Stacktopolis: a SimCity 2000-inspired game about real-world tech sovereignty problems
On Friday, Tom and I were reviewing photos of sticky notes from our in-person noodling session the week before. One said “SimCity 2000-style scenarios". I remembered that we'd talked about how much we'd enjoyed playing that game as kids, and how we could use it as a fun, educational way to teach concepts related to TechFreedom.
Well, never one wishing to disappoint, I spent longer than strictly necessary this morning coaxing Claude Code into creating what I think is 80% of what I had in my mind when Tom and I were discussing the idea.
In the game, there are three risk areas that you have to keep under control:
- Jurisdiction
- Continuity
- Surveillance
These are taken from the TechFreedom risk framework. The idea is that players understand the risks, and in a fun way, understand the trade-offs between cost and control.
It's Open Source, so feel free to fork and remix the game. Also, if this is the kind of thing you're interested in, consider joining the TechFreedom pilot cohort!