MÉTIERfree browser game · made in Luxembourg
MÉTIER, a free cosy career RPG in pixel art
Five ways to make a living. One life at a time.
MÉTIER is a cosy top-down pixel-art RPG about working life. You have one year, or three, to build a living in the small town of Clearbridge: as an employee, a startup founder, the boss of a consulting firm, a shopkeeper, or solo, maybe on an island far away. You also pick the rules: Luxembourg, France or the United States.
Every day you wake at 7:00, walk the town, spend your hours and your energy, meet your deadlines and go to bed; the night shows the day's ledger. It plays in the browser, on a phone held upright or on a computer, in French or English, offline once loaded, with no ads and no account.
Free, no ads, no account, no purchase. Phone, tablet or computer; offline once loaded.
Five paths
You pick a path at the start. Each one has its own loop, its own small games and its own endings. Once per run, at the start of a season, you may change your life from the calendar: the old life is settled under the country's rules (notice served, company closed or sold, lease handed over).
1/5EmployeeA salary every month, a boss, holidays.
Work blocks at Maison Halden, a quarterly review with Hélène, leave days to place on the calendar, telework, evenings free.
Its own:
- Triage: tickets fall, send each to its lane (bug, feature or question).
- The Raise: pick two arguments for Hélène; bluffing about an outside offer can backfire.
- A side project at night, which can lead to a change of life.
- On the Luxembourg cross-border variant, a counter of the 34 days you may work outside Luxembourg.
- Reorganisations, settled with each country's notice and unemployment rules.
Endings: Promotion · A new path · Balance · Bounce back · Worn out · Still looking
2/5StartupRaise money, hire, aim big.
Product sprints, user interviews, hiring, the monthly investor update, the runway in months always on screen.
Its own:
- The Pitch: three rounds with Inès, who looks for two things; you play argument cards drawn from your real progress (no Traction card without users), then choose between more money and less dilution.
- Three rounds: pre-seed, seed and Series A.
- A public grant application in Luxembourg and France; the US model has none.
- In the United States, the 83(b) letter to file in the first days.
Endings: Acquisition · Profitable · Acqui-hire · Closing · On the road to an IPO
3/5Consulting firmSell consulting days, then teams.
Start as a lone consultant, win missions, recruit consultants, keep them staffed, chase invoices, find new clients.
Its own:
- The Board: tap a consultant, then a mission; the level must be enough.
- The Chase: a late invoice, three tones (polite reminder, phone call, formal notice); the formal notice pays faster but costs trust.
- The bench and the share of your biggest client, watched on screen.
- On the Luxembourg cross-border variant, consultants who live in France carry the 34-day counter.
Endings: Partner · Sale · A fine house · Back to solo · Liquidation
4/5ShopA shop, customers, opening hours.
« L'Épicerie », a café-grocery: sign the lease, fit out the shop, set the hours on the door, order stock in the evening (perishables expire), serve, hire a helper.
Its own:
- The Rush: serve each customer by tapping the item in their bubble; long-press an empty shelf to refill it.
- The door sign: short, normal or long hours, which change footfall and costs.
- Weather, regulars who come back when served well, a rating out of five, market-day stalls and, later, a second shop.
- The lease follows the country: a deposit everywhere, key money in France only.
Endings: The flagship · The neighbourhood institution · Sale of the business · Closing
5/5SoloYour clients, your pace, maybe an island.
Find clients, deliver, invoice, publish posts; then perhaps take the plane to Terrace Isle and work from Dewi's co-working space.
Its own:
- The Clock: two clock rings, yours and the client's; put each call at an hour when you are both awake. A late call costs energy the next day.
- On the island, the permit: an income floor, savings, and no local client.
- In France, the micro-entreprise ceiling meter.
- Loneliness and time zones cost energy; co-working evenings help.
Endings: A sustainable life · Small studio · Back to town · Burnt out · Paperwork!
Two lengths: One year, 4 seasons and 36 playable days, about 12 to 18 minutes; Three years, 12 seasons and 108 days, over several sittings. One playable day stands for about ten real days. The game saves by itself, so you can close it anytime.
Three rule sets
The country changes the contracts, the taxes, the calendar of deadlines, the events and the « For real » cards. The town is the same; its signs, its street furniture and its currency change with it.
1/3Luxembourg
In euros. With the cross-border variant, « I live in France », for the Employee and Consulting firm paths: the train commute, and the counter of days worked outside Luxembourg.
What the cards cover: the social minimum wage, contributions, notice, paid leave, unemployment benefit, income and corporate tax, the 34-day rule for cross-border workers, company forms, the Fit 4 Start programme, the business permit, commercial leases, the self-employed.
2/3France
In euros. Tax return in spring, the CFE local business tax in December, and on the Solo path the turnover declaration and the micro-entreprise ceiling.
What the cards cover: the SMIC minimum wage, fixed-term contracts, employer contributions, tax residence, corporate tax, BSPCE warrants, freelance day rates, the 3-6-9 commercial lease, micro-entreprise ceilings and the VAT franchise.
3/3United States
In dollars. You live in California; a startup is a Delaware C-corp. Pay comes twice a month, with the Delaware franchise tax, the California LLC tax and quarterly estimated tax on the calendar. Texas appears only as a contrast card.
What the cards cover: at-will employment, the WARN Act, paid vacation, health insurance through the employer, FICA, federal tax brackets, the 401(k), California unemployment and minimum wage, the 83(b) election, start-up valuations, sales tax, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.
