For when "Crusader Kings" is a bit much

May 25, 2024 11:56 AM

Sort the Court is a charmingly addictive "kingdombuilder" of sorts that's perfect for a lazy Saturday. Designed and written by Graeme Borland in just 72 hours for Ludum Dare 34, the game casts you as a new monarch who must judiciously grow your realm's wealth, population, and happiness with an eye toward joining the illustrious Council of Crowns... all by giving flat yes-or-no answers to an endless parade of requests from dozens of whimsical subjects. It's possible to lose, and the more common asks can get a bit repetitive, but with hundreds of scenarios and a number of longer-term storylines, the game can be won in an hour or two while remaining funny and fresh. See the forum or the wiki for help, enjoy the original art of Amy "amymja" Gerardy and the soundtrack by Bogdan Rybak, or check out some other fantasy decisionmaking games in this vein: Borland's spiritual prequel A Crown of My Own - the somewhat darker card-based REIGNS - the more expansive and story-driven pixel drama Yes, Your Grace (reviews), which has a sequel due out this year
posted by Rhaomi (18 comments total)

looks fun. unfortunately, not ported for mobile. on freegames.org, i recently found a game that does have castles & sorting: draggy towers
CW: may be addictive
posted by HearHere at 2:47 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

Beat the game in 81 days! Browsing through the forum, I see that I did very poorly. 2592 people, 548 happiness, 483 coins.
posted by one for the books at 4:02 PM on May 25

But in Crusader Kings I can be a secret witch and secretly entice the daughters of my rivals to also become witches.
posted by seraphine at 4:03 PM on May 25 [5 favorites]

74 days. Thought I was going to have a King Solomon sitch with the two kingdoms fighting over land but it didn't go that way.
posted by axiom at 4:27 PM on May 25

HearHere: "looks fun. unfortunately, not ported for mobile. "

It has limited support, but it's hinky -- there's an Android port I haven't been able to try, and the itch.io page loads on iOS but the controls apparently only work if you have a mouse or keyboard accessory. A shame because it would definitely make for a great mobile game.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:27 PM on May 25

The link for A Crown of My Own takes you to a blog entry, but the link to actually play the game takes you to a dead page.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:24 PM on May 25

I really like Sort the Court, but I have a huge pet peeve about developers that make webgames and don't put in the effort to add mobile support. Aside from the fact that over half of web traffic is mobile, it really should not take that much effort. (And not directly related, but don't get me started on incremental game devs that only release their games on Steam)
posted by Literaryhero at 6:27 PM on May 25

I really like Sort the Court, but I have a huge pet peeve about developers that make webgames and don't put in the effort to add mobile support.

I tried playing REIGNS and couldn't play comfortably because it was designed for a mobile interface. Don't developers know that nearly half of web traffic is browsers?
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:52 PM on May 25 [5 favorites]

Faint of Butt: "The link for A Crown of My Own takes you to a blog entry, but the link to actually play the game takes you to a dead page."

It's not ideal, but Archive.org has the standalone downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux! (The web player might work too, but I'm on mobile so can't check for sure).
posted by Rhaomi at 7:03 PM on May 25 [1 favorite]

I tried playing REIGNS and couldn't play comfortably because it was designed for a mobile interface. Don't developers know that nearly half of web traffic is browsers?

Just for the record, my ire also extends the other way! I'm totally in agreement with you.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:29 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

it really should not take that much effort.

It takes a lot of effort.
posted by one for the books at 9:00 PM on May 25 [11 favorites]

For folks complaining about the lack of mobile support, remember this game is almost ten years old and was part of a 72 hour game jam.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 4:20 AM on May 26 [10 favorites]

Beat it in 71 days, but I kept playing to a hundred-some, and a lot of fun things happened that I'd otherwise have missed.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:35 PM on May 26

Oh yes draggy towers is a dopemine generator.
posted by Faintdreams at 12:58 PM on May 26

Was admitted to the Council in 64 days! I spent money like water, going into overdraft for part of a day, but I refused to raise taxes right away and got a windfall that saved us. Overall, I tried to keep people happy if I had the resources, and used the tit for tat strategy with slightly shady characters. Day 64 ended with 2551 people, 485 happiness, and 543 coins.
posted by maudlin at 7:53 PM on May 26 [1 favorite]

I got there in 63 days, with 2,555 people, 426 happiness, and 974 gold (got lucky with a spell windfall on my last day). Playing forward a bit to try to resolve the dragon plotline.

Thought that would be the end of it. But according to the wiki, there's a significant plot twist if you pass on joining the Council. So...
posted by martin q blank at 7:49 AM on May 29

60 days, 2550 people, 516 happiness, and 119 gold.
posted by hanov3r at 8:38 AM on May 29 [1 favorite]

This time through I got invited to join the Council on Day 44! But I turned them down, in order to see what the abovementioned plot twist is. Still waiting...
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:13 PM on May 30