LAWS screen: thirty laws as fifteen opposed pairs

About this game

Developer: Mohawk Games · Publisher: Hooded Horse · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Stylized 3D · Screen type: Government / Policy / Laws

More Old World screens in the Gallery

What to study

A civics tree built as an argument with itself: every law in Old World is one half of an opposed pair, Slavery or Freedom, Tyranny or Constitution, Monotheism or Polytheism, Autarky or Trade League, so the grid's layout is the game's thesis, that a state is defined as much by what it refuses. The state language is purely visual: gold and ticked means enacted, lit means available, dark and padlocked means not yet, and the only numbers are the yield footers that price each pair at a glance. Keeping the resource bar, the victory race and the Ambitions tracker visible around the modal makes the opportunity cost concrete, the FREEDOM ambition sits at 0/1 in the corner while its law waits unenacted in the grid. Frame at about 1:09 in the Announcement Trailer (Steam), a scene-change survivor (v0_0025 at 68.79s, the run's one similar-band flag) inspected at full resolution in this prep; the same screen 1.2s earlier (v0_0024) is held as an alternate because its centre EPICS cost-confirmation modal obscures two pairs.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

panel-grid detail-panel top-bar

Components

Parts on screen.

Card Grid Portrait Resource bar

Screen inventory

• the full grid, five rows of three opposed pairs, each pair two medallion cards joined at a centre node: EPICS / EXPLORATION (with an orange ! alert on the join), SLAVERY / FREEDOM, CENTRALIZATION / VASSALAGE, TYRANNY / CONSTITUTION, COLONIES / (locked pair), MONOTHEISM / POLYTHEISM, DIVINE RULE / LEGAL CODE, TOLERANCE / ORTHODOXY, PROFESSIONAL ARMY / VOLUNTEERS, PHILOSOPHY / ENGINEERING, ICONOGRAPHY / CALLIGRAPHY, PILGRIMAGE / HOLY WAR, GUILDS / ELITES, AUTARKY / TRADE LEAGUE, COIN DEBASEMENT / MONETARY REFORM
• state is read by light, not labels: enacted laws glow amber with a gold tick (SLAVERY, VASSALAGE, CONSTITUTION), available laws sit lit but unticked, and locked pairs are dimmed behind a padlock medallion on the join
• small yield footers price the pairs in the game's own currencies: EXPLORATION +10, FREEDOM +10, CONSTITUTION -10, LEGAL CODE +30, HOLY WAR +40, GUILDS +50, ELITES +20, COIN DEBASEMENT +20, the cost of a constitution is visible from the grid, no click needed
• the screen never fully leaves the game: the top resource bar and YEAR 62 / 200 race (39/73 Rome, 30/73 Greece, 29/73 Egypt) stay on top, and the right edge keeps the three leader portraits and the AMBITIONS (1/10) tracker (Enact Freedom 0/1, Build The Oracle 0/1, Discover Eight Technologies 0/8), Enact Freedom is an ambition while FREEDOM sits unenacted in the grid

Top 3 colors

#201714 22%#898376 18%#2b231d 17%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Mohawk Games / Hooded Horse, Old World screenshot: Old World - Announcement Trailer video (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Hooded Horse.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-21. verified 2026-10-21: scene-change survivor v0_0025.png (68.79s) inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080) in this prep; similar-band flag resolved against v0_0024 at full res (same screen, earlier modal state); keeper file laws-grid.png is a byte copy of that survivor

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-21); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.