Gerrymap

Fun puzzle map game where you try to meet certain conditions for each state when drawing districts. Not super flashy, but very engaging and challenging.

Pros: - Neat puzzle game - Game singlehandedly proves that Section 2 of the VRA is idiotic, and should be overturned Cons: - Game runs on GODOT, which is an "Open Source" engine developed by a bunch of communists.* - Game does not save the solutions of the puzzles you've completed. (i.e. marks the scenario as complete) - Game does not allow you to create custom scenarios, e.g. draw with the modern Census data, nor does it allow you to deviate from the 1990 Census allocated districts. IMHO, game is overpriced. $5 at the most is what I would charge for it. *GODOT social media manager celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination They also write communists messages in their TOS, and it also mentions that if you disagree with them politically, you (a developer using the engine) will not receive any engine updates. https://x.com/Grummz/status/1841138207360238012 https://x.com/ObviousRises/status/1841008383819989368 https://x.com/Grummz/status/1841956562002444483

Redistricting North Carolina made me side with the gerrymanderers in Shaw v. Reno.

Engaging, fascinating, and relevant to almost all of American history

Great game! I had a lot of fun playing the sandbox mode and trying to get the best result for both parties in every state. My only suggestion is maybe a toggle to see the historical result?

I recommend the game since let's be real, there's nothing else like it, if you're interested chances are you'll like it. However, I think the lackluster UI and tools to work it makes the game in many ways an un-strategic chore to get through. - Many states have an objective which is "craft a district that democrats win in 1992 but that swings hard for republicans in 1994". Obviously it follows that the optimal district is one made out of a lot of swingy countries. However, there's no swinginess mapmode. This means that the strategy for crafting these districts is either hoping you're able to glance which are they switching between the 1992 and 1994 mapmodes, or deadass basically start making spreadsheets yourself. - Similar thing with black majority districts. the optimal black majority district is one that is uncharacteristically republican in comparison to how black it is. You would want to have the average racial makeup and political allegiance of the state, and then have a mapmode showing for each county how much its politics diverge from the one it would mathematically predict based on just the county's race, the state's race and the state's politics. Again there isn't, you've got to try to glance at the map (terrible IMO, the race mapmode in particular I think is really unhelpful) or start spreadsheeting. I was able to make a great black majority district in Louisiana thanks to my meta-knowledge that rural=republican and thus aiming for a black majority district that avoids urban blacks, but without that meta-knowledge, the process of minmaxxing one would be a chore. And that knowledge doesn't apply to all states in 1990s USA. I think the fun in this kind of game should be in being able to make decently well informed high level strategic decisions just from looking at the map, rather than from trying to rapidly switch mapmodes to get the info you should already have, giving up and beginning mouseovering everything. That's why I'm critical of this game's implementation even if the core idea is exactly what I wanted.

Great fun little puzzler if you like politics and maps. Plenty of content and well worth it My only complaints are a few lil QOL stuff, like saving the music settings, letting us pan with the mouse, switch districts with number keys, stuff like that, but it's to be expected in a small indy game. Hoping for more updates!