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MANAGER MAYHEM

How to Play Guide

Game Overview

Manager Mayhem is a multiplayer game where you play as a software development manager. Your goal is to complete as many tasks as possible while keeping your team happy and productive.

The game lasts 5 or 10 minutes (chosen by the host). At the end, the player with the most points wins!

Interface Controls

🔊 Audio Toggle

Click the speaker icon in the top-left corner to enable/disable sound effects.

⛶ Fullscreen Mode

Click the fullscreen button in the top-right corner to enter fullscreen mode for an immersive experience. Click again (or press Esc) to exit fullscreen.

💡 Pro Tip: Fullscreen mode is great for reducing distractions and focusing on managing your team!

How to Play

📋 Managing Tasks

Tasks appear in your Backlog (middle column). Drag and drop them onto your team members to assign work.

⚠️ Backlog Penalties (Difficulty-Based)

When starting a game, the host can select a difficulty level that determines backlog penalties:

😊 Easy Mode: No backlog penalties - perfect for learning the game!
😐 Medium Mode: Moderate penalties to keep you engaged:
  • Missed SLA: Tasks older than 90s lose 25% of their point value
  • Deadline Expiration: Tasks expire after 120s causing -50 points and -10% team satisfaction
  • Priority Escalation: LOW tasks become NORMAL (60s), NORMAL become HIGH (90s)
  • Overwhelmed Effect: Backlog > 12 adds 2s delay to task assignments
  • Task Bankruptcy: Backlog > 20 removes 50% of tasks, -500 points, team drops to 50% satisfaction
😰 Hard Mode: Severe penalties for experienced players:
  • Missed SLA: Tasks older than 60s lose 50% of their point value
  • Deadline Expiration: Tasks expire after 90s causing -100 points and -15% team satisfaction
  • Priority Escalation: Faster escalation (45s/60s)
  • Overwhelmed Effect: Backlog > 10 adds 3s delay
  • Task Bankruptcy: Backlog > 18 triggers bankruptcy
  • Backlog Interest: Lose 10 appraisal per 30s when backlog > 8
💡 Backlog Management: Keep your backlog lean by quickly assigning tasks. Watch for age indicators (⏱️) on tasks in medium/hard modes!

👥 Your Team

You have 4 team members: 1 Medior and 3 Juniors. Each can work on up to 2 tasks simultaneously.

⚠️ Junior Limitation: Juniors cannot handle high priority tasks! Only Medior+ developers can work on urgent tasks.
⚠️ Multi-tasking: Assigning a second task to a team member adds time penalties based on rank (10-50% more time to BOTH tasks)!

👋 New Team Members

When a team member quits and a replacement arrives, you must welcome them before they can work:

😊 Team Satisfaction

Each team member has a satisfaction bar with a percentage display. Watch it carefully!

💡 Important: Satisfaction changes are applied immediately when you assign a task, not gradually.

🏖️ Vacation

Idle team members can be sent on vacation to boost their satisfaction:

Vacation is free but takes time - team members are unavailable while on vacation.

💰 Bonus Payments

Instantly boost team member satisfaction using appraisal points:

Bonus payments are instant (no waiting) but cost appraisal points earned from high priority tasks. Drag and drop bonus cards onto team members just like vacation cards!

💡 Vacation vs Bonus: Use vacation when you have time and want to save appraisal points. Use bonus payments when you need an instant satisfaction boost or when team members are working and can't take vacation!

🏝️ Day Off (Random Event)

Sometimes HR approves a random day off for one of your team members:

📝 HR Mandated Leave (Medium/Hard Difficulty Only)

In Medium and Hard difficulties, HR monitors team members with persistently low satisfaction:

💡 Prevention: Keep satisfaction above 30% consistently by using vacations, bonuses, and low-priority tasks!

📋 Transfer Request (Retention Challenge)

Sometimes a team member wants to transfer to another team! When this happens:

💡 Retention Tip: Use vacation, low-priority tasks, or wait for idle recovery to boost satisfaction quickly!

⭐ Developer Ranks & XP

Team members gain experience points (XP) by completing tasks and level up through 7 ranks:

Frustration reduction applies to high-priority task satisfaction penalties. Speed increases exponentially from 100% to 300% across all 7 ranks.

XP gained per completed task:

💡 Rank Up Tip: Invest in your team members by giving them varied tasks. Higher-ranked developers finish work faster AND handle stress better!
🎉 Promotion Bonus: When a team member gets promoted to a new rank, their satisfaction is restored to 80%!

🤝 Task Delegation

You can delegate HIGH priority tasks to other players if their team's average satisfaction is higher than yours. Delegating gives your entire team a +5% satisfaction boost!

