A surreal 16-bit political satire RPG built with Godot.

Civic Nightmare is a satirical, top-down RPG built in Godot 4.6 that explores the absurdity of modern global governance, corporate dominance, and the digital age. You play as a scrawny, debt-burdened citizen on a desperate quest to renew a passport, crossing high-detail districts where pixel-scale citizens, monumental political caricature, arcade confrontation, and CRT bureaucracy occupy the same collapsing reality.

🕹️ Game Features

🚗 The Administrative Approach

The game begins with a news bulletin and a mandatory drive through a surreal, bureaucratic landscape. Players must navigate obstacles and challenges that highlight the absurdities of modern systems. The free-roam gameplay begins with a persistent overworld theme.

🏛️ The Great Signature Quest

Players confront six different authorities, each with unique challenges and playable procedures:

• Donald Trump: Focuses on patriotism and access.
• Elon Musk: Features unfinished infrastructure and progress.
• Ursula von der Leyen: A maze of instructions.
• Vladimir Putin: A ceremonial palace with a war context.
• Christine Lagarde: A stability vault protecting confidence.
• Emmanuel Macron: Managed decline presented as elegance.

These encounters involve mini-games like blackjack, bureaucracy simulators, and arcade-style combat.

🛸 Optional Investigations, Deviations & Anomalies

The game includes optional content such as:

• Historical Contamination: A parody of historical figures.
• The Southern Sanctuary: Featuring Sam Altman and AI.
• Intercepted Channels: Interactions with global leaders.
• The Quantum UFO: A surreal encounter with temporal echoes.
• The Hidden Bunker: A high-stakes encounter with Zelensky and Death.
• The Drone Escalation: A cybernetic battle with Bezos.

🤖 C.L.A.U.D.I.A. Assistant

A satirical 90s digital mascot provides cynical guidance throughout the game.

💾 Persistent Dossier

Player progress and encounter consequences are saved in a versioned local dossier. The game offers 'Continue' and 'New Game' options, with an 'Administrative Hold' feature for pausing gameplay.

🗂️ Office of Final Determinations

After all signatures are collected, a final processing office presents an interpretation of the player's choices. Web persistence relies on IndexedDB, with potential limitations in private browsing.

🎞️ Civic Nightmare 2.2

The game features runtime art loaded directly, including:

• Actual gameplay: Visuals for key encounters and authorities.
• Runtime art gallery: Showcasing various scenes and character art.

🎨 Technical & Aesthetic Identity

• Hybrid Civic-Surreal Style: Combines pixel art with detailed environments.
• Portrait Pipeline: Automated processing for character portraits.
• Authority Architecture: Consistent visual style for authority encounters.
• Narrative Interiors: Unique room designs for different authorities.
• VHS/CRT Effects: Custom shaders for a retro aesthetic.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome, including bug fixes, art, dialogue, and technical improvements. The project follows contribution guidelines and uses a MIT license for code and a separate notice for media and narrative content.

🚀 Play & Run Locally

Requires Godot Engine 4.6. Players can clone the repository, open the project, and run the main scene. A web version is also available.

🧩 Project Structure

The project is organized into scripts for managers, data, assets, and scenes, with a clear separation of concerns for reusable components and game logic.

✅ Verification

Automated tests, including parsing, smoke tests, and web export, are run before deployment.

⚖️ License

Source code is under the MIT license. Media and narrative content have separate rights and contribution policies.