This is a political simulation game about a recent event, so I think it needs a bit of an explanation/artist’s statement. Here goes:
> This is a satirical game based on the Texas government's mismanagement of the power grid during the February 2021 winter storm, a recent event in which people died. > > I've lived in Texas my whole life and wrote this game as an attempt to find a humorous way to express frustration with the Texas government's callous response to the event, and to highlight the conflicts of interest of many of the politicians responsible. In this game, you play as a satirized version of one of those politicians, and the gameplay can involve shutting off the power of (cartoony) citizens. > > If you aren't comfortable with any of this for any reason, there's no shame in not playing, or stopping if it makes you uncomfortable. Instead, if you live in Texas, I'd ask that you consider registering to vote (if eligible) in next year's state elections.
There are several aspects of this game I wasn’t able to complete during the compo, the worst of which is that it gives the player very little guidance for a simulation where the effects of the player’s actions aren’t always clear (or immediate). So here’s a brief how-to (which I wrote after the compo).
Your goal is to win more campaign funding from wealthy donors (the electricity, gazz, and generator industries) than the opposing party gets from grassroots support (which represents the public’s dissatisfaction with your governorship).
After the intro in which you’ll get to make a choice, you’ll be faced with a winter freeze and be able to turn the power on and off to regions on the map by clicking on them.
Regions with a __light outline__/no outline are powered, which keeps the heat on (and restores heat to cold regions). Regions with a __dark outline__ are unpowered, and will start to get cold.
Regions that turn __bluish__ are cold, and will begin to buy generators, appeasing the generator and gazz industries, but will also gradually turn public opinion against you, increasing donations to the opposing party.
Regions that begin __flashing__ are dangerously cold, and the population may begin to decline.
If the temperature drops below 32° F, the __grid stability__ will decline (you can influence this with your choice in the intro), which limits the regions you can have powered on at a time.
If you’re at the limit, clicking a region with a dark outline will *not* power it on unless you power *off* enough other regions first. (some regions have more population, and therefore power usage, than others, but there’s no UI for this, so you may have to experiment)
See how you do with four years of randomly generated winter storms!
I like that you channeled that absolute dumpster fire of a catastrophe into a game. The pacing was kinda slow, and I think the stakes could've been higher, but I did find myself captivated and playing around with the grid for a good amount of time.
Really cool to handle a real issue. I think you've done it respectfully, with the upront disclaimer and all. Pacing was kinda slow. But I think you'll be happy to hear that this did put me in the democratically elected crony mindset: keep the power supply artificially low for three years, and winterize and keep the power on for year 4 - I was thinking there might be a hidden public support stat. Cool game. A bit slow, a bit simple, but really unique.
As others have said this is a pretty unique game that reflects on a real-world issue, so thanks for that disclaimer. This game is pretty slow, but in some way it made it feel really real
Really clever way of turning this into a game. I liked the idea a lot but as others have said, I couldn't really tell what was happening. The UX for sure could be improved. My main issue was that I couldn't tell what meant power was on or off to a certain region (outlined means on or off? - I see your note now but it was unintuitive) and even though you say that you click to toggle, it didn't seem to want to toggle a lot of the time. Maybe because the grid was overused? I also never understood what was up with the generator, there were so many stats.
I really like where you're going with this, I think mainly cleaning up the UX would make a big improvement.
It took me some time to understand what I was supposed to do, that gazz=good, electricity=bad, and generators=good. But otherwise interesting game, seems effed up that I can just cut off the power entirely, let half the goober population die off, and still win reelection. I also had fun resigning multiple governors in a row.
@bamberga & @eli-delventhal, thanks for your feedback. UX/player guidance was something I didn’t really get to complete during the compo, but I’ve revised the description above to (hopefully) better explain the most important things that aren’t explained in the game.
As was said previously, gameplay wise this game can be questionable at times, but not problematic. I was really amazed by the overall atmosphere and setting.
The gameplay is quite fun! I was a bit confused whether I was doing well or not, so perhaps the UI could be made more helpful. I support the idea of using games to make political statements.
The setting was really interesting! I felt like a proper corrupt politician; my secret life dream :) I chuckled quite a bit reading the text. But the gameplay itself didn't feel very engaging and it was a little confusing. At some point I unexpectedly sold a million generators in one go and made lots of money which felt good. But no idea what I was doing really :)
Comments13
I really like where you're going with this, I think mainly cleaning up the UX would make a big improvement.
it's a bit lack of gameplay but the mood is such a thing.
I chuckled quite a bit reading the text. But the gameplay itself didn't feel very engaging and it was a little confusing. At some point I unexpectedly sold a million generators in one go and made lots of money which felt good. But no idea what I was doing really :)