Players, acting as town selectboard members, explore a stylized version of their town to collect, prioritize, and timeline infrastructure and community development projects. The game simulates real-world planning challenges, including budget constraints and unexpected events.
What is a succeful run of the game: budget is in the green, citizen happiness/impact (how do we measure that, do the users set that value or do we?), distribution of work, user scorer of effort for a project (overcommitment by month? Quarter?)
The game world is a 2D top-down map divided into zones, each representing a key area of municipal planning:
- Focus: Roads, bridges, sidewalks, public transit
- Project Examples: Bridge repair, new bike lanes, road resurfacing
- Focus: Water treatment, stormwater, sewer lines
- Project Examples: Water main replacement, green infrastructure
- Focus: Fire, police, emergency response
- Project Examples: New fire station, emergency alert system
- Focus: Schools, libraries, adult education
- Project Examples: School roof repair, library expansion
- Focus: Trails, playgrounds, community centers
- Project Examples: Trail extension, park revitalization
- Focus: Small business support, zoning, housing
- Project Examples: Façade improvement grants, mixed-use zoning on of town buildings
Each player controls a selectboard avatar with unique traits (e.g., Budget Hawk, Community Advocate, Infrastructure Buff). They collect Project Tokens from each zone and carry them in a Planning Satchel.
Each token represents a budgetary item with:
- Name
- Cost
- Impact Score
- Urgency
- Dependencies (e.g., road must be fixed before school bus route is viable)
Players must prioritize and sequence these tokens in a Strategic Planning Table at Town Hall.
A roaming chaos entity introduces random events such as:
- Floods that destroy roads
- Budget shortfalls
- Emergency overrides (e.g., school boiler failure)
- Public protests that shift priorities
These events force players to reassess priorities, reallocate funds, or delay projects.
At the end of the journey:
- Players enter Town Hall
- Use a drag-and-drop interface to build a timeline of projects
- Must stay within a multi-year budget
- Receive feedback from virtual stakeholders (residents, businesses, etc.)
- Scenes: Each zone is a separate scene with its own logic and assets
- Inventory System: For carrying project tokens
- Dialogue System: For NPCs and stakeholder feedback
- Event System: For chaos events and inter-zone dependencies
- UI: Strategic Planning Table with timeline and budget meter