- Net pay, the California state tax and a few other amounts are game approximations: the ledger labels them as such, and they never appear in a card. The island's cards cite Indonesian rules, such as the one-year remote worker permit.
« For real » cards
After many events, a small index card slides up: « For real » states the real rule the event simplifies, with its year and a short source name. Every card ends with « Simplified, not advice. ». The cards you have seen fill the Almanac, grouped by path and country, and the in-game Sources page lists every source with its full links.
Only checked facts are shown. Each row of the game's facts table carries its status, its year and the date it was checked: on 9 October 2026 the table has 57 rows, all checked on 8 October 2026, and 44 of them can appear in a card, each from an official page or a named secondary source (a law firm, an accountant, specialised press). A row marked unverified is never shown; the game rule it supports is then written as a game rule. When the source is secondary, the card says so and names the official site to confirm on.
No company, brand, platform or person is named in a card: real public bodies and laws may be, and the rest appears only as links on the Sources page. The numbers date from 2025 or 2026 and change every year; a review of the whole table is planned each January.
No score: a five-axis profile
A run ends on its last night, or earlier on an ending such as a closing or a burnout. The end screen shows the ending's title, a six-line epilogue, the moments of the run (a high, a low and the change of life, if any) and a profile on five axes from 0 to 100, drawn as a pentagon on ledger paper.
- Money
- how your wealth moved from the start.
- Time
- free hours a week, on average over the run.
- Health
- average health, minus burnout.
- Ties
- family and friends.
- Pride
- milestones of your path and reputation.
No score, no ranking: five ways to count a life.
No path is presented as the best one. Runs played by bots check the balance: for every rule set and length, the area of each path's profile stays within 15 % of the average of all paths, and no rule set beats another on all five axes for any path.
Not advice
MÉTIER simplifies a lot. It is not financial, legal or tax advice. The "For real" numbers date from 2025 or 2026 and change every year.
This line sits on the title screen, in Settings and on a first-start screen with a single « Got it » button. The game has no investment mechanics (no stocks, no crypto) and gives no tips to cut taxes. Burnout is shown with care: the next days are rest, and the game says to talk to a doctor.
How to play
Tap the ground to walk, a door or a person to act. A sheet slides up with what you can do there, each action with its cost in hours and energy; an action you cannot take says why.
- Walk
- TouchTap the ground
- Keyboard and mouseArrows or W A S D (Z Q S D on an AZERTY keyboard), or click the ground
- Act
- TouchTap a door or a person
- Keyboard and mouseE, Space or Enter, facing a door or a person; or click it
- Name of a place or a person
- TouchLong-press
- Keyboard and mouseHold the mouse button
- Ledger
- TouchCarnet button, bottom bar
- Keyboard and mouseTab
- Calendar
- TouchCalendrier button
- Keyboard and mouseC
- Phone (letters, messages)
- TouchTéléphone button
- Keyboard and mouseT
- Almanac
- TouchAlmanach button
- Keyboard and mouseQ (A on an AZERTY keyboard)
- Pause, settings
- TouchPause button
- Keyboard and mouseEsc or P
- Keys follow their place on the keyboard, so an AZERTY keyboard works with no setting. On a landscape phone, the bar moves to the side.
- Settings: language, text size (normal or large), reduced motion, music, sounds and volume, and a relaxed mode that plays every mini-game without a timer.
- The game speaks French or English, chosen from your browser's language and switchable in Settings.
Privacy
MÉTIER asks for no account, sets no cookie, shows no ads and embeds no third-party tracker. Your run, your Almanac and your settings stay in your browser's localStorage, on this device only. Settings › ERASE MY PROGRESS erases them.
Visits are counted by Vercel Web Analytics, without cookies: one page view on opening (the address without its parameters), then at most 8 anonymous markers a day and 3 end-of-run markers. No name, no amount and no choice is ever sent. Open the game with ?optout=1 to leave your device out.
Sharing your ending is an image and a text you send yourself: nothing is posted for you.
Credits
A game by Sitraka Forler, in Sitraka Labs.
Font: Pixelify Sans by Stefie Justprince, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Everything else is made in the code: characters, tiles, buildings and icons are drawn at start-up from a 24-colour palette, and the cosy chiptune music and the sounds are synthesised live. The game contains no image atlas and no sound file.
Clearbridge, Terrace Isle, Maison Halden, Halden Group and every character are fictional.
Questions
- Is MÉTIER free?
- Yes. No ads, no purchase, no account.
- Is it financial, legal or tax advice?
- No. MÉTIER simplifies a lot. It is not financial, legal or tax advice. The « For real » cards quote real rules with their year and source, but the numbers change every year and the game's own amounts are approximations.
- Which path is the best?
- None. There is no score and no ranking: the end shows a profile on five axes (Money, Time, Health, Ties, Pride), and bot playtests check that no path and no rule set comes out ahead.
- How long is a run?
- One year is 36 playable days, about 12 to 18 minutes. Three years is 108 days, played over several sittings. The game saves by itself; Continue on the title screen picks up where you left off.
- Can I play offline or with a keyboard?
- Yes to both. Once the page has loaded, the browser keeps the game and it starts without a connection. On a computer, walk with the arrows or W A S D (Z Q S D on AZERTY), act with E, Space or Enter, or play with the mouse.
- Where is my progress?
- In your browser, on this device only: the run in progress, the endings seen, the Almanac and your settings. There is no account and no sync between devices. Settings › ERASE MY PROGRESS erases everything.
MÉTIER is a personal project of Sitraka Forler, in Sitraka Labs. Clearbridge, Terrace Isle and their people are fictional; the rules are real but simplified.