![\"logo\"](\"http:\/\/positech.co.uk\/cliffsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\nYup its Democracy 3:Africa announcement day! So whats all this then?<\/p>\n
Democracy 3: Africa is a sort of ‘re-imagining’ of the original game, and also an ‘expandalone’, meaning you don’t need to buy the original game. This is not DLC, but a stand-alone game with new graphics, new music, and of course a completely new setting. The countries in D3:A have a different set of problems, opportunities and characteristics to those in the original game. That has meant a lot of changes and a lot of tweaking and re-modeling. There is more information, including a list of the countries modeled at the placeholder website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n So in more blog-like terms…whats going on here then? And thats kind of the point. In the west, we tend to think of Africa as either the target of charity fund-raising concerts, or somewhere to go on a safari. We never think about the African economies, or African industry or exports. Lets not forget Africa is home to a billion people…<\/p>\n The problems, opportunities and characteristics of many African countries make for a fascinating experiment in political strategy. It also makes for perhaps more of a challenge. Some people claim that the USA is ‘hard mode’ for Democracy 3, but even in the USA, you aren’t dealing with the levels of corruption found in *some* African states. Poor infrastructure and low levels of literacy are not much of a problem in the west, but they are definite factors in Africa. The problems are different, making for different strategy, and hopefully, a very different and interesting gaming experience.<\/p>\n Plus… When do you ever see Africa in a video game? I have no memories of it ever being anything but a destination where pirate bases or criminal gangs roam. Gaming seems to have a very distorted view of Africa, just like Hollywood does. I am under no illusions that this game will sell many copies in Africa, the gaming market is tiny, but I think it still makes sense because its such an interesting setting for a strategy game.<\/p>\n Also… I am not the designer this time. Modeling Africa was my idea, but in terms of all of the research, balancing, re-modeling, tweaking and any re-coding, this is all being done by Jeff Sheen from Stargazy Studios<\/a>. Look at me! I’m expanding (a bit).<\/p>\n So there you go…Democracy 3:Africa<\/a>. And yes…I am going to get even more white supremacist spam. (I got a bit after announcing the school we are building<\/em>), and yes, we will probably get the tone of some of this wrong, and people will accuse us of misrepresenting African countries and people, and we expect to learn a lot, and to be in full-on listening mode. We are two white guys in the UK making a game about Africa. I’ve never even been there. I get that. I know we will make mistakes, but they won’t be intentional. If we have any ‘agenda’ here at all, its just to develop a game with an unusual and interesting setting, and to learn a little about Africa in the process.<\/p>\n Oh and shipping date? Errr. not sure. Q1 2016? We have been working on it secretly for a while…<\/p>\n
\nDemocracy 3 is a pretty popular game, and actually, while I’m mentioning it, you can get it at 66% off RIGHT NOW on steam<\/a>. Anyway…over the years it’s had 3 expansions, (Social Engineering, Extremism and\u00a0 clones & Drones), and recently we revisited the game to tweak it with some GUI improvements and new achievements.\u00a0 Because of its popularity, I’m able to ‘take a risk’ and make a version of the game that at first glance might not make commercial sense. When I told some friends about it they said, ‘why Africa? who is interested in African politics?’<\/p>\n![\"voters\"](\"http:\/\/positech.co.uk\/cliffsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/voters.png\")
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