Democracy - the game

[Sharpieman]

Just stumbled on a fun little game. You can try out a demo, I think people who like political games might be interested.

hxxp://www.positech.co.uk/democracy/faq.html

I bought the game after fooling around with it for awhile. Half of my choice hindered on the actual fun factor of the game, the other half was because the "company" is just one guy making the games and I like to support indy developers. ;)

[Galaril]

Thanks I downloaded this it is afun game. i only hope they add China and a few middle east countires the country choices are rather limited up to now.It is alittle like the old Shadow Presidents game

[Runtheball]

The demo looks great.
It's interesting to put your political & economic views into practice, then see if the crowds lynch you or love you.
I'll probably buy it.

[cody8200]

Yeh I played the demo about a week ago and liked it quite a bit. I've just been to busy lately to actually buy it. Anyway, its always good to see small dev. make cool games.

[Ben E Lou]

I bought this a few days ago. Pretty cool game. First patch came out today. You gotta love this readme. Notice the disclaimer and license sections. They definitely don't take themselves too seriously. :p

Version: 1.0.1

developers website: www.positech.co.uk
support: [email protected]

In case of technical issues:
===========================
visit the support pages of our website at www.positech.co.uk

disclaimer:
==========
we make no warranty whatsoever that this software is safe to run on any machine. even though is almost entirely impossible that our software would cause you any problems, we accept no responsibility if it indirectly burns down your house or causes you to spontaneously combust or any other problems of any kind whatsoever. You run it at your own risk.
But seriously, it doesn't do anything clever, it doesn't even use the registry. The chances of this game interfering with other software you have is
pretty much zero.

licence and legal gubbins:
===========================
the user is granted a licence by us to run this software, enjoy it, and even show it to friends. You don't have the freedom to make copies for other people. The software is copyright 2005 positech computing. its an original work, we made it, don't steal it.
You can freely copy the DEMO version for your friends. If you want to back it up onto CD for your own use, thats fine, even use it on 2 machines if you have 2 machines,
but don't rip us off ok? We aren't Sony or EA, we need the money. We don't put any annoying copy protection junk on our software, so return the favour and if you like it, please buy it. My cat needs food. you don't want my cat to starve right?

Politics:
=========
This is a game, not a political statement, if you have any political views this game will have something somewhere in it you disagree with. I tried to make it as objective as possible. I'm neither a communist or a fascist. Don't flame me. It's a game.

Namechecks:
==========
Special thanks to: James Unwin for his funky icons. Ginny for inspiration and tea. jadzia the cat for positive chi. Indie gamer forums for support and ideas. Joe at vgsmart for marketing thangs.


build notes (1.0.0 - 1.0.1)
===========================
spellchecked more!
fixed fireworks crash bug
added new election screen
fixed some layout issue
changed graphix for timeline
added some new quotes
added some new events and dilemmas
balanced a few policies
fixed screen-res changing bugs

Cliff Harris 2005.

[Sharpieman]

Yea, I partly bought the game because its a cool little premise for a game and because I like to support small companies that don't rip off customers. He seems like a stand-up guy.

[Barkeep49]

It's a fun little game but technology investment serious imbalances things. Just start that initative and crank it up to max and your economy goes through the roof.

[Ben E Lou]

It's a fun little game but technology investment serious imbalances things. Just start that initative and crank it up to max and your economy goes through the roof.Yeah....I figured that out, too. I hope they tone that one down some.

[Senator]

I will run it through the paces - thanks for the link.

[Karim]

Fun but too easy. I suspect the only difference between the countries is the background flag. I think it's too expensive for what it offers.

[Radii]

anyone still messing around with this? Any additional opinions?

[Ben E Lou]

Very good concept and interface.
Needs some balancing/increased difficulty, which has been promised in a forthcoming patch. I'll definitely give it another shot when the next patch comes out, and I've had fun with it up to now.

[Radii]

Cool, thanks. I played the demo and was very intrigued, but I could see getting bored with it in a few hours. I'll probably ask again after the next patch(I saw on the message board its supposed to be pretty soon)

[Marc Vaughan]

I thought it was fun - but a little too 'arcadey' for me, too easy to drastically change options without any restraint.

Would be better imho if you had a real 'balance of power' within the game and had to attempt to get measures pushed through depending upon politcal pressure upon your party, petitioning pressure groups and wheedling.

For instance if you're in power in England, you have to push legislature through - how easy it is depends upon support both from within your own party and rival parties.

For instance if you tried to legalise all drugs here as Prime Minister then you'd face a 'back bench revolt' (as its termed) where your own MP's vote against you and also similar revolts from other parties MP's ... you simply wouldn't get it through in one go.

However if you'd already quietly legalised weed and that had gone ok and raised revenue for other areas and then pushed for other less popular drugs to be legalised then over a period of 10-20 years you could probably do so, especially if large companies were making profits out of the now legalised drugs and pushing through pressure groups to support you ....

That side of things would give the game more depth and challenge imho ...

(yeah you've guessed I'd love to make a politics sim, but will never have time - still got another 20+ years to go before FM is anywhere near the game I want it to be ;) )

[Galaril]

Anyone still playing this ? Have they added any other countries?