POLITICAL ARENA is a one-of-a-kind strategy/sim about American politics. Seek fame or infamy in a fully simulated political world, complete with high stakes campaign strategizing, backroom deals, scandals, special interests, and the press. Be the politician of your dreams (or nightmares).
Run a top-notch campaign by leveraging Political Arena’s real world data. Learn what issues drive your constituents to the ballot box, scrutinize the latest polls, and analyze the unique demographics of every congressional district.
Master the art of negotiation and become a Washington power broker. Navigate D.C.’s maze of special interests by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses and ambitions of your friends and enemies … even hold unfavorable information as leverage to gain concessions. Single out powerful allies — the legislative leaders, the rising stars, the kingmakers — and do everything you can to get on their good side.
Play the news cycle and try not to let it play you. Strategically time your actions to generate the most (or least) attention from the press. Announce your campaign, introduce legislation, and time campaign events when the media is least distracted — or publicize compromising information when the public has its eyes elsewhere. Friday is a great time to announce that pesky IRS investigation into your spouse’s finances.
KEY FEATURES
Realistic Political Simulation
Immerse yourself in a fully simulated U.S. political landscape with dynamic elections, backroom deals, scandals, and media influence.
Campaign Strategizing
Run a high-stakes political campaign using real-world data. Understand voter motivations, analyze poll data, and tailor strategies to the demographics of each congressional district.
Negotiation and Power Brokering
Master the art of political negotiation by aligning with or manipulating Washington’s power players. Use special interests and unfavorable information as leverage.
Dynamic Media Interaction
Time your actions strategically to manipulate the news cycle, announce legislation, or distract from scandals when the press is least attentive.
Customizable Political Career
Play as the politician of your dreams—or nightmares—by shaping your persona through campaign decisions, alliances, and media interactions.
In-Depth Political Data
Utilize real-world issues, polls, and district data to build an authentic strategy that reflects current political trends.
Scandal Management
Juggle the delicate balance of managing scandals and crises while maintaining public support and influence over Washington insiders.
Special Interests and Influence
Navigate the complex web of lobbyists and special interests to rise to power or bend others to your will.
GALLERY
Check out the Political Arena Universe
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Political Arena is a one-of-a-kind strategy/sim about American politics where no two playthroughs are the same. Players create their own politician and seek fame or infamy in a fully simulated political world, complete with high stakes campaign strategizing, backroom deals, scandals, special interests, and the press.
You will receive a Game Key to download the game from Steam. If you had selected additional rewards as part of your pledge, we will be fulfilling those after Early Access Release, both digital and physical ones.
As per Steam: “Early Access is a unique development model that allows games to be played as they progress towards a full release. Early Access encourages ongoing updates from developers, while letting players participate in direct feedback through gameplay and community involvement.” Please go here for even more info.
That really depends on your inclination as a player! If you’re the type of player (or person) who likes to try new things, even if they are imperfect and do not have all the features of a final product, or if you like the idea of getting involved in the development process early on, and get your input in it, Early Access is for you, and we highly recommend you to join our Discord Server ASAP to get in on all the latest. If instead you’d rather not deal with bugs or you do not care about the process…then you should wait!
You can gift a game by buying a key on our website and then send it to your friends.
Video game development company Wayside Press, which was founded by political journalist, author and humorist Eliot Nelson. Wayside has partnered with, and is being advised by, some of the world’s leading experts in entertainment, video game development and politics.
Politics is the most important subject of our time that we have not seen represented in the most popular media of our time – video games. Politics have been all over TV, books, etc but considering its mechanics are inherently very game-y…where’s the Politics 2k20?
So our goal is to make the first comprehensive game about politics that recreates the whole shebang: campaigning, legislating, special interests, the media, etc. And we’re aiming to make it fun!
We anticipate being in Early Access for at least a year.
Our goal is to make a genre-defining video game, one in which each major Early Access update contains tons of new depth and breadth. We’ll move Political Arena out of Early Access only when every last corner of the game is deeply immersive and fun. Socks must be firmly knocked off.
For now, English. We are working on adding other languages.
Use the contact form at the bottom of the Home Page! Or you can email us at contact@waysidepress.co. Also our Discord server has a lot of info and a lot of nice people to discuss the game with.
Yes! We just ask that you add a functional link to our website or the Steam product page.
While the game is in Early Access, it will cost USD $14.99. For the first month of Early Access, we are reducing that to USD $10.99.
No, our KS/BK fulfillment will NOT be for the Private Beta — it will be for the EA version, which will be out before the end of the year.
No. The Private beta will be deprecated when we officially go into Early Access, just like we will be deprecating prior Betas once this goes live.
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