Governance Game

🗳️ Governance, the UK political simulator game built from real-world data.
Early access on Steam now:

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

It's time to prepare for government!

Governance is an all-new in depth political simulator that uses real-world census and election data to create the most accurate and emergent UK politics sim to date. More to come shortly! #ukpolitics

Wishlist on Steam https://t.co/Yu4mrbyfWS

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

We’re going to start wave 2 testing very, very soon but we want to hear your wildest, most out there ideas to see what we can make happen. Let us know - in your dream political sim, what feature do you want to see?

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

We have exciting news about Governance's next development, Wave 2. We've shared some stuff on the Steam forum but we have more to follow shortly.

We also need your help! We're shipping over 25 new features, most of which could be their own post. Naturally this requires a LOT of testing. If you're interested in beta testing, either DM us or reply to this thread if you haven't already.

To give you an idea of what's to come:
- Devolution is here!
- Referendums are coming!
- Modding support is getting even stronger!

And these aren't even the biggest things. We're really excited to share what we've been working on but we want to do it right. If you're interested in seeing a slice of what we're working on whilst it's in testing, get in touch!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@bobbyGDlumb The patch notes are available on Steam - but it is not Wave 2 which will be out in June :)

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

Things have been a little quiet but for good reason! New patch out at the end of this week - and then we have exciting news regarding Wave 2! 😊

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@bobbyGDlumb It will be out in the next couple of hours :)

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@PolitlcsUK @kateferguson4 He might wanna try wargaming it at home first...

https://t.co/Yu4mrbyfWS

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@Lxcas227 We want Governance to keep going for a while. What form that takes is hard to say now, but there will be regular content for a very long time, well after release. We want a short Early Access period, but that requires work from us to make it the game people want it to be.

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

v0.5.7 of Governance is here!

Despite the number, this one is big! We have added an all-new deeper economic sim, a refined budget system now built into the Policies system giving Chancellors many more fiscal tools, local campaigning and a brand new tutorial system!

We're in this for the long haul and we're really excited to start shipping the next load of features - we hope you're all enjoying the game so far and can't wait to share what's next!

Play Governance now: https://t.co/TIWvlqISsj

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

0.5.7 has been delayed for a few more hours due to a rather serious bug with the economic improvements. We’re very happy to share why because it should also give you an insight into how everything in Governance is connected...

As part of the testing we test out our economic model on longform economics throughput over 50-100 years. We know most games will only last 5-10 years but we like to be thorough.

Between years 19-25, without fail the economy completely collapses after the markets take a nose dive. Essentially, Ward level data was being added twice as part of productivity and output data modelling, which completely broke employment data and tax calculations. This caused a multi trillion deficit to form, increasing ridiculously year on year. Within 20 years the debt to GDP hit 300%. The biggest government expense was debt interest.

GDP falls by 5%+ a quarter with interest rates doubling. There’s no modelling of IMF bailouts or more extreme economic options yet so without adequate tools for the chancellor, the economy collapsed and took everything with it. Private NPC stock buyers pulled out of the market as their investments collapse. However this whole situation weakened the pound against the dollar, so their money is worthless. The governments in the sim responds by increasing taxes to >80%, which went over about as well as you could expect.

On a ward and constituency level, in one sim there was full unemployment! All industries collapsed entirely… except IT and print journalism 😂

However on one sim government still found time to build a new motorway project between Birmingham and Bristol… only for a future government to cancel it 50% of the way through.

This all in turn affects government satisfaction, which led to endless party super majorities flipping from one side to the other. Politicians mutinied against further tax hikes and started their own movements- but due to the two party effect, usually just split votes enough in key marginal constituencies to get the opposition elected with a ridiculous mandate.

A mandate that they then screw up because the economy has completely collapsed and they currently lack the further tooling to turn everything round in that exceptional circumstance!

We have fixed most of this behaviour as it has crept in with our later testing. But we thought we would share it for one simple reason. Even when the big picture is comically wrong, it’s built on a framework on complex decisions and simulations that we have done right. It’s exciting to see things take shape and we want to make sure it’s ready for everyone to play!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@OracleofMercia Support for campaigning elsewhere will be in this update - but will require of course feedback from the community 😊

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

We’re *hoping* 0.5.7 will be out later today. There’s a lot of good stuff but we have needed a lot of time to test it all!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

To give you an idea on what we're working on here... budgets and mini budgets will now be built up from Policies!

Potentially in 0.5.7, maybe 0.5.8, there will also be the option of saving/loading a budget/mini-budget into drafts and being able to float it to the markets first... just in case your uncosted spending causes interest rates to skyrocket!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

Hotfix to fix some issues with the character wizard should be live on Steam!

Excited about two of the big changes we should be pushing in 0.5.7 later this week - I'm happy to say that a tutorial will be coming to the game, and the budget system is getting a massive overhaul!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@Xaviish Can I ask what resolution you’re running the game at?

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

We're very happy to say that there will be Steam Workshop integration from day one in Governance. We want people to build their own beliefs, event trees and more... more to come shortly!

Wishlist today: https://t.co/Yu4mrbyfWS

#ukpolitics #simgames #politics

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@Xaviish I’m really sorry to see this Xavieee - this will be fixed tonight as we have now identified the bug!

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@E_Bri55 Would you be able to DM us some more information? :)

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

v0.5.6 of Governance is here!

- Based on player feedback, we have now added an all new turn based gameplay mechanic for those who want a slower style of gameplay. We've added a special 'advance a week' end turn button as well if you play it in that mode
- Added a home button to help you find your constituency
- Pushed new changed to the character wizard
- Added new boilerplate policies from real life
- Added new single-issue beliefs such as NIMBYism
- Fixes to camera controls and map interactions

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

Once again, you asked and we listened! Turn based gameplay has come to Governance, giving you the option of either turn-based gameplay at a slower-pace, or the faster real time mode players have loved already.

Both are treated as equals, and you can switch it up whilst you play! In turn based mode, you get the option of advancing both a day and (up to) a week, depending on actions.

All this and more in our latest update! Play Governance today: https://t.co/TIWvlqIkCL

[Governance Game @PlayGovernance]

@ZacDraper_ That definitely shouldn’t be happening Zac, which events are you seeing?