Doodle Empires

About

Doodle Empires is a single player turn-based strategy game with medieval and historical themes. It was developed by Turtle Stack Games and was released on May 30, 2025. It received very positive reviews from players.

Doodle Empires is an alternate history sandbox game all about drawing your own nations with your own histories and stories in a variety of maps. Watch your world take shape and evolve over time, and decide which nations will rise and which nations will fall. How to play:1. Create your first nation by selecting a border color and typing up a name 2. Draw the borders of your new nation onto the m…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

94%

Audience ScoreBased on 805 reviews

gameplay8 positive mentions

stability29 negative mentions

Highly creative and relaxing sandbox experience for map painting and worldbuilding, allowing players to create and simulate their own nations and empires.
Simple and easy to learn gameplay with great replayability; appealing especially to fans of geography, history, and alternative history scenarios.
Frequent updates and an active community contribute to incremental improvements and mod support, including custom maps and scenarios. Great value for its niche audience.

Current state includes numerous bugs and glitches that can break gameplay, such as softlocks, save/load issues, and repetitive split mechanics not respecting user settings.
Performance issues including lag spikes and slow saving/loading diminish the overall experience, especially on less powerful systems.
Lacks content depth and gameplay modes; repetitive card draw mechanics, absence of multiplayer, and poor UI/UX make it frustrating for some players without heavy imagination or tolerance for bugs.

stability
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is widely criticized for being buggy and unstable, with frequent glitches affecting core mechanics, save functionality, and overall playability. While some acknowledge its potential and ongoing updates, the current state often leads to frustration and disrupted gameplay. Stability improvements are needed for a smoother experience.
- “For right now this game is buggy as hell, I have lost several saves because the game won't let me do something needed to continue. Either city placement bugs cause repetitive placement or inability to place forts leads to game-breaking bugs.”
- “Broken mechanics and constant glitches make it frustrating to play.”
- “Would be good but it's very buggy, with bugs like selecting a nation or fulfilling a card being broken almost every game, making it very hard to play.”
gameplay
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
59%
11%
The gameplay offers an engaging foundation with unique mechanics and the ability to build and shape empires, but it is often criticized for repetitive card-drawing, lack of AI-driven decisions, and some frustrating broken mechanics. Many players enjoy its depth and potential but desire new features like alliances, government types, and more polished mechanics to enhance long-term enjoyment. Overall, the gameplay is fun yet rough around the edges, with room for improvement and expansion.
- “Though the game is rough looking, its gameplay is very fun and being able to build little empires and have the game decide their fate is entertaining.”
- “So fun to play and has a lot of unique gameplay.”
- “Being able to easily create my own history, my own countries, build and crumble empires, and achieve a respectable amount of depth in terms of mechanics and tools for lore.”
- “The design is horrible and I think the gameplay is horrendous.”
- “Every time I play this it cannot be fun; the system of getting random cards is so annoying. Yes, that might be the core mechanic, but it is just bad. Very disappointed.”
- “Broken mechanics and constant glitches make it frustrating to play.”
story
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
50%
19%
The game lacks a traditional, structured story but offers a strong foundation for storytelling and roleplay, allowing players to create their own narratives. Its random elements act more like a story generator, providing freedom and potential for imaginative nation and lore development, though occasional gameplay mechanics can interrupt player-driven stories.
- “And with some good storytelling and a nice imagination, this game can genuinely be extremely enjoyable.”
- “A lot of freedom and huge potential for future storylines.”
- “The game is really good for developing your own story for nations and country lore.”
- “No story”
- “It does get annoying sometimes when you are trying to tell a story and the game just keeps overwriting your religion which you cannot say no to from what I have tried at least.”
- “Honestly, I would call it more of a 'story generator' than a 'game' exactly since a lot of what you do is fairly random due to the card system.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
Users generally appreciate the game's music, finding it enjoyable and a nice complement to the gameplay, though some note repetition and suggest adding more sound effects or varied tracks. The music adds flavor without altering the game's style, and many enjoy having it play in the background.
- “Furthermore, it also has amazing music.”
- “Nice music and good graphics.”
- “Imma have it on in the background just for the music...”
- “Some music repeats itself too often, which gets repetitive during gameplay.”
- “It would be nice to add some flavor to the graphics with animations or even music without changing the style.”
- “While you can play whatever music you want, I would like to see some in-game sound added.”
graphics
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The graphics receive mixed feedback, with some users praising the visual style and educational appeal, while others criticize performance issues and lack of animation or dynamic elements. Overall, the graphics are appreciated for their thematic design but could benefit from smoother performance and added visual enhancements.
- “A little bit of flavor to the graphics without changing the style, like animations or even music, would be nice too.”
- “Nice music and good graphics.”
- “I like to be a nerd about this kind of stuff, so this game has dropped me into a whole new world of studying history and historical nations and peoples, as well as geography and geographical sites and quirks.”
- “I really should not be having constant lag spikes on this simple game. How much spaghetti coding is there for this to be the one game I have frequent lag spikes with, compared to more graphical games?”
- “Visuals and UI design are terrible, as bad as it gets.”
- “A little bit of flavor to the graphics without changing the style, like animations or even music, would be nice.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The game currently suffers from basic and sometimes poor optimization, with past issues around features like the randomizing button and save files. While some problems appear to have been addressed, overall it still requires significant optimization improvements.
- “Good but needs some serious optimization.”
- “The game is great, it just needs optimization.”
- “For $7 USD... very basic, poorly optimized and buggy.”
- “Poorly optimized.”
- “I have unfortunately encountered a handful of optimization issues in the past, specifically relating to the randomizing button and creating save files, but it seems like those issues have been fixed from what I've heard.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
Grinding in the game is notably time-consuming and can feel tedious, requiring significant player effort. Some users suggest features like a scenario editor to reduce repetitive tasks and streamline gameplay setup.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “A lot of the heavy lifting is on the player, however, and it can be at times tedious.”
- “It can be tedious relying on the draw-a-card mechanic for scenario setup, making it hard to create specific scenarios like WWII.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the game humorously entertaining, appreciating its comedic elements during gameplay, especially when managing unexpected empire divisions. The funny paint style also adds to the overall amusement.
- “It's a very funny game as you can be expanding an empire then you must divide 8 times in a row.”
- “Funny paint game.”
- “Funny.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has seen significant improvements over time, enhancing its replayability and making it more engaging than in earlier stages.
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews do not provide specific information about the game's monetization, focusing instead on gameplay enjoyment and appeal to mapping enthusiasts.