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Dependency Day — A Strategy Puzzle Where Independence Is the Win Condition

Week 2’s theme was independence as a mechanic, not a symbol. So I made a puzzle where independence is literally the win condition.

Dependency Day game board mid-play: a USA supply-line graph where northern colonies stay chained in red to the gold Crown while the southern chain (VA, NC, SC, GA) is freed and secured; HUD shows 4 of 13 independent.

What it is

Dependency Day is a systems/strategy puzzle: thirteen colonies are wired to a central Crown by supply lines. You cut the lines so colonies disconnect and independence cascades across the map — then you have to secure each freed cluster before the Crown re-garrisons it.

How it’s built

  • A single self-contained canvas build; cutting lines disconnects colonies, and a free colony with 2+ free neighbors becomes secured (permanent, walls the Crown out).
  • A Powder economy that regenerates faster per secured state — the “engine” that compounds your momentum.
  • Balanced via headless sims: the naive “snip every Crown line at once” cheese is impossible — you have to peel the network apart and hold it.
Close-up of the Dependency Day map showing red dependent colonies linked to the Crown and a liberated southern chain of gold-secured colonies.
Cut every line back to the Crown and a whole region cascades free.

On the theme

Independence as a cascade you trigger and then have to defend — freedom is the literal win condition, and the system fights to pull each colony back.

Try it →Code →All the builds →

Shout-out

Part of the competition is cross-referencing other builders. So: shout-out to Adam (Paul Revere arcade) — Revere warned them; Dependency Day is them cutting free.

Built for Summer Into AI 2026 (Competition #2), hosted by Eric Rhea. More in the build log.