Greetings fellow Armchair Politicians!
Well...isn't this the craziest election year we've ever seen? I've been on every single version of TPM, and between Coronavirus, Protests, Economic uncertainty, and Biden's "turtle" strategy, I've never seen an election cycle like this!
But that just means it's time to get out an update for The Political Machine! Currently being tested by QA, the 1.3 update will be out soon. In the meantime, here are some of the goodies you'll get when the update hits Steam!
New Feature: Candidate Workshop
This has been in the works for a while, but with v1.3 you'll FINALLY be able to upload your custom candidates!
Simply select the Upload Candidate option from Mods, choose your candidate, and upload to Steam. Doesn't get much easier than 3 clicks (well, besides 2 clicks or 1 click), but it's still pretty darn easy.
We can't wait to see the presidential contenders that flood the workshop with this update!
Improvement: Trump's Smile!
One of the big challenges with TPM - especially with our characterized bobbleheads - is to keep any bias from popping up. There was some concern from the community that our version of President Trump was too angry looking, so we wanted to fix that!
Bam! A presidential smile for the ages!
New Feature: Dynamic Map
The electoral map is the ultimate source of information when playing The Political Machine. Seeing what states you have a lock on, what states are battlegrounds, and what states your opponent is taking: that information drives all decision making for the player.
With the new animated Dynamic Map system, you will see states flash, bounce, and visually tell you when a choice resulted in a change.
For instance, when you pick an Ideology, when you return to the map you'll see a wave of red or blue sweep across the country.
It's a great way to let you know the direction states are trending and to visually feel the weight of choices being made.
New Candidates: Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin
You can't have an update without some new candidates, and for this one we picked the 42th President, Bill Clinton, and the 2008 Vice Presidential nominee from Alaska, Sarah Palin.
New Feature: Campaign Events
We're changing out the old random event system for one where the player has significantly more agency - Campaign Events.
When you hit a state with a bouncing yellow (?), you'll get a message from someone looking to help your campaign. Use these opportunities to get extra Money, Ideology Pts, Operatives, and more!
Improvement: Fixer Notifications
When Fixers take out an operative, you will now get a nice big newspaper headline letting you know about the event.
New Way to Play: The Political Machine for Mobile!
Looking for more politics in your pocket? Grab TPM2020 on iOS and Android, out now!
We've tweaked gameplay to be more streamlined, but most of the big features from the core game have made the transition to mobile.
As for v1.3, we'll keep you all posted once we get closer to release. Thanks again for playing!