Fitness Chain / Gym Chain Release Notes

Fitness Chain

New passion project: build and run your own global gym brand open clubs on a world map, license class programmes, fight rival chains, and grow members and reviews week by week.

What is it?

Fitness Chain is an Empire-side business (like Airline Manager or Golf Club). You are the owner/chairman: you pick a brand style, open clubs in cities, run marketing, hire staff, and compete with AI rival chains.

Money works a bit like a real subsidiary:

• Personal cash — pays to unlock the venture and to found your brand.

• Chain cash — separate operating pot; memberships, rent, payroll, and builds come out of here.

• Company cash — your main studio balance; gym profit does not land here automatically. Transfer chain cash to personal when you want it in your pocket (or reflected in overall net worth).

Your overall mogul net worth includes chain cash sitting in the venture.

How to get started (click path)

1) Unlock the venture

1. Reach Mogul rank (net worth threshold on your profile).

2. Go to Empire → Mogul (Mogul Profile).

3. Scroll to Passion projects.

4. Buy Fitness Chain — Fitness empire (~ $150,000 from personal cash).

2) Open the screen

• Empire → Fitness Chain in the sidebar, or

• Empire → Mogul → Open Fitness Chain →

3) Found your brand

1. On Fitness Chain, click Found brand…

2. Wizard steps:

   • Name, colours, logo (your look on the map and headers)

   • Archetype: Budget / Mid / Premium (affects founding cost, starting chain cash, and who fits which cities)

   • HQ country + first city (first club starts building here)

3. Confirm — cost is paid from personal cash (roughly $1.5M / $2.5M / $4M by archetype).

4. You receive starting chain cash in the new ledger (roughly $1.4M / $2M / $2.8M).

4) Play the weekly loop

1. Advance week (top bar) — clubs build, members move, rivals act, money flows.

2. Check Overview for brand rating, members, weekly P&L.

3. Repeat: research markets → open clubs → license classes → market → hire → expand.

Main screen tabs (Empire → Fitness Chain)

Fitness Chain — main tabs (Empire → Fitness Chain)

Overview

Steam post imageYour at-a-glance HQ: brand health, members, utilization, chain cash, weekly profit/loss, active crises, and quick alerts (events, offers, review crisis).

Map

Steam post imageWorld map of gym markets. Your clubs, rivals, and cities you can research or open. Click a pin for city details and expansion actions.

Clubs

Steam post imageEvery club in the chain: building status, location, timetables, and links to Club details (manage programmes, facilities, progress to opening).

Insights

Steam post imageMarket research table: demand, brand fit, payback, rival pressure. Best screen for choosing the next city before you spend chain cash.

Facilities

Steam post imageCampus view for the selected club. Add or queue equipment and zones; see capital jobs in progress (CEO can auto-queue upgrades here).

Classes

Steam post imageLicense programme brands chain-wide (yoga, HIIT, pilates, etc.) and manage what your clubs can teach before you assign timetables per club.

Staff Staff policies, recruitment sprints, specialist hires (Head of Classes, Maintenance Lead). Short link through to CEO hire and control.

CEO

Steam post imageHire or release your chain CEO, toggle CEO manages vs I manage, set board directives, read the weekly activity log, and see performance vs targets.

Marketing

Steam post imageRegional awareness, marketing campaigns, and corporate wellness / B2B offers that boost revenue when brand quality is high enough.

Competitors

Rival fitness chains: threat level, intel feed, campaigns, and acquisition / hostile bid pressure on your clubs.

Finance

Chain cash vs personal cash, transfers between them, and membership tier mix (who signs up for which plan). Chain P&L context lives here.

Reviews

Member review snippets and sentiment that feed your chain brand rating — fix problems before a long review crisis.

History

Timeline of major chain events: founding, club opens, country research, CEO actions, milestones, and big wins or setbacks.

