Suzerain - political simulator & RPG hybrid by Torpor Games - now with Kingdom of Rizia DLC

[curry]

Looks bad

 

[Delterius]

Whatever names they use we all know this is a lion of Damascus sim.

 

[Infinitron]

Steam demo is out.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Steam demo is out.

Thanks, Infy. I appreciate the fact that you took a direct interest in news regarding this game.

 

[Deadass]

did they update the demo with new things or it's just the same one of last time?

 

[Ontopoly]

Sounds like KoDP. Could be pretty cool.

Looks more like Hidden Agenda, the best political simulator ever made. Suzerain seems to take inspiration from it but I could be mistaken. Will follow closely, it could be great.

How do you get Hidden Agenda these days? It looks cool, but is it vaporware or can you buy it somewhere?

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Sounds like KoDP. Could be pretty cool.

Looks more like Hidden Agenda, the best political simulator ever made. Suzerain seems to take inspiration from it but I could be mistaken. Will follow closely, it could be great.

How do you get Hidden Agenda these days? It looks cool, but is it vaporware or can you buy it somewhere?

DOS
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Hidden_Agenda_1988

Mac
https://archive.org/details/HiddenAgendaMacintosh

 

[Ontopoly]

Sounds like KoDP. Could be pretty cool.

Looks more like Hidden Agenda, the best political simulator ever made. Suzerain seems to take inspiration from it but I could be mistaken. Will follow closely, it could be great.

How do you get Hidden Agenda these days? It looks cool, but is it vaporware or can you buy it somewhere?

DOS
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Hidden_Agenda_1988

Mac
https://archive.org/details/HiddenAgendaMacintosh

Based, thanks fren. I heard archive.org might be f*cked legally so I will grab it asap. I should be getting as many old books from there as I can but my hard disk is already filled to the brim. (╥_╥) Someone archive archive.org already~

 

[Infinitron]

Steam demo is out again.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1207650/view/2847918683302690826

Suzerain at Indie Arena Booth
Indie Arena Booth is going online this year from August 27 - 30, and Suzerain is a part of the line up!

The event features an in-browser game, where you can walk the digital convention floor and explore digital booths, and play our demo!

You can visit the Suzerain booth here![online.indiearenabooth.com]

You can also check out our publisher, Fellow Traveller's booth! [online.indiearenabooth.com]

There's also an Indie Arena Booth sale on Steam, and Fellow Traveller, is having a sale during the event as well!

Below is our events schedule for Indie Arena Booth, as we take you developer playthroughs of Suzerain so you can immerse yourself in Sordland politics.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1207650/view/2877192714590255424

August Monthly Report

“Laceriten, Ecciniten, Bretreniten - Liberty, equality, fraternity.”

The month of Emperor Augustus is behind us and it is a good time to take a look at the tasks we accomplished and the road ahead. This report will include a few teasers towards the middle so if you don’t want to know anything about the late game please don’t read further.

A new writer joined us! Rachel has joined the team to help with writing, editing, and finalising the personal storyline. She is a very skilled writer who has already improved a dozen scenes and the overall narrative design of our two exciting story flows.

Our narrative review continues and we are tackling societal elements that were lacking consistency and prevalence throughout the game. The world of Suzerain is different and old, and we needed to make this obvious to the player in order to achieve full immersion. Moreover, some of the gaps between decisions and scenes are being slowly mended to increase the interconnectedness of the story elements in the game.

Guess what these flags represent and respond in our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/vMucF4c

The conclusion of the main political storyline is near thanks to Ilke’s design efforts and we are taking a final look at the late game decrees, the media influence and police actions. Other key choices are also considered before we take a step towards the finalised endings as they are connected with a portion of these actions. We have also finalised the design of the decrees panel and implemented the functionality. You can find an older mockup of it below.

