Sim Polis is an in-development sandbox game for PC, Mac and Linux which is about making and breaking systems. Backed by the Games Commons, this is a new way to conceive of game design based on flexibility, open-source and maximising player agency. Sim Polis is data-driven, meaning that everything from the interface, graphics and behaviours to the game rules and player objectives can be modified by players, published online for sharing to be downloaded by another player and incorporated into their game all while Sim Polis is still running.
In Sim Polis players fill their world with animals and characters, puzzling over how interconnected systems like food webs and economies can be built up to satisfy their creative vision. Confronted with “problems”, the player finds that they are not the only force changing the world and that even their own solutions may lead to unintended consequences.
Playing Sim Polis is to create, and creating is to contribute to the Commons. As Players explore the world they will find the creations of other players being incorporated into their world, via places like the port, space station or fired at them by the magic hands of an evil wizard. Able to edit the game data down to its core logic, players can download new ways to play even while the game is running, without the need for mod installation processes or reboots. Thanks to contributions made by talented players, they can find that new depths in their characters’ perception of the world and reaction to events are found in ways that breathe new life into Sim Polis even for veteran players. This is a game designed to continually surprise, and to open as many possibilities to the player’s creative desires as is possible.
The Games Commons
The power of the Games Commons comes in the flexibility of the data which players can provide when entering new worlds: since even the interface, the game rules and the player abilities are shaped by data published with the level, there is a high degree of flexibility and no two playthroughs will be the same. The limits of this are as-yet-unknown, and there are exciting possibilities opened by a game in which the design itself evolves in response to the community of players, a game limited only by the passion and creativity of its player base.
Elinor Ostrom and other researchers into the Commons have identified that successful Commons tend to manage access and protect boundaries. We believe that by establishing player communities around game and theme groups, we can achieve a high level of consistency and quality in the Games Commons, in spite of its decentralised nature.
Why?
The mission of this project is to explore a novel approach to game design and one which parallels the art of sociality in the real world; the art of building and rebuilding, of hacking systems and adapting to new problems and unexpected realities… ultimately one in which we must “do-it-together”.
What’s Next?
Sim Polis is currently in early development and no early version of the game or codebase are public yet. We’ve had some of our first playthroughs within a small community of game designers to explore the concept and the many fascinating implications of the design, the possibilities and challenges which it raises. While we’re delighted to see this project moving along at a good pace we haven’t set any hard deadlines on deliverables.
If this is a project you would like to support or talk to us about, then please reach out on Mastodon at @gamescommons@social.coop or via email to calum, @ this website’s domain.