It's time to prepare for government! Governance is an all-new in depth political simulator that uses real-world census and election data to create the most accurate and emergent UK politics sim to date. More to come shortly! #ukpolitics Wishlist on Steam store.steampowered.com/app/4…

We’re going to start wave 2 testing very, very soon but we want to hear your wildest, most out there ideas to see what we can make happen. Let us know - in your dream political sim, what feature do you want to see?

We have exciting news about Governance's next development, Wave 2. We've shared some stuff on the Steam forum but we have more to follow shortly. We also need your help! We're shipping over 25 new features, most of which could be their own post. Naturally this requires a LOT of testing. If you're interested in beta testing, either DM us or reply to this thread if you haven't already. To give you an idea of what's to come: - Devolution is here! - Referendums are coming! - Modding support is getting even stronger! And these aren't even the biggest things. We're really excited to share what we've been working on but we want to do it right. If you're interested in seeing a slice of what we're working on whilst it's in testing, get in touch!

Things have been a little quiet but for good reason! New patch out at the end of this week - and then we have exciting news regarding Wave 2! 😊

v0.5.7 of Governance is here! Despite the number, this one is big! We have added an all-new deeper economic sim, a refined budget system now built into the Policies system giving Chancellors many more fiscal tools, local campaigning and a brand new tutorial system! We're in this for the long haul and we're really excited to start shipping the next load of features - we hope you're all enjoying the game so far and can't wait to share what's next! Play Governance now: store.steampowered.com/app/4…

0.5.7 has been delayed for a few more hours due to a rather serious bug with the economic improvements. We’re very happy to share why because it should also give you an insight into how everything in Governance is connected... As part of the testing we test out our economic model on longform economics throughput over 50-100 years. We know most games will only last 5-10 years but we like to be thorough. Between years 19-25, without fail the economy completely collapses after the markets take a nose dive. Essentially, Ward level data was being added twice as part of productivity and output data modelling, which completely broke employment data and tax calculations. This caused a multi trillion deficit to form, increasing ridiculously year on year. Within 20 years the debt to GDP hit 300%. The biggest government expense was debt interest. GDP falls by 5% a quarter with interest rates doubling. There’s no modelling of IMF bailouts or more extreme economic options yet so without adequate tools for the chancellor, the economy collapsed and took everything with it. Private NPC stock buyers pulled out of the market as their investments collapse. However this whole situation weakened the pound against the dollar, so their money is worthless. The governments in the sim responds by increasing taxes to >80%, which went over about as well as you could expect. On a ward and constituency level, in one sim there was full unemployment! All industries collapsed entirely… except IT and print journalism 😂 However on one sim government still found time to build a new motorway project between Birmingham and Bristol… only for a future government to cancel it 50% of the way through. This all in turn affects government satisfaction, which led to endless party super majorities flipping from one side to the other. Politicians mutinied against further tax hikes and started their own movements- but due to the two party effect, usually just split votes enough in key marginal constituencies to get the opposition elected with a ridiculous mandate. A mandate that they then screw up because the economy has completely collapsed and they currently lack the further tooling to turn everything round in that exceptional circumstance! We have fixed most of this behaviour as it has crept in with our later testing. But we thought we would share it for one simple reason. Even when the big picture is comically wrong, it’s built on a framework on complex decisions and simulations that we have done right. It’s exciting to see things take shape and we want to make sure it’s ready for everyone to play!

We’re *hoping* 0.5.7 will be out later today. There’s a lot of good stuff but we have needed a lot of time to test it all!

Once again, you asked and we listened! Turn based gameplay has come to Governance, giving you the option of either turn-based gameplay at a slower-pace, or the faster real time mode players have loved already. Both are treated as equals, and you can switch it up whilst you play! In turn based mode, you get the option of advancing both a day and (up to) a week, depending on actions. All this and more in our latest update! Play Governance today: store.steampowered.com/app/4…

v0.5.6 of Governance is here! - Based on player feedback, we have now added an all new turn based gameplay mechanic for those who want a slower style of gameplay. We've added a special 'advance a week' end turn button as well if you play it in that mode - Added a home button to help you find your constituency - Pushed new changed to the character wizard - Added new boilerplate policies from real life - Added new single-issue beliefs such as NIMBYism - Fixes to camera controls and map interactions

v0.5.5a is out now! Following feedback, we've added more interactivity and feedback for bills, including tabled votes on amendments and more visual feedback for when bills become law! Borrowing code from our Election Selection screens, we've also implemented a much more visual politician recruitment system, with all new events based on the quality of politicians you seek out! We've also fixed the tooltip issue raised by some users, along with improvements to the in-game Wiki, and some tweaks to the simulation.

0.5.4 of Governance #earlyaccess is out now on Steam! Lots of additions coming today and fixes for issues that the community have raised. We are committed to making Governance the best political sim going - and we mean it. Expect fast turnaround for updates. Stay tuned. #ukpolitics #simgames

A reminder for all of our UK players today!

v0.5.3 is out! * Fixed issues with saving and loading campaigns - saves from 0.5.2 may not work due to changes in serialisation * Constituency and demographic group apathy modelling has begun * Fixed local popularity bug in the UI * Fixed some election dataset issues causing the centre left/centre right to win majorities on 15% of the national vote * Fixed think tank policy event issues where rather than showing the topic the event just reads {TOPIC} * Rejigged Independent MP systems to ensure less breakaways * Fixed Wiki window text issues so that Governpedia is not called wiki_data.title_page * Slowed down in-game days slightly to give players more time to react to events (this will be slowed further in 0.5.4) * Fixed a by-election bug that unseats you in your own constituency without warning * Fixed bill drafting charging you for political capital twice * Fixed z-index fighting for some events

Governance started life as a tool for political sim. Becoming a game was a happy accident that happened as the project took shape. Governance is in early access for a reason - and we're looking for feedback on how the game can take shape. All that we ask is that you're polite and respectful about it, and we'll see what we can do. :)

We hope you've been enjoying Governance so far! We've been made aware of a few bugs which should be patched as soon as possible. As soon as patches are ready we'll release them!