nGen Labs

Software for work and everyday life

Ballotta

Strategy game

You set the agenda. Citizens drawn by lot decide.

In development for PC, browser and tablets

Tell me when it launches

Opens your email app, or write to info@ngenlabs.org. We write once, when it is out, then delete your address.

The Lot before a vote on Enact Emission Caps: nine juror cards in an arc, each with a chance of voting yes, an 83% chance to pass, and one juror’s reasons open: wary of change minus 0.68, their people’s interest plus 2.16, trust plus 0.34. (open full size)
Before the vote, each juror shows why they lean the way they do.

How it plays

  • You are the Steward of a young polity on Venus, not its ruler: you decide what goes before the people
  • Laws, reforms, budgets, pacts and wars go to a panel of 9, 15 or 21 citizens drawn by lot
  • Before they vote you see every juror: who they are, where they live, what they want and their chance of voting with you
  • Point at a juror to see the sum behind their vote, each part as a signed number
  • The verdict turns one card at a time and names the person whose vote decided it
  • Every choice lands on someone. The harmed remember, and they sit on later panels
  • Up to four rival polities, a League that votes on charters and sanctions, and a sky everyone’s emissions move
  • One turn is one Venusian day, 117 Earth days. A new map from a seed every game

Before a vote

Brief
Better-informed jurors
Campaign
Win over one group of voters
Amend
Compensate the people who lose out
Hearing
Call witnesses, vote a day later
Challenge
Replace one juror
Withdraw
Pull the bill

Five roads to a free Venus

The Concord
Win the League’s vote on a shared charter, then have your own panel ratify it
Full Venocracy
Complete the Transition: six phases from emergency rule to a government nobody can capture
Second Dawn
Wake the Sky Engine and begin to mend the atmosphere
Dominion
Hold 40% of the planet’s people for six days (more on the small map, less on the large one), or every rival capital
Legacy
Leave the best Legacy when the days run out

Five polities, five Lots

Wardens of Maxwell: Service Lot
Only people who have served can be drawn.
Aino Assembly: Open Lot
Anyone can be drawn. Panels are bigger, and a bill needs 55% to pass.
Lakshmi Lyceum: Shortlist Lot
Panels are drawn from people who stood for office.
Loom Union: Party Lot
Panels are drawn from the party rolls.
Aphrodite Company: Stakeholder Lot
Every share is a ticket in the draw.

Accessibility

  • Plays fully by keyboard, the map included
  • Every number opens its breakdown, and every chart can be read as a table
  • Follows your reduced-motion setting; the verdict reveal can be skipped
  • Large touch targets on tablets, and no timers

Privacy

  • AccountNone
  • AdsNone
  • Analytics or trackingNone
  • Where your saves liveOn your device; download a copy any time

Free, with no account. It will be on itch.io, to play in the browser or download, when it is ready.

Screenshots

Ballotta’s verdict on the bill Enact Emission Caps: nine juror cards in an arc, each marked Aye or Nay, an Enacted stamp across the middle, a tally of 5 aye to 4 nay, and a line naming the deciding voice, Thanh O’Brien, an idealist scholar from Brigit Campus. (open full size)
A law passes by one vote, and the game names the juror who decided it.
Ballotta’s map on day 25 of a standard game: districts named after real features of Venus, washed in the colour of the polity that holds them, with a card for Cailleach Terra, the Aino Assembly’s capital, showing 5.9k people, unrest 2 and defence 6.5. (open full size)
The planet at day 25, shared by four polities.
The Transition screen: six phases from Landing to Full Venocracy, the gate to Phase III with literacy at 39% of the 42% needed, and the Phase I reforms already passed, District Assemblies, Civic Registry and Public Schools. (open full size)
Six phases of reform, each opened by a convention your citizens must pass.
The History screen: progress on the five roads to victory, with the Concord at 45%, Full Venocracy at 40% and Legacy at 89, six line charts comparing the player with three rivals, and the chronicle of recent days. (open full size)
Five roads to victory, the charts and the chronicle.