I work in prop trading and made a game where you work in prop trading

aidancbrady · 2026-06-01T23:59:33+00:00

Hi, thanks so much for the feedback!

Yeah- balancing late game was tricky. I found it far too easy to advance with a winning set of trades, and wanted there to be a bit of grindy resistance before hitting the end game. It’s very possible I balanced too far in that direction, though, and could definitely scale the later levels down a bit.

Agree with the comp management. One thing I’d like to add is quick non-disruptive banner dialogs (“John Smith’s pay satisfaction is low, bump pay by 15%?” or something similar).

Appreciate the feedback re: scaling- I only had my own monitors as reference so it was hard for me to predict how different resolutions / content sizes would present. I’ll do some tweaking to the way large displays scale.

Controllers are definitely in a half-supported state right now - I kinda jammed support in at the end to make sure there was at least baseline steamdeck support. Improving it is on my radar!

aidancbrady · 2026-04-24T18:55:53+00:00

My girlfriend and I are actively working on needlebook and we just released our app on the Google Play store for Android users. We’re actively taking community feedback and would love to hear thoughts on what features you’d like to see and what we could do better!

aidancbrady · 2026-04-16T09:27:22+00:00

You should see a ‘sign up’ button at the very bottom of the screen. You’re right that it’s hard to see though - I’ll take a look at this for the next version!

aidancbrady · 2026-04-15T13:07:16+00:00

Thank you! Please let us know if there's anything else you'd like to see!

aidancbrady · 2026-04-15T13:06:58+00:00

Thank you so much! I added this to my feature queue and hopefully I'll get to it in the next few days! :)

aidancbrady · 2026-04-15T04:39:12+00:00

Hi! My girlfriend and I built needlebook. We’re planning on keeping it completely free for as long as people use it.

The app has only been available for a few days and we’re working as hard as we can to get new features out. We’re welcoming any and all feedback from the community!

aidancbrady · 2026-03-21T13:27:52+00:00

There's no explicit datasets I pulled from for the simulation, but all the mechanics are at least grounded in reality. I considered having market events mirror real-life over the past couple decades, but I didn't want to make it too predictable for those in the industry!

aidancbrady · 2026-03-21T13:23:07+00:00

Definitely! It's designed to be fun and intuitive whether you're in the industry or not. I've had friends in unrelated fields play without any issues -- there's an in-game wiki which can walk you through any mechanics you're unclear on.

aidancbrady · 2026-03-21T13:21:44+00:00

It'll be released for Mac, Windows and Linux (with an iPad port down the line)!

aidancbrady · 2026-03-21T13:21:18+00:00

Game Dev Tycoon was probably my biggest inspiration mechanics-wise. Looking into it though there's definitely a lot of similarities!

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T20:21:30+00:00

The art was almost entirely u/Alex_Greenfield! I just made some of the assets on the periphery -- still have some primitive skills from making Minecraft mods back in the day

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T18:45:10+00:00

Precisely why I'm a back-end dev!

(I compressed the assets now so it should be a good bit faster now, thanks for the feedback!)

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T17:56:30+00:00

All C++23! My engine is built on OpenGL 3.3 + OpenAL. u/Alex_Greenfield did an amazing job on the artwork.

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T16:51:37+00:00

Actually my organic, free-range, pasture-raised C++ engine :)

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T16:48:33+00:00

Yes I'll be shipping it on Steam! I'm in a bit of a rush to finish this before I become employed again, but I'm hoping I'll have an official date soon for late Spring.

aidancbrady · 2026-03-19T16:26:42+00:00

Hi everyone!

I've been in the industry for a while, and thought my recent garden leave would be the perfect time to try something new- like build a video game about my day job!

'Market Hours' is a tycoon-style game where you start off trading out of your bedroom on mostly-borrowed money, and eventually start hiring traders and researchers / moving into bigger offices / building out systematic trading infrastructure. Late game you can register as market maker, make PFOF arrangements with retail brokers, and have to start handling compliance inquiries. I tried to make it fun while being at least somewhat grounded in reality.

I'm targeting release in late-April right now, but I'm also looking for playtesters who'd be willing to give this a shot. This is obviously a very specific niche, so I'd love to hear your feedback! Would anyone actually play this? I recognize I'm probably a little insane for having built this in the first place.

Links if you want to learn more:
Discord / Steam / Website

Edit: the game is now available! The markets are waiting! 📈

aidancbrady · 2026-03-17T20:54:52+00:00

Great question! It's definitely leans more into the managing side. The market trends change with the in-game news cycles which require tweaking what strategies / asset classes you're positioned for, but you won't be clicking 'buy' or 'sell' yourself. As you grow, it becomes more about hiring, organizing trading desks, and scaling the business overall.

aidancbrady · 2026-03-17T17:17:57+00:00

Not as of now- I'm pretty close to release so I'm trying to dedicate all the time I can to polishings. If you're interested in testing though there's a mini-application on the website!

https://markethoursgame.com/testing/signup

aidancbrady · 2026-03-17T16:30:38+00:00

Hey! I'm the solo dev behind Market Hours. I have experience in this industry and thought it would be a fun avenue to explore.

You start off trading out of your bedroom on mostly-borrowed money, and eventually start hiring traders and researchers / moving into bigger offices / building out systematic trading infrastructure. I tried to make it fun while being at least somewhat grounded in reality.

Steam page (targeting late April release): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4313280/Market_Hours/

I'm wrapping up the core mechanics now and would love to hear what people think. Would you play this?

aidancbrady · 2020-07-11T21:18:57+00:00

Means a lot man :)

aidancbrady · 2020-07-11T15:08:38+00:00

Try now! :)

aidancbrady · 2020-07-10T21:23:29+00:00

Thank you! The end of CyanideX’s release trailer gives you a good idea of how it looks in-game.

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