Spoiler

[CONCEPT - Contents Subject to Change]

The Oligarchs storyline ended along with the range economic expression of planned, mixed and market economy doctrines with additional economic choices being near to completion. Ozgun has excelled in executing the final storyline. Key characters like Walter Tusk and Marcel Koronti are as expected playing a big role.

We have added a key choice of either nationalizing, privatising or not changing the big four corporations in the story with a bespoke UI. In the interface the player can further determine the percentage of ownership being bought or sold by the state. There are also a set of choices depending on previous player decisions that are very exciting. Will you eat the rich or feast lavishly with them?

[CONCEPT - Contents Subject to Change]

We attended Gamescom 2020 through the Indie Arena Booth. This cool digital event drove attention towards our game and increased our presence on Steam. Next up is PAX Online from September 12 - 20! We’d love it if you share your experiences with Suzerain on social media to spread awareness and support our election campaign!

Additionally, our Producer and Managing Director Ata has been working on the next business step in the evolution of Torpor Games. We will make a press release on the exciting subject when the time comes!

See you next time in the September report and thank you for your support!

Want to keep a closer eye on the development? Sign-up to our newsletter to get the latest breaking news for Suzerain.

Share this game with your friends and head over to our Steam page to wishlist Suzerain.

Thank you and see you next time citizen, Glory to Sordland!

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Tried out the demo. A bit too short in my view, but it does look promising. And the devs certainly know their PolSci, although I do hope that they know as well when to streamline things and when to keep them fully accurate (and consequently complex), otherwise the game might end up being bogged down by its own weight akin to the Democracy series.

 

[Lawntoilet]

Just played through the demo twice. The game seems quite promising, and I'll definitely check it out on release.
The demo is OK on the personal scale for your character (you can decide what kind of husband and father to be, and see some C&C in this area), but is a bit too short to see any real C&C on the Presidential scale of actually running the country (the only real difference I noticed was whether or not I let the media mogul bribe me).

 

[RegionalHobo]

remembers me of hidden agenda, hope it delivers

 

[Heroic Liberator]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1207650/view/2916604285350282009

President Anton Rayne’s Term Begins December 4!
Play as newly elected president in Suzerain, coming this December

The votes have been counted, and today Anton Rayne has been elected the fourth President of Sordland. His four year term in office will commence on December 4.

President Rayne must decide where his priorities lie. The tasks ahead include stimulating the economy to pull Sordland out of the two year recession, advance foreign relations and heeding the cries to reform the constitution.

Tune in to the following announcement on the Sordish Broadcasting Corporation as they cover the presidential election:



As the presidential race was called, Anton Rayne had this to say: “My fellow Sords! Sordland is struggling to recover from a difficult past: bloody coups, a civil war, and a decade of tyranny has left our country in a delicate state. I will do everything in my power to lead Sordland to repair.”

President Rayne’s party, the United Sordland Party, won the election, earning a total of 130 seats in the Grand National Assembly. The People’s Freedom and Justice Party won 70 seats, making them this term's opposition. Led by Frens Ricter, The PFJP have been steadily increasing in popularity among the Sordish population, advocating for a more democratic constitution.

The National Front Party led by Kesaro Kibener won 40 seats in the Assembly, the best results in their history, becoming the third biggest party in Sordland. Finally, the Independents represent 10 seats in the National Assembly, led by Mansoun Leke, a Bludish politician and previously the leader of the Workers Party of Bludia.

Our new President is faced with many challenges ahead, and the choices he will make will impact our great nation forever.

Visit Sordland Today to keep up to date on Sordish news before the President-elect's inauguration:

• Join the Suzerain Discord server
  
• Wishlist us on Steam
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Like us on Facebook
  
• Sign-up to our newsletter

 

[Heroic Liberator]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1207650/view/2918856720512104151

October Broadcast

The votes have been counted and Anton Rayne has been elected president! His term will begin on December 4th. Watch our release announcement trailer here:



The development journey of Suzerain that began many years ago is coming to an end. We are very excited to share what we have worked on for so long. It is an emotional journey for the team who have put their heart and soul to this and managed to get it across the finish line. A special thanks to Fellow Traveller and everyone who has supported us every step of the way.

