May 4, 2016

Democracy 3 - cliffski

Hi, Just an update from the Democracy 3 developers to fill you in on news about the game.
Firstly, although we released a new game (Democracy 3 Africa) that doesn't mean than the base D3 game is being neglected. In fact we have been working for months on a new expansion for the base game which we will officially announce in a month or so.

Secondly, we have been doing our best to fix some stability issues a few people have experienced, especially under windows 10. yesterday we patched the Clones & Drones DLC which we found to cause problems under very specific circumstances.

Thirdly, we know our list of supported languages could be bigger, and that the GUI for language selection is a total mess. We are planning on a Democracy 3 update that will re-engineer all of the translations and make it possible for us to support many more with ease. That should happen a fair bit later n the year (after the above-named expansion is complete).

Fourthly, some of the tweaks and improvements we made for Democracy 3 Africa should also be making it over to this game, such as some tweaks to the way income tax/flat tax work, and far greater stability in the face of corrupt or badly coded mods.

Just letting you know we are still working on stuff. Expect teasing screenshots soon :D

May 4, 2016

Whats coming to Democracy 3 this year

Democracy 3 - cliffski

Apr 13, 2016

Democracy 3 s Africa Expandalone Released

Democracy 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Oh dear.

Positech Games have released Democracy 3: Africa [official site], a standalone expansion to their political strategy game. It’s the same basic ‘try to run society through decisions and a billion buttons and charts and statistics’ idea as regular Democracy 3 (see Wot Graham Thinks of that) but hopped on over to Africa. This means a makeover and a few changes to the policies and societies it simulators, but at heart it’s pretty similar. It’s an expandalone, yeah?

… [visit site to read more]

Mar 1, 2016

Democracy 3 is 66% off in honour of Super Tuesday

Democracy 3

That wall's not gonna fund itself.

With all this talk of 'primaries', 'caucuses' and 'supreme mugwumps', I can safely say the US electoral system is more arcane than it has right to be in a country under three centuries old. Today is Super Tuesday, during which a bunch of states get together and exercise their right to vote for a man who until recently I believed to be the comedy foil in a long-running political soap opera. This is what I imagine is happening in polling booths across the States.

To celebrate representative government, country management sim Democracy 3 will be 66% off for 24 hours from 6pm GMT/1pm ET/10am PT. Can PC gamers run a country better than seasoned politicians or the rich and bored? This is your opportunity to find out.

Nov 24, 2015

Four Examples Of Excellent Interface Design

Democracy 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

Welcome class. Take your seats and take out your note paper.

We’ve all struggled through a game with a bad interface, one where none of the icons are clear, the screen is cluttered, and elements are unresponsive. Those problems still rear their heads in every genre, but I think we’ve more examples than ever of how to do an interface well. Let’s look at a few of them.

… [visit site to read more]

Nov 3, 2015

Standalone Democracy 3 expansion goes to Africa next year

Democracy 3

Democracy 3 is getting a "stand alone re-working" early next year that focuses on African politics. It will let you take charge of one of ten countries and implement policies to improve the lives of your citizens. The expansion will include new artwork, new music and new dilemmas that reflect "real world issues and situations that are relevant to Africa."

A few of those issues are summarised on the Democracy 3: Africa page: "Foreign aid and investment takes on a new meaning, and often comes with strings attached. Serious issues like malnutrition and access to clean water could be a matter of life and death for the poorest." Playable countries include Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Senegal, Tunisia, Botswana and Mauritius.

The expansion is being designed by Stargazy's Jeff Sheen, who tweets to say he's "incredibly excited" about the whole thing. Positech Games founder Cliff Harris explains the choice to go to Africa in the announcement press release: Africa has been unrepresented as a setting for videogames but when it has these depictions have often been clich d and certainly have never touched the real issues that the continent faces, such as malnutrition, poor literacy and access to clean water.

"Democracy 3: Africa puts these topics front and centre and will challenge players to make tough decisions on issues that we normally only encounter in news reports. So, even if you have successfully led a government in Democracy 3, this new title will make you rethink your priorities and policies.

Democracy 3 is the leading game in the under-served political sim genre. We found that the systems were a little easily exploited in our review, but Democracy 3 elegantly expresses the relationship between policy, economics and social behaviour with its outstanding UI. It will be fascinating to see how the systems are adapted to meet a different political landscape.

Nov 3, 2015

Democracy 3: Africa Expandalone Announced

Democracy 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

'We do not have all of our voter artwork yet, hence only one woman' sez Harris.

“If you want to play a deep, balanced politics simulator, and prove your ideals correct, then Democracy probably won’t satisfy past a couple of hours of play,” our Graham said in his Wot I Think of Democracy 3. “But if you want to teach someone about the basic connections that form society, Democracy 3 is the perfect way to do it.”

Come next year, you’ll be able to poke at the underpinnings of other, perhaps less familiar societies, as the political simulator’s developers Positech have announced a standalone expansion named Democracy 3: Africa [official site].

… [visit site to read more]