Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Democracy 3 available NOW for pre-order+beta access

cliffski

Yeah, I know it took a while, but it’s here at last. Democracy 3 can be in your hands RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

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You can pre-order from my site now, and you get access to the beta immediately. This is, I hope, A pretty polished beta. It’s feature complete, it’s nice and shiny. It’s optimised. there may be bugs or balance issues, but I’m aware of none for the PC version, and only 2 or 3 minor visual anomalies in the mac & linux builds. For the first time ever I have a multi-platform simultaneous game release. Oh yeah.
Buying the game now gets you download links (DRM-free of course) for all 3 platforms, plus a steam key, which right now is useless, but will let you activate the game on steam when it’s released finally.
let me know what you think here, or in the forums at http://positech.co.uk/forums/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=36 or I will be answering questions about the game on reddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/1m8mne/democracy_3_the_political_strategy_game_now/

Obviously anything you can do to help me get the word out about this game is much appreciated. I look forward to being accused of an evil capitalist or a naive communist in equal measure. It was an artist decision to make the capitalist guy the largest one in that image, and ditto about there being more women than men :D

37 thoughts on Democracy 3 available NOW for pre-order+beta access

  1. There’s a typo you probably want to fix: “…A simple iconic-based view of your countries issues allwos you to…”

  3. Congratulations, Cliff. I’m super stoked to try it out. Now, I just need to get a new job so I can buy it!

  6. Probably ought to update the front of the positech site, when I first checked I didn’t notice the blog update and I was expecting a big D3 banner.

  10. I cannot start the steam version of the software, but the manual download and installation works fine.

    I get no error message in the steam version, it appears to start and close instantly without giving any message or hint to what the problem can be. Any suggestions on where to look?

  12. Ah okay, I didn’t know. I was able to download it and it appeared no problem. Also had several files. It might be a problem if people try to use Steam mainly rather than the individual download. If you mentioned it somewhere, I clearly missed it and so might other people. Thanks for the info. :)

  16. Thanks, I was waiting anxiously.

    Loving it so far (many improvements over D2 indeed), but already found 2 bugs:

    1) When saving my last game, I got some kind of ugly window with 3 buttons (grudges, situations, events) at the right hand side of the screen, that looks like some kind of debugging mode/developer – stuff? Couldn’t get rid of it thereafter, it didn’t vanish when quitting to the main menu either (or reloading a save game.

    2) Repeatable bug: Open options menu, then (without closing the options window) open policies or cabinet window. Not the options menu will be in front, but you won’t be able to close it by clicking on the X. You need to close the other window first, then ….

    Also a more general comment: I had hoped that Democracy 3 featured less 99% election wins, but maybe I am just too good at running countries. ;)

    Also, things to improve (?):

    1) The charts feature those nice icons about what happened. But I can’t tell from the icon whether the Brain Drain began or ended. Or whether I raised, canceled or lowered income taxes. Couldn’t there be some kind of pop-up-hint telling me that?

    2) Couldn’t the achievements be tracked both globally and on a per game/country basis? It’s nice to know that I achieved Green Utopia once, but why not also track whether I achieved it this game?

  17. Congrats.
    I was impressed by the wide range of payment options you offer.
    Until I actually placed my order.

    “Your order has been received and will be reviewed by a BMT Micro representative shortly.”

    Huh? Really? In this day and age, there is a manual step and I have to wait for a human to release my purchase? This is not the 20th century anymore.

    1. Agreed. Hell, I paid with Google Checkout, there should be no wait. I guess the line “Democracy 3 can be in your hands RIGHT THIS MINUTE!” should include an asterisk.

    1. Which email service did you use? It seems they hate gmail even if you use Google Checkout, which gives them your name, address, and yet you STILL need to wait on customer service, which as of now, is probably out for the day.

      Yeah. This is the last time I order a product handled by BMT.

      1. >It seems they hate gmail even if you use Google Checkout, which gives them your name, address, and yet you STILL need to wait on customer service, which as of now, is probably out for the day.

        BMT says ‘up to 48h’, but let’s hope it will not get that bad.
        I used a gmail address with google checkout as well.

        Of all the store fronts, Apple is best by far from a dev point of view.
        They handle everything, including paying sales tax in hundreds of countries.
        That Google Play charges 30% as well is a travesty, as they don’t even do half of what Apple does for their 30% cut.

  20. So we can’t get the game by non-bank account related means like paysafe. That is quite disappointing.

    1. The thing is that in order to use these methods, I need to have a bank account. And I don’t have one, currently. Anyway, I don’t blame you for not being familiar with paysafe since few sites and services support it though it is great. You just buy a 16 digit code pin card worth and use the pin for the exchange. Nevermind.

  22. Is the minor glitch on OSX not showing the full width of the screen (on MBP(r)), if not I would like to report a new issue.

    Also, PC version didn’t launch in Parallells VM (OSX emulating Win 7), just shows black screen, ofc getting that to work should not be necessary with a real native OSX version available :)

    ….now should I install a Linux VM for a final try or just be patient :) I am soo looking forward to this!

    1. >Is the minor glitch on OSX not showing the full width of the screen (on MBP(r))

      I have the same issue on OSX MacBook Air.
      Only shows part of the screen, in low res.
      Much of the UI is off-screen, I’ve not been able to start a game.

  23. If you can see the options link on the main menu, you should still be able to go in there and select the right screen res, that should fix it (We will fix the auto-detection)

  24. I think I have a bug/problem. 100% of my citizens are retired and also parents and it won’t change. Very easy to please them. :)

    I think I passed 5 terms now.

  28. Seems to be temporarily locking up after winning election – CTRL-ALT-DELETE reveals that ‘Volume Control’ + Democracy3 are not responding… End-Tasking Volume Control releases Democracy3 !!!

    1. First 2 times yes – 3rd time it didn’t fix it – but it sorted itself out on its own.

      Perhaps not a bug & only noticed ’cause I have internet radio on in the backround, and I wanted to mute the election victory music.

  30. Just downloaded & tinkered around with Democracy 3 Beta.
    I applaud for designing a fantastic game Cliff, after a few versions it could well be used as a simulation.
    Following are some issues I experienced +some suggestions:
    1. After the game starts the cursor remains in the ‘load’ mode (rotating circle). It does click and select however. It takes normal shape after it is clicked outside the window (in windowed mode) or the screen minimized and again re-sized, in the non-windowed mode.
    2. There are grey connecting lines between some icons. For example into Productivity, out of Middle Earnings….Since grey lines are not explained this could be an error, or is it my monitor?
    3. In some places when the mouse hovers over an icon the links get obscured completely by the labels. For example when playing UK, and hovering over Oil Price, the link between Oil Price and Oil Supply is obscured. A possible solution is to make the labels semi-transparent.
    4. Playing UK and hovering over Rail Usage, the overlapping red line between Bus Usage and Oil Demand is confusing. There is a single red line that seems to move in both directions yet the two circles are bordered in different colors. I recall encountering similar issues in other countries/ icons.
    5. After the game starts there is no easy way of knowing which country is being played- except for UK, where the currency symbol is unique.
    6. The link between GDP and Unemployment is green?!, meaning higher the GDP, higher the unemployment. By my reckoning it should be red. Or am I missing something here?
    7. In the Economy area, Inflation stands stark in its absence. It could be calculated as a function of change in money supply. Since there is no money printing variable, debt could be used for this purpose.

    The list is already long. Perhaps more as I play the game.

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