Skyline Co-op

A tower builder run on democratic socialism instead of capitalism.

SimTower was a game about being a landlord: build floors, charge rent, watch the money come in. This is the same building rebuilt around democratic socialism — the people who live and work here own it together and decide what happens to it. You are the steward they elected, you hold the treasury in trust, and the score is not profit.

What is different

Homes are allocated, not sold. There is a waitlist. Build homes and households come off it. Dues are set per room in three bands — Reduced brings in less but houses far more people, Full share fills the treasury and prices people out.

Confidence is the score. It rises when people are housed, can get around the building, can see a doctor, have somewhere to gather, and can afford to stay. The bar at the top tells you where you stand and what the assembly likes least.

The building governs itself. Every quarter the members meet. They vote on the major works you propose — and will vote down an observatory while people are still waiting for homes. They set mandates with deadlines. If confidence rots long enough they vote you out. Recall is the fail state, not bankruptcy.

Labor is not a resource. The care, safety and clinic crews are members with limits. Overwork them and you get a strike ballot, then a strike, and the building shows you exactly what their work was holding up.

The neighbors would rather you failed. A hostile reassessment, a developer poaching your co-ops, a smear in the property pages. Solidarity — high confidence and a hall to organize in — blunts the blow.

Running it

No build step. Vanilla JavaScript, canvas and WebAudio.

python3 -m http.server 4655
# open http://localhost:4655

The desktop app is Tauri v2 wrapped around the same files:

npm install
npm run dev                 # development window
npm run build:app           # installers
./scripts/release-mac.sh    # build, sign, notarize and staple the Mac release

Layout

js/config.js	rooms, costs, balance constants
js/sim.js	building, routing, people, elevators, economy, the day cycle
js/assembly.js	votes, mandates, recall, labor, outside pressure
js/news.js	the Co-op Gossip ticker
js/render.js	the canvas renderer
src-tauri/	native shell and file-based saves

Controls: scroll to zoom, right-drag or hold Space and drag to pan, P pauses, M mutes, number keys pick tools. There may or may not be a cheat code.

Credits

Built by Intergalactic Robots. Music and ambience are Pixabay-licensed except Flipper, which is mine — see assets/audio/CREDITS.md.

Free forever. If it made your day, donate to the cause.