Founding a city · open to all settlers
The Maya
Found a city on a river in the Maya lowlands. Moor dugout trading canoes, trade their cargo, tap your banks, send voyages out to chart new regions, and grow one stone landing into a great capital. Then do it again on the next river.
- Plays in the browser
- Saves on your device, or sign in to save across devices
- No account needed
- Free to play
Tikal · The PetenKey art
Six systems · one river
What you do
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01Landing
Moor the traffic
Dugout trading canoes tie up at your landings for provisions, repairs and a hot meal, and pay on departure. One landing, one vessel at a time; every landing needs an open side for the approach.
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02Trade
Trade the cargo
Vessels sell what their home city exports and buy what it imports. Set Buy and Sell per good, hold obsidian for a workshop, and ride the booms.
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03Income
Tap the banks
Every building earns cacao by the minute into its own bank. A glowing coin means it is ready: tap it and watch the cacao flies home. Banks keep filling while you are away.
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04Timers
Build on the clock
Buildings take real time to open, from ninety seconds to four hours by tier, and upgrades take longer still. Queue a build, go live your life, come back to a brighter city. Jade skips the wait.
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05Voyages
Paddle out
Send voyages from your landings to any of eight regions. They come back with cargo, charts, Jade and discoveries for the Codex: vessels, peoples, heirlooms.
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06Maya world
Claim new rivers
Clear rings of unclaimed land around your plaza as the city grows, then found the next city in one of eight regions: dry Calakmul, the Highland quarries, the Yucatan salt coast, the Usumacinta, Cozumel. One purse across all of them.
The panels you run it from
The city view
There is always something on the hearth
Come back for
Missions
Fifty goals in seven chapters, three live at a time. Finish one, come back and claim the cacao, Jade and rank it pays.
Achievements
Twenty-four lifetime achievements in bronze, silver and gold, from your first fifty vessels to the whole Codex, each tier paying Jade.
Daily reward
A seven-day streak of cacao, crates and Jade, with a banner token on day seven. Miss a day and you can mend the streak.
Civic rank
Villager to Sajal and on to Kaloomte. Ranks are earned across every region and grant real powers: collect all banks at once, a fourth mission, a bonus on every rate.
The Codex
Twenty-four vessels, twelve peoples of the Maya world and its neighbours and sixteen heirlooms to find, with a story for each. Completing a set pays Jade and a title.
Territory
Every city starts on a small plot. Buy the next ring of unclaimed land, wait for the workers to clear it, and the city grows outward, ring by ring, in every region.
Unlocked by renown and building count
Five tiers
- L1
River Village
One stone landing and 6,000 cacao. Build a landing, a storehouse and a cistern, then serve your first vessels.
- L2
Trading Town
A runners' hall, a market court, patio homes and a great reservoir. Merchant houses begin to trust you, and the second region opens.
- L3
Temple City
A scribes' school, a cacao house, a causeway row and a canoe yard. Residents run businesses; you lend cacao at interest.
- L4
Royal Seat
A sky temple and the great pyramid. Long-haul great canoes arrive.
- L5
Great Capital
The end of the road: a capital the whole Maya world trades through.
Each one a whole new city
Eight regions
The Peten
Lowland forest and a steady sun. Every founder starts here.
Calakmul
Thin soil and hard dry seasons; obsidian and blades at a premium.
The Highlands
The obsidian and jade quarries. Quarry country.
Yucatan Coast
Salt flats and open water; salt, maize and the fleets of Xcambo.
The Usumacinta
A great river between rival kingdoms. Provisions run rich and raiders run often.
Palenque
Green foothills, clear springs and famous festivals.
Copan
A fertile valley where residents arrive in numbers.
Cozumel
The far end of the coast road, and its great pyramid.
24 buildings · six families · three levels each
The buildings
Core
Great Plaza
Tier 1
Stone Landing
Storehouse
Chultun Cistern
Canoe Outfitter
Paddlers' Lodge
Maize Kitchen
Tier 2
Runners' Hall
Market Court
Ballcourt
Raised Fields
Healers' House
Patio Homes
Great Reservoir
Tribute House
Spearmen's Post
Tier 3
Scribes' School
Cacao House- Causeway Row
Royal Aviary
Obsidian Workshop
Canoe Yard
Tier 4
Sky Temple
Great Pyramid
24 vessels · 12 peoples · 16 heirlooms to find
Who comes through
Yaxchilan Merchants
Trading families of the Usumacinta, at home at every landing.
Chontal Mariners
Sea traders of the Gulf coast, and canoe builders before them.
K'iche' Daykeepers
Keepers of the 260-day count in the highland towns; met by voyage.
Cozumel Great Canoe
Long-haul passengers of the fourth tier.
Island Conch Trumpet
A shell trumpet from a Cozumel shrine. Rare.
Premium currency
Jade
Earned by missions, daily rewards and voyages, and offered in the Store. Spend it to skip a build, call a voyage home, open a region before you have the charts, or dress the city in a region banner. The game is free to play; nothing in it needs Jade.
Purchases are real payments, handled securely by Stripe Checkout and charged in US dollars. Items arrive in your city as soon as the payment goes through.
- Jade every new founder starts with
- 20
- Regions to unlock, with cacao or Jade
- 8
- Jade skips eight minutes of any build, upgrade or clearing
- 1
- Things to find for the Codex
- 52
Keys · saves · screens
River notes
Controls
- Space
- Pause
- 0 · F
- Fit the city, focus the selection
- B C M F
- Build, City, Market, Fleet
- V P I D
- Voyages, Maya World, Missions, Codex
- Wheel
- Zoom the world; drag to pan
- Esc
- Close a panel, stop placing
Saves
Your profile saves to your browser every few seconds and when you leave the tab. Timers run on the clock, so builds finish and banks fill while you are gone.
One profile per browser, every region inside it. Export and import it from Settings, or sign in to keep a cloud save and pick up on another device. Without an account your save stays on your device.
Screens
Built for a desktop browser at 1280 px and wider with WebGL on; a landscape tablet works, and on a phone the panels fold into a bottom bar and sheets.
Current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. Reduced-motion settings are honoured, and the effects tier steps down on slower machines.
Questions
What kind of game is this?
A calm river city builder. You start with one stone landing in the Preclassic and grow a city over weeks of short visits. Timers run on the real clock, so it keeps working while you are away.
Is it free?
Yes. Every building, region, mission and achievement can be reached with cacao and patience. Jade can also be bought with real money in the Store to skip waits; prices are shown in US dollars before you pay.
Do I need an account?
No. Your city saves in your browser. Sign in only if you want a cloud save on more than one device.
How true to history is it?
The places, trade goods, buildings and peoples are real, and the mechanics draw on Maya astronomy, mathematics, writing, water engineering and trade between about 400 BC and AD 900. Centuries are compressed for play, and many sites go by their modern names. It is a game about rivers and trade, not a full portrait of Maya society.
Are the Maya a people of the past?
No. Millions of Maya people live in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador today and speak about thirty Mayan languages. Some entries in the Codex name communities that still keep these traditions. The game treats the Classic cities as one chapter of a continuing history.
Does religion appear in the game?
Temples, festivals and the Calendar are part of city life, and readings are written as the work of skilled daykeepers. No god is a character, and offerings in the game are copal, maize, cotton and work. Nothing in the game makes light of anyone's beliefs.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a phone the panels become sheets over a bottom bar, and the world pans by drag and zooms by pinch. A desktop screen shows more at once.
Ready to found a city
City name. Pick one on the title screen, or take the one the register hands you.
Found a cityRegister MY-0000 will be assigned at the founding