Gray Horizon

A nation game on the real Earth, run by the people playing it.

Gray Horizon is free and runs in your browser. You start as one citizen, with no title, no money and nobody who knows your name.

Play free Get it on Google Play Join the Discord
The world map in Gray Horizon, every country coloured by who holds it, with the next step at the bottom: your country is choosing its first government.
The same map on a phone, Europe and Africa, with the tools down the side and the next step above the bottom bar: go to your ballot.

Five minutes a day, or the whole evening

On a normal day you open the map, work a shift, train and eat. It takes about five minutes. You get paid, and your country gets one more working citizen. Finish the day's missions and you get 10 Credits on top, and a case to open.

The Today panel: a new citizen's first steps four of seven done, Energy at 85 and her job at a mine in Lisbon.

Or you stay. Found a company and hire people. Run for office. Start a newspaper, or a party, or a bank. Talk your government into a war and then fight it, one half-hour round at a time. Borders only move through a peace treaty, so taking a province only starts the argument.

The battle for Abu Dhabi, Oman leading the United Arab Emirates 3 to 2 with twelve minutes left in the round, the fight buttons and the gear being worn.

Every name here is a player

  • Portugal's first election on a phone: the Lisbon ballot, two parties' candidates, each with a line of their own and a Vote button.
    Elect your country's government
  • The iron ore market on a phone: the cheapest ore delivered to Lisbon at 1.02 Credits, from a company in Coimbra.
    Trade at prices players set
  • A player's newspaper, The Daily Shift, on a phone: "One does not simply walk into Abu Dhabi".
    Write the news, or read it
  • The world's chat room on a phone, players with Shakespeare, Napoleon and a Shiba Inu as their pictures talking about the war and Portugal's vote.
    Talk to the rest of the world

Money buys looks, never power

This is a rule in the game's code. Every item in the store has to be a look, a status or an extra saved slot. The game's tests refuse anything else, and the store checks again before every sale.

Never for sale

  • Credits, the game's money
  • Energy, or extra shifts and training
  • Experience
  • Damage, or gear with better stats
  • Cases, or better odds inside them
  • Votes, offices, or a faster citizenship
  • Anything that makes a company produce more or research go faster

Maybe later

  • Profile frames and nameplates
  • Page themes for your newspaper
  • A different finish on your rifle, with exactly the same stats
  • More saved loadouts and market filters

Right now there is nothing to buy at all. The store stays shut until the alpha is over.

What money can and cannot buy

The phone in your pocket is enough

Anything you can do on a computer, you can do on a phone. That one is written down as a rule too. The map fills the screen, and tapping a province slides its details up from the bottom, where your thumb already is.

On Android, get the app from Google Play. On an iPhone, open play.grayhorizon.world in Safari and add it to your home screen, and it opens full screen like any other app.

Get it on Google Play

Playing on a phone

Lisbon's province sheet slid up over the map of Portugal on a phone: you are here, you live here, and work on Lisbon's roads pays 12.80 Credits a shift.
The iron ore market on a phone, every price delivered to Lisbon, where the citizen stands.

Questions

Is Gray Horizon free?

Yes. Sign up with an email address, Google or Discord and play. There is nothing to buy during the alpha. Later, money will buy cosmetics and a little convenience, like more saved loadouts, but never power.

Is it pay to win?

No. Money can't buy Credits, Energy, experience, damage, gear stats, votes or anything else that puts you ahead of someone who pays nothing. The store can only sell looks, status and extra saved slots, and the game's code checks every item.

Can I play on my phone?

Yes. On Android there is an app on Google Play, and on any phone it also runs in the browser, which you can add to your home screen. It is the same game as on a computer, laid out for touch.

Do I need to download anything?

No. It runs in the browser on Android, iPhone and any computer. On Android you can get the app from Google Play instead, if you would rather have one.

Is it the real map?

Yes: 196 countries and 755 provinces. Each country starts with the kind of government it has today, and every office in it is held by someone playing.

Will my progress be kept?

Not this time. The closed alpha world is deleted when the alpha ends, and everyone starts again in the public alpha.

Make a name for yourself

Pick a country on the real map and start at the bottom, like everyone else did. It's free, in your browser or on Android.

Play free Get it on Google Play Join the Discord

From the development log

All entries

  1. Why Radio Was an Absolutely (Un)necessary Feature

    Gray Horizon never needed a radio. I built one anyway, from three music files inside the game to object storage, HTTP range streaming and a live waveform.

    Engineering, Behind the Scenes. 22 min read.

  2. The Rules That Built GrayHorizon

    Before Gray Horizon had a world, an economy or a single player, it had a set of rules about what it was allowed to become.

    Game Design. 22 min read.