Hey! Thanks for the feedback! You are not wrong at all, great game design eye! However, the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the game is intentional, maybe this was a development choice I'll regret, but I wanted the player to feel frustrated as they tried to achieve an unnecessary goal. As is the message in the music video. :) Maybe one day I'll make a spin-off without that in mind and it will probably be a bit more fun to play. ;)
Interesting design choice and I did feel frustrated when I tried it for the first time. My point still stands though: I wish there was more strategic depth. Right now it's "Click 10 times on 'debate' to win. Do anything else and lose." This makes the game quite short as there is little replay value, which is kinda sad given the amount of effort and talent that went into creating it.
I'm looking forward to see your future projects.
I completed the game and I have to disagree. "to achieve and unnecessary goal"? Taking care of people is the most necessary thing in the world. Yes there are terrible ideologies and yes you need to check yourself, but governing has a purpose and society is not doomed just because it tries a certain way. Yes, talking things out can make a lot of difference, but there's two problems with that message.
One, it assumes that there are NO terrible ideologies and all input is good. Greed exists and there are people who genuinely fully want to have theirs and fuck everyone else thereby creating the circumstances for the confusion you're implying with the loss in these games. They can essentially create this collapse of society BY debating to the ends of the world.
Second, you seem to be unnecessarily dismissive of your peaceful options that still lead to failure in this game. Explaining yourself with "propaganda" (which is not inherently misinformation) and speeches is still engaging in a better future without resorting to the single version of a cycle of bloodshed that you're focused on. You can play the game never assassinating, never revolting, never oppressing, and continually debating when you've made sure the people agree and you're working with the, yet because you didn't solely submit to the whims of the rulers who are engaged in that exact cycle of bloodshed intentionally, you still lose. You were peaceful and genuinely interested the whole time, yet that's still inherently a loss because you did more than ask for opinions of the elite few themselves --more being asking for the opinions of the people, and educating on how things can genuinely work.
You've (talking about the developer not the player now) essentially taken the assumption that seeking power inherently convinces you to kill people to keep it, looked only at the leaders, and decided the calmness of those leaders (the ones interested in killing to keep power for power's sake) matters more than the very real reasons people become leaders in the first place. A society that leaves each other alone without leadership (leadership is not inherently about "do what I say" and is often about "hey this is a way we can do things to do better") is a society that leaves everyone to starve and be attacked by those who don't leave them alone. When you give equal weight to those with genuine interest in harming people, you still cause the "collapse of society". I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with the premise of this game.
It would seem the game was at least thought provoking! :D The only message I was trying to convey, if any, was that solutions to societies problems can and should be solved peacefully and those who are honestly seeking truth will be willing to discuss the matter, any other messages, assumptions, or characterizations believed to be delivered by me or the game, are your interpretation, which is your right, but could very likely be incorrect, as all game design choices where made with the soul purpose of paying tribute to the music video. I was in no way trying to represent the world as it actually is. The game is hardly even a shallow reflection of reality and should be thought of as nothing more then a (kind of trolling) moral puzzle game made in about a week. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the game, but good thing it was free.