People, not stats
Around 110 people start every game, from the Vozdar to your deputy. Each has a face, a family, a faction and an opinion of you that moves with what you do.
A game of power and succession
All Hail the Leader
An 8-bit political game set in Zemlava, an invented one-party state. You are 25, single, and newly appointed to run a town of 400 people near a contested border. Above you sit a regional boss, the Party Chair and the Vozdar. The goal is to become the Vozdar, or to outlast everyone who tries.
In testing on iPhone
Spring, 26 PE
The Vozdar is 59. You are 25.
Zemlava counts its years from the Enlightenment, the night workers' councils overthrew the Crown. Twenty-six years on, the Western War has just been won and Bogdan Morozhov, the second Vozdar, has never been stronger. He has no named heir. Across the mountains, Korsava is still part of the Union, for now.
How it works
Every career in Zemlava starts with a form.
01
Fill in your file
Choose your family background, your schooling and your temperament. They set your skills, your parents, and the friends and enemies you start with.
02
Work the people
Everyone in Zemlava has a family, a faction, an opinion of you and something to hide. Talk, dine, court, befriend, blackmail or denounce. Some moves land at once; others come back months later.
03
Climb, or fall
Time moves a month, six months or a year at a time. Weddings, children, arrests and promotions follow. Rise from a town to the region, the Party and, one day, the throne.
What the game holds
A state run by people, and people run by what they want.
Marriage and heirs
Marry for politics or for love. Ask a powerful man for his daughter's hand, or court the clerk you like. Children follow, and so do the families you married into.
The Party
You answer to the regional secretary, who answers to the Party Chair, who answers to the Vozdar. Four factions split the Presidium. Choose your patrons carefully.
Files and secrets
Affairs, embezzlement, a grandparent from the old nobility. Dig and you may find something to use. Use it and you make an enemy for life.
Time and consequence
A joke about the Vozdar's outfit can strengthen an alliance today and reach the secret police next season. Long jumps stop early when something of yours lands.
Your town, your name
You start with bare streets and 400 people. Rename the town after yourself if you are popular enough to get away with it.
The faces of Zemlava
Every face is drawn by the game, and ages with the person.
The only rule
Power has a price.
Questions
Is Zemlava a real country?
No. Zemlava, Korsava, the Drevan language and everyone in them are invented. The game borrows the look of the mid-century Eastern Bloc, not its history, and it counts years from its own revolution, the Enlightenment.
When can I play?
The game is in testing on iPhone now. We will post here when it reaches the App Store.
Which devices does it run on?
iPhone, played upright in portrait, so it is comfortable one-handed and easy to step away from.
What does the game collect about me?
Nothing. It has no accounts, no ads and no connection to our servers. The privacy policy below has the details.
