A PhD Simulator - Publish & Perish
A satirical life-sim about surviving a biology PhD — run experiments, dodge scooping, manage your advisor, and try to graduate with your sanity (mostly) intact.
Released
24 Aug 2026
This year
N/A
VGDB Score
Overview
Summary
A satirical life-sim about surviving a biology PhD — run experiments, dodge scooping, manage your advisor, and try to graduate with your sanity (mostly) intact.
Description
About This Game
Just released! Only a bit behind the schedule, just like the planned experiment.
You got in. Now survive it.
A PhD Simulator - Publish & Perish is a satirical simulation of life as a biology PhD student — the real rhythm of grad school, not the movie version. Choose your field (cancer biology, evolution, or structural biology, each with its own risks and rewards), run experiments that might actually fail, and slowly build the data, the figures, and eventually the thesis that gets you out.
Balance the bench and your life — hunger, sleep, and sanity are real resources, and burnout is a genuine ending
Navigate work relationships — your advisor's opinion of you, your labmates, and the ever-present threat of getting scooped
Write, submit, get rejected, revise, resubmit — the actual publishing cycle, predatory journal included
Multiple ways out — several distinct endings depending on how you played it, not just win or lose
Deadpan, research-accurate humor — written by people who've lived it
Not everyone graduates. Not everyone should.
The repetitiveness and frustration included, just a little sped up.
New info: Thank you all for the feedback and encouragement we have received. we have also received a question:
Q: Are there in game purchases that would allow you to progress in the game?
A: No, and we do not plan them even though pay to win model helps in academia. The price that you see is final and also include updates which we will release once they are ready. It would definitely include Czech and Chinese translation and different PI personality. Implementing relationships and trying to maintain them is one possibility.
