Teacher Guide
A turn-based business simulation for high school and college classes. Students run it in any browser, on laptops or Chromebooks, with no accounts. Each round they set price, production, marketing, R&D, and capacity — then the market decides. Each student team competes within its assigned market. AI rival companies fill its remaining seats, and each rival explains its move.
Apply for the classroom beta →
Approved for the beta? The Welcome Kit walks you through your first lesson, step by step.
What exists today, honestly
Anyone can play the single-player demo: one student against four AI companies with distinct strategies, about five minutes end to end. The rival explanations in the demo are written by rules from real game data.
The classroom version adds what a class needs: beta join-code multiplayer with separate markets for student teams, beta an AI coach each team can ask once a round, which asks questions and never plays for them, beta a teacher debrief generated after the final round, and beta live AI rivals with screened explanations.
To get classroom access: fill out the teacher application — we review it by hand and email your classroom entry link if it's a fit. Wide release comes in 2027; the beta is how you run it this semester.
Choose your groups
You choose the group sizes. Each team uses one device and submits one shared plan. For 30 students, options include 6 teams of 5, 10 teams of 3, 15 teams of 2, or 30 individual teams. Add a separate teacher device.
At the start, the system assigns teams in joining order, in rotation across markets. Each market has five companies: up to four student teams, with AI companies filling the remaining seats. Scores are compared only within the same market.
| Student teams | Students per team | Markets |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 5 | 2, each with 3 student teams and 2 AI companies |
| 10 | 3 | 3 |
| 15 | 2 | 4 |
| 30 | 1 | 8 |
These are grouping options, not load guarantees. A completed browser rehearsal covered six synthetic teams. The software's 40-team joining limit is not a performance guarantee for a class of that size.
Running the classroom beta
Beta teachers get a console link by email after applying for the classroom beta. A class session works like this:
Read the transcript
Your first Informatist class
This video walks you through your first Informatist class. It uses a demo class with example data.
Three things, three jobs
You will use three different things. Your private teacher link comes by email and opens your console. Keep it to yourself. Your Console PIN is six digits you choose when you create a class. It lets you recover the console. The join code is made for each class. It is all students need.
Open your private link
Open the private link from your email. The Access token fills in by itself. Keep this page off the projector while you set up.
Choose your class settings
For a first lesson, choose One class period, Gentle, and 4 rounds. Leave AI opponents, coach, and debrief switched on.
Choose your Console PIN
Type a six-digit Console PIN of your own. We use 135790 only as an example. Write it down. It is not in your email, and it is not part of your link.
Create the class
Click Create class session. Put the join code on the board.
Students join a market
Each team opens informatist.net/class on one device. They type the join code and a made-up team name, then click Join the market.
Check the lobby
Teams appear on your console as they join. Nobody can join after you start. When everyone is in, click Start the game.
Leave time for discussion
By default, a round closes as soon as every team submits. For discussion time, untick Auto-close when every team has submitted.
Make five decisions
Each team sets price, production, marketing, R&D, and new capacity. The forecast is an estimate, not a promise.
Submit and update the plan
Teams click Submit plan. Until you close the round, they can change it and click Update my plan.
Close the round
Submissions shows which teams are in. When ready, click Close round 1. Teams that did not submit get autopilot.
Read results, then continue
Teams read their results, including Forecast vs. what happened. Then they click Continue to round 2.
Rounds two and three
Rounds 2 and 3 work the same way. If a team loses its device, open Fix-its to re-issue that team's link.
Read the final round first
After round 4, teams read that round's results first. Then they click See final results.
Final standings
Each team sees the final standings for its own market.
Compare within a market
Your console shows Class results. Compare scores only within the same market.
Lead the debrief
Below are recorded game facts, discussion questions, and talking points. This demo ran without AI, so it shows the auto-generated summary. With AI on, check AI notes against the recorded results.
