Political Games Forever

Hi guys,

This is just a quick update on Congress Forever. Before I begin, a few notes:

- We don’t have an estimate for when it will be released.

- We probably won’t have screenshots in the near future, as we use placeholder graphics until near the end.

What is Congress Forever going to contain?

It will contain the 2008 Congressional House elections to start, and an initial 2010 scenario (which will be updated as we get closer to 2010). It will not contain the Senate.

What is the game-play point of view?

You play the game as Chair of the national Congressional Committee – the DCCC if playing as the Democrats, the NRCC if as Republicans. For example, if playing as the Democrats in 2008, you would take the role of Chair Rep. Chris van Hollen. Your actions would be the ones the DCCC would be able to take, which include national actions as well as district-by-district ones.

There is no “leader”, however, like in President Forever 2008 + Primaries, or as in the Prime Minister Forever games. The reason is obvious: there is no correlate to a Presidential or Prime Ministerial candidate in the Congressional elections.

House Majority and Minority Leaders, among other major national figures in the Congressional elections, are instead encapsulated as Crusaders.

What are the game dynamics?

As the game focuses on the Committee’s abilities, instead of a “leader’s” abilities, attributes and actions are different.

Instead of Leadership, Charisma, and so on, your party has certain levels in Command Strength, Spin Strength, Ads Strength, Polling Strength, GOTV Strength, and so on.

Unlike President Forever 2008 + Primaries, or even the Prime Minister Forever series, the game focuses mostly at either the national level, or the district level. For example, you can create a national advertising campaign, or create an ad for a specific Congressional nominee.

I’ll be posting more stuff here as development continues.