Release: Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 v. 1.2.9

Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 v. 1.2.9 has been released.

It adds the ability to do multiple of a given Leader Activity on a turn, and weakens Bloc support in the Canada 2011 scenario, among other things.

To update:

http://270soft.com/updates-redownloads/

Version information:

http://270soft.com/updates-redownloads/prime-minister-forever-canada-2011-version-information/

Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 Development

The next couple weeks, I’ll continue focusing on PM4E Canada 2011. Some of the big things:

1. Candidate editor.

2. Barnstorm multiple ridings.

3. Endorsers give a Ground Ops bonus.

4. Better AI and more advantages for computer players on ‘Hard’, so the computer players are more difficult to beat.

5. If turn parties off, transfer voters in a realistic way (instead of just removing the voters from the game).

I’m aiming for the next release on Friday.

Release: Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 v. 1.2.7

Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 v. 1.2.7 has been released.

This fixes the problem with endorsers giving Ground Ops that then cost a huge amount, and makes a significant change to the high-score system.

To update:

http://270soft.com/updates-redownloads/

Version information:

http://270soft.com/updates-redownloads/prime-minister-forever-canada-2011-version-information/

NDP forms majority gov’t! or … Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 reviewed in the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper, and Chad Sapieha recently reviewed Prime Minister Forever – Canada 2011 for it.

The good: “I have little doubt many armchair politicians will have a blast taking the helm of their favourite parties[.]”

The bad:

1. Chad says there were grammar and spelling mistakes. Not just mistakes, but frequent mistakes.

I’m not sure what he’s referring to, and no one else has reported such problems – so this was a little frustrating. If anyone has specific examples of spelling or grammar mistakes, please post them here and they will be fixed with the next release.

2. The high-score system didn’t reward his NDP and Green campaigns adequately.

This is a good point – I’ll take a look at the high-score algorithm again, but I can imagine it wouldn’t give the Greens, say, that high of a score even if they achieved their campaign goal of 1 seat, simply because the shift in seats and percentages would still be quite small absolutely speaking.

3. “[A] post-election message stated [May] failed to earn the Greens a place in the government, which was simply false, given that she won a riding.”

My understanding is: she would be part of Parliament, but not of the government (unless the Greens were part of a governing coalition). Political wonks’ feedback much appreciated on this.

4. “[M]ost of my beefs with Prime Minister Forever: Canada 2011 mirror my issues with real Canadian elections, such as our first past the post system.”

It’s not usual that we get complaints that the game works the way that country’s electoral system is supposed to work! (However, it would be nice to try an election out with a different electoral system, which is what the preference system in the game will do – it will be enabled probably in a few weeks or so, but it’s not high-priority right now.)

This leads me to the Great Onion of Complaint: complaints about games are like an onion. In the beginning, there are big complaints, which are like the outside layer of an onion. Once you fix those problems, there is another layer of complaint, which is like the next layer of the onion. After you fix those things, there is another layer, and so on. When people are complaining that there are grammatical errors, and that the game works as the electoral system is supposed to work (but they don’t like reality!), then from a game developer’s perspective, those are good complaints.