Pro Tips

💡 Balance is Key: Don't just chase high-priority tasks. Mix in low-priority tasks to keep satisfaction up!
💡 Avoid Multi-tasking: The 25% time penalty for dual tasks adds up fast. Only assign two tasks when absolutely necessary.
💡 Proactive Vacations: Send team members on vacation BEFORE they get too unhappy. Prevention is better than cure!
💡 Watch for Events: Random events like "Morale Spike" and "Day Off" can save struggling team members. The event log shows what's happening.
💡 Delegate Strategically: If you're drowning in high-priority tasks, delegate to players with happier teams. You get a satisfaction bonus too!
💡 Idle Recovery: Idle team members slowly recover satisfaction. Sometimes it's better to leave someone without work for a moment.

Scoring

Task points also vary by type (Bug Fix, Feature Development, etc.) - hover over tasks to see exact values!

Corporate Sabotage

Use your Appraisal Points (earned from completing high priority tasks) to sabotage rival managers! Click the ⚡ Sabotage button in the header to open the sabotage panel.

📅 Schedule Meeting

Force a target manager's team into a useless meeting. Their team works at 50% speed for 30 seconds.

Cost: 100 appraisal points • Cooldown: 60s

💬 Spread Rumors

Damage another team's morale remotely. A random enemy team member loses 15% satisfaction.

Cost: 75 appraisal points • Cooldown: 45s

🔍 Request Code Review

Force another team to review your code. One of their working developers is paused for 20 seconds, and you get +25 points!

Cost: 50 appraisal points • Cooldown: 30s

🚪 Book Conference Room

Block a target manager's access to vacations. They cannot send anyone on vacation for 60 seconds.

Cost: 100 appraisal points • Cooldown: 90s

📧 CC Everyone on Emails

Information overload! Slows down task completion for ALL managers (including yourself) for 15 seconds.

Cost: 150 appraisal points • Cooldown: 120s • No target needed

📊 Performance Review

Trigger a surprise performance review! The target manager must fill out a form, pausing their game for 15 seconds. The form cannot be closed until time is up.

Cost: 200 appraisal points • Cooldown: 180s

🔀 Reorganization

Trigger a reorg on the enemy team. All tasks are randomly shuffled between developers, and everyone loses 10% satisfaction.

Cost: 175 appraisal points • Cooldown: 120s

📝 HR Complaint

File a complaint against an enemy developer. They go on administrative leave for 30 seconds and cannot work.

Cost: 150 appraisal points • Cooldown: 120s

🗳️ Bullying (3+ Players)

Start a vote against another manager. All players vote - if majority votes YES, target loses 200 points. If vote fails, YOU lose 100 points!

Note: Only available in games with 3 or more players.

Cost: FREE • Cooldown: 180s

👶 Internship Program

Send an intern to the enemy team. Their highest-ranked developer goes on vacation and is replaced by an intern who works at 50% speed. The intern can only do medium and low priority tasks. Once the intern completes 2 tasks, they leave and the vacationing developer returns.

🎁 Bonus: Each task completed by the intern gives the receiving player 150% points and 20 appraisal points!

Cost: 200 appraisal points • Cooldown: 150s

⚠️ Warning: Sabotage actions have cooldowns and cost appraisal points (earned from completing HIGH priority tasks). Use them wisely!
💡 Sabotage Interface: The sabotage dialog is organized into sections:
  • General Sabotages - Affect all players (like CC Everyone)
  • Player Selector - Click to select your target player
  • Targeted Sabotages - Require a selected target
Selected players are highlighted in pink. You must select a target before using targeted sabotages!

Game Features

🏢 Persistent Companies

When you found or join a company, you stay in it even after the game ends!

🤒 Enhanced Status Overlays

Team members on sick leave, vacation, HR leave, or day off show:

This makes it easier to track when members will return and plan accordingly!

Quick Reference

Task Duration 20-60 seconds
Starting Satisfaction 75%
Quit Threshold 0% (at task end)
Sick Call-in Threshold <25% (at task end)
Sick Duration / Bonus 60s / +7%
Day Off Bonus +15%
Multi-task Time Penalty +50% / +35% / +20% / +10% (by rank)
Idle Recovery +0.1%/sec
Transfer Challenge 60s to reach 50% → +5% bonus
Replacement Delay (after quit) 60 seconds
Rank XP Thresholds 5 / 15 / 30 / 50 / 80 / 120 XP
Rank Work Speed 100% → 150% → 200% → 300%
Rank Frustration Reduction 0% → 15% → 30% → 50%
Start Playing!