Recover on another device
If your laptop dies, open your private link on another device. Choose Already have a session? Recover the console. Enter the join code and your Console PIN, then click Recover console. Your console comes back, right where your class is.
Ready for your first class
Private link for you. Console PIN for recovery. Join code for students. The Teacher Guide has every step in writing.
- Create a session in the teacher console (pick a difficulty — see below; pick 4, 6 or 8 rounds; set a private six-digit console PIN for recovery; optional for a single-period class and required for a multi-day unit).
- Put the join code on the board. Students open the class page on any laptop or Chromebook, enter the code and a team name — no accounts, no emails.
- Play rounds. By default a round resolves the moment every team has submitted. Turn off "Auto-close when every team has submitted" for discussion time, then close rounds manually. Teams can update a submitted plan until you close the round. Autopilot keeps the previous price and subtracts unsold stock from the previous production plan, down to zero if needed, then caps production at current capacity. Without an earlier plan, it uses the reference price and half current capacity. Marketing, R&D and new-capacity spending are zero. The class list shows how many rounds each team missed.
- Recover anything. Lost student device: re-issue the team's link from the console. Lost teacher device: recover the console with the join code + PIN.
- Debrief by market. The final screen gives standings for each market and a teacher debrief. The program supplies each team's factual summary. AI notes and questions can contain mistakes; check them against the recorded results.
- Run it again. The same private link creates as many class sessions as you need: one per section, or a new game for the same class. On the finished class screen, click Start a new class; earlier classes stay under My classes in that browser for 7 days after their last activity.
After each non-final round, students read the results and click Continue to enter the next round. After the final round, they read the last round's results, then click See final results for final standings.
Difficulty: Gentle or Standard
You pick the economy when you create a session. Both tiers run the same rules, the same five decisions and the same AI rivals — what changes is how hard a mistake hits. Students never see which tier they are on, and you can run the other one next game with the same join flow.
| Tier | What changes | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Gentle default |
Wider margin on every unit, a price floor near the cost line, and softer penalties for debt and unsold stock. A team can misprice a round and still be in the game. | A first game, a mixed-ability class, or any period where the point is to learn the five levers rather than to survive the market. |
| Standard | Thin margins and a floor far below cost — selling under cost is possible, and a price war genuinely destroys value for everyone who joins it. | A second game, an economics class ready for the hard version, or when the lesson is that competition can leave every firm worse off. |
Why this exists. We ran hundreds of simulated classes with deliberately weak players. On Standard, teams that underprice each other drag the whole market into losses — which is economically correct and pedagogically brutal for a first exposure: half the class watches its company bleed before anyone has understood why. Gentle keeps the same cause-and-effect (undercut the market and your margin still shrinks) without the collective wipe-out, so the debrief is about decisions rather than damage.
Teaching the price war. If price competition is your learning objective, run Standard — it is where the lesson bites hardest, and the auto-debrief will name who started the war and who followed. A good sequence is Gentle first to learn the controls, Standard second with the same class, then compare the two debriefs.
One game across several classes: multi-day units
Choose Class format: Multi-day unit when you create the session and one game spans several lessons instead of one period. What changes:
- Teams get a 4-digit PIN when they join, and you set a 6-digit console PIN (required in this mode). Both exist because nobody keeps the same Chromebook all week — team code plus name plus PIN gets a team back into its own company on any device, and your console PIN gets you back into yours.
- You open and close the market. "Close for today" freezes the game between lessons; students see that the market is shut until next class. "Open the market" starts the next session.
- Each session ends with its own debrief, and students see a recap of what happened last lesson when the market reopens — nobody has to remember Tuesday on Thursday.
- Optional market events. A unit can carry a scripted event — a supply shock that raises costs for one round, for example — so the discussion has a shared shock to explain.
- Unit rooms live for 30 days; a single-period room lives for 7. Forgotten team PIN: reset it from the console and read the new one out.
