Realm game modes: solo, multiplayer, and competitive seasons
Realm ships three distinct modes on a single engine — solo against AI agents, public persistent multiplayer, and time-boxed competitive seasons with rankings.
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Realm runs three modes on the same simulation engine. Each is a real product aimed at a different player need, and they are built in a deliberate order: solo ships first because it is the existence test of the entire design, competitive seasons come before fully open multiplayer, and the public persistent world opens only after the mechanics have been validated at scale. You do not need to choose a mode permanently — a single Realm account spans all three, though currency and reputation do not transfer between them.
Mobile is a companion HUD, not a full game port. On iOS and Android you can monitor markets, review contracts, receive alerts, and take quick actions. Building a factory or managing a complex supply chain requires the full desktop web client.
Solo mode puts you in a world populated entirely by AI agents. Those agents act as your competitors, customers, suppliers, and rivals. The world is pausable, configurable in speed, and saveable at any point. When you close the game, the world pauses by default.Who solo mode is for:
New players learning how the primitives fit together before risking anything in multiplayer
Players who want to experiment without permanent consequences
Players who do not have time for a persistent multiplayer commitment
Players who want narrative or scenario-based play
Core characteristics:
Aspect
Value
Players
1 human + AI agents
Pause
Yes
Speed
1×, 2×, 4×, max
Save / load
Yes, anywhere
Reputation
Within scenario only
Win condition
Optional per scenario
Why solo is a real product, not a tutorial. Solo mode ships as a standalone complete game. You can buy it, play it for hundreds of hours, and never go online. It validates the entire design with a single player and AI agents — a much smaller risk than building an MMO from day one. The AI agents run in three tiers: Tier 1 agents follow simple behavioral rules, Tier 2 agents optimize toward explicit goals, and Tier 3 agents are LLM-driven named characters with persistent memory and strategies. In the Frontier scenario you will encounter named rivals like Margaux the Industrialist and Rico the Speculator, who act on their own goals — not on scripted event triggers.Solo is the existence test. If a stranger cannot enjoy one hour of solo mode, the design is broken at the foundation, and nothing built on top of it will fix that.
A scenario is a curated starting world: a pre-defined map, pre-defined AI agents with known personalities and strategies, defined initial conditions, and an optional objective. Once a scenario starts, the AI agents play it for real. The scenario sets the conditions; it does not script the events.
Frontier
Empty continent. You and eight AI rivals start with similar resources. Optional goal: reach $1M net worth. Open-ended sandbox — the default starting experience.
The Cartel
Three AI agents have cornered the energy market. Goal: break the cartel without going bankrupt. Tests your ability to disrupt an established economic power structure.
The Bootstrapper
No starting capital. Goal: reach $100K from labor alone. Forces you to understand wages, labor markets, and capital formation from the ground up.
The Speculator
You start with cash but no plot. Goal: build wealth purely through trading and SaaS — no physical extraction. Tests financial mechanics without any land.
Additional scenarios available in v1 include The Dying Capital (stabilize a region with broken supply chains and inflation) and The New Industrial Revolution (position yourself before a newly discovered material reprices existing markets).Scenarios are content. Adding new ones is one of the cheapest ways to extend the game’s lifespan after launch, and each uses the same engine as everything else.
Public mode is a real, persistent, shared multiplayer world. Many players, NPC seed agents, a real economy that never pauses. This is where players who have graduated from solo and want permanent stakes come to live.Who public mode is for:
Players who have learned the game in solo and want real consequences
Players who want to be part of a larger, ongoing story
Hardcore and long-haul players who treat the economy like a second job
Core characteristics:
Aspect
Value
Players
Many humans
Pause
Never
Time scale
1 game-day = 1 real-hour
Save / load
No — server-side persistent
Reputation
Permanent, follows you
Plots
Scarce and permanent
Win condition
None
The land rush. When a public shard launches, plots are scarce and the initial claiming period is a real competitive event. Late arrivals pay a premium or work with less favorable land. This scarcity is intentional — it gives the land primitive real weight.Reputation is permanent. Every trade you make, every contract you honor or break, every cartel you join or betray accumulates in your public reputation. Unlike solo mode, you cannot reload a save to undo a bad decision. Other players can see your history. Trust is earned slowly and lost fast.Slow real-time pacing. One game-day equals one real-hour. Markets move, wages are paid, and production ticks forward at human pace. You can check in for fifteen minutes, place orders, review contracts, and return hours later to see the results. The mobile companion app is used heavily here — it gives you market monitoring and quick actions without needing to be at a desktop.NPC role in public mode. NPCs exist to provide a baseline of demand (NPC consumers buy goods), a baseline of labor (NPC workers can be hired), and rare seed services (NPC banks offer small loans early on). NPCs are intentionally worse than human players at most things. The value of public mode comes from out-competing and out-thinking other humans.Server architecture. Multiple shards are possible, each its own world. Shards may be permanent (multi-year) or seasonal. Each shard has a launch event, a land-rush period, and a steady state.
Competitive seasons are time-boxed multiplayer worlds with curated participants and explicit competitive structure. They sit between solo mode and the fully open public world, and they serve three purposes: validating multiplayer mechanics before risking the public economy, generating streamable content and dramatic stories, and creating a high-prestige competitive tier.Who competitive seasons are for:
Players who want high-stakes competition with defined start and end dates
Streamers and content creators who need narrative arcs and broadcasts
Designers and testers who need to validate new mechanics safely
Season servers run for a defined period — typically 90 days — and reset when the season ends. Anyone can enter, possibly with eligibility requirements based on solo-mode performance or prior season standings. Final rankings are published. Top performers receive invitations to the next closed cohort.
Closed cohorts are hand-picked groups of participants — typically 50 players — often themed around a specific audience: the “OG cohort,” a media cohort, an academic cohort. They may carry prizes. The format is stream-friendly, with scheduled events, narrative arcs, and broadcasts.Closed cohorts function as marketing, balance testing, and high-prestige play simultaneously. New mechanics are tested here before being introduced to the public persistent world.Why seasons before public mode. Time-boxed multiplayer is much easier to operate than a permanent shard. Seasons let Realm validate multiplayer mechanics, find balance problems, and build a competitive community before taking on the operational complexity of a permanent world that never resets.
Your Realm account spans all three modes. Your solo-mode achievements are visible on your profile and may unlock eligibility for competitive seasons or closed cohorts. Currency does not transfer between modes — each mode is its own economy. Realm currency is not crypto and does not interact with fiat money.The recommended path is to start in solo mode, complete at least one scenario, and move to competitive seasons before entering the public persistent world. Solo teaches you the primitives without permanent stakes. Seasons give you the competitive pressure of real humans in a bounded format. Public mode is where the long game begins.
First hour guide
A minute-by-minute walkthrough of the Frontier solo scenario — from plot selection to your first contract with a named AI rival.
AI agents
How Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 AI agents behave in solo mode, what drives their decisions, and how to compete against them.
Markets and trading
Order books, P2P trades, price discovery, and market intel — the mechanics that make prices real in every mode.
Roadmap phases
The phased build plan — when each mode ships, what the phase test gates require, and how the project sequences risk.