A 6X strategy board game about guiding a civilisation from subsistence farming to a post-scarcity future — while collectively managing a shared planet with finite boundaries. Co-developed by Jonathan D.A. Jewell and son. AGPL-3.0-or-later.
Players choose a development pathway — Capitalist, Socialist, Green, or Techno-Utopian — and guide their civilisation through four eras: Agrarian → Industrial → Digital → Post-Scarcity. Resources are Labour, Capital, Nature, Knowledge, and Energy, each tied to one of the nine Stockholm planetary boundaries. Every turn a crisis card deck is drawn; the number of cards scales dynamically with how stressed the boundaries are — so cooperative stewardship produces fewer crises, and exploitative play spirals into cascade events. The game is named for its central mechanic: the winning position is never unilateral dominance, it is always the Nash equilibrium — the strategy no player can improve by defecting alone.
The classic 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) is extended with two pillars that are the heart of the game-theoretic theme:
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eXchange — repeated-game trade and diplomacy. Agreements have real mechanical consequences. Defection is possible and sometimes rational; but defectors destabilise the boundary dashboard for everyone.
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eXperiment — speculative research with branching, non-deterministic outcomes and asymmetric payoffs. Breakthrough technologies can shift the game state dramatically, but the risks are real (AI uprising, automation displacement, ozone depletion).
| Era | Character | Turns | Boundary pressure |
|---|---|---|---|
Agrarian |
Barter, subsistence, land-claiming |
1–8 |
Low; Nature abundant |
Industrial |
Factories, mass production, colonial expansion |
9–16 |
Rapid rise: Climate, Land, N/P flows |
Digital |
Automation, AI, global networks |
17–24 |
Novel Entities emerge; all boundaries under stress |
Post-Scarcity |
Potential abundance or cascade collapse |
25–32 |
Recovery possible — or runaway failure |
| Ending | Condition |
|---|---|
Post-Scarcity Utopia |
Dyson Sphere (or equivalent megaproject) complete; all boundaries Green/Amber; no player in social collapse. The technological transcendence path. |
Harmonic Degrowth |
All boundaries in Green zone; all players below a shared consumption ceiling; global stability index above threshold. Harder than the Dyson Sphere — requires everyone to choose sufficiency over growth. The actually-utopian ending. |
Digital Commons |
Three or more breakthrough technologies open-sourced; no player below poverty threshold; Knowledge resource above starting level for all. The information- abundance path without physical transcendence. |
Managed Decline |
Some boundaries exceeded but cascades halted; civilisation intact; at least one player not eliminated. Not utopia — but survivable. A sombre but meaningful win. |
Pathway victories are available only if at least one cooperative ending is achieved — no individual wins if the planet collapses.
| Pathway | Condition | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
Capitalist |
Highest Capital + active trade routes to all players |
Medium |
Socialist |
Highest Stability + all players above poverty threshold |
Hard |
Green |
All boundaries in Green zone + Nature above starting level |
Hard |
Techno-Utopian |
3+ breakthrough techs + Dyson Sphere under construction |
Very Hard |
Crisis cards are drawn each turn from a deck stratified by era. The number of cards drawn scales with how stressed the planetary boundaries are:
N = 1 + (Amber boundaries × 0.5) + (Red boundaries × 1) + (Black boundaries × 2)
rounded up; minimum 1, maximum 5
This means: * With all boundaries in Green: 1 card/turn (mostly positive or neutral events) * With 3 Amber and 1 Red: 3 cards/turn (mounting pressure) * With 2 Red and 1 Black: 4 cards/turn (cascade spiral) * Recovering boundaries reduces the draw rate — cooperative stewardship is mechanically rewarded in real time
Card categories span Environmental, Social, Technological, Economic, and Geopolitical crises — with era weighting (no AI uprisings in the Agrarian era).
The central board element: the nine Stockholm boundaries, each tracked on a 0–10 stress scale with four zones:
| Zone | Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
0–3 |
Green |
Safe operating space |
4–6 |
Amber |
Zone of uncertainty — increasing risk |
7–9 |
Orange/Red |
Beyond safe boundary — high risk |
10 |
Black |
Critical threshold crossed — cascade possible |
Boundaries: Climate Change, Biosphere Integrity, Land System Change, Freshwater Change, Biogeochemical Flows (N/P), Ocean Acidification, Atmospheric Aerosol Loading, Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Novel Entities.
Linked boundaries cascade: pushing Climate into Red stresses Ocean Acidification and Freshwater. Pushing Land into Red stresses Biosphere.
See board-mockup.svg for a visual overview of the board layout: planetary boundaries wheel at centre, world topography heat-map, and the topological trade network.
This repository is in active design. No playable game engine yet.
| Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
RSR scaffolding (CI/CD, machine_readable, contractiles) |
90% ✓ |
ABI/FFI interface stubs (Idris2 + Zig) |
50% |
Game design documentation (6X pillars, core mechanics, player roles, board) |
60% |
Playtesting protocol + event card catalogue + economic systems |
30% |
Nash equilibrium solver / payoff-matrix engine |
0% — blocked on ADR-002 (Gleam vs Rust/SPARK) |
Core game loop implementation |
0% |
First family playtest (physical prototype) |
0% |
Digital companion (optional, post-physical) |
0% |
See ROADMAP.adoc for the full milestone tracker and ADR log.
| Path | Description |
|---|---|
|
Game design documents: 6X pillars, core mechanics, player roles, board design, economic systems, event cards, playtesting plan |
|
Academic and scientific sources (planetary boundaries, game theory) |
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Learning objectives and real-world parallels |
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Crowdfunding strategy (post-design) |
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Idris2 ABI definitions (formal interface contracts) |
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Zig FFI implementation (C-ABI bridge) |
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A2ML state files: STATE, META, ECOSYSTEM, AGENTIC, NEUROSYM, PLAYBOOK |
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Contractile trident: intend / trust / must / bust / adjust / dust |
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CI/CD pipelines (27 workflows, SHA-pinned) |
All AI agents MUST read .machine_readable/0.1-AI-MANIFEST.a2ml before any work.
State is in .machine_readable/6a2/STATE.a2ml.
AGPL-3.0-or-later — co-developed with son (hyperpolymath AGPL exception applies). See LICENSE.