Owlglass

Games that hold up a mirror

Every joke here is built from something real: the habits of real rulers, the choices of real people, the patterns of real bestsellers.

The Perfect Autocrat

Give yourself a ridiculous name, found a nation, and rule it with the real habits of history's vainest autocrats.

Every habit is true · about 10 minutes Play

Are You a Saint, a Tyrant or a Gladiator?

Forget astrology. Face ten situations, choose what you'd do, and find out which historical type you are.

Every choice is real · 5 minutes Play

Write an Instant Bestseller

Plot a bestseller from the parts every bestseller is made of, keep your test readers, pay the rent, then survive the reviews, Hollywood and your mom.

Seventeen ways it can end · about 20 minutes Play

Who is Owlglass?

Till Eulenspiegel is a prankster in old German tales. In German, Eule means owl and Spiegel means mirror. In English he became Owlglass: an owl and a glass, the old word for a mirror. The picture on the first page of his book, printed about 500 years ago, shows him holding an owl and a mirror.

In one tale, a German prince hires him to paint the great hall. He leaves the walls bare, then announces that anyone born outside marriage can't see the painting. The prince and his court stand in front of the blank wall and admire it rather than admit they see nothing.

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