Anyone want to make a political adventure game?

[Reid]

Hi,

Is anyone else a fan of Dennis Kucinich? He's a Democratic US presidential candidate who's having trouble getting into the mainstream spotlight, which is being dominated by Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and John Edwards.

http://www.dennis4president.com/go/issues/

I've been thinking about creating an AGS game to promote Dennis Kucinich and I wonder of there are others here who like his ideas and would like to collaborate on a short game? I've been thinking about the game design and it's tricky, how does one communicate a candidates plans without it seeming cheesy, like an infomercial? I thought about having various people that are having a problem, like no healthcare and the player helps them and tells them about Dennis' plans. They become fans of Dennis and help overturn a decision by major TV corps to exclude Dennis from nationally televised debates (which has happened several times now).

Anyone interested in working on this send me a PM. I've started on some graphics, but my skills are better in game design/writing and scripting.

-Reid

[shbaz]

Great plan, but first we need a Kucinich girl on youtube.  Time has already run out on this one and we need to get on the ball.  Know any takers?

[twin-moon]

Wow. While I'd like to to see a political adventure game, I'd say it's hard if not impossible to make a game with the main intention of getting a candidates ideas across.

If your reason for making this game is that Kucinich has trouble getting in the spotlight, maybe you should make that the plot: you could be a campaignleader (or something like that) trying to get him some exposure. Your main puzzles could be to persuade people (like tv-bosses) to give him some time. In that persuasion you could get his plans across.

I don't wanna collaborate since I'm don't know who this guy is (and I'm not American), but I'm kind of interested in the final product, so I hope you'll finish this.

[ildu]

The media (and himself) have labeled Kucinich as a pretty comical figure, so I would say don't do it. There's no way it won't turn out either very campaigny or more likely sarcastic satire. Why don't you just join the campaign in real life if you support him so eagerly?

Not to mention, a game takes a very long time to make (unless it's utter crap). For a campaign game to be taken seriously or to even begin to endorse the candidate, it has to be at a level where people will want to play it. So, you're kinda running out of time. The election is in November, and my guess is that all the minor candidates will have been scraped off before summer. I don't see Kucinich surviving for a whole lot longer. So, you've got a couple of months time to do this, if you consider that it takes a lot of time for any effect to happen after the game is released, which doesn't bode well for the quality of the game.

Also, let's be honest here. Is an AGS game really gonna change a thing? In this time of HD, short attention span, quality control and media-crazy, is there any chance it won't come off as sarcastic and ultimately negative for the candidate, if the game happens to get publicity (which is a longshot even if you have a quality game)?

If you really wanna help Kucinich and want to do it Internet- and game-wise, get yourself a Flash artist and coder, and make a small Flash game/site that explains the issues with minimal actual gameplay. There is potential there, since in that medium caricatures and comedy would be acceptably powerful (not to mention more approachable) in getting the message across. It's not at all a fat chance that if you created a quality product, you might be able to strike a deal with the Kucinich campaign for them to involve the game/site on his homepage.

[Reid]

Hi all,

Yeah, it is true there isn't much time at all. Who knows how much longer Kucinich can last with his limited funds. If I had more time and resources I'd go with Twin Moon's idea. Maybe do an inspirational game where a mail boy working at a large TV corp. is able to persuade the TV execs to let Kucinich participate in the debates.

Since I don't have that kind of time or budget, I think ildu's idea is possible. I'll ask around on the Kucinich forums to see if anyone has flash skills.

-Reid