Myland decided to save the citizens of Otherland from the perils of their government and annexes it. However, some other countries do not like it and may impose sanctions. Use propaganda to tip the public opinion in majority of countries in favor of Myland so that sanctions will not be enacted.
Unconventional weapon: media and propaganda.
Should work, although the balance is not great. Not tested in IE. Needs a large screen... sorry, no responsive layout.
Post-LD update: Fixed a bug in game restart (as noticed by uvwar)
Hints: * Your propaganda income increases over time. * Web is the only media that affects young more than the old. * Opinions on Myland spread across borders. * Larger countries have larger influence on their neighbours. * You can shutdown any medium to save money. * Colour of countries reflect their attitude to Myland.
Simple but very effective game. Only too gripes I could come up with: no sound (little music and some button click noises would have done the job) and maybe some subtle animation. Other than those minor things, a very enjoyable game, well done.
When I plotted to influence just enough to maintain majority in a majority of countries, I felt clever! When I started and while the summit was approaching, I felt unclear about exactly what the victory condition was.
Awesome game. I think I noticed a bug or something where if you 'reset' in-game the game add a ton of variables or something to each country and make the game unwinnable, but if you physically reset the page or were in your first game it behaved 'correctly'.
I really like interpretation of the theme, I was looking for something like this :) It takes some time to get into it but GUI is very nice. Also I liked news at the bottom of the screen. It would be great if they were presented in newspaper at the end of each month, like the news at the beginning, but anyway well done!
Very nice game idea, I find the limit a bit short, I would have loved to bring everyone under my point of view that the annexation was a good thing ^^.
It's a very clever idea. The problem is that I'm not sure what the best option is, why I would choose one form of media over another, when I should shut things down...What I think this needs is a bunch of different levels that slowly introduce different options. This one seems like it should be the final level of an entire campaign, once the player has learned the ins and outs of the game.
The fact that you made a game that is playable and basically fun, though, is awesome. ;)
I really enjoyed this game. It was fun to figure out how my actions affected my popularity. I like the way neighbouring countries affect each other - makes the game into a kind of puzzle where you have to figure out which countries to focus on to have the biggest effect. Took me a few goes so in my opinion the difficulty is just right.
An interesting, well put together abstract propaganda simulation.
A few pointers on the interface: - The automatic news feed adds to the atmosphere, but isn't extremely useful. Clicking on it should bring up a page with all the news visible. - The start of the turn statistics popups disappear automatically after a second or two. It would be more helpful if I could study them for as long as I want and dismiss them with a button press. - The population approval symbols seem to be the wrong way around. The progress bar goes from left to right, 100% meaning total approval, but the happy face is on the left at 0% and angry one is on the right at 100%. - The pros and cons of each media type should be explained. TV, for instance, is the most costly so why should I invest in it? Does it spread propaganda to other nations the fastest?
I love to see another strategy game! Your game is like mine but much better executed, well done! I love the graphics and not hiding information from the player (except the effect of each of the media). I feel like the game is a bit short which makes it more intense but a bit less enjoyable and it is actually really hard. Maybe a difficulty option?
Quick reply to your question on MagDef: the low contrast on red asteroids was not intentional, I guess it looked good enough on my monitor at submission time but my colors may be off x).
I liked it a lot, I just hated the default alerts, they make me sick :D
Anyways, I enjoyed the game and tried to beat it couple of times, but didn't make it :( I just wonder, isn't this Myland country a bit similar to some real country? :D
Other than those minor things, a very enjoyable game, well done.