Ankebut: Tariqa Simulation
Start as a young preacher in a fictional Turkey and spend a lifetime building a religious order. Every choice has a price, and it usually comes due years later, with a name attached.
About the game
Ankebut is a real-time strategy game that plays like a novel of hard choices. You begin as a twenty-four-year-old preacher with three close companions and a Friday congregation, somewhere in a timeless, fictional Turkey. Over a lifetime you grow a following, found institutions, rise through the ranks and make your way into the corridors of the state.
Ankebut means spider. What you weave is your strength and your weakness at the same time. Every choice has a price, and the price usually arrives years later, carrying the name of someone you knew.
Choose your starting city on a map of all 81 provinces. Istanbul is shared by thirteen groups: easy to enter, hard to find room in. A small province may be held by a single group that guards the door. Your people are recorded one by one, and your students, companions and the faces of every city remember what passed between you. While things go well you see numbers; when a price is paid, the number turns into a name.
Highlights
- Real-time strategy on a map of Turkey's 81 provinces; the clock stops by itself when a decision arrives
- Dilemmas with no right answer, and people who remember how you treated them
- A following that deepens step by step: listener, sympathizer, initiate, murid
- Institutions, two purses (on the books and off), bribes and shortcuts that draw the state's attention
- Rival groups whose leaders grow old, die and leave splits behind them
- Five chapters, each closed by a vow, and turbulent eras that change the rules
- Eight endings, and a book of endings that remembers every life you have lived
- The other path: after a decision, see where the choice you did not make would have led
- Playable offline, in English and Turkish
Who is it for?
For players who love strategy and simulation games with a strong story, choices that matter and the slow work of building a network. Ankebut is also a satire. Its critique is aimed at how power, money and loyalty grow inside closed structures, not at anyone's faith: you play by the rules, then you see the bill.
Ankebut is currently in closed testing on Google Play. The public release is coming soon.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ankebut free?
Yes. Ankebut is free to play and contains ads. You can remove ads with a one-time purchase.
Which devices can I play on?
Android devices, through Google Play.
Are the groups and people real?
No. Every person, group and event in the game is fictional. The setting is a recognizable country and era, but no real organization appears in it.
Is the game against religion?
No. Ankebut is about structures: how a network grows, what it costs and who pays for it. The game criticizes power, money and loyalty, not belief.
How long is a game?
A whole lifetime. You start at twenty-four and play on into old age; most lives last between thirty-five and fifty years of game time. You can pause and save whenever you like.
Do I need an internet connection?
No. The game can be played offline.
What does "Ankebut" mean?
Ankebût is the Arabic and Ottoman Turkish word for spider. The web you weave in the game is your power and your fragility at once.