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.

(I’m curious about not just the U.S., but also other countries (in Europe, Canada, Australia, NZ, … you name it).)

scenarios.theoryspark.com

This new site will have scenarios for all the games, listed and categorized, and allow you to comment on the page. This will unify a few different places for scenario info we have been using up until now.

To get your scenario posted, send your scenarios here!
http://www.theoryspark.com/interact/contact.htm

Right now we have all the President Forever 2008 + Primaries scenarios at scenarios.theoryspark.com, plus Ocia – 2009 for Chancellor Forever. We will continue to add scenarios to the page.

1.6.0.8

Go here to view information and download.

Go here for Campaigns Forever’s purchase page.

The TheorySpark Team

From the scenario designer: “The 2008 Federal Elections for the Parliament of Acadie returned to power the Parti Libéral, one seat short of a clear majority. The new government was unable to get its budget passed when the Acadie Solidaire, who held the balance of power, voted with the Parti Conservateur opposition. This has forced a new Federal Election, which gives an opportunity to both Libéral and Conservateur to win a majority. The Acadie Solidaire’s hope is to hold the balance of power. The Parti Vert hope to win a seat.”

From the scenario designer: “The passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the subsequent abolishment of the monarchy has sent shockwaves around the commonwealth. Now New Zealand holds it’s first ever presidential election. Who will triumph in the primaries and general election to become New Zealand’s 1st President?”

From the scenario designer: “The big race is on. Will the Democrats retake the Alabama Governorship and thereby control both the executive and legislative branches or will the Republicans manage to hold the Governorship, even as they lose another legislative election?”

From the scenario designer: “Stormark is a fictional micronation with strong Viking and Scandinavian roots. It is holding its elections for the Althing during the background of several foreign and domestic crises. Will the governing Konservatives retain power or will they be defeated by a Social Democrat-led coalition?”

From the scenario designer: “4 years after the highs of holding the Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh has woken up to a depressed economy and rising fuel bills. Still a prosperous city reigning in tourists and intellectuals as ever, it has a strong unionist edge over Labour, but it could be lost marginally, if Labour wins the UK-wide election. The wealthy west and south traditionally vote Conservative and the industrial north and east traditionally vote Labour. Will anything change in here or will it remain a 1 seat Tory lead?”