Oil Game Story
The Oil Game Story icon: a man in a hat, seen from behind, watching his derrick against the sun.

For iPhone and iPad

Build an oil company, from 1900.

Oil Game Story is a calm management game. Lease the land, drill the wells, and watch the cheques come in, from the first gusher on the Gulf Coast to the shale boom and beyond.

Coming to the App Store How it plays
Where it starts
1900
Oil basins to work
12
Internet needed
None

One hill, 130 years

Everyone says there is nothing under it

Texas, 1900. You have twenty-five thousand dollars and a hunch. The game follows one company, and one man in one hat, from the first timber derrick to whatever comes after 2030.

A painted scene from the game: a man in a broad hat, seen from behind with his hands on his hips, looks at a timber derrick on a low hill of yellow grass. The sun stands behind the top of the derrick.
  1. The hill in 1900: open prairie and one timber derrick.
    1900The Gusher Age
  2. The same hill in 1912, crowded with timber derricks.
    1912Boomtowns
  3. The same hill in 1930 under a grey sky, with storage tanks among the derricks.
    1930Glut and War
  4. The same hill in 1946: the derricks are gone and pumpjacks nod in a row.
    1946The Steady Years
  5. The same hill in 1973 at sunset, with tall steel rigs at work.
    1973Shock and Boom
  6. The same hill in 1986 under flat grey light, the rigs laid down in a yard.
    1986The Long Bust
  7. The hill in 1990: one modern rig standing alone in the grass.
    1990Going Sideways
  8. The same hill in 2012: a big rig on a wide pad, at the height of the shale boom.
    2012The shale boom
  9. The same hill in 2015: a tidy pad, tanks, and hardly anyone about.
    2015Discipline
  10. The hill in 2031: the same man in the same hat, a modern well, wind turbines far off.
    2031Beyond the Horizon

The same hill in each era of the game. Painted for the game’s scenes.

01How it plays

A few good decisions, then the wait

You are the one who decides: which land, which well, how big a share. Then the rig goes to work and the days go by. It is a game to have open while you do something else, and to look at when the well comes in.

  1. 01Lease

    Read the land

    A whole country, and hardly any of it has seen a drill. Pick a basin, then a section, and take the lease before someone else does.

    The map of the Lower 48 in 1904, with each oil basin marked and the company's home on the Gulf Coast.

  2. 02Drill

    Approve the well, and name it

    Your people say what they think of the ground. You sign the paperwork, give the well a name, and decide whether to keep it all or bring in partners.

    The paperwork for a new well: its name, how many to drill, your share, the chance of oil and what it costs.

  3. 03Wait

    Mind the office

    The rig turns, the calendar turns, and the price of oil is chalked on the board. Out of the window, the wells you have drilled so far.

    The company's office: a window on the oil field, a wall map of the basin, the calendar, and the work in hand.

  4. 04Collect

    Watch the money come in

    A cheque on the first of every month, the books in plain words, and a line that goes up when you have done it right.

    The money page: net worth over the years, and last month's books line by line.

02The land

Dear and likely, or cheap and far

Oil lies in fields, so the best sign there is, is a producing well next door. Everyone knows that, and the price of the land says so. The thinking is yours.

Beside a find
Likely, and dear. The field probably runs on under the fence. The landowner thinks so too.
Empty country
A cheap long shot. Nobody has drilled near here. Most such wells are dry, and the one that is not starts a land rush of your own. A long shot is the place for partners.
Untried rock
Nobody knows. There is deeper rock under the old fields that no one has found oil in yet. The first well into it costs more, and your people are guessing.

The lease you sign in 1905 covers every layer under it. What that is worth, the next hundred years will say.

03The moments

Now and then, something worth stopping for

Most of the game is quiet. A few times in a century it is not: the first gusher, the day the drill turned sideways, the afternoon oil was worth less than nothing.

  1. Oil bursts over the top of a timber derrick at sunset. Three of the crew throw up their arms, and a hat is in the air.
    The first gusher. She’s in.
  2. The man in the hat, seen from behind, with one hand on the iron wheel of a wellhead. Derricks stand in the field beyond.
    1931. Too much oil. Turn it down, and keep going.
  3. A filling station at dusk in autumn, with a line of cars waiting that runs out of the picture.
    October 1973. The line ran out of sight.
  4. The ground cut open in layers. A well goes straight down past the old shallow wells, then turns and runs along a dark layer of rock.
    1990. The bit turns. The industry waits.
  5. North America at night seen from orbit, with a new patch of light on the dark northern plains.
    2012. Now they can see the field from space.
  6. Storage tanks by a harbour and a tanker waiting offshore. The man in the hat sits on a pipe with his back to us.
    April 2020. Full tanks, and a ship waiting offshore.

From the scenes in the game. There are thirty-two of them, about ten minutes in all, and none is ever forced on you.

04The years

A century of oil, and what comes after

The price of oil, the booms and the busts are the real ones. The companies are not: every rival in the game is an invention with a silly name.

  1. 1900The Gusher Age

    Cable-tool rigs, cheap leases, and a well on a low hill that changes everything.

  2. 1912Boomtowns

    New basins open one after another, each with its tent city.

  3. 1930Glut and War

    Too much oil, a dime a barrel, and the states decide what a well may produce.

  4. 1946The Steady Years

    Deeper rigs, and a second life for old fields.

  5. 1973Shock and Boom

    The price goes up like a derrick. Everyone borrows.

  6. 1986The Long Bust

    The price comes down. The bank would like a word.

  7. 1990Going Sideways

    The first wells turn and run along the rock.

  8. 2000The Shale Revolution

    The rock everyone drilled through for eighty years turns out to be the prize.

  9. 2015Discipline

    Spacing, parent and child wells, and shareholders who want their money back.

  10. 2031Beyond the Horizon

    The game does not end. Neither does the looking.

There is oil under there.

Oil Game Story is on its way to iPhone and iPad.

Coming to the App Store