Automation handles
certainty.
You are a Signals Intelligence Officer routing intercepted communications under fog of war. The machines handle the noise; you handle the doubt. Every decision matters. Every call is traceable. The enemy is adaptive, not evil.
From listening post
to coalition command.
burnNode is an automation/incremental game about routing intercepted communications under fog of war. Start at a Sector Listening Post with a loaner smartphone and a classifier that can barely tell logistics from deception. Route cards. Build automation. Climb the clearance ladder. The enemy adapts. The stakes escalate. The human stays in the loop because someone has to be held accountable.
"This is not an idle game about intercept logs; it's an automation game about managing uncertainty under fog of war, and it belongs to a rarer subgenre than most incrementals: it automates decisions, not actions."
— Game Design DocumentA system that keeps adapting.
Every system derives from one sentence: automation handles certainty; humans handle uncertainty. The game never makes you less important — it changes what kind of decisions you make.
Glyph Cards
Five-slot cards with operation type, time-to-strike, strategic value, deception risk, and AI confidence. Position teaches meaning before content does.
Five Verbs
Confirm, Override, Split, Reject, Force-escalate. No sixth verb. Every decision is traceable through the event-sourced decision log.
Three Lanes
High-confidence intercepts route automatically. Medium-confidence goes to review. Low-confidence or ROE-forced cards demand full attention.
Air Alarms
Periodic alarms force a choice: shelter and lose connection, or continue and risk device damage. Real-time waiting. Genuine FOMO.
Device Health
Your device has health. Damage is cosmetic — cracks tell the story but never block gameplay. Upgrade from smartphone to military terminal.
Escalation Puzzles
Six twist families: conflicting signals, convincing scam, embedded spy, double agent, hidden VIP, unseen vocabulary. Puzzles, not scores.
Where certainty meets doubt.
AUTO
High-confidence intercepts routed automatically. You see aggregate flow-rate numbers only. The system handles certainty.
REVIEW
Medium-confidence intercepts. AI suggests a route; you confirm, override, split, reject, or force-escalate. The player handles uncertainty.
ESCALATION
Low-confidence or ROE-forced cards. Full attention required. No AI suggestion. The human signature is mandatory.
The clearance ladder.
Climb from a sector listening post to coalition command. Each promotion resets your classifier and floods the escalation lane.
The prototype is live.
Route intercepts. Survive air alarms. Climb the clearance ladder. The game is in active development — your feedback shapes what comes next.
Browser-based. No download required. Works on desktop.
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