About This Game

A court-driven text-based political thriller in Joseon. Type decrees—your tone shapes consequences.

Your words are law. In a Joseon court where every decree has consequences, read petitions, command in your own words, manage rival advisers, and survive the reign you create.

Rule with words. Fall by words.

I WAS A KING is a deterministic, text-based political simulator set in a fictional Joseon court.

Each day, two petitions reach the throne. You do not click a preset answer. You write the decree yourself—and the court reads not only your decision, but your tone.

WHAT YOU DO

• Read petitions from ministers, factions, and the people.

• Issue decrees in natural language.

• Decide not only policy, but tone - merciful, ruthless, evasive, pragmatic, or reckless.

• Manage royal authority, treasury, public sentiment, rumors, and factional pressure.

• Face deterministic consequences - no hidden RNG decides your reign.

• Reach a final record that remembers what kind of king you became.

THE COURT REMEMBERS HOW YOU SPEAK

Most choice games ask what you choose.

I WAS A KING asks how you speak.

A decree can calm a crisis, insult a minister, empower a faction, or create tomorrow’s disaster. Some consequences arrive immediately. Others return later, when the court has not forgotten what you said.

RIVAL ADVISERS, SHIFTING TRUST

• The Left and Right Advisers interpret the kingdom from opposing political instincts. When your decrees align with one side, adviser credibility can rise or collapse. If the gap grows too wide, factional tension begins to damage public trust.

• Push one adviser too far, and they may resign. A successor then enters the court with a different voice and advice style.

AI WITH CLEAR BOUNDARIES

• AI is used to generate and phrase court dialogue, adviser commentary, and interpretive responses. It does not decide the game’s outcomes. Core consequences, metric changes, and ending logic are resolved by the authored rule system.

FEATURES

• A complete 4-hour reign: no live service, no endless grind.

• Natural-language decree input with tone interpretation.

• Deterministic political consequences.

• Rival adviser credibility, resignation, and successor voices.

• Delayed backlash and court memory.

• Multiple endings and final reign records.

• English and Korean support.

When words become law, responsibility changes.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

AI is used to generate the voices and advice of two opposing royal advisers (Left and Right Councillor). Each turn they comment on the situation and recommend different actions. If the player’s decree aligns more closely with one adviser’s stance, that adviser’s credibility increases while the other’s decreases.

As the credibility gap grows, public trust is affected, reflecting rising factional tension. If an adviser’s credibility reaches zero, they resign—sometimes angrily—warning the player not to dismiss their counsel. The vacant seat is then filled by a successor adviser, represented by a different local LLM model. This creates shifting personalities and advice styles across runs.

AI does not determine the game’s outcomes. Core consequences and metric changes are resolved by the game’s rule system; AI provides narrative and guidance within that system.