How Square Town works — the complete rulebook

The whole rulebook in plain English. It's long because it's complete, not because the game is complicated.

Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall: a grid of 1×1 squares where each square costs $1, one time, and shows the favicon of a URL you paste. You pick your own cell. Anyone can take your square by paying double what you paid; anyone can kiss your icon for free to stop it fading; the wall grows outward whenever the live area is 70 % full. No accounts, no subscriptions, no uploads.

At a glance

Rule	Value
Price per square	$1, one-time (Stripe, card)
Square Town size	always 1×1 — no sizes
What you submit	a URL only; the favicon is fetched for you
The Throne	4×4 dead centre, $100 intro, one owner
Eviction	pay 2× what the current owner paid; the next evictor pays 2× yours
Kiss the icon	free, anyone; 90 days without a kiss → grayscale
Live area at launch	central 16×16; +8 cells each side at 70 % full, up to 1024×1024
Proof of ownership	a secret deed URL (no login)
Analytics	views, clicks, kisses free; per-day breakdown $5 once
Live updates	WebSockets to every open browser; 30 s polling fallback

How to buy a square#

The form is one field. The rest is choosing where to stand.

1. Open the wall at square.pov.town. You'll see the currently live area (16×16 at launch); the locked rest of the 1024×1024 grid is hidden so the wall never looks empty. Empty cells show trees and lakes.
2. Pick a cell. Hover an empty cell (it highlights) and click it — tap on touch. That exact cell is the one you're buying. Location is the game: next to the Throne, in a corner, beside a rival — your call.
3. Paste your URL. Type yoursite.com (with or without https://). Square Town resolves the domain, drops a leading www., and previews the favicon in the field within about a third of a second. There is nothing to upload — the icon comes from Google's favicon service.
4. Pay $1. Press Pay (or Enter). You're sent to Stripe Checkout; the price is $1, one-time. Your cell is reserved for 30 minutes while you pay — other visitors see it as "someone is buying that square right now". If you don't finish, the reservation lapses and the cell is free again.
5. Come back with a deed. Stripe returns you to the wall with ?deed=<token> in the URL. That secret deed link is your only proof of ownership — bookmark it. It also lands under the "My deeds" button in that browser. Confetti happens. Everyone else's open wall shows your buy live.
6. Get checked for a favicon. Right after payment Square Town asks Google's favicon service for your icon. If it answers 404, you're a clown until you fix it (see below).

Optional after that: kiss your own icon now and then, watch your views and clicks on the deed page, and keep an eye on the live feed for the day someone pays $2 to take your spot.

What a square is#

Every square is one cell of the 1024×1024 grid, 1×1, $1. There are no 2×2s, no 10×10 blocks, no "premium sizes" — the only exception is the Throne (below). A square shows exactly one thing: the favicon of the URL you gave. Click a favicon and a card opens with the domain, when it arrived, its views, clicks and kisses, and buttons to visit, kiss, or evict.

Clicking "Visit" goes through /go/:id, a 302 redirect that counts the click and adds utm_source=square.pov.town&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=square to your URL so you can see the wall in your own analytics. It is a redirect, not a link on a page — Square Town gives you visitors, not link equity.

The Throne#

The 4×4 block at the exact centre of the wall (cells 510–513 on both axes) is the Throne: a gold tile with a crown, one owner, the first thing every visitor's eye lands on. Its introductory price is $100. Whoever holds it can be evicted like anyone else, for double the last price paid — so $100 becomes $200, then $400, $800, $1,600 and so on. It prices itself.

The one-cell ring around the Throne is its aura. Nobody may build there; try and you get a buzz and a message about the aura being too strong. It keeps the crown from being crowded.

Evictions#

Any paid square can be taken by anyone, at any time, by paying double what the current owner paid for it. The evictor takes the exact cell; the evicted site's status becomes "evicted", its /go/ link stops working, and its deed page gets an EVICTED stamp ("thoughts and prayers"). The eviction is announced in the live feed to every open browser: "💀 newsite.com evicted oldsite.com for $2".

The escalation is the point. You paid $1; evicting you costs $2; evicting the evictor costs $4; then $8, $16, $32. A spot that people actually fight over becomes too expensive to fight over, and it settles. Two people can't evict the same square at once — the first checkout reserves it for 30 minutes and the second is told "someone is already evicting this square. Vultures everywhere."

Evicted owners are not refunded. You bought a square on a wall whose rulebook says any square can be evicted for double. If you want to make eviction unattractive, be somewhere unremarkable — or be so popular that nobody dares. Read the economics of eviction for what that means in practice.

Kiss the icon#

Icons want attention. Any icon that goes 90 days without a kiss fades to grayscale with a small 💔 in the corner — still owned, still clickable, just visibly unloved. Anyone can kiss any icon: click the favicon, press "💋 Kiss this icon". It's free, it's public (the feed says things like "a stranger kissed yoursite.com. Out of respect, presumably"), it's counted, and it resets the 90-day clock. A kiss plays its little 💋 burst on every open browser, not just yours.

