Same Day Tycoon

Deliver more. Faster.

Someone just ordered a giant rubber duck. You promised it today.

Same Day Tycoon is a logistics tycoon about the delivery machine behind an online store. Start with one employee, a few shelves and a single van in a small unit in Madison. Grow into a network of fulfilment centres, delivery stations and freight trains that covers North America.

Every order is a real thing. A worker picks it from a shelf, packs it, labels it and loads it, and a van drives it to a real street address.

Every parcel is real

There are no throughput bars. Each order has an item, a shelf, a worker, a box, a van and an address, and you can follow it from the rack to the doorstep, with a camera that rides along with the van. When something goes wrong, you see it: boxes piling up at the pack stations, a full staging area, vans waiting in the yard with no driver.

The promise is the dial

You decide how fast you deliver. Promise three days and life is calm. Promise same day and demand floods in, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and your floor, your fleet and your cash have to keep up. Late orders cost money and trust.

• Set the promise and the delivery fee region by region: same day downtown, two days out in the country.

• Now and then an influencer orders live on stream. Deliver in time and the whole city wants one. Miss it and you get roasted in front of their viewers.

From the continent to the doorstep

Zoom from a hex map of North America, from Vancouver to Cancún, with 48 metros, ports, borders, roads and rail. Go down into a city's streets, follow a van to the kerb, then go through the doors of your warehouse and onto the floor where your crew is working.

Build it, staff it, run it

• Lay out shelves, pallet racks, pack stations, dock doors and receiving areas tile by tile. When you outgrow the place, push the walls out.

• Hire pickers, packers, loaders and drivers, and plan their shifts. Workers get tired, take their breaks and get faster with practice. Bring in operations and HR managers to take the chores off your hands.

• Forklifts and pallet jacks move stock from the rail dock into the racks.

From one cart to a machine

Start by carrying boxes by hand. End with a warehouse that runs itself.

• Conveyors on the floor and overhead, with lifts, filters and branches, holding lanes for each door and telescopic conveyors that reach into the trucks.

• Robot picking arms, packing machines, label machines and bubble-wrap machines.

• Fragile goods break if they get tossed about, and machines break down and smoke until your crew fixes them.

Grow the network

• Buy big fulfilment centres out of town, open delivery stations and small town units inside the cities, and lay rail spurs so freight trains can bring your suppliers' stock in.

• Find suppliers, sign contracts and send purchase orders. Buy in bulk for price breaks, ship by rail for less, or fetch the goods with your own trucks.

• Prices drift, shortages and gluts hit the news, and suppliers offer deals for a limited time.

• Paint delivery zones, plan van tours that fit a driver's shift, and run line-haul trucks between your sites.

Your customers are watching

Every delivery ends up in the feed.

"ordered a mug at 8:20 pm. it's here. it's 6 hours later. i didn't even get dressed"

"dear Duck, we have roads. we have doors. we have money"

"ordered a lava lamp, got lava lamp gravel. thanks Duck"

Fads sweep the country, the seasons bring their peaks, shelves catch fire, machines break down, and somewhere an inflatable flamingo is riding a belt it shouldn't.

Features

• A detailed simulation of thousands of orders, workers and vehicles, from 1× up to 3600× speed.

• Day, night and weather across the whole continent. Orders slow down overnight, and every morning starts with a report on the last day and the week ahead.

• Demand and trust worked out neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and a social feed that reacts to how you run things.

• Start small in Madison with goals that guide you through your first days, or jump into a busy Chicago network mid-game.