Shitbox

A car-themed economic life simulation where you hustle your way from poverty to prosperity.

Concept

Start as an 18-year-old with nothing but a broken-down vehicle salvaged from a scrapyard. Buy, fix, flip, race, and negotiate your way to the top. Victory is measured by days elapsed - reach your goal fastest.

The ultimate aspiration: the Ferrari 250 GTO (~$70M).

Core Mechanics

• Negotiation - Read NPC personality traits, use multi-dimensional trade levers
• Car Flipping - Buy low, repair, sell high
• Road Trips - Top Gear-inspired content creation for engagement and income
• Resource Management - Balance money, energy, and time
• Stat Progression - Charisma, Mechanical, Fitness, Knowledge, Driving (see Shitbox_Skills.md)

Locations

• Scrapyard - Labor, scavenge parts, find project cars
• Garage/Workshop - Store and repair vehicles
• Auction Lot - Bi-weekly car auctions
• Bank - Savings, investments, loans
• Showroom - Buy new cars, work as dealer
• School/Library - Training and licenses
• Gym - Fitness training
• Film School - Cinematography for content creation

Tech Stack

• Electron + React + TypeScript
• Zustand for state management
• Data-driven design (JSON configs)
• Pure engine logic separated from UI

Architecture

src/
  engine/     # Pure game logic (no React)
  store/      # Zustand state management
  ui/         # React components
data/         # JSON config files
electron/     # Electron shell

Design Principles

1. Data-driven - All tunable values in JSON
2. Engine/UI separation - Core logic has zero React dependencies
3. Deterministic - Same state + action + RNG seed = identical results
4. Serializable - Entire game state can be JSON stringified
5. Event-sourced - Actions logged for replay/debugging