Publisher and developer of PC Games

The Political Machine 2020 v1.4 - The Final Stretch

It's almost here - the moment we've all been waiting for - Election Night 2020!

Of course, being 2020, experts warn that the surge in mail-in ballots may result in an 'Election Month', but...whatever. I know WE'RE pumped! And with early voter numbers being shattered, it looks like most of the electorate is pumped too!

But enough about the horse race - let's talk about v1.4!



In the Advanced Setting popup, you can now play with the Randomization of Issues and State Data. Want a crazy game where all the state values are scrambled and the big issues are "Banning Soft Drinks" and "Giving Frogs the Right to Vote"? Want a regular game with just small randomization tweaks made to top issues? In v1.4, all those randomization options at your fingertips.

We've doubled the number of available achievements to unlock, giving hardcore players rewards for their mastery of the game! Masochistic wins for Trump, Biden, and several other candidates will give you an official badge of honor for your accomplishments. Wear them proudly!

Keeping up with the news has been hard the last few weeks, but we've added & boosted several issues that are coming up in the final stretch of campaigning.

• Investigating Hunter Biden
  
• Herd Immunity
  
• Saving the Middle Class
  
• Court Packing
  
• Dangers of Socialism
  
• Second Stimulus Package
  
• Nation Mask Mandate
  
• Election Integrity

We've also updated the Biden and Trump Ideology trees to reflect their 2020 campaign messaging.


NEW FEATURE: Issue and State Randomization

• You can now access Randomization options under the ADVANCED SETTING tab when setting up your game.
  
• Issue randomization can result in 'Some Randomization' or a 'Very Random' game, where even the most crazy fringe issues can bubble up in importance.
  
• State Data can have Wealth, Electoral Votes, Party Affiliations, or 'All The Above" randomized.
  
• Election Night: Updated the '270 to Win' text to be driven by the actual number of electoral votes.
  
• Note: This only works in Single Player modes.

10 NEW ACHIEVEMENTS
There are now a series of 10 achievements, many of which tied to beating the game on Masochistic difficulty with specific candidates.

• Trump Train
  
• President Joe
  
• #YangGang4Ever
  
• Tea-Party Triumph
  
• Feel the Burn!
  
• Obama's 3rd Term
  
• Romney 2020
  
• A Vote for Extinction
  
• A Totally Random Win
  
• Beating the Coronavirus

New Issues

• Investigating Hunter Biden
  
• Peaceful Transfer of Power
  
• Saving the Middle Class
  
• Socialism
  
• Election Integrity
  
• Herd Immunity
  
• Court Packing
  
• California Wildfire Assistance

Updated Issues

• Higher Importance: Fracking, Filling Supreme Court Vacancy, Second Stimulus Package
  
• Lower Importance: Building the Wall, Funding Nasa, Stopping the Coronavirus, National Mask Mandate, Defund the Police, Prosecuting Rioters
  
• Updated State Demographics: Alaska: D +1, R +8, I -9 / Oklahoma: D - 5, R +3, I +2 / Texas: D + 6, R -1, I-5 / Virginia: D +2, R -2 / Washington: D +2, I -2 /

Updated Candidates

• Donald Trump: Ideology Tree given several new issues: Saving the Middle Class, The China Virus, and Dangers of Socialism, +1 to Minority Appeal, Notes: One of the big areas where President Trump is outperforming his 2016 numbers is with Latino voters, so boosting his 'Minority Appeal' stat made sense for this update.

• Joe Biden: Ideology Tree given several new issues: National Mask Mandate, Second Stimulus Package, and Court Packing, +1 to Starting Funds, +1 to Media Appeal, Notes: After some record-breaking fundraising months, we had to give him a boost in funds. We're also seeing the media go pretty easy on the former VP in situations where they'd be tougher on his opponent, so boosting his Media Appeal made sense as well.

Fixes

• When you have a malformed Ideology Tree in the My Games directory, the game will now pop up a message warning you about the problematic XML (This would break the game in earlier versions).
  
• John Adam's home state set to Massachusetts
  
• Various Misc Typos