Cycle 3
One product, one week. Default Alive gets ready to launch, and the players it already has get somewhere new.
Objectives and key results
Current players
The players the game already has keep playing, and the ones at the Series A bar get somewhere new
- Players who were waiting at the Series A bar who enter Series A and play on a later day. Target: 3 of the 4
- Players active in the 7 days to Oct 13 who play on 3 or more distinct days in the window. Target: 8 of the 13
Work that serves these: build 19 (bugs and the garage one step at a time), then the Series A build. Every build opens every older save.
The share loop
Players share the game, and the share brings someone in to play
- Players who complete a share of a daily-garage or milestone card. Target: 5 players
- Valid seed codes entered on a different install from the one that shared it. Target: 2
Work that serves these: build 20: the daily garage, the "beat my company" seed code, the pixel-art share card, the push ask at the clock start and the optional email at the seed close. Each day build 20 slips takes a day off D3 and D4.
Launch readiness
The launch is ready before it starts
- The Series A build is in App Store review as version 1.0. Target: In review by Thu Oct 15
- The "Growth loop" dashboard is live, on an outside-player filter that counts App Store and Android installs. Target: Live, and the old reads give the same counts, by Fri Oct 16
- People who sign up as Android testers. Target: 12 names
These rows pass or fail.
Why this cycle
Cycle 2 showed one result clearly. Default Alive players who get through the garage come back: 4 in 5 on the next day. Almost nobody new arrives, and the game does not spread. Arrivals came only after community posts, and they stopped when the posts stopped.
So Cycle 3 is one product for one week. The game gets a way to spread before it gets a launch: a daily garage that every player runs on the same market, a code to challenge a friend, and a pixel-art card to share. The players at the Series A bar get the Series A stage. The App Store build goes to review with all of it. The launch itself waits for Apple’s approval, so this cycle grades the players the game already has and the readiness of the launch, not new arrivals.
Priority order: Default Alive only. Pet Med Reminder, Show Notes and Paroletta carry no objective this cycle. They stay live and get no new work unless a canary fires.
No-Gos
- New arrivals as a target. No new community posts until the App Store build is approved. A key result that needs arrivals cannot be met this week.
- Releasing the approved build 16. It ends every run at the Series A bar and has no menu. The Series A build goes to review in its place.
- The web and server rewrite. Set aside on 2026-10-13.
- Money. No paywall, no pricing, no paid acquisition.
- Rewards for invites. No reward and no gate on a real invite.
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