Kissing your own icon is allowed and expected. Kissing rivals' icons out of pity is also allowed. See kiss the icon: decay explained.

Ring unlocking: how the wall grows#

Only the central 16×16 is live at launch. Each time the paid squares cover 70 % of the live area, the wall grows by 8 cells in every direction: 16×16 → 32×32 → 48×48 → 64×64 … up to the full 1024×1024, which is 1,048,576 squares. Unlocking is announced in the feed ("🔓 RING UNLOCKED! The wall just grew to 32x32") and pushed to every open browser instantly.

The locked area is never drawn, and the default view fits exactly the live area, so the wall looks full-ish from day one and never like a million empty pixels. Scarcity is real inside the live ring: cells near the centre are the ones everyone can see without zooming, and they run out first. Newly unlocked rings are the cheap frontier — still $1, just further out.

Hall of Clowns#

When a purchase completes, Square Town asks Google's favicon service for the domain's icon. HTTP 200 means you have one; 404 means you don't, and your square shows a 🤡 instead of an icon, plus a public listing in the Hall of Clowns in the side panel. A transient failure leaves you unmarked. Add a favicon to your site, then click your square (or open your deed) and press "I fixed my favicon — recheck". If the icon now resolves you leave the Hall with a "🎈 escaped" line in the feed. Rechecks are free and unthrottled. If you don't know how, read how to add a favicon.

Deeds: proof of ownership without accounts#

There are no accounts on Square Town. When you buy, you get a deed: a page at /deed.html?token=… whose token is a random secret. It's a certificate showing the domain, plot number and coordinates, price paid, date held since, views, clicks, kisses, and status (in good standing or evicted). The deed link is the only proof of ownership. Lose it and it's gone — there is no password reset because there is no password.

The "📜 My deeds" button on the wall lists deeds bought in this browser (kept in localStorage, validated against the server) as a convenience copy. It's not an account; clear your browser data and the list is gone, though the deed links themselves keep working.

Views, clicks, kisses — and the $5 analytics unlock#

Every square counts three things, all free and visible on its card and deed:

• Views — someone opened your square's card on the wall. Counted once per square per browser session.
• Clicks — someone actually went to your site via /go/:id.
• Kisses — someone pressed 💋.

For $5, one time, the deed page unlocks per-day analytics: a table of views and clicks per day (the most recent 30 days with activity), forever, no subscription. Nothing else is behind a paywall.

The wall is 3D#

Top-down, the wall is a classic 2D grid. It's actually a three.js scene seen through an orthographic camera, and ctrl+drag (on touch: two-finger drag up; twist two fingers to rotate) tilts the camera into 3D. In 3D each favicon becomes a tower whose height is its click count — zero clicks is a flat tile, height grows with each click and tops out at 30 clicks — with sides tinted by the icon's dominant colour. Empty cells have trees and lakes (a fish jumps now and then); a shadow-casting sun follows your local time of day, so the wall looks different at 07:00 and 22:00; every so often a V of birds or a slow hot-air balloon crosses overhead. Why bother? See why the wall is 3D.

Controls and URL parameters#

URL parameters set the starting view or open things directly:

Live feed, boards, theme, sound#

The top-right panel has two tabs. Live feed shows the last 20 events — buys, evictions, kisses, unlocks, clowns joining and escaping — updated instantly over a WebSocket to every open browser, with a 30-second poll as fallback if the socket drops. Below it sits the Hall of Clowns. 🏆 Boards ranks squares: Kiss of the World (most kissed), Clickbait Royalty (most clicked), Eye Candy (most viewed); click a row to jump to that square. The panel collapses and remembers it.

Dark and light themes follow your OS until you press 🌙/☀️, after which your choice is remembered. Sound effects (a kiss, an eviction, a purchase) can be muted with 🔊. The 3D wall needs JavaScript and WebGL.

The rules, in one table#

FAQ#

How much does a square on Square Town cost?#

$1, one-time, paid by card through Stripe. Every square is 1×1; there are no sizes and no subscription. Details on the pricing page.

Can I choose where my square goes?#

Yes — you click the exact empty cell you want inside the currently live area. Only the Throne (4×4 centre) and its one-cell aura ring are off limits.

What happens if someone evicts me?#

They pay double what you paid, take your cell, and the feed announces it. Your deed shows "evicted", your /go/ link stops working, and you are not refunded. The next evictor would pay double their price.

How do I stop my icon fading?#

Get it kissed at least once every 90 days. Anyone can do it — click the favicon, press 💋 — including you.

When does the wall get bigger?#

When paid squares cover 70 % of the live area, it grows by 8 cells in every direction (16×16 → 32×32 → 48×48 …), up to 1024×1024.

Do I need an account?#

No. Ownership is a secret deed URL you get after paying. Bookmark it; there is no login or password reset.

Is Square Town good for SEO or backlinks?#

No. Clicks are 302 redirects through /go/:id, and the wall is a WebGL canvas. Square Town is visibility to a niche audience and a game, not link equity.

How do I see the wall in 3D?#

Hold ctrl and drag (two-finger drag up on touch). Towers are as tall as their click count; the sun follows your local time.