Lovely game! Takes a bit of fiddling to get the hang of it, but so do most puzzles worth doing. The instructions are clear, the presentation is great and I like the decision to prioritise a fun game over representing real Gerrymandering accurately. It looks like a lot of thought has gone into this.
cyode 1 hours ago [-]
I could see this being a great activity in a high school civics class. Very creative. One rule that tripped me up is:
> If two parties tie in a district, nobody wins it.
This isn't realistic as ties don't happen in practice in elections, and some party will end up representing it. But the spirit of the gerrymandering concept is conveyed well enough.
realmofthemad 1 hours ago [-]
Yes indeed, not super realistic, since it would never happen. but it does make for a more fun puzzle :)
Wowfunhappy 32 minutes ago [-]
It's a major factor in today's puzzle, but it doesn't seem to come up as much in past puzzles. I think yesterday's is more fun and doesn't have the unrealism. https://gerrymandle.cc/game/2026-06-17
We're three siblings from a gerrymandered district in Austin, Texas, and this is the story of how we designed a board game about gerrymandering — and ended up at the Supreme Court with 82 copies of Mapmaker: The Gerrymandering Game.
It would cool if the result-screen showed how voting-reform would have eliminated/reduced the gerrymandering problem.. but I guess that can't happen, since it relies on additional data that's not part of the puzzle.
For example, you can't show how ranked-choice voting would reduce the nefarious win of X without knowing how the Y/Z populace breaks down in terms of voting for the other side over X.
srameshc 2 hours ago [-]
I love the idea .. how you changed an important issue into a game and probably that would bring awareness. I am not an expert but such decisions probably affect a lot of people and no one spend time and learn about it. This is a fun way to learn. Thank you !!
realmofthemad 2 hours ago [-]
Glad you enjoyed it!
coder97 2 hours ago [-]
I think I did not understand this game well. May I suggest adding a few introductory levels of increasing difficulty for beginners.
realmofthemad 2 hours ago [-]
I'm sorry you've found it a bit difficult to pick up! There is an introduction below the game, but it can still be a bit hard to follow since it's all text. I'll see about adding an additional, optional, interactive tutorial.
pavel_lishin 2 hours ago [-]
This felt very satisfying to win! (Day 39) I'll try to remember to keep coming back.
I think what made me quite confused at the start is mis-reading the instructions that every district could have no more than four houses; I thought I had to split the land into equal areas. Once I understood that, the solution felt much easier.
giancarlostoro 31 minutes ago [-]
> Error Code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG
Can't view it at all.
MarkusQ 2 hours ago [-]
I won't let me complete the final district (YRBY+" "s) in today's puzzle. (firefox/linux) If I try to do it earlier it auto includes unwanted cells.
realmofthemad 2 hours ago [-]
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, would you mind sending over a screenshot or video of where you are stuck?
gnerd00 24 minutes ago [-]
great idea to make Gerrymandle! congrats on the alpha
US/California etc gerrymandering is dramatically illegal IMHO. I see the recent gerrymandering in the USA as a kind of political cancer actually....
realmofthemad 16 minutes ago [-]
Personally I've been very surprised with the public support for the increase in political gerrymandering. I know that people think it is worth it for the short term gains, but it still seems like a bad idea to me.
convolvatron 1 hours ago [-]
very basic issue, its not clear to me how to start a new district, it just extends the old one. I managed to do it accidentally a couple times, but I don't know how
applfanboysbgon 52 minutes ago [-]
By default, you work on one district at a time. Clicking adds tiles to the current district until the current district is full, then clicking will create a new district. District size is determined per round, described at the top as eg. "draw 5 districts of 4 populated tiles".
You can also click a square in the "Districts" section of the header to switch to a different district, including an empty one to create a new one.
Rendered at 17:55:22 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
> If two parties tie in a district, nobody wins it.
This isn't realistic as ties don't happen in practice in elections, and some party will end up representing it. But the spirit of the gerrymandering concept is conveyed well enough.
The designer diary: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/111646/designer-di...
... and a review of it in context: https://civiceducator.org/review-mapmaker-gerrymandering/For example, you can't show how ranked-choice voting would reduce the nefarious win of X without knowing how the Y/Z populace breaks down in terms of voting for the other side over X.
I think what made me quite confused at the start is mis-reading the instructions that every district could have no more than four houses; I thought I had to split the land into equal areas. Once I understood that, the solution felt much easier.
Can't view it at all.
US/California etc gerrymandering is dramatically illegal IMHO. I see the recent gerrymandering in the USA as a kind of political cancer actually....
You can also click a square in the "Districts" section of the header to switch to a different district, including an empty one to create a new one.