Header (not a tab) Top bar on every tab: brand name, brand rating, utilization, awareness, chain cash, and weekly P&L — the numbers you check every week after Advance week.

Core activities (how-to)

Open a new club

Path A — Insights (recommended) Fitness Chain → Insights → pick a city → Open club (or start site search if using the optional pipeline).

Path B — Map Fitness Chain → Map → click city pin → popup → Open club / Research country if locked.

Open club wizard:

1. City & country (must be researched unless HQ region).

2. Size tier (standard / flagship / compact).

3. Building type — shows real dollar open cost, rent, capacity for that city.

4. Confirm — paid from chain cash; build takes several weeks (progress on Clubs / club panel).

Tip: If a city is on the map but missing from the dropdown, Research that country first (Insights or map popup).

Research new countries

Fitness Chain → Insights → Research market on a country banner, or Map → city in unresearched country → Research country.

CEO can auto-research when CEO manages is on (see CEO section).

Run classes at a club

1. Fitness Chain → Classes → License a programme brand (chain-wide fee from chain cash).

2. Clubs → pick club → Open club details (or Manage).

3. Assign licensed programmes to the timetable (with licence artwork in the overlay).

Marketing & members

• Marketing — spend on regional awareness and timed campaigns.

• Finance — edit membership tier mix in plain language (“share of members on each plan”), not jargon-heavy ARPU sliders.

• Better brand + awareness + fit = more members filling capacity.

Staff & specialists

Fitness Chain → Staff

• Policies — training, pay, culture sliders (affects costs and club quality).

• Recruitment sprint — country-wide or per-club hiring push.

• Specialist hires — e.g. Head of Classes (+class revenue), Maintenance Lead per club (−maintenance). Readable cards with clear costs.

CEO shortcut: Staff → Open CEO tab → or CEO tab directly.

Hire a CEO (automation)

Fitness Chain → CEO (or Staff → link)

1. Hire — cautious / balanced / aggressive (~ $450k hire + weekly salary).

2. Toggle CEO manages vs I manage.

3. Set Board directives: weekly focus (research / expand / upgrade), min brand fit, max payback, cash cushion, expansion targets, which actions are allowed.

4. Each week while CEO manages: read Weekly activity — actions taken or “held” with a plain reason (low cash, no sites, etc.).

5. Performance vs directives updates every ~13 weeks.

One CEO action per week max — so progress can feel slow; the log explains what happened.

Money & group finances

Inside the venture Fitness Chain → Finance — chain balance, transfer to/from personal cash, tier mix.

On the main books Bank (company finances) → Business units → expand Fitness Chain:

• Last week revenue & costs

• Line breakdown (memberships, classes, rent, capex, etc.)

• Note: profit stays in chain cash until you transfer

Mogul Profile → Net worth — includes chain cash as subsidiary operating cash.

Competitors & drama

• Competitors — watch rival chains; respond to campaigns and M&A.

• Review crisis — brand below 3.2 for many weeks → banner + pressure to fix clubs/classes/staff.

• Events — pop-ups with choices (regulator audits, etc.).

• Wellness B2B — corporate contracts in Marketing when offered.

• Sell / refurb / close clubs — from club flows where available.

Brand archetypes (pick at founding)

Quick reference — “I want to…”

Tips for new players

1. Watch chain cash, not only personal — builds and payroll eat chain cash fast.

2. Research before you fly — you cannot open in unresearched countries.

3. Insights before Map — payback and brand fit prevent bad openings.

4. License before you expect class revenue — clubs need programmes assigned.

5. CEO is a helper, not magic — check the activity log; tighten directives if they hold too often.

6. Transfers are optional — chain profit builds your empire value even before you sweep cash to personal.

Known design choices (not bugs)

• Gym money lives in a separate chain ledger (like airlines), not straight into company cash.

• One CEO action per week — expansion feels gradual; log explains skips.

• Class art is per licence brand, not per individual class name.

• Map can show cities worldwide; open list only includes researched markets.