Actress Simulator
Los Angeles, 1980. The sun is bright, the rent is due, and your name means nothing.
Actress Simulator is a career survival game about chasing visibility in an industry that forgets you the moment you stop moving. You begin with one month paid, no savings, and the fragile belief that talent will be enough.
Full Disclosure: This prototype makes extensive use of generative AI for actress headshots, background art, music and coding.
Note on resolution: The game has only been tested at 1920×1080. Other resolutions may work, but 1080p is the only one guaranteed. Use the fullscreen button at the bottom right to play in full screen if your screen resolution is precisely 1080p. If you have larger resolution you can run the game inside the webpage without enlarging to fullscreen.
Note on loading time: It sits on the black screen for quite some time before starting. After clicking the run button, go get a cup of coffee or something and then come back.
Time moves one day at a time. You scan casting calls. You decide whether to train or conserve energy. You board a flight you can barely afford. You wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t.
A small speaking role can keep the lights on. A supporting role can change your trajectory. A leading role can redefine you — or expose you. Television contracts promise stability but can quietly consume a year of your life. Film roles offer prestige and risk. Stage builds craft. Promotion buys attention. Fame rises, fades, and rises again if you are lucky.
Your body is part of the system. So is your stress. So is your reputation. Push too hard and you burn out. Neglect yourself and you weaken. Let debt climb too high and the industry closes its doors without ceremony. There is no dramatic game over — just the slow realization that you didn’t make it.
You can manage multiple actresses if you wish, guiding several careers at once like an ensemble drama. For this prototype, however, the experience is most powerful when focused on a single life — one person trying to hold her ground in a machine built to replace her.
This is a playable prototype. The core calendar, audition flow, financial pressure, and scheduling systems are in place. The emotional scaffolding is there. What remains uncertain is scale.
Should this become a full game? Does the quiet tension of waiting, choosing, surviving feel worth deepening? What would make you stay in this world for decades of in-game time?
Play it. Sit with it. Tell me what it needs — or whether it should exist at all.
The spotlight is harsh. Step into it anyway.
