Democracy 3 development blog video #2 March 19, 2013 cliffski Another short video showing off new color schemes and some new features:
I really like the look of the new features, adding extra depth, and the new, lighter art style I think is a lot more friendly and less busy than what you had before. Overall, looks great.
Nice improvements. The main screen is a bit cluttered with all those bubbles, but I did get used to it in Democracy 2. One thing that might make things a bit cleaner and more intuitive, would be to move the crucial indicators (GDP growth, Health/Life expectancy, Crime rate, Pollution etc.) to the top bar. Mouse over would show the same lines you show now, so they would work as different kinds of bubbles. You can make enough space at the top, since income, expenditure and balance can be summed up as deficit/surplus %. Also, total debt means nothing. It’s debt as % of GDP that the rating agencies look at. I don’t remember all the important indicators, but I’m certain you can fit all of them there and even a green upwards pointing arrow to show a positive trend and a red downwards pointing arrow to show a worsening trend. Since I mentioned rating agencies, they would add a nice touch. I liked how they worked in Geo Political Simulator 3, which may be a terrible game overall, but can provide some good ideas.
yup, rating agencies are already in, and that top strip is also getting a complete re-design. In fact, after recording this video today I made some more GUI improvements that make the main screen look tons nicer, which is a bit frustrating :(
Love the new metrics (ministers and income) and the brighter look. I’m not concerned about the business or crowdedness of the bubbles. I mean, why would you want to have the game screen be mostly blank? Why not use up all the space with the policy bubbles? They are the main game mechanic. I’m cool with it. I am interested to see how the state-based versus free-market based solutions to various problems will play out. I’m a bit of a heterodox political science buff, and would love to see varying political philosophies being able to solve most of the problems. Democracy 1 and 2 tended to have a sweet spot around democratic socialism, with free-market generally devolving into class warfare and pollution. So, I’d be interested to see how other methods could achieve a good ending. Definitely looking forward to this one, been playing since the first Democracy. :)