2. Design Pillars
Every feature is tested against these pillars. Anything that fails one is reworked or cut.
| Pillar | What it means | Design tests |
|---|---|---|
| 1. You are a citizen of an AI-governed nation | The player’s power is personal and collective: work, trade, vote, petition, strike, worship, serve, rebel where the system allows. No human ever holds leadership office (v0.7); every ruler is an AI persona bound by its system. | Does this feature make sense from one citizen’s point of view? Can a group of citizens, acting together, visibly change what the AI leadership does? |
| 2. Systems are fixed; rulers are not | Government type, economic type, currency regime and official religious stance never change. AI rulers, laws within the system, AI parties, dynasties and factions do – through the system’s own channels. | Does the feature let citizens change which AI rules or what it decides – without changing the system type? |
| 3. Every system has a real trade-off | No nation is the ‘right’ choice. Freedom costs security; security costs freedom; favor costs dignity; faith costs choice. Each nation must be fun to live in. | Would a thoughtful player happily choose this nation? Does it have a strength the others lack? |
| 4. The world keeps turning | Real-time, persistent, finite. Absence has consequences, but never catastrophic ones for ordinary citizens; the world is fair to people with jobs and families. | Can someone who plays 20 minutes a day thrive? Is an offline player protected from ruin? |
| 5. Stylized, respectful, original | Systems are simulations of structures, not caricatures of real peoples. No real countries or leaders; only invented faiths, treated with respect. No borrowed IP. AI leaders never produce real-world or hateful propaganda (Section 21.4). | Could a citizen of a real country with a similar system play this without feeling mocked? Would an IP lawyer sign off? |
| 6. AI governs; humans matter (v0.7) | AI leaders are legible, in character and bound by hard rules; AI is always disclosed; human collective action outweighs AI citizens and is the only force that can elect, topple or redirect an AI ruler. | Is every AI clearly labeled? Can the AI act only through game-legal actions? Would the outcome change if the humans had acted differently? |
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