Crown the Map

Crown the Map began as a project between my son and me. He had a clear game in his head: pick a country on a map of Europe, zoom into its states, build up an army, and push outward until the map changes color.

A lot of the product decisions came from how he wanted it to work. Computer players should not just wait for the player; they should expand, attack each other, and create a real free-for-all. Neutral land should be worth taking. Borders, water crossings, and state-level territory should shape what you can do next.

Then we made the game deeper than a simple troop counter. Food makes attacks hit harder, iron ore and lumber build pillboxes, gold supports the treasury, workers grow the economy, and terrain changes the odds. The result is still his conquest game, but with enough strategy that a hungry army, a mountain defense, or a water crossing can decide the turn.

It is also an example of AI-directed software work: map generation, rule refinement, tests, deployment, and visual polish were driven through agent plans and verification loops rather than hand-coded in one long pass.