How to Win an Election: Winnability vs Votes

I've been researching local elections lately. We're still tweaking the game design a lot and the last thing we want is to mis-represent our subject matter. So my next few posts will be about how to win a local election followed by how it translates into gameplay. Winnability Before you even think about running for office, the first thing you should do is gauge your winnability. "Do you have a realistic chance in winning this election, Mr. President?" If you don't think you can win, then chances are the voters won't either. The winnability...

We're on the Tigsource Devlog Magazine!

We are super excited to be part of the latest Tigsource Devlog Magazine.  It's actually a little funny how I found out about it.  I got a tweet from @Bandreus telling me to check out the new Tigsource Devlog Magazine. I didn't pay the tweet much attention because I already knew about the magazine and decided to check it out in the morning.  And that's when I saw this: Not only are we included in the Tigsource Devlog Magazine, but we're included with such IGF luminaries like Papers,Please, Risk of Rain, Forogoa, Device...

Lizard and Pelican Concept Sketches

Behind the scenes we are madly restructuring the game mechanics of Party Animals.  It's very exciting for us, but also frustrating that we cannot share anything yet since everything is in such flux.  I have been on a roll with these concept sketches though, so I here are some more characters that may find their way into Party Animals! Pirate/merchant/smuggler Lizard.  This character draws on our complex relationship with successful Chinese immigrants, and a semi historical pirate that tried to create his own kingdom in the Philippines...

Tortoise and Otter Concept Sketches

I arrived from Bitsummit last week ready to get back to work, instead I got Patellar Bursitis so I spent the past week or so recuperating and writing about some tips on attending Bitsummit here and here.  Events like Bitsummit are great for getting your team into gear and producing something on short notice.  But it's also nice to be able to relax, take a look at what's going on, and reassess everything.  We're still tinkering with some of the key game design concepts of Party Animals, and since I can't participate in the face to...

Party Animals' "Manual"

Well I'm off to Bitsummit in Kyoto tomorrow and I am both excited and terrified all at the same time!  We'd been planning on going for the past two months and working like crazy t make a decent prototype...but we basically failed.  We have a prototype of the sortie system in the game and a basic wrapper for a strategy game but not much else.  This was due to a variety of reasons, one of which Julius pointed out with his Loom discussion in the past post.  There's no backing out of Bitsummit though, as tickets and accomodations...