges on monthly peak import; optional loans; purchases need cash in hand; six consecutive months below zero fails the scenario.

Time is anchored to a 30-second simulated day at 1×. Speeds: Pause, 0.5×, 1×, 2×, 3×, 6×. One simulated year is about three hours at 1×, about thirty minutes at 6×.

The scenario browser is organized by category. Every scenario is visible; locked scenarios state their gates and the player’s progress toward each. The global catalog is available from the first scenario; scenarios may narrow the palette, never widen it. Early scenarios introduce one concept each; briefs name the lesson. Achievements reward sound engineering. Leaderboards are out of scope.

Art direction is cartoon-real: recognizable real-world buildings and hardware, softened proportions, warm lighting — friendly, not clinical. Accessibility uses colorblind-safe palettes; no information by colour alone; scalable UI.

Primary platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux. Secondary: HTML5 / WebAssembly. Engine: Godot 4.x.

Public display title: Solar Energy Tycoon. Host and engineering repo: Solar Generator Tycoon (ai-collab/solar-generator-tycoon).

Follow and wishlist links will appear here when channels are ready. They are site CTAs only — not part of the game design. This site does not host game binaries.