This is a political simulation game about a recent event, so I think it needs a bit of an explanation/artist’s statement. Here goes:

This is a satirical game based on the Texas government's mismanagement of the power grid during the February 2021 winter storm, a recent event in which people died.

I've lived in Texas my whole life and wrote this game as an attempt to find a humorous way to express frustration with the Texas government's callous response to the event, and to highlight the conflicts of interest of many of the politicians responsible. In this game, you play as a satirized version of one of those politicians, and the gameplay can involve shutting off the power of (cartoony) citizens.

If you aren't comfortable with any of this for any reason, there's no shame in not playing, or stopping if it makes you uncomfortable. Instead, if you live in Texas, I'd ask that you consider registering to vote (if eligible) in next year's state elections.

Play it here

How to play

There are several aspects of this game I wasn’t able to complete during the compo, the worst of which is that it gives the player very little guidance for a simulation where the effects of the player’s actions aren’t always clear (or immediate). So here’s a brief how-to (which I wrote after the compo).

Your goal is to win more campaign funding from wealthy donors (the electricity, gazz, and generator industries) than the opposing party gets from grassroots support (which represents the public’s dissatisfaction with your governorship).

After the intro in which you’ll get to make a choice, you’ll be faced with a winter freeze and be able to turn the power on and off to regions on the map by clicking on them.

Regions with a light outline/no outline are powered, which keeps the heat on (and restores heat to cold regions). Regions with a dark outline are unpowered, and will start to get cold.

Regions that turn bluish are cold, and will begin to buy generators, appeasing the generator and gazz industries, but will also gradually turn public opinion against you, increasing donations to the opposing party.

Regions that begin flashing are dangerously cold, and the population may begin to decline.

If the temperature drops below 32° F, the grid stability will decline (you can influence this with your choice in the intro), which limits the regions you can have powered on at a time.

If you’re at the limit, clicking a region with a dark outline will not power it on unless you power off enough other regions first. (some regions have more population, and therefore power usage, than others, but there’s no UI for this, so you may have to experiment)

See how you do with four years of randomly generated winter storms!