Let’s talk about what we have accomplished in October. This month saw the game near scene completion all the way up to Turn 11 (the last game turn) with one of the ending scenes and the different epilogues being actively worked on moving into November. Our design implementations are complete. Special shoutout to Tung who has led the effort and brought it to the finish line.

Chief Justice Orso Hawker is preparing the inauguration ceremony for Anton Rayne.

A final effort is being made on finishing the news, reports and some misc narrative support content for the later turns. This helps ensure the player experience has the narrative feedback on their choices that make the game feel alive. This work will end soon, marking the game fully content complete!

Meanwhile, we have also begun testing the game with voluntary testers to make sure the most critical bugs are taken care of for release. Our special thanks to the more than dozen people who dedicated their time to help us find issues so we can increase the quality of the game at launch. Our development team has already made nearly a hundred fixes and many more improvements are still to come.

Our Original Soundtrack Composed by James Spence has also made its way to Steam!

So what is next in November? More testing, more bug fixes and the final implementations of narrative support. There will also be the final balancing passes after collecting data from the testing runs. We are ensuring that all the numbers that are being calculated in the background add up to meaningful content changes. The last ticket item will be the Steam achievements design and supporting our marketing campaign for the release.

Want to see the latest version of the game? We are going to be a part of the upcoming Escapist Indie Games Showcase! There will be a livestream on November 12th at 8pm CET / 11am PT, where you can directly ask questions to the developers. You'll be able to watch the livestream on their Twitch or YouTube channel. The Suzerain demo will also be available throughout the festival so if you never had a chance to check it out this will be a perfect time to do so.

This is our big moment and if Suzerain appeals to you in any shape or form we would love it if you shared the game with your friends and wishlist it on Steam. See you next time at the launch of the game! The Maroon Palace is waiting for you on December 4th.

Want to keep a closer eye on the development? Sign-up to our newsletter to get the latest breaking news for Suzerain.

Share this game with your friends and head over to our Steam page to wishlist Suzerain.

Thank you and see you next time citizen, Glory to Sordland!

 

[Hellion]

Heh, the game contains something similar to the current Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Two states are fighting over a strategic island, one having conquered that island 30 years ago while the other is its previous holder (and the majority of the island's population ethnically belongs to the second state), both claiming it is "their rightful land". All of this incorporated into the pseudo-Cold War theme of the game, of course.

My first playthrough took almost 8-9 hours, surprisingly enough. I expected it to be a 4-hour game.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Heh, the game contains something similar to the current Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Two states are fighting over a strategic island, one having conquered that island 30 years ago while the other is its previous holder (and the majority of the island's population ethnically belongs to the second state), both claiming it is "their rightful land". All of this incorporated into the pseudo-Cold War theme of the game, of course.

My first playthrough took almost 8-9 hours, surprisingly enough. I expected it to be a 4-hour game.

You got a review copy of the full game?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I envy you, Hellion.

Anyhow, in case it's kosher to answer, can you implement a planned economy and fully align yourself with United Contana?

 

[Hellion]

Of course. One of the main overarching narratives is the direction you want to steer the economy towards in order to overcome the recession, as well as whether you will align yourself with one of the two superpowers or attempt to remain neutral.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Of course. One of the main overarching narratives is the direction you want to steer the economy towards in order to overcome the recession, as well as whether you will align yourself with one of the two superpowers or attempt to remain neutral.

Good to know. Played the demo, but was afraid that those choices might've been just fluff with no real C&C.

 

[Deadass]

Of course. One of the main overarching narratives is the direction you want to steer the economy towards in order to overcome the recession, as well as whether you will align yourself with one of the two superpowers or attempt to remain neutral.

Can u become a superpower too or u get to stay a minor nation for the rest