Meet the Candidates of Party Animals

Election fever is starting to hit our home country of the Philippines, so I thought the time was ripe for a quick devblog about the candidates of Party Animals.  Each candidate has a specific set of bonuses that will nudge players towards a specific play style and ties in to their personal history.  We only have three candidates for now, although we have more candidates down the line, and ideally we'll be able to let players customize the candidate of their choice.  With that said, let's meet the candidates!

Mousilita Ereñeta

Mousey is representative of everyone who is frustrated with the inefficiencies and bureaucracy.  She got a taste of this firsthand as a low level government bureaucrat who eventually got fed up with how the system works.  She believes in democratic system so she's decided that the best way to change things is to run for election!  Inspired by her grandfather that walked barepawed to public school and eventually served in government, Mousey's platform is based on Education and Healthcare for all.

For a very long time we pondered how to make Mousey, who is ostensibly the good or "clean" character, a viable candidate since the game was skewed towards players who engaged in "scandalous behaviour.  It was only later on when our game designer Tristan decided to add a Command Points system that we had a eureka moment.  Mousey's only possible advantage over her more well known and moneyed opponents would be to work harder and more efficiently than either of them.  Giving Mousey more Command Points would allow her to move staff farther away from her and allow her campaign team to have a wider impact than the other candidates, who would be forced to keep their  staff close by.  

Crocopio Imperial

Crocopio is the stand-in for the moneyed elite that populate local government.  As the son of elected officials, Croccy alsp stands for the political dynasties that are so prevalent in immature democracies. Filipinos may get a kick out of the fact that he's a crocodile, given that "Buwaya" (Filipino for crocodile) is a term commonly used to describe corrupt public officials.

Given his position of privilege, Croccy has access to vast sums of wealth and uses that liberally during the campaign.  He will get a bonus to funds that he can use to boost the effectivity of his rallies, bribes, and all sorts of other things.  Croccy's campaigns based on Law and Order because he's a huge fan of the TV show but also because he knows having the law on his side can only be a good thing.  He also supports Public Works because he likes to spend on lavish infrastructure projects that he truly believes will help the animals of Summer Island, and it doesn't hurt that he can put his name on them too!

Rooisito Espilorde

Young democracies are prone to popularity politics, and Ruey is representative of that.  Be they celebrities or sports animals, many animals have taken to politics in the twilight of their career to put their lifetime investment in the limelight to good use.  The well-meaning Luey promises to knock out crime and corruption in politics just as he did in the cockfighting arena, but there's very little substance to his campaign. 

Ruey is the last of the candidates that we've thought of (If I'm being honest, we only had the idea to make him a candidate last week) so his design is the weakest at this point.  His bonus will definitely have something to do with his popularity though, so either he gets a bonus when dealing with patrons, or maybe he starts off with some reputation throughout Summer Island.

Stereotypes, not Specifics

Party Animals, while loosely based on Philippine Politics, was always meant for an international audience, and so we're careful to make sure that these characters are stereotypes and not modeled after specific people.  While an international audience generally knows enough about US politics to want to play a game about it, the same does not hold true for the Philippines.  Stereotypes make it easier for anyone around the world and say "Oh hey, that's like (this person) from (my country)!" and we (desperately) hope that will make it attractive to game players around the world.  Lastly, while as individuals we will have to decide who we're voting for in the elections, we want to make the game about the experience of  a candidate on campaign and not about supporting any specific candidate.

Thanks for reading.  If you'd like to tell us about political candidates from your side of the word, you can email us at heypartyanimals@gmail.com. To be one of the first people to try our closed alpha, please sign up for our mailing list!