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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.

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Developer
Jiri Koubek, Chih Ting Koubkova Yu
Publisher
Jiri Koubek
Release
Coming Soon
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About the Game

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, not a metaphor

  • Navigate real 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 journals 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.

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