A solo maker built a Persian history RPG with Claude
Artāvan is a set in the Persian Empire. It covers the period from Darius the Great to Xerxes, and the player leads a powerful Persian family while governing a satrapy with many peoples. The game lets the player follow arta, meaning truth, or move away from it while trying to stay in favor with the King of Kings.
It is free, runs in a , works best on mobile, and does not require sign-up. Claude was used as a building partner, with the maker directing the work instead of writing every part alone. The hardest part was keeping historical accuracy across a large amount of generated story text.
The maker researched the period and kept a sourced layer that the game writing had to follow. The game also has a teaching goal, with an in-game encyclopedia and links from almost every event to real historical and cited sources.
Key points
- Artāvan is a free browser RPG about the first Persian empire.
- Claude helped create the game through guided direction rather than fully manual writing.
- The main challenge was keeping historical accuracy across many generated events.
- A sourced layer was used to keep the writing grounded.
- The game includes an encyclopedia and source links for real historical context.