u/Electricvid

Hey,

About 10 years ago, I had the idea of building a game focused entirely on energy systems. Not just placing a few power plants, but actually dealing with the economics, infrastructure and challenges of running an energy system at scale. Back then I asked a different /r/ to help me built it and got some nice traction, but honestly it was unfeasable.

I looked for something like this for years, but never really found exactly what I was looking for. So a couple months ago, I tried to built it myself.

Powerstate is a browser game about designing and operating an energy system.

Some of the things I've tried to include:

• Large-scale energy systems: Build your generation mix, invest in infrastructure and balance supply and demand.
• Economics: Electricity prices, fuel costs, investments and operating costs all matter. Building the cheapest technology isn't necessarily the best decision.
• 15-minute simulation: Demand, generation and weather change throughout the year, so you have to deal with intermittency, peak demand and dispatchable generation.
• Sector coupling: Electricity is just the beginning. Heating and other energy sectors are part of the bigger picture.
• Societal development: Your decisions influence how society develops. For example, cheaper electricity can encourage faster EV adoption, which in turn changes future electricity demand.

What started as a little project for myself has grown into a small community of players who have helped me shape the game over the past three months. A large number of improvements and features came directly from their feedback.

Development is still moving quickly, with more technologies, more diverse energy systems and deeper interactions between sectors planned.

I also want to be transparent about the development process: I've used AI extensively to help build the game. I have a background in energy science and data, but building something of this scope on my own always seemed unrealistic.

AI finally made it possible to turn an idea I'd had for a decade into something playable. I know AI-assisted development isn't for everyone, and I completely understand that. But I genuinely believe this particular game would probably never have existed otherwise.

There are certainly other games exploring similar topics, but I hope you'll give Powerstate a try and see how deeply it attempts to simulate the different aspects of an energy system.

Play it here:

https://www.powerstate-game.com/

I'd love to get any feedback. Thanks if you read so far :)

I shared Powerstate here a few weeks ago and got a lot more feedback than I expected. I have worked through quite a bit of it since then and the game has improved a lot.

Households can now adopt solar, batteries, heat pumps, EVs and insulation based on economics. I also improved dispatch, storage, hydrogen, saves and quite a few parts of the UI and balancing.

There is still a lot to improve, but maybe some of you enjoy this kind of overly specific tycoon game as much as I do :)

You can play it directly in the browser (100% free):

https://powerstate-game.com

Would love to get some more feedback!

I use agentic AI heavily for implementation, but 100 percent of what gets built is specified and directed by me. Features, mechanics and simulation behavior are developed iteratively, not generated from a single prompt.

Cheers!

Hope this one fits!

One important disclosure up front: I used AI tools extensively during development, especially for coding, implementation, debugging, UI work, and some of the website copy.

The underlying idea, game design, energy system model, mechanics, balancing decisions, testing, and direction of the project are mine. I have a background in energy systems, and a large part of the work has been deciding what the game should actually simulate, how those systems should interact, checking whether the results make sense, and iterating on it until it became something playable.

AI is ultimately what made it possible for me to turn an idea I had almost 10 years ago into an actual game rather than leaving it as another unfinished side project.

Back then, I had the slightly foolish idea of making a city building and management game focused almost entirely on the energy system. I posted about it on Reddit looking for people to join the project.

The idea was far too ambitious for me at the time, but the post got quite a bit of interest, and the concept never really left me.

Now, almost 10 years later, I finally have a playable version: Powerstate.

It is essentially a city builder where the "city" you manage is its energy system. You build generation, manage demand, deal with changing conditions, expand the system, and try to keep everything reliable and economically viable.

My goal is to make it easy enough to jump into, but deep enough that understanding and optimizing the system actually takes some effort.

It is definitely a niche game, but I suspect this might be one of the better places to find people who enjoy exactly that kind of niche.

Gameplay:
https://www.powerstate-game.com/gameplay/

The game is:

• Free to play
• Still rough around the edges visually and mechanically
• Occasionally unbalanced in ways that can make a run much easier or much harder than intended
• Fairly demanding in the browser, with a desktop version planned as well

I have a long list of systems and improvements I still want to add, but at this stage I am especially interested in what people who actually play city builders think.

What feels good?

What is confusing?

What would you want an energy system game like this to simulate that it currently does not?

And if something about the energy system or physics looks wrong, please tell me. That is probably the feedback I am most interested in.

I would genuinely love feedback, criticism, and ideas.

For anyone curious, here is the original Reddit thread from almost 10 years ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/comments/5hp6sc/anybody_interested_on_working_on_a_energyeconomy/

I have also set up r/PowerState for ongoing development updates.

One important disclosure up front: I used AI tools extensively during development, especially for coding, implementation, debugging, UI work, and some of the website copy.

The underlying idea, game design, energy system model, mechanics, balancing decisions, testing, and direction of the project are mine. I have a background in energy systems, and a large part of the work has been deciding what the game should actually simulate, how those systems should interact, checking whether the results make sense, and iterating on it until it became something playable.

AI is ultimately what made it possible for me to turn an idea into an actual game rather than leaving it as another unfinished side project.

10 years ago I posted on Reddit looking for people to help me build an energy-economy simulation game. I finally built it.

Back then, I had the slightly foolish idea of making a city-building / construction-and-management game focused entirely on the energy system ALONE. I posted about it on Reddit looking for people to join the project.

The idea was far too ambitious for me at the time, but the post got quite a bit of interest, and the concept never really left me.

Now, almost 10 years later, I finally have a playable version: Powerstate.

It’s essentially a city builder where the “city” you manage is its energy system. You build generation, manage demand, deal with changing conditions, and try to keep the system reliable and economically viable.

My goal is to make it easy enough to jump into, but deep enough that understanding and optimizing the system actually takes some effort. It’s definitely a niche game, but I suspect this might be one of the better places to find people who enjoy exactly that kind of niche.

Gameplay: https://www.powerstate-game.com/gameplay/

The game is currently:

• free to play
• still rough around the edges visually and mechanically
• occasionally unbalanced in ways that can make a run much easier or much harder than intended
• fairly demanding in the browser; I’m planning a desktop version as well

I’m planning to keep developing it, and I already have a long list of things I want to add and improve. But at this stage I’m especially interested in what people who actually play city builders think.

What feels good? What is confusing? What would you want a game like this to simulate that it currently doesn’t?

I’d genuinely love feedback, criticism, and ideas.

For anyone curious, here is the original Reddit thread from almost 10 years ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/comments/5hp6sc/anybody_interested_on_working_on_a_energyeconomy/

I’ve also set up r/PowerState for ongoing development updates.