Free browser game · Warren's Bayou Buyout

Invest-A-Gator: Free Value-Investing Game

Start with $75,000. Hunt overlooked small businesses. Interview owners, study the numbers, survive 30 weeks, and climb the public leaderboard.

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No download. No signup to play. Free forever.

Invest-A-Gator game start screen

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Your next deal starts here.

The whole game, right here in your browser. Open full screen ↗

Ready to build your bayou portfolio?

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Launch the game, then use fullscreen for more room.

Start with $75,000 and build through 30 weeks. Open the game in its own tab for more room.

Real value investing

Books, moat, and risk diligence. Estimate intrinsic value. Demand a margin of safety. Walk away from overpriced stories.

30-week seasons

Long enough for compounding. Short enough for pressure. Every season tells a story.

Public leaderboard

Submit your final net worth and climb the all-time top 25. Cloud saves follow you with a 7-character resume code or a free account, and Career Mode quotes the real S&P 500.

How it plays

Thirty weeks of deal pressure.

Each turn, Warren the alligator works the same loop real investors do.

01

Scout a district

Read deal cards for businesses and rentals, then decide what deserves diligence.

02

Question the owner

Choose Trust, Press, or Challenge. Challenges require evidence from your books, moat, or risk research.

03

Buy with discipline

Warren recommends buying only when intrinsic value, risk, and margin of safety line up. You can override him, but the consequences stick.

04

Operate, sell, or compound

Improve businesses, manage debt, collect rental income, and finish the season with the highest net worth you can build.

The owner interview is the heart of the game. Ten question topics. Read the answer. Catch the seller's tell. Choose Trust, Press, or Challenge. Challenges require evidence from your books, moat, or risk research. You can't just call someone a liar; you need to prove it.

Diligence has three checks. Books reveals the real owner-earnings number versus the seller's claim. Moat reveals durability, management quality, and customer concentration. Risk reveals debt, capex, lease years, and red flags. Fully researched deals show their intrinsic value and margin of safety.

Warren only recommends buying when the math works. You can override him, but overpaying or buying blind tanks your reputation and produces weaker assets. The rules don't punish you with a hard block; they make every override feel like the bet it is.

Fail conditions are real but rare. Bankruptcy is possible. Reputation collapse closes off the best deals. Most seasons end on net worth, not on disaster. But disaster is on the table.

Why we built it

The game we wished we'd had at sixteen

Most "investing games" teach you to gamble on tickers. Real value investing, the Buffett kind, is about reading the business behind the price tag. Buying productive things at fair prices. Walking away when the story is better than the math.

Invest-A-Gator teaches that loop in 30 minutes.

Warren the alligator, Invest-A-Gator's investing mentor, in a suit

Learn value investing

The game teaches the loop; these guides explain it.

All-time top 10

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Questions, answered.

Is it really free?
Yes. No paywalls, no ads, no upsells. Free forever. We make money on FlowLister, Black & Gold SEO, and Memories Made Music; Invest-A-Gator is for fun.
Do I need to download anything?
No. Open the page, hit Start Season, you're playing. It runs in any modern browser: desktop, tablet, or phone.
How long is one game?
A full 30-week season takes about 20 to 35 minutes. You can save and continue later; your run persists in this browser and can sync across devices with a 7-character resume code (like WB7Q-K3X) or an optional free account.
How does the leaderboard work?
Score submission is optional. Submit a final score with a username and email and you appear on the public top-25 board; higher net worth ranks higher. Email is used only to prevent duplicate usernames and to recover your saves. We don't email you unless you opt in.
Can I tell what my score means?
Net worth = cash + portfolio value - debt. Anything over $200,000 is competent. Anything over $500,000 is excellent. Anything over $1,000,000 is putting Warren himself on notice.
Is my data safe?
Yes. You can play without an account, and your active save lives in this browser. If you use the leaderboard or optional cloud saves, the backend stores your username, email (for duplicate prevention and recovery), and run details. No cookies, no tracking pixels, no third-party scripts on the game page. If you ever want your data deleted, email chris@taylorfamilysoftware.com.

No download. No signup. Free forever.

Ready to play?

A full 30-week season takes about 20 to 35 minutes. Your run saves in this browser.

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