Run an America full of talking animals in Democratic Socialism Simulator

There are simulation games that try to be neutral. SimCity never lays out its philosophy of urban planning. Democracy lets you rewrite its rules to role-play any democratic system. These are games that aim to reflect reality, and sometimes, developers even recoil at the idea that they have an ideology at all.

Democratic Socialism Simulator is not that kind of allegedly dispassionate system. It’s a new project from Molleindustria, the studio founded by Carnegie Mellon professor and developer Paolo Pedercini, known for games like Phone Story and Every Day the Same Dream. Part wry edutainment and part leftist in-joke, DSS makes you the first Democratic Socialist president of America and then pelts you with scandals, lobbyists, and impending environmental doom, all played out with colorful talking animals. DSS’s interface lays its (literal) cards on the table, encouraging you to rebuild America based on ecological sustainability, economic equality, worker organization, and citizen engagement — “all the good stuff,” as the game labels its “people’s power” meter.

This happens through a Reigns-style binary choice system. Advisors put forward policy questions, which can be as serious as building a border wall or as trivial as picking your outfit for a speech. You drag the card toward one of two options, and the game responds with short- and long-term consequences. Instead of being a monarch, though, you’re the president.

So your choices don’t just make you more or less popular. Some aren’t possible without a congressional majority, which depends on Democrats’ performance in the midterm elections, which depend on how many voters you win or alienate. Choices may disappoint your advisers or even make them quit — and since they’re all cute anthropomorphized animals, like a polar bear conservationist or black panther civil rights leader, this is emotionally devastating. The game requires more pragmatism than its name suggests.

In an introduction to the game, Pedercini says it’s not designed as a “power fantasy” for democratic socialists, but as a way to conceptualize ambitious policies like the Green New Deal while exploring their obstacles — you can even peruse a spreadsheet with every choice and consequence. So its options aren’t all socialist, socialist options don’t always have positive effects, and you can’t steamroll opposition by disregarding traditional politics. (Let the deficit grow too much, and even Jacobin — sorry, “Jackalin” — will scold you!