Presenting Socratic Democracy

Hi friends and foes of ancient greece democracy! Hola amigos y enemigos de la democracia en grecia antigua!

I am writing here to mark the launch of the Socratic Democracy prototype. This is a tiny little game that simulates being a politician in a small, direct democracy of the olden times. In this game, the player is Leonidas, a young and ambitious citizen of the independent city state of Foititia. Leonidas wants to get elected and reelected for ever, perhaps to improve his city, but mostly to mark his name in history. To do so, he must make popular promises and keep them. However, the path to glory is tricky, as the most popular promises will create powerful enemies.

I am a professor of political science and international relations in Ecuador (USFQ), and made this game for students in my Introduction to Politics class. The game can be seen as a simulation of Socrates' pessimism with regards to democracy, expressed in Book 8 of Plato's Republic. Because I have little time to work on it, I have so far only developed the Spanish version for my students, but stay on and I will tell you when the game is available in English. I am actually Brazilian, so the game may get a Portuguese version as well.

The game has been on since early December, but there were a few major bugs that had to be solved before I announced the game more broadly. As this is a prototype, there are a few bugs still out there, but I am about to fix them. I will also be working on improving the UI and reducing text/increasing imagery in the event system.  If you get stuck in year 305 (the game begins in 300 after the city's foundation), please let me know what your last decision was!

This is my first devlog ever, so I don't really know how to go about it. I am just excited to tell the world that I made a tiny little tricky game that may have some educational value. 

Cheers to all,

Pedro

PS: For the ancient greece geeks out there, I would like to clarify that Foititia is a fictitious city, and thus I took some poetic license in defining, and simplifying, how its political institutions work. Yes, it is inspired on Athens, but Athens' laws were too complex for such a simple game, and they changed over time.