In ISPS, you are an intergalactic package-delivery startup founder, building relationships with planets and transporting packages across the universe. You begin as an employee at another company, where you are “set free” by your boss to start your own business. This can be a blessing or a curse, as starting your own business is a challenge! The game aims to balance logistical challenge (eg, how many packages can you sort and transport) with a kind of relational challenge (how many planets can you keep happy/maintain relations to). Thus, there are skill loops around the basic sorting and delivering of packages in the form of mini games, which provide fine motor and mental engagement, but not a lot of strategy. However, you can slowly upgrade these skills in-game, leading to less time spent on the mini games and more time spent “managing” planet relationships. Over time, this set of loops leads you down an arc of reduced physical engagement and increased “soft skill” engagement — by the end, you are mostly focused on maintaining your relationships to different planets, not on the mini games. This is intended to reflect the real-life loops and arcs involved in creating a business or moving up skill positions within a business. While operations may play a major role in the first part of your work and be very hands-on, over time, more automation becomes possible and your role can become more about the relationships you build.
