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A jam submission

Il PrincipeView game page

Submitted by limnological — 15 hours, 53 minutes before the deadline
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Il Principe's itch.io page

What work(s) of philosophy does your piece take as its primary source(s)?
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince.

Please tell us about your piece.
Machiavellis the Prince is one of those works that is often mentioned yet rarely read. I wanted to
make a tool for a reader who may be intimidated by the age of the treatise and its framing in the
politics and wars of late 15th and early 16th century Italy in which it was written. The original plan
for this project was much grander than what you can play with now, a full strategy game with the
fragments of philosophy and history more directly experienced through gameplay. As ever, the
original plan was impossible in the confines of time, thus the current form of the project: a map wich
provides summarised history of the various Italian states of the Renaissance and some interesting
and related fragments from the Prince.

The purpose of this is not to be any comprehensive telling of history, nor a replacement for reading
Machiavelli. Rather it is a starting point for a reader who wishes to get into the topic but might find
reading a Renaissance work of political philosophy difficult, not knowing the political context and the
various events of recent history to which Machiavelli refers often and does not fully explain, since
they were obvious to any educated contemporary reader, many of whom were actors in these
events themselves. The summarised histories of various states should provide enough information,
that upon finding some unclear statement in the Prince the reader can at least know where to start
looking for clarification and futher information.

I don’t have any background in philosophy and only stumbled to this jam a couple of weeks ago,
leading to the truncated nature of this game/philosophical experience. This project probably doesn’t
fully qualify under the jams strict rules but I found it fun to work on and if anyone finds it at least
interesting or neat, I will consider this a success.

What other sources have you used in your piece?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uL63Sls5Ix_MV3mwNM9Ls74nkNbZ8eyV8Tze8QeYPbM/edit?usp=sharing

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Comments

Jam JudgeSubmitted

Thank you for linking to your browser-playable version in the comments! I found it interesting and neat, and appreciated the 8-bit aesthetic. It has also piqued my interest to read The Prince.

Host (1 edit)

Hi once more! It should become possible for you to vote if you click on this link.

Please give only one 5-star rating to a single project -- that is, please vote only once, for your very favorite project, that isn't your own. This is to ensure that the popular winner doesn't go to the project that happens to be rated the most times.

Voting will close when the counter on the jam page reaches zero, at 23:59/11:59PM CET/GMT+1 on December 12th, 2022! Your vote will not be made public until the full results for the competition are announced on December 15th on the jam page and on the jam community board.

While you can only vote for one submission, please leave as many comments as you like on all the submissions that strike your fancy! This goes for anyone who entered the jam or who stumbles upon it on the site, even if they didn't submit anything or can't vote! It'd be wonderful to get some good discussions going. If you're not sure where to start with evaluating projects, I've prepared a list of questions to ask yourself as you explore and reflect upon your experiences with each one here. I hope they're helpful to you!

As always, if you have any questions, please either reply to this message or post on the jam's FAQ here. Thank you!

Host

Hi, again! Thanks for re-uploading your sources as a Google doc. I've tried running your game on a computer, but it doesn't work. It seems to crash immediately upon opening the file. Would it be possible for you to re-upload your game to play in-browser on the itch.io site? Thanks in advance!

Host

Hi! Sorry for clogging up your page with messages! I've just realized it may not be possible for you to edit your submission without my giving you permission as the host (which would in turn give everyone else permission to edit their projects). I'm sorry to ask you to do something so troublesome, but would you mind re-uploading your project on a new game page where it runs in-browser? I'll then email you a unique submission link where you can re-submit this new page as your project for the competition. Many thanks in advance!

DeveloperSubmitted

Hello! There is now a browser playable version (and a 32bit version download if that was the issue) at https://limniris.itch.io/il-principe2. We can set that as the competition page instead or leave like this, with a link to it on the current page in the description, doesn't matter to me.

Host

Fantastic! Thank you so much. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow. In the meantime, please click on this link to change your project page for the competition. Once I've seen you've done so, I'll remove your original entry. 

Host

Hi, again! I decided it'd be simplest to keep both of your submission entries active and to simply aggregate the votes for them when the time comes. :) Hope that works for you!

Host

Hi, there! Would you mind re-uploading your sources as a Google doc page? Thank you!