May 2026 Dev Log
It's been... a while since the last Development Log.
Back in September 2025, I intended for these updates to be monthly. Or every other month. Or more frequent than eight months between them. But as it turns out, developing this game in its complete capacity is surprisingly time-consuming on its own, even without also documenting it like this.
Fortunately, however, development itself hasn't slowed down all that much!
Over the past several months, Global Nexus has continued to grow in both scale and complexity. Much of that time has been spent refining existing systems, connecting mechanics together, and addressing one of the biggest challenges facing the project: ensuring that hundreds of individual rules and concepts function as a somewhat cohesive whole.
While there have been countless smaller additions, revisions, and rewrites, in addition to the final draft of what will be Manual One (of a total number yet-to-be-confirmed), three areas have dominated development in recent months: geography, conflict, and internal politics.
Geography and Territory
One of the largest areas of development has been the continued refinement of geography and territorial mechanics.
Earlier versions of the game treated territory solely as a collection of nations on a map. While this worked well enough for early test games, it offered limited interaction with the geography itself. It also fundamentally meant that geography was unbalanced and allowed units to be moved across the map unrealistically.
Recent work has focused on the development of a layered map system. Territories continue to represent political control and ownership, but these are now overlaid by a grid-based cell structure used for movement, infrastructure, military deployment, and a wide range of other interactions.
One particularly interesting consequence of this system has been the introduction of shared cells. In some parts of the world, multiple territories may overlap a single cell, allowing different nations to interact within the same geographic space. This creates opportunities for cooperation, competition, and conflict that simply weren't possible in previous renditions of the game.
Conflict and Warfare
As usual, conflict mechanics have also continued to undergo significant development and design growth.
War has always been one of the most difficult aspects of Global Nexus to design, because it needs to be detailed enough to capture the complexity of conflict, but still remain manageable within the broader geopolitical simulation.
One of the most notable additions has been the development of War Points, a system designed to better measure strategic progress within a territory during conflict.
Rather than focusing solely on territorial occupation, War Points allow conflicts to be influenced by a wider range of objectives and achievements. Strategic locations, infrastructure, military successes, political objectives, and other factors can all contribute to a nation's position within a conflict.
This approach better reflects the reality that victory is not always determined simply by who controls the most land. In many cases, success depends on achieving broader objectives, maintaining strategic advantages, and fulfilling the goals that led to the conflict in the first place.
As always, there is still plenty of work to be done in this area of the game, but the current direction feels significantly closer to the balance between realism and playability that I've been aiming for ever since the first versions of the game were drafted
Internal Politics and Hidden Measures
Internal political mechanics have likewise seen considerable expansion.
New policies have been created, taking the total number to just over 700 (and counting). New events and governance systems have continued to be drafted, with a particular focus on making domestic management and politics feel as important and engaging as foreign affairs.
Perhaps the most interesting addition in this area has been the development of new Measures of Society (taking the total number to 46), and the introduction of Hidden Measures.
Unlike the traditional Measures of Society, Hidden Measures are never fully known to players. Instead of receiving precise numerical values, players may only be given estimates, ranges, or general assessments such as Low, Moderate, or High.
Measures such as Internal Security and Electoral Integrity have been joined by new additions including Elite Influence, Urbanisation Pressure, and Underground Movements, among others.
The intention behind the Hidden Measures is to better represent aspects of society that governments often struggle to measure accurately in the real world. Players must make decisions using incomplete information, introducing uncertainty into domestic governance and creating opportunities for unexpected challenges, political surprises, and strategic miscalculations.
After all, if governments rarely get perfect information, why should players?
Looking Ahead
One thing that has become increasingly clear over the past several months is that Global Nexus is entering a different stage of development.
For the bulk of the time I've been working on this project, much of it revolved around asking what should the game include? Whereas today, the question is increasingly becoming how do all these systems fit together?
While there are still many ideas I would like to explore further in the development of the game, the challenge is no longer a lack of ideas. Instead, the focus has shifted toward refinement, integration, and ensuring that the many moving parts of the game contribute to a mostly cohesive experience. Some sections of the ruleset are now completely mature, while others continue to receive major revisions and occasional complete rewrites as development progresses.
It wouldn't be Global Nexus if it was nearing completion, and as always there is still a great deal left to do, but (for the time being), the broader shape of the project feels clearer than ever.
As always, thank you for following along - whether you've been here since the earliest test games, joined during more recent development, or simply enjoy reading about the construction of an increasingly overcomplicated geopolitical simulation, your interest and support continue to make this something worthwhile.
Until next time,
- Jacob