No beta access yet? Run it with the demo today
Even with the single-player demo, a whole class can play the same game: every game has a seed number, shown on the final screen. Same seed, same world — so thirty students opening informatist.net/demo/?seed=29230512 face the identical market, and their results are directly comparable.
Setup — 5 minutes
- Put informatist.net/demo/?seed=29230512 on the board. No logins, no installs.
- Everyone picks 4 rounds (about 5 minutes of play).
- Optional: have students note the five levers before starting — one prediction each for what will matter most.
Play — 25 minutes
- First game: play freely. Losing to Slasher is part of the curriculum.
- Second game: play deliberately — pick one strategy (undercut, premium, or build) and commit to it.
- Fast finishers: try to beat their own rank with a different strategy.
Debrief — 15 minutes
Have students screenshot or write down their final rank, total profit, and the "biggest gap" verdict from the end screen. Then work the questions below.
Eight debrief questions
- When a rival cuts price, who actually pays for the price war?
- Delight charges above the market average and spends the most on R&D and marketing. It makes a profit but almost never finishes first. Marketing and R&D also grow demand for the whole market: who else gained from Delight's spending? In what kind of market would a quality strategy win?
- Your forecast said one thing; the market did another. Where did the gap come from?
- R&D and new capacity both pay off next round, not this one. How did that lag change your decisions — and when did you learn it?
- Who ended the game with the most cash? Who ended with the highest score? If they're different companies, why?
- What's the real cost of a unit sitting in inventory? What's the real cost of a buyer you turned away?
- The AI rivals explained every move they made. Which explanation changed a decision you made afterward?
- If you played the same world again, what one decision would you change — and what number on the screen tells you it would work?
Concepts covered
| In the game | Curriculum topic |
|---|---|
| Price vs. buyers lost | Price elasticity of demand; competition |
| Unit cost, margin, break-even | Unit economics; profit & loss |
| Production vs. inventory vs. lost sales | Supply decisions; carrying costs; opportunity cost |
| Marketing (this round) vs. R&D (compounding) | Short-run vs. long-run investment; differentiation |
| Capacity lag | Capital investment; planning under uncertainty |
| Forecast vs. actual | Expectations, forecasting error, strategic interaction |
| Score = profit + company health | Stakeholder metrics beyond the bottom line |
These map naturally onto standard personal finance, economics, marketing and entrepreneurship units, from high school courses (NGPF- and CEE-style outlines) to introductory college business classes. It's a simulation, not a textbook — it earns the vocabulary lesson by making students need the words.
FAQ
Does it run on school laptops and Chromebooks?
Yes. Browser-only, no installation, small download, works on locked-down devices.
Do students need email addresses or accounts?
No. Nothing to sign up for. A game is one anonymous browser session.
What about student privacy?
No accounts, no tracking pixels, no analytics scripts, no ads. Game decisions go to our server to run the simulation and are tied to nothing but an anonymous session id. We keep a record of each class game (team names, decisions, results, AI and coach text) for one year to review and improve the game; email us with your join code to have yours deleted sooner. Student data is not for sale — there is none to sell. The application asks for your contact information and class details; it does not ask for student names, emails, rosters, or grades.
What does it cost?
Nothing for teachers and students, and no paid tier is planned. Informatist is run by Glidelogic Corp., a Nevada corporation, and paid for by its founder. It is not a registered nonprofit. The free classroom program is the product, not a trial.
Can I run it with several classes, or more than once?
Yes. Your private teacher link creates as many class sessions as you need: one per section, or a new game for the same class. When a game finishes, click Start a new class on the results screen.
Our web filter blocks it — what do I do?
Send your IT department the one-page allowlist request — domains, ports, and the student-data posture, written for them.
Who's behind it?
Informatist was founded on November 11, 2006, as a browser-based economic simulation. It is run by Glidelogic Corp. The classroom edition is its third act.
Ready to run it with a whole class? Apply for the classroom beta — we review it by hand, and you get a say in what gets built first.