Play Sort the Court! in Your Browser

Sort the Court! background

Graeme Borland, who publishes as graebor, made Sort the Court! in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare 34 game jam in December 2015. That jam's themes were two-button controls and growing, and the game answers both: every decision is one of two choices, and your goal is to grow a small settlement into a kingdom. Borland did the code and writing, Amy Gerardy drew the art and Bogdan Rybak composed the music.

After the jam the game was expanded with new features and content, and later updates added options such as saving and muting. Borland has kept it free, supported by ads and donations, and it is available on itch.io, Game Jolt and Poki, with downloadable versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.

How to play Sort the Court!

Each day a line of visitors approaches the throne: merchants, peasants, adventurers, wizards and other recurring characters, each with a short request or question. You simply answer yes or no, and each answer changes your gold, population or the people's happiness. Some decisions only shift the numbers, while others start quest lines, unlock buildings or close off later events, and many characters return to follow up on earlier choices. Keeping happiness up helps the population grow, and the long-term aim is to build a kingdom large enough to be recognized by other rulers.

1. Open the itch.io page and click to run the game in your browser.
2. Listen to each visitor and press Yes or No to answer their request.
3. Watch your gold, population and happiness after each decision and keep them balanced.
4. Pay attention to returning characters, since earlier answers decide what they offer later.