Build a structure that bears the load on budget, pick the right materials, because a barely-passing build fatigues and fails.
Each challenge gives you a span, a target load, a budget and a fatigue goal, plus a set of member slots. For every slot you choose a material and a cross-section while a live view shows the structure sagging under load. Stay within budget and carry the load, then run a static test or a fatigue test, a build that only just passes static will fail under repeated loading.
Gridwork is a structural-engineering game about material choice, safety factors and fatigue, balancing strength, cost and failure.
Choosing a material and cross-section for every member against a span, a load, a budget and a fatigue goal is structural design with the real trade-offs intact.
Including fatigue as a separate goal from strength is the original rigour.
That distinction is the one amateurs miss. A member strong enough to carry a load indefinitely can still fail after enough load cycles, because fatigue accumulates damage below the yield stress — which is why bridges are designed for a service life rather than merely for a weight.
Gridwork is an original structural-engineering game about material choice, safety factors and fatigue. It's free to play in your browser with no install.