Roman Water Works

Executive Summary

Build a waterworks system in a quiet landscape inspired by ancient Rome. Begin with a spring and a village fountain. Survey the ground, lay a downhill channel, and watch the water arrive. When you are ready, welcome a second neighborhood, store water for a dry spell, and carry overflow across a valley to a garden.

This is a small, growing simulation for people who enjoy discovering how a system works. There is no score to chase or failure screen. You choose when to expand, can slow or pause the water, and can return to the same city another day.

Before You Play

Choose Lay a channel, then point toward the village fountain. The preview shows whether water can follow the route. Click to build, or choose intermediate points to shape your channel. Undo lifts the last section so you can try again.

Once the village basin fills, Welcome the neighborhood opens the next chapter. A distribution box lets you branch toward the market and decide how much water each neighborhood receives. When both have enough, Prepare for a dry spell introduces a cistern beside the spring. Store surplus water, choose when the dry spell starts, and experiment with opening the reserve.

After a full dry spell, Explore the valley opens a side-view survey. Choose the village outlet and a far bank, then compare a ground channel with an aqueduct. The preview shows whether the water can keep descending. Build this crossing confirms your choice; Lift aqueduct lets you try again. The village fills its own basin before any overflow reaches the garden.

Your city saves in this browser on this device. Nothing advances while the page is hidden or closed. Under Your city, download a backup to keep your progress or move it to another browser. Restoring a backup replaces the current session after confirmation. There are no accounts or cloud saves.

Controls and Accessibility

• Use a mouse or trackpad to preview routes and click to build. The pointer shows elevation and whether the selected route rises or falls.
• On a touch screen, tap once to preview and again to confirm construction.
• With the map focused, use arrow keys to choose ground and Enter to preview or confirm. Escape stops drawing. Ctrl/Command + Z undoes the last construction step.
• In the valley survey, use the labeled bank and tool buttons with a mouse, touch, or Tab and Enter. Point across the survey to compare ground height with channel height.
• Use the pause button and pace selector below the map whenever you need time to think. Later chapters open only when you choose them.
• Large text, strong terrain contours, visible keyboard focus, and written flow readings support play. The map is a visual spatial task; the readings and keyboard controls do not provide a complete screen-reader equivalent.
• Curious? Turn the card opens optional explanations. You can build and experiment without reading them first.

How We Made This with Generative AI

Mike Besso proposed the Roman waterworks setting and directed the experience: a calm simulation that can be enjoyed over days, with local progress and tools that invite curiosity. Generative AI helped turn that direction into the terrain, water rules, interface, code, and automated checks.

We work in small playable chapters. Human play review shaped the pacing, contrast, typography, elevation pointer, and decision to keep expansion optional. The fourth chapter grew from a question about what should come next: carrying water over low ground while keeping the channel's height. Play and feedback guide each addition.

The Gory Details

The model separates terrain and water rules from the map drawing. Route previews use the same downhill checks as construction. A distribution box divides incoming flow between two fountains, whose arrival, usage, and stored water are shown separately. A full basin can hide an ongoing shortage; those readings help explain why.

The cistern makes storage and flow visible. In plentiful weather, the spring can supply more than the channel carries, so the surplus fills the reserve. During the dry spell, an open reserve can supplement the weaker spring until it empties. Rain returns on simulation time, and you can bring it back early. These are deliberately small teaching models, not a reconstruction of a particular Roman aqueduct or an engineering design tool.

Versioned local saves preserve the city, water, construction history, pace, and optional chapters. Earlier saves migrate forward, backup files can be restored, and unavailable storage does not prevent play. The game has no server for player data.

The valley survey leaves the existing city terrain untouched. It separates ground elevation from the channel's elevation, with exaggerated height to make the descent visible. The aqueduct receives only water that would already spill from the village basin. A small amount wets the crossing before the garden fills. These quantities are illustrative; the model does not calculate channel friction, structural loads, or pressure flow.

Automated checks cover gravity, branching, allocation, storage, weather, pause, saving, migration, and recovery. Browser journeys exercise construction with mouse, touch, and keyboard. Human play remains the test for whether the choices feel understandable and worth exploring.