As the head of state, you need to balance the will of the people with your own agenda. Your choices need to reflect the current state of affairs and take into consideration a massive number of ever-changing circumstances.



In previous Devblogs, we introduced the political compass and crises, and how they influence your policies. Bills you sign or ignore are your secret weapon. You choose your policy. You can make the decision to deescalate domestic problems or fan the flames on the international stage, and they sound good at the right moment.



We created over a hundred bills and they are scattered all over the political spectrum. They will appear on your desk and will align with your current position on the political compass. This does not mean that you have to follow wherever it takes you. You are your own boss. Just remember that decisions will help you with saving lives, creating civil unrest or maybe, just maybe, saving your face.



Proper bills will lessen the effects of crises on your stats. This doesn’t mean that your every decision will have a positive impact. Signing or refusing to sign a document may bring a spiral of catastrophic effects, anything from slight dent in your voter demographic to nuclear winter.



The vast number of bills will ensure that you can take your political career wherever you want. It’s just a pity you can’t write whatever bills you want, right? Unless…

We will be posting some of the ready bills on our social media in their redacted version. For declassified bills and discussions about them, join our discord!

The world is at your feet, Mr. President.

As the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces you have unlimited access to every single military operation conducted by the USA. In I Am Your President, you overwatch the world by opening its control panel, the map, where you have insight into every country’s details.

Once you open the map, you are immediately informed about the latest events on the globe. Some of them might have been triggered by you by e.g. sending out spies. Other events happen automatically, as the world never sleeps.



The map offers you various options but one particular of them is what brought many players here - the nuclear attack. However, you must remember one thing - the term ‘nuclear’ here is metaphorical, as well as blunt. Once you deploy an attack of this kind, its outcome may be disastrous for your foreign politics. You’d better use it only when your Diplomacy skills are topping.



Of course, you can do what you want. After all, it is you who owns the Gold Codes. No country shall be a challenge for you.



However, the countries allied to the one you decide to attack won’t be happy with this course of events. The more countries you make the USA fall out with, the worse your country’s opinion in the world will be.



Last but not least, you have to remember that the world is divided into spheres of influence. Because of that, you must be considerably cautious when planning actions on the map. That little country in Eastern Europe may not seem dangerous but the Big Bear behind it is something you should be not interested in fighting with. Not immediately, at least.



People use to address the President of the United States of America as the Leader of the Free World. Well, it is up to you how you define “free” but undoubtedly you have a huge impact on the whole globe. Use it wisely.

You made it to the Oval Office – congratulations, now you’re in charge and everything depends on your will.

Or does it?

There is no denying that the position of the President of the United States comes with great power. However, the country you rule has been built on solid democratic foundations. The separation of powers is part of the package, hence you need to gather some heavyweights in your corner to advise you on crucial political matters.

This is what the Cabinet of the United States is in I Am Your President. The Members of the Cabinet, your closest associates, are key to proper governance over the country. Every decision you make is assessed and evaluated by the Members of the Cabinet. While some of them may find the bills you sign appropriate, the others can completely disagree with your priorities, affecting their willingness to cooperate in the future.

Nevertheless, the most important people in the Cabinet are the ones that sit in your closest proximity, around the golden square. These are the Members that directly affect your statistics, depending on their talents and your affinity with them. That is why the choices you make regarding the hierarchy of the Cabinet are crucial for your administrative effectiveness. That said, no Member is irreplaceable: you can move the Members around the table any way you like, sitting some of them around you and leaving the others on the bench – provided you have acquired someone that can take their seat!



Speaking of which, there are also unique Cabinet Members that can be unlocked during the gameplay and placed in your Cabinet. Although not easy to acquire, these members are significantly better than their default establishment counterparts.



No power is given forever, and no spot in the Cabinet is life-long occupied by one person. The relations between you and your associates are fluid, so is their impact on your statistics and overall rating. Should you want to keep the office, you’d do well to closely monitor the Cabinet Members and their impression of you, as they may either make your presidency flourish or put it in the grave.

One may say: “when in White House, do as the White House residents do”... or was it “I am the White House”? For now, the chair behind the Resolute Desk is yours but making sure no one tries to kick you out if it is another thing entirely.

Sitting behind the Resolute Desk, posting Screeches, occasionally meeting international guests, and signing some insignificant bills… If only the presidency was like that all the time. Unfortunately, this job is far more stressful and complicated than you could possibly imagine!

Your country is susceptible to all kinds of threats, both foreign and domestic, and it is both your highest honor and duty to protect the land and the people of the United States of America. Any number of random events could compound into an enormous crisis requiring your personal attention. Natural disasters, social unrest, riots, epidemics, and many more issues can give even the best president a run for his money.



