r/design_critiques • u/Jafty2 • 3h ago
A "minimalist" browser game
galleryHi,
Since the genre is quite dead in 2026, I do not plan on turning this into a full-time project
Yet, I am still creating this childhood's dream project: a strategy browser game with simple rules, interfaces and mechanisms, based on rules I have thought through for years and years.
The underlying idea here is that the player IS the ruler, and as the ruler you communicate through letters with a Scribe to communicate simple informations and orders:
1) Check stuff
2) Build stuff in one of your city
3) Raid a city neighboring one of your city
4) Siege a city neighboring one of your city
The game could basically be played through SMS or emails, and is supposed to feel like a historical book. It works through synchronized turns, each action takes a certain number of turns and a cost, costs are paid through gathering taken on your population once every 12 turns ("moons").
The first version I had created was a literal interactive novel, immersive but not playable at all, so here this is a compromise design.
Does it feel clear? Playable? Unfinished maybe?
I know that these kinds of design are now associated with Claude, but it is actually very close to the "default HTML" styling
