StateOS: The Political Sandbox · public, stateosv0.3beta · first seen
I am slightly late to this. I've been busy working on and improving 0.3 which has been in development since August.
I've made approximately 30 updates to 0.3 since November 3rd. Making sure everything is working well enough for release. I wouldn't want everyone to find a broken, buggy, game on launch. I've worked my hardest to make sure within the time I had that launch will be the best it can be.
Keep in mind that it is an early access release, including at a lower price than the final, eventual price of 24.99$. However, the game won't release until the content, and the gameplay experience have been improved to a satisfactory amount.
The game is far from complete, or done, and I expect a lot of extra work ahead.
0.3 is the biggest update StateOS has had. It brings five new playable countries and six experimental ones, a rebuilt election campaign, a new election night, deeper government, and a new interface across the whole game. There's also a tutorial for your first game.
I will soon begin working on 0.4, although probably not much at first. It may be a while. I plan to release 0.4 on March 19th. I will be splitting my time between improving 0.3, based on feedback while also working on 0.4 slowly. A beta as usual will come for 0.4 and I will announce more details when I get there.
0.2 had the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. 0.3 adds five more you can play from start to finish:
Canada: federal and provincial elections, real ridings in most provinces, and campaigns played in three-day turns during the writ period. Provincial parties now have their own news and follow the federal swing.
France: two-round elections, real constituency maps, runoffs where knocked-out voters move to the finalists, and Article 49.3.
Japan: constituency and proportional seats, with the path to Prime Minister run through your party.
Australia: preferential voting, with seats painted and called after preferences are counted on election night.
Slovenia: the National Assembly elected in its real electoral units, with real maps.
Six more countries are playable as experimental national campaigns: Spain, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. They are rougher than the main countries, and we'd like your feedback on them.
Spain: provinces have several real places to campaign in, and only your home region runs a regional government, so the days move quickly.
Italy: the general, regional and municipal elections are all on the calendar.
Another eleven countries, from Argentina to Turkey, can be previewed on the country page, marked "Not playable yet".
The campaign was the part of StateOS needed to improve the most. It's been rebuilt from the ground up.
The campaign board. Your staff are units on the map, each with their own hours. Click a unit, then right-click to move it. You can see your rivals' units too if you choose.
Every vote counts. The game keeps a record of voters for each race, so the work you do in a place moves real voters there, and the count reads them. That covers mayors and ward councils, limited-vote races like Spain's Senate, independent lists, and the US presidential race state by state.
Fronts. Set goals for each part of the map: persuade, turn out your voters, or register new ones.
Staff actions. Every staffer picks an action with its own hours, forecast and result.
Canvassing. Knocking doors yourself, or leading a canvass with your team, each count in full. A canvass you lead reaches your own doors plus your team's.
Advertising. Buy ads in real media markets. Type any weekly budget.
Fundraising. Your money comes from people and groups who back you: your own supporters, donors and national groups, each with their own interests.
Endorsements, debates and rallies each have their own tab and their own decisions.
Attacks must name something real from a rival's record or positions.
Worn places. On Normal and Hard, doing the same thing in the same place again and again pays less for a while. The place tells you before you act, and results show the full value beside the cut one. There's no wear on Easy, or in races with only one place to campaign.
Incumbency. A sitting member builds a personal vote with time served and popularity, so a popular member can turn a seat into a stronghold. A successor from the same party keeps part of it.
Nominations favor candidates people know and like. A popular party leader starts ahead.
Name recognition grows from the voters you actually reach.
Polls start a set time before each race and land within normal polling error of the result.
Automatic hours spend your unused time where it wins the most votes.
Difficulty: Easy, Normal and Hard.
US primaries are held on each state's real date, with real runoff gaps and the 2024 delegate rules. You can enter the presidential race from any state.
A new election night screen, with a rebuilt 3D map
Click a state, district or county to open the level below it, right on the map
Results follow each state's poll closing time, on midterm and off-year nights too
Exit polls at poll close, compared with the count as it comes in
"Why this result" for any race
Candidates shown as cards in their party's color
Races between two candidates of the same party say so ("Dem vs Dem")
Parliament charts: benches for Westminster chambers, an arch for the rest
Two-round elections that move eliminated voters by who they're closest to, and pacts that pool votes and share seats
Germany's Bundestag seats split among the Länder by each Land's second votes, as the 2023 law sets out
Primary nights are read one ballot at a time, with your own race first
A setting to skip popups for by-elections and special elections you aren't running in
Every primary has its own page, with its own map and each party's results in their own section
A presidential nomination shows each state's real result, counted in delegates, with the nominee marked
Statewide offices added in the scenario editor (State Treasurer, State Auditor and so on) have proper titles, their own election night tab and their place in the government tab
Independents show their own ideology, and party members show their own wing
Forming a government. An upgraded formation screen shows who holds each ministry, the program each partner brings, and the terms of the deal. Investitures, confidence votes and censure motions follow each country's rules.
The budget. An updated draft system next year's budget, make deals to pass it, and deal with supply. Income tax brackets and shapes, with clear reasons when the budget can't take a change.
The law of the land. See every law in force, and draft bills with their effects shown up front.
Vote reasons. Every member's vote comes with the reason behind it.
Question time. A weekly sitting on the issues voters care about most right now. A leader can take two subjects, and a good or bad session moves the polls.
Election laws. Adopt or repeal ranked-choice voting by state or national law.
Metrics. Track how your government is doing against the start of its term and also the full lifetime like before.
Parliamentary calendars. Sessions, recesses and by-elections.
State cabinets are drawn from the state's own people.
Term limits follow each office's rules, including Virginia's ban on governors serving two terms in a row.
Party leader is a starting position in twelve parliamentary countries.
The rise to leader runs through named people in your party who decide whether you move up.
A career record: your rank and record on the dashboard, and your reputation and offices under Career.
Carry on after it ends. Your politician can retire, resign or die, and you can carry on as a colleague.
A year in review at the end of each year.
Regional parties have been updated and are tied to their homelands (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Quebec, Bavaria, Corsica) or can spread from where they started.
Parties can decline, fold, merge or split. Their supporters move to the parties their members join.
Party wings and factions have real members, drawn by each wing's size.
Major party news gets stories of its own.
Pick your state, county, district and hometown when you start. Your hometown has its own council and mayor races, and its own local measures.
A new look for the whole game, with 34 themes, each in light and dark
New game setup as pages, starting from the map
A redesigned dashboard that leads with your office and shows what you can do
One advance button that names where it goes next, with one day, one week, next month, next year, your next vote or the next vote under its menu
Every grayed-out control tells you why, and every button says what it costs
A glossary: one set of terms, defined where they're used and in the wiki
Type a value into any slider
Redesigned Elections and Government tabs
I have added a full tutorial that goes through everything you'd need while navigating and playing the game. I figured this would be an attempt at trying to make sure people do not get confused using the UI, but it is a step among many to fix the issues that exist within the UI.
Every tab uses one list-and-inspector layout
An upgraded policy editor
People who enter later, with debut dates and their own races
Slate sitting politicians for future races, down to the seat or Senate class
A general election can take its candidates from the primary before it, in any country
Committees shown one chamber at a time, with Clear all and party labels
Party leaders and chamber floor leaders
Mistakes in a person's history are named and point to that person
Long candidate lists no longer freeze the editor
Bulk delete, and a fast seat roster for big legislatures
Publish scenarios to the Workshop and update them in place
Each scenario appears once in your library, at its newest version
If publishing fails, the game says why and at which step
Much smaller saves during long campaigns
Faster days in big races, including German campaigns
Faster save loading
Faster maps, including whole-country layer switches
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