One of the big new features in The Political Machine 2024 are the Primaries.

In this “how the sausage is made” I’ll share my thoughts on the game.

Starting the game

I’m picking Biden for the primaries. Going up against the 2020 line up.

Open

Open

The race begins

The cards I have vs. The cards I’d want:

Here are the cards I drew:

While there’s no guarantee on getting the cards you want. Here are some I’d like to see:

1. Free campaign HQ. “A failed candidate has generously turned over one of their HQs” (player chooses the target state it’s in. [1 point]

2. Presidential Scheduling should only be 2 points.

3. Supportive PAC: Clean Water now! gives you a target + 10 to your position on the environment. [1 point]

We should take these values and divide them by 3. These numbers are closer to what we would expect to see at the end of a run not at the start.

UI Tweak

The cards placed in a region should actually show units. This way it’s easy, at a glance, to see what’s going on.

The buildings and cards/units (not the candidates) should probably be about 25% smaller.

Goodie Huts

These should almost all be universally good. Money, Stamina, Political Capital, something else but rarely (10% or less) should it be negative.

The First Caucus

This should clearly show who won as the central thing here and play a musical stinger. Second place winner in a primary should get 50% of what the winner did and third place 25%.

I personally find this UX a little overwhelming: I choose to build an HQ.

and if I have money, it instantly tries to get me to upgrade it. I want it to just build it and go away and if I want to upgrade, I can click on the build again.

Effects

When I visit a state, like previous versions, I want to see some indication that doing so increase my enthusiasm by visiting.

Ads vs. Speeches

In general, Ads were intended to provide a % boost. They don’t need to do a per turn effect. They simply take a person’s position and does a 25% or -25% effect to it. The speech adjusts the position for “real” and the ads amplify the position by a set %.

Killer Cards

This is an absolute “I’m giving this game a negative review” situation. All political capital? How about half.

Victory

I did end up winning. I really do think we will want to break endorsements out as these kinds of races are pretty fun. See older versions of The Political Machine for how endorsements work. They just boost enthusiasm.

Takeaways

1. My Steam build had a lot of fringe issues getting more importance than they deserve.

2. Some of the issue names are a little weird “Wealthy tax” it’s “Wealth Tax”.

3. Ads shouldn’t give a per turn boost to an issue stance. They provide a flat % boost to whatever the player’s actual stance.

4. Operatives need actual 3D model in game so you can tell what they’re doing.

5. Operatives and other effect should be about 25% smaller.

6. Fewer cards that take away other people’s cards and more that do particular things to particular states (not operatives, just effects).

7. Candidate stances should be about 33% of what they currently start out at (in either direction) to make speeches more effective.

   1. Speeches should do about half of what they do now also (15 to your stance or 10 to someone else’s).

Looking good!