About The Mandalay Bay

About The Mandalay Bay

The Mandalay Bay (degen-llms) is a satirical choose-your-adventure resort simulator. It is not affiliated with MGM Resorts International or the real Mandalay Bay property — it is a love letter to Vegas floor culture, hotel absurdity, and the chip-economy RPG loop.

What it is

A full-stack digital resort spanning:

Surface	Description
Python CLI	Terminal casino hub with save slots, hotel, pool, and rewards
Browser terminal	GitHub Pages web app with the same chip wallet and activities
Pixel RPG	Phaser 3 overworld where casino games launch as in-world encounters
Quarto docs	Published manuscript on Posit Connect Cloud

All game surfaces share one unified chip economy. Wins and losses in blackjack, slots, sports, racing, or the RPG all flow through the same wallet.

Design pillars

Unified chip wallet

One balance follows you everywhere — table games, slots, sports book, prediction markets, racing, hotel charges, and pool vignettes. The Cashier handles buy-ins and cash-outs; an off-strip bank account (web) lets you park winnings outside the cage.

Hub-and-spoke navigation

The casino uses a lobby → floor → activity pattern. Sub-menus always offer 0) Back. Progress auto-saves after each activity and when leaving.

Satirical resort realism

The project riffs on real Vegas mechanics:

• Stake tiers from penny slots through 401K Contribution ($542–$6,500) and High Roller / No Limit
• MGM Rewards tiers (Sapphire → Chairman) with narrative comps
• Hotel folios, minibar sensors, rotating check-in requirements, and overdue-charge lockouts
• An 11-acre pool complex with wave timing, cabanas, and Shark Reef collection quests

Python source of truth

mandalay_bay/ is the authoritative game logic. The browser mirrors it in docs/js/ as vanilla ES modules. The pixel RPG delegates casino/hotel mechanics to that shared engine via DOM overlays.

Property zones

Zone	Highlights
Casino floor	Table games, slots, lottery, sports book, trading floor, arcade alley, racing, equestrian
Casino amenities	Shoppes at Mandalay Place (16 stores / 81 SKUs), three bars, intoxication tracking
Resort dining	Aureole, Border Grill, Stripsteak — eat/drink capacity minigame + encounters
Hotel tower	Front desk, hallway mini-game, in-room TV/phone/minibar, suite balcony POV
Strip Ride	Web-only limo / Uber travel to Luxor, Excalibur, Bellagio, Circa with themed menus
Pool complex	Wave pool, hot tubs, cabanas, beach club, aquarium
VIP venues	High Limit salon, Foundation Room, Gentleman's Club / Velvet Ledger (chip- and tier-gated)

Tone

Comedic, self-aware, and dense with environmental storytelling. NPCs have dialogue trees. Easter eggs hide in the RPG (Konami code, secret rooms, ludicrous prediction-market contracts). The project treats degenerate bankroll management as both gameplay loop and punchline.

History

The project began as a digital blackjack CLI and grew into a multi-surface resort simulator:

1. Phase 1 — CLI casino hub + blackjack engine
2. Phase 2 — Web terminal parity + slots, sports book, hotel
3. Phase 3 — Pool complex, MGM Rewards, world day/night cycle
4. Phase 4 — Pixel RPG overworld with full activity encounters
5. Phase 5 — Craps, lottery counter, no-limit Hold'em, prediction markets
6. Phase 6 — Trading Floor (Mandalay Markets), stored sports/prediction scenario DBs
7. Phase 7 — Resort dining overlays (capacity minigame, drink-scaled encounters) with CLI/RPG parity
8. Phase 8 — Arcade Alley CRT cabinets, Vegas Strip Drive, Gentleman's Club, suite balcony POV
9. Phase 9 — Strip Ride destinations (Luxor / Excalibur / Bellagio / Circa), Rewards Phone audio, Shoppes expansion, destination menu themes
10. Ongoing — Art polish, new resort vignettes, and market catalog expansion

See also

• Casino-Offerings — Full activity catalog
• Strip-Ride — Away-property limo travel (web)
• Pixel-RPG-Simulator — Overworld design
• Architecture — Technical overview