A crisis can continuously bring down the statistics you worked so hard to improve. The crises can affect everything and everyone around you – your public image, your citizens’ well-being, your cabinet, and the overall condition of the country. The longer a crisis lasts, the more your ratings suffer. And if you allow for that to happen… The Oval Office may soon change its occupant. To make sure you keep your spot in the White House, you better make sure to employ proper counteractions, either by funding specific projects or making sure to never neglect the signing of appropriate legislations.



However, it is never possible to completely avoid the repercussions of a crisis. The counteractions are divided into four separate categories relating to questions ranging from enforcement of law to flexible social and economic policies - and the available legislations reinforcing each approach are dependent on the placement on the Political Compass! After all, it’s only natural for a president with anarchistic leanings to struggle with maintaining order.



The US presidency comes with great power and even greater responsibility. Events like the Wall Street Crash, the Cuban Missile Crisis, 9/11, and the Coronavirus Pandemic are mere drops in the bucket of never-ending emergencies the US have had to deal with. In this matter, your presidency will not be different from your predecessors’. And just like them, you will have to do your best to protect the USA.

“Reelection ought not to be the primary preoccupation of any politician. It ought to be standing up for truth and justice.” Cornel West

From the very first day in the Oval Office, one specific matter hangs over any President’s head - the reelection. It is no different in ‘I Am Your President’.

Though fate has placed your President behind the Resolute desk and blessed him with the power that comes with the role of the leader of the Free World, it is not up to luck whether this honor stays with your President beyond the four-year mark.

Every decision the President makes and every bill he signs affects the attitudes and opinions of the whole Nation. In ‘I Am Your President’ your voters will take into consideration whether you managed to fulfill your promises, in what ways your decisions have advanced the country, and judge how you have dealt with the crises that befell you. And the verdict? Well, you just have to wait until Election Day.



Thus, the statistics you worked so hard to improve not only affect the gameplay but also reflect the Nation’s opinion about your President. A failure to maintain the US’ position as the greatest country on Earth might prove an insurmountable obstacle on your road to reelection. Either way, one thing is for sure - every step you make is followed closely by the Nation and if you want to remain in office, you have to remind yourself of that fact each day.

A good president is one who tries to take care of everyone and everything, which might be demanding, but not impossible. The better you govern the country, the better results you may expect on Election Day. And who knows - maybe you even manage to unite the Nation and beat Ronald Reagan’s result from 1984?



All in all, the job might be yours for now, but your future lies in the hands of the Nation. And if you want to sit in the presidential chair a little longer, you must appeal to all kinds of voters; limiting yourself to just a few pet issues might prove to be your final mistake as President!

Do you think you have what it takes, Mr. President?

You might be familiar with the concept of the Political Compass – a coordinate system that visually places your social and economic views between the two axes: economic (left-right, x-axis) and social (authoritarian–libertarian, y-axis). Well, this time this system will not only help you to establish your views but also define what your President’s policy will look like!
Once you start the game, your President’s views will be placed randomly somewhere in the middle grey square called ‘Mainstream Centrism’. And this is where the fun begins.



As the President, you’ll have to manage several projects around specific issues. These projects will define your presidency and also outline your President’s path on the Political Compass. The projects will reveal your political aspirations, and with every subsequent day, they will move your president towards the desired political ideology.



Of course, there’s more to that! Your President’s position on the Political Compass will have an impact on the kinds of bills he will be able to sign. Depending on the ideology you find yourself subscribing to, you’ll get the bills that will correspond to your political views. Universal Basic Income for a communist President? There you go! Complete free-market deregulation for an anarcho-capitalist President? Be my guest!



That’s still not everything, though! The types of bills your President decides to support will eventually help him solve various political and economic crises that will be appearing throughout the presidency. What are the crises? Well, that’s a different big subject for another Devblog!

Give us your feedback about the whole system and tell us which political ideology is going to be the most appealing to your President!

We hope you’ve had good Christmas holidays and are ready to bid farewell to 2020. Well, I mean… who isn’t?

This is a perfect moment to share with you what we’ve been up to these couple of weeks. That’s because – aside from the “new year, new me” shenanigans – we’ve finished gathering and analyzing all the feedback you’ve given us on IAYP: Prologue. And we’re ready to make some bold design decisions!

First and foremost: we’re incredibly thankful to everybody who played our game! Double points if you cared enough to share your experiences with us – both negative and positive. And while it feels great to receive praise, we’ve still got a game to finish, so we cannot afford to overlook the common criticisms, i.e. stability & optimization issues, confusing gameplay and railroading.

Although the main game is going to immensely improve on all of those, your feedback has highlighted your expectations of IAYP. We’d really like to make IAYP unforgettable for you – not just in a singular choose-your-own-adventure type of way, but also in a more randomized and uncontrolled setting. We want our game to be a bit bolder and more unhinged than other political simulators, without dropping the charade all the way – after all, as this past decade has shown us, politics really is all about appearances!

• We’re going to make IAYP more dynamic and roguelite-ish, by, for example:
  
  1. Making each playthrough denser. Less waiting, more choices!
     
  2. Getting rid of $ altogether and instead using the economy stat as currency
     
  3. Introducing some small persistent progression systems (e.g. project/tech trees start of hidden, but once researched, remain uncovered in subsequent playthroughs)
     
  4. Including some form of point/evaluation system at the end of each playthrough
     
  5. much, much more…
• We’re going to put more emphasis on protagonist’s political self-identification, introducing a new feature – political compass, complete with 19 political affiliations that will affect the type of legislation that the president signs on a near-daily basis!
  
• We’re going to focus on two distinct gameplay pillars:
  
  1. Largely randomized dialogues and events: the meat of the story and the spice of life!
     
  2. Robust secondary features to give the players (including those looking for a more serious experience) numerous opportunities for min-maxing and strategizing. This means that we’ll be interlinking all features closely and giving them enough depth to turn e.g. the map or project management into an optional mini-game
• We’re expanding the importance of Action Points – no need to worry about all these features right away, given the limitations!

Okay, that’s enough for now, before I get too excited… Of course, it’s not all good news: as some of you might have already been suspecting, this means that we still have some things to do, pushing back the publishing of the product a few extra months. Realistically – I do not think this could have been avoided, especially in light of the optimization issues present in the prologue. We hate to do it to you again, but we have to get our cyber playground in order, else everyone could just end up getting punked.

And meanwhile, why don’t you share your thoughts in #president-chat? Are we moving in the right direction? Or am I just rambling like a madman? Are those mutually exclusive?

Thank you for your continuous trust and support! We’ll do our best to not betray your expectations & keep you up to date with our affairs! Tons of love from the team, we wish you all best of luck in 2021!

We continue to implement your ideas into the game. For now, we want to release a small patch that should improve loading times on HDD drives. We're adding a few other things as well, hopefully it will improve your prologue experience;).

• Game Settings: Run In Background switch added. While loading, the app has Run In Background active on default, so it's still loading when minimized. You can change this option whenever you want.
  
• Better loading times - we've found out what caused the game to load so slowly and we've fixed it. Our work is not yet done here, but the improvements are big. In the nearest future the loading times will get even quicker.
  
• Items description now shown in each turn - this is our experimental feature, to deepen the immersion. Tell us what you think about it.
  
• Fixed some bugs
  
• Probably added more bugs than before

We are in touch. Remember that you can write to us on Discord. We also read all your opinions sent via the form available in the game :). Your opinion is very important to us. It helps us improve our game.

Cheers!


I Am Your President: Prologue - Patch Notes #2

Loading time improvements!

• Language & typo corrections
  
• Numerous optimization tweaks
  
• Fixed incorrect stat change prompts in some of the dialogue choices
  
• Improved plot flags
  
• Added credits! The last one is pretty important, as we’ve included the nicknames of our Discord supporters – yes, you! You’ve really fueled our creative flames and given us some great ideas, some of which you’ll be able to see in the main game.

Huge thank you for those of you that took a moment to share their feedback on our game on Steam. We cannot overstate how helpful that is to us! Talk to you soon & sit tight while we’re uploading the patch! And remember what your devs say: do not click on the loading screen while the game is loading, cause Windows might incorrectly interpret it as a freeze (picture related)! We're working on fixing the issue ASAP - thank you for your patience!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201330/I_Am_Your_President_Prologue/

We are proud to announce that I Am Your President: Prologue is finally out! Moreover, it is – now and forever – free to play!

You can find it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201330/

Experience the events leading up to the presidency of Your President – from the perspective of his predecessor! Try to finish this self-contained story to get a taste of what it means to occupy the oval office and know whose shoes you will be filling in the main game. Just keep in mind the fact that being the leader of the free world is no easy task and the outcome of this grand balancing act will be – in the best case scenario – bittersweet.

The prologue is also a great way to familiarize yourself with the core game mechanics and features, most of which are included, albeit in a much more straightforward form. Sign legislation, post on social media, tackle international crises as they unfold, survive the barrage of questions at a press conference and much, much more… Overall, completing the prologue should take you approximately 40 minutes, though that can vary depending on the path you choose. And if you are a completionist – there’s a bunch of Steam achievements for you to unlock!

A huge “thank you” goes out to everyone that has been supporting IAYP project and – as always – if you have any questions or feedback to us, feel free to drop us a message on our Discord – we read all of them and continuously improve based on your input!

Talk to you soon!
~IAYP team