And yes, I was actually kind of inspired by Fallout 3 for the opening scene.
I’ve always been a big Fallout fan, ever since the first games, and the opening scene in Fallout 3, for me, is one of the cleverest ways to start a game I’ve seen so far.
The point I’m trying to get to here is that if I do manage to consistently work on this game for the next couple of months or so, don’t be surprised when progress suddenly stalls and I fall off the face of the earth for a month once November 10th rolls around.
I’ll try to have both the local assembly and internship chapters done by then, though, so you folks have something to play around with while I’m gone.
Have you played any other government/political sim games? The classic ones I’ve played are choice based, and playing them might give some insight or some design tricks for your game. These are all free.
Hidden Agenda - I really like this one. It forces you to think about your decisions, and it does an excellent job of capturing just how little power a politician can have.
Floor 13 - A bit silly, but also worth your time. You will die a lot.
NationStates - A browser game. Unlike Hidden Agenda, it does not force you to think.
There are others. Perhaps someone who is more into this genre than I am could give recommend them.
One thing these games have in common: they accommodate players who want to dramatically change their politics or strategy mid-stream, something a lot of choice games don’t do well. This can be an important feature in games about managing power and politics, so you might want to find a way to incorporate it.
Haha, whoops. As it turns out I accidentally started editing the dropbox copy instead of my local copy!
I re-edited the dropbox copy to only bring you up to the end of the prologue. Sorry about that!
While I’m here, though, I wanted to get some opinions on something I’ve been thinking about:
I was curious as to whether you folks think I should fold Religious/Secular and Nativist/Multicultural into the Traditionalist/Progressive dichotomy. I feel like it might be a bit redundant. At the same time, though, I feel like there might be some issues that encompass being a religious progressive, or a secular traditionalist, or something like that. Maybe take religious/secular and put it into the personality traits?
I think it would add a lot of value to your game but it would also take a lot of time and effort to do it right. I would be willing to wait for those valuable additions to be made but others might grow impatient.
After giving it some thought there should be scenes from our childhood so we feel more attached to the character and it also let’s us get to develop their personality. Like a generous elite kid or a ruthless poor one.
Great concept, You had me hooked straight away and I spent way to long trying to decide my university major and extra curricular activites. Keep in up your doing great!!
It is really a great idea that one of the city location. That will really add dynamic and replay value to the game.
To be honest, I was referring to the boost of attributes early on in the game for self-interest reasons. Considering that the political spectrum of european and north american politics is very different (the european center-left in USA would probably be easily the socialists, the european right-wing would possibly be the center or even some quadrants of the center-left in USA), my political beliefs would be rather to the left in America (easily in line with the green party), so I’m a little bit afraid that left-wing europeans that would really like to play this game need to wait until the late stages of the game to reach the desired stats.
But I believe that the option that you are talking about (give a moderate boost to which side we would prefer right after the beginning of the political career) would really contribute to solve that issue.
Thanks for the time and for the excellent work so far.
I believe that you should try to maintain the distinction between Religious/Secular and Traditionalist/Progressive. A person can be completely secular (believing that religion should’t play an official role in political life), and still be traditionalist when it comes to issues like abortion or gay marriage.
In relation to the Nativist/Multicuralist, I think that it would make sense to be absorbed into Traditionalist/Progressive stat. I think that ultimately, a “Nativist” person is in essence a conservative, and a Multicuralist a progressive. Those two stats can easily be put together.
I dont expect you plan to put Communists here heh ?
Can you atleast try to allow for Sanders like orientation (socialist) ?
Edit: also i would like to betatest this.
Im European but i know few things about American Politics and History. so i could perhaps help to make game more accesible to europeans without dumbing it down ? Since it will be In Usa and not Unidetified Flying country(could resists ) it will obviously have refences
As a fellow European I feel the same thing. There are many europeans playing these kind of games, it would really add value to the game to guarantee that a certain degree of accessibility to them is guaranteed. This being said, we need to have in mind that having certain political ideologies in the USA is a big barrier to a successful career in politics, and that those same ideologies are completly normal in Europe (such as being a socialist or a communist), and are well represented in our parliaments. That sense of “americanism” should not be lost, just (maybe) a little bit toned down.
Also found bugs.
Upper Middle Class it doesnt allow zou to choose Student goverment or sport team. it simply doesnt react to Yes answer. essentially choose yes or no it flings you back to choice menu.
Well communism is straight out but Socialism is not. of coursse not in 90s but in 2020s ? i dont think so Look at Sanders its rather tame compared to European socialists but it is here
Yes, socialism should be an option, Sanders is, like you said, a good example of it. But it should still be very difficult for a socialist politician to reach the White House. I think that the degree of difficulty inherent to that is already present in the game in the form of an independent politician, so your idea has “legs” to advance if @jacklyn044 wants it to, it is “just” a matter of giving the player the option to defend socialist policies along his career as an independent or even as a Green Party politician.
[quote=“ruhenri, post:51, topic:12075, full:true”]so I’m a little bit afraid that left-wing europeans that would really like to play this game need to wait until the late stages of the game to reach the desired stats.
[/quote]
Oh, come on. Don’t you want to play a far-right ultra-nationalist paleoconservative theocrat?
I dont expect you plan to put Communists here heh ?
Can you atleast try to allow for Sanders like orientation (socialist) ?[/quote]
There will certainly be options to go far-left in the game, although you won’t necessarily be able to go full communist or fully nationalized economy. I’m planning on allowing radical leftists in their presidency to try to push for nationalizing energy industries and the such.
I’m honestly considering it - It would be a super ultimate challenge to pull off, but it would involve repealing the 22nd amendment, and then passing an assortment of other laws that would solidify power into the executive branch and ensure your continued re-election. If I do implement this, it will easily be the most challenging thing to do, far beyond just being elected as a socialist/independent/third party candidate.
Pushing the nation towards dictatorship or communism sound like some challenging achievements, but they’d make for fun playthroughs. If you do decide to add them, I agree that they should be extremely difficult.
) it will obviously have refences