🏗️ Watch me rake leaves

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

🧱 Welcome to Real Civil Newsletter - the only newsletter where we defy gravity, roast architects, and rake virtual leaves in the name of science.

This week we’re bending space in Graviton Grid, admiring Roman plumbing that still works better than modern “design-builds,” and reviewing a Spanish bridge so slippery it comes with its own safety disclaimer. There’s also indie games, engineering news, Paddy’s latest discovery, and a reminder that civil engineers remain undefeated in both structure and sarcasm.

So grab your hard hat (and maybe a rake), because things are about to get weirdly educational.

Let’s dive into it 👇

This week, we’re giving away THREE copies of Graviton Grid! ⚙️🛰️

If you’ve ever wanted to bend gravity and defy physics, this is your moment. Prepare for isometric puzzles that twist space, time, and your sanity in equal measure.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… 🥁

🏆 WINNER: droftrop0 🏆
🏆 WINNER: dominik.brechtl 🏆
🏆 WINNER: kafferinee.1234 🏆

Check your email for your game key and get ready to start engineering the impossible. 🧠🔩

Missed out? Don’t worry, there’s always another giveaway on the horizon.

Want a shot at the next one? Vote for a bridge in this week’s poll! 🌉✨

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

While architects were busy arguing about whether columns should be “Doric or Ionic,” the Romans were out there casually defying gravity, and doing plumbing before plumbing was cool.

The Aqueduct of Segovia, built around the 1st century AD, is an engineering mic drop that’s still standing after nearly 2,000 years. It’s made from about 25,000 granite blocks, stacked without a single drop of mortar.

Each of those stones was precisely shaped and wedged together so perfectly that even earthquakes, wars, and the occasional pigeon haven’t managed to take it down. The water flowed from the Frío River over 15 km away, using nothing but gravity and math.

And let’s appreciate this: the aqueduct didn’t just look good, it worked. It delivered 20–30 liters of water per person per day, kept the city alive, and did it all with stone tools and pure engineering swagger.

Architects? They’d probably want to “reimagine” it today with exposed concrete, a juice bar, and “inspired minimalism.” Meanwhile, the Roman engineers just shrug from the afterlife:
👉 “Ours still works, mate.”

⚡ Cool Links

⚙️ Engineering & Infrastructure

• Institution of Civil Engineers launches exciting new strategy to shape the future of infrastructure  
  The ICE has just unveiled a five-year strategy (announced 30 October 2025) that sets out how the profession will deliver infrastructure that is safe, inclusive, resilient and digitally enabled, tapping into AI, digital twins and sustainability.

• Railway re-opens between Tunbridge Wells, Hastings and Bexhill following £9 m upgrade
  The UK’s Network Rail completed a £9 million programme of essential works on the line between Tunbridge Wells, Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea: 25 separate projects at five sites, including 1 km of new rail, low-carbon sleepers, thousands of tonnes of new ballast, tunnel-cutting stabilisation and more.

• Ground Engineering: what’s on in November 2025 and beyond
  A weekly roundup of geotechnical and infrastructure events (published ~7 days ago), signals what’s coming in the subsurface domain: soil nails, ground stabilisation, tunnelling etc.

🎮 Gaming & Indie Update

• Upcoming indie games for 2025 and beyond
  A broad overview of promising indie games dropping in 2025 (and beyond), including titles like The Berlin Apartment (Nov 17) and Goodnight Universe.

• “Games Release Radar: November 2025”
  A curated list of game releases scheduled for November 2025: e.g., Cairn (Nov 5), I Hate This Place (Nov 7).

• “The old-school garbage-themed JRPG love-letter I’ve had my eye on … ‘made with love, by real janitors’”
  The indie title Kingdoms of the Dump launches 18 Nov 2025: SNES-style JRPG, set in a fantasy world of garbage, developed by two real-life janitors.

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

Paddy found a football!!!

One from the archive!

As subscriber Loriethalion said… “His little head shake is so adorable! <3”

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

This week, I discovered Leaf It Alone, a game so simple, it’s literally about raking leaves… and somehow, it’s one of the most satisfying things I’ve played all year.
I started out cleaning my yard one leaf at a time and ended up in a secret underground lab run by tree people. Don’t ask, just rake.
Come watch me hit peak engineer energy, optimizing leaf collection like it’s a civil project bid.

🎥 They made a game about raking leaves (and it’s amazing!)

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

Behold: the Zubizuri Bridge, Bilbao’s shiny white, “don’t-slip-or-die” footbridge, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava.

Structurally? Overqualified. Functionally? A public liability claim waiting to happen.

It’s a graceful steel arch with a 70-metre span, elegantly supported by suspension cables and covered in glass floor panels, because apparently architects think pedestrians enjoy the constant thrill of almost eating pavement. The city eventually had to install a carpet to stop people from sliding their way into the river.

Credit where it’s due: the tension system is beautiful, the geometry clean, and the arch efficiency chef’s kiss. But the surface friction coefficient? Let’s just say… it’s more “architectural statement” than “civilly engineered solution.”

Final score: 6.3 / 10
Spectacular to look at, terrible to walk on, the perfect metaphor for architecture.