Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Category: democracy3

Democracy 3 released. TELL THE WORLD

Do not worry America. Your politicians may be unable to govern, but I am here to help, by telling you that Democracy is here once more!

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Yup, It’s RELEASE DAY for Democracy 3, which means you now have no good excuses whatsoever to avoid going and grabbing a copy right now. Of course, you can grab it from my lovely website, which gets you a DRM-free link to windows, linux and mac versions, plus a steam key, or if you prefer to buy through steam you can do that right now here. And if you only buy games through GoG, be patient as the game will show up there in the next few days.

If you already bought the game and have been playing the beta, you may suddenly notice that the last patch (version 1.06) stopped saying ‘beta’. Yup, thats the release version you have, RIGHT THERE. Obviously not the final version, I’m already working on extra bits…

So what are you waiting for people? Get governing! And feedback on the game is vastly appreciated especially at the official forums here. And don’#t forget to use the power of twitter, facebook and even face to face ‘talking’ to tell people that there is this lovely new game out there…

 

Democracy 3 and emotional impact of games

I decided to express what I thought about how democracy 3’s real world setting and topics makes me, and hopefully other players think about real world issues in a way that fantasy and sci-fi setting simply cannot do…

And today it’s a new Democracy 3 version!

So today it’s the turn of the other game… Democracy 3…

headerI’ve now set build 1.06 live. To re-cap previous changelists…

Version 1.05
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Bug Fixes-
    Some achievements that previously did not register are now being triggered correctly.
    Fixed wrong values for liberals in school sponsorship dilemma.
    Fixed misleading wording on sales tax description.
    Next-turn processing/loading screen is now more obvious when it has finished.
    Possible corruption in fireworks effect hopefully now fixed.
Balance:
    Halved the effect on socialist/capitalist membership caused by market meltdowns.
    Halved the boost given to socialists for income tax.
    Reduced impact of equality on socialists.
    Added a negative impact on socialists happiness for high unemployment.
    GDP is slightly less dependent on the global economy now.
    GDP is less affected by technology situations now.
    School sponsorship dilemma now affects socialists and capitalists.
    Child Labour Law dilemma is less predictable now.
    All of the effects of Tobacco tax are now scaled by Tobacco Use.
    Private prisons now both anger and please liberals depending on the level of spending.
New Content:
    Modding sliders is now correctly supported.
    Credit Ratings events now tell you the current credit rating.

Version 1.06
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Bug Fixes-
    Fixed bug in ban fox hunting dilemma.    
    Fixed some typos.

I’m pretty happy with this build. I just need to get final linux/mac stuff done now and then I’m heading towards saying it’s released. That’s totally arbitrary TBH, as I’ll likely patch it more later. it just means I’ll aim for a steam/gog release.

Back to work! (Unless you work for the US government)

So Eurogamer is OVER, and the longest sustained 4 days of my gaming existence spent standing up is now over. Hurrah! It was fun for the first half day, then a bit tiring, then a bit exhausting then OH MY GOD WHEN DOES IT END. Not helped by the ‘DAGGA-DAGGA-DAGGA’ of incredibly rubbish arcade music blasting at 900 decibels nearby. Plus £7.50 for a pizza smaller than a Democracy 3 promotional badge. Bah humbug.

I never know what to think about the economics of trade shows. I don’t like the whole idea of them in principle, but i understand the purpose they serve (for those lucky enough to live nearby) and I can see how it makes the job of games journalists much easier, although frankly, I still think the best games will emerge if everyone could just send simple polished betas of their games to the press, without insisting on demonstrating them in person, with a lot of hand waving, excuses, blagging, and offers of free champagne to any journalists as they try to form an impartial view of the finished product. But ho hum…

Eurogamer is now behind me, and I can look forward to not one, but TWO (yes…count them..TWO!) games releases in the next few months -> Democracy 3 and Redshirt. Reaction to both at the show was great. We will be showing Redshirt at ComicCon in London soon, and if you are staggeringly wealthy and want to see me talk about games marketing (and who wouldn’t?) I’ll be talking at this event.

I’ve also managed to squeeze in a new patch for democracy 3 today, that fixes and improves and tweaks all kinds of things, so that’s rather good.

In the last few hours, something fairly rare has been happening, in that the US government has done it’s best to re-create season six of The West Wing by actually shutting down, although I don’t think there was as much dramatic music and Josh Lyman shouting in this case. Every cloud has a silver lining though, it means I can now run ads like this…

leaderboard_shutdown

Yay?

Come for the pizza stay for the Pie!(charts)

The Positech Games Eurogamer Expo 2013 booth will not have booth babes, or even booth kittens, but it will have Strategy! Sci-fi Puns! PIE CHARTS! What is not to like? Plus it’s cunningly near to the pizza express bit apparently…

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Anyway, here’s hoping this proves worthwhile and lots of people enjoy trying out Democracy 3 and Redshirt. We have badges and fliers that we are literally giving away, starting tomorrow, for four days. I will have lost my voice and be unable to stand by Sunday, I’m sure.

pizza

Do those monitors look small to you? they do to me. I am itching for an excuse to replace both my home monitors with big silly ones. If I hypothetically did a Gratuitous Space Battles sequel, I’d definitely plan on showing it off with big ridiculous 40 inch monitors if I ever did any shows to promote it.

I know there are some of you people out there that amazingly do not live in the UK and will not be able to come try out the games, so my honest, considered opinion is that you should just PRE-ORDER THEM NOW, and then you can play them immediately at home without having to pay £10 for a sandwich in central London.

Yay?