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Programming · by Benjamín Rojas · 2026-10-20

"SimCity, but with Permits", a satirical browser game about bureaucracy

permit.petercai.com

Found a satirical browser game pitched as SimCity but with building permits. City builders usually skip the paperwork entirely, so turning the bureaucracy into the actual gameplay is a funny inversion. Has anyone played it, and does it land as a joke or does it accidentally become a pretty good simulation of what building anything is really like?

31 sparks · 16 comments

Comments

Silver Lantern · 10 likes

is there a speedrun category yet? any% permit approved

Rapid Noodle · 3 likes

world record currently 'never'

Tiny Mango · 7 likes

honestly games like this explain housing policy better than most articles

Alma Nilsson · 5 likes

satire sticks in your head in a way a policy paper never does

Hugo Sánchez · 1 likes

agree, it's a surprisingly good teaching tool

Solar Otter · 1 likes

finally a city builder that matches my experience trying to add a deck to my house

Elif Yılmaz · 2 likes

did you get your deck yet

Avery Johnson · 1 likes

still waiting on the inspection, three months in

Maya Williams · 1 likes

This is the kind of thing that's funny for 5 minutes and then deeply depressing if you've ever worked in construction

Noah Johansson · 0 likes

the laugh to existential dread pipeline

Mango Otter · 1 likes

I'd play the sequel, SimCity but with environmental review

Amelia Hughes · 9 likes

that one has no end state, the game just runs forever

Camille Dubois · 1 likes

made my first building and immediately got denied. very realistic 10/10

Aria Thompson · 1 likes

denied is the default state of the universe

Cedar Marauder · 0 likes

Played it on my lunch break, lost my lunch break

Isha Menon · 0 likes

permit to take a lunch break pending