We would like to develop multiplayer for Political Arena – especially a persistent, political MMO (massively multiplayer online), but we are focused right now on making the base game and simulation as engrossing and accurate as possible.

We plan for Political Arena to ultimately let players navigate a fully simulated political ecosystem, complete with legislating, campaigning, special interests, the media and dynamic demographic trends.

Political Arena’s first Early Access release will let players customize a senator or representative and navigate the corridors of power for a term of Congress.

Over time, we plan to grow the game’s legislative mechanics to incorporate more and more of the political world.

Political Arena creator Eliot Nelson has been designing Political Arena for over a decade, when, while working as a political reporter, he realized that there was no fun, comprehensive political sim on the market. Most production has occurred since 2022.

The initial cost of Political Arena will be $14.99, but for the first two weeks of Early Access, we are reducing that cost to USD $11.99. The price of Political Arena will increase as more features are added, however price increases will only accompany major feature additions.

Unity

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 American Politics.  

We plan to grow the game in Early Access into a fully simulated political world, complete with high stakes campaign strategizing, backroom deals, scandals, special interests, and the press.

For now, English. We are working on adding other languages.

Political Arena’s data comes from a variety of publicly accessible sources, including those from the Census department, Congress and other government entities.

Political Arena will be available in Early Access on Steam starting on September 2nd.

We have been fortunate to work with a range of extremely talented graphic and UI artists. Farbridge and Voracious Games helped to develop the game’s graphics and our UI was designed by Danny Aguilar along with creator Eliot Nelson.

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 would like to expand Political Arena into other platforms, particularly those best suited for UI/UX interactions, such as the Nintendo Switch and mobile. We believe Political Arena is uniquely suited for mobile as politics is both conducted and followed through smart phones.

Yes.

Political Arena is being produced by a small team on a tight budget. We’re proud to have worked with a number of gifted artists, designers, developers and other creators on many of our core systems and assets. 

We have employed AI art assets only when it exceeds our budget capacity to provide fair wages for our team. We have employed AI to create or modify specialized, low-frequency art assets including art for certain event windows. Nearly all of our game’s most visible art assets, including its UI, backgrounds and character art were all produced by experienced artists.

We are excited to engage with the Political Arena community across a variety of channels, including regular streaming hangouts, blog posts and on social media.

We plan for Political Arena to ultimately let players navigate a fully simulated political ecosystem, complete with legislating, campaigning, special interests, the media and dynamic demographic trends.

Political Arena’s first Early Access release will let players customize a senator or representative and navigate the corridors of power for a term of Congress.

Over time, we plan to grow the game’s legislative mechanics to incorporate more and more of the political world.

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.

 It depends on what kind of player you are and your interest in Political Arena! 

Before paying for Political Arena in Early Access (or not), ask yourself…

…if you are OK with a somewhat buggier gaming experience than typical of a completed project.

…if you want to see how Political Arena evolves as a game as its feautres are added and updated.

…if you think the current feature list/scope of Political Arena sounds fun or interesting.

…if you want to help influence Political Arena’s development and feature growth by providing feedback and suggestions based on your play experience. 

…if you want to buy Political Arena at a discounted price. The cost of Political Arena will increase thorughout Early Access as more features are added. 

…if you want to help support production. Making a deep game about Politics is not easy 

We highly recommend you to join our Discord Server ASAP to get in on all the latest.

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.

 In Political Arena 0.1, you customize your own Representative or Senator and navigate a vibrantly simulated Washington — sometimes hilarious, sometimes maddening but always engrossing — for a single term of Congress. Though not every legislative system or procedure is included yet, there’s already tons to do.

CUSTOMIZE

• Tailor your politician’s appearance, personality, views, ideology, influence, skills and agenda. 
• Customize the partisan breakdown of congress, the president’s party and ideology, what the filibuster threshold is and just how partisan and ideological the world is. See how these settings impact outcomes and your style of play.

MAKE AN IMPACT

• Make your agenda a reality by drafting bills impacting dozens of policies.
• Lobby the White House to see your agenda placed front and center, even being featured in the Inauguration and State of the Union. 
• Work behind the scenes to secure votes for your legislation and lobby for your bills, even during a vote.

A DYNAMIC WORLD

• Each NPC’s agenda and personality shapes their behavior: how likely they are to break promises, remember their friends, punish their enemies. 
• NPCs evolve over time, cultivating alliances, grudges and reputations. 

Political Arena will be available in Early Access on Steam starting on September 2nd.

No. Access to the Private beta will be turned off when we officially go into Early Access on September 2, 2025.

Customize the partisan breakdown of congress, the president’s party and ideology, what the filibuster threshold is and just how partisan and ideological the world is. See how these settings impact outcomes and your style of play.

Yes! We just ask that you add a functional link to our website or the Steam product page.

Political Arena is infinitely replayable, as no two playthroughs will ever be the same, thanks to the game’s deep and rich simulation. 

However the length each playthrough takes is up to you. Playing at the highest speed and only responding to game prompts, a year in Political Arena can take as little as ten minutes. If you want to take greater control of your politician’s destiny, you can slow or pause the game speed and spend as much time as you want strategizing over every part of their day-to-day activities.

Political Arena is a political sandbox, where you can play as a variety of politicians and engage in a wide range of political activity. Currently the game lasts for a two-year term of Congress, but we aim to grow the simulation to last the length of a politician’s career and for countless political roles to be playable, including the president, congresisonal leadership and lobbyists. 

You can tailor your politician’s appearance, personality, views, ideology, influence, skills and agenda.

You will be receiving a Steam key for Political Arena via the email you provided in your Kickstarter pledge when the game enters Early Access on September 2, 2025

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 digitally and physically.

Political Arena is set in U.S. politics, and as such sometimes alludes to – but does not depict – mature and sensitive themes. 

Generally speaking, those players mature enough to follow the news will likely find Political Arena’s content to be commensurate with the mature themes of global and political events.  

Like real life politics, the game will sometimes allude to public figures behaving in immature ways or caught up in adult situations. and also feature legislation that aims to address topics that may be triggering to some players.

We do not currently have any open paid positions.

Right now, if you wish to gift someone a copy of Political Arena, you can do so via Steam. Instructions for doing so can be found here.

We are not currently accepting new beta testers at this time.

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.

Select the “Feedback & Bug Reports” button in Political Arena’s main menu or in the pause menu.

File a bug report here.

1.  Try uninstalling and installing Political Arena.

2. Right click on Political Arena in your Steam Library, select “Properties,” navigate to the “Installed Files” section.

3. Select “Verify integrity of game files”

4. If issues persist, file a bug report here.

Go to the Steam Support Page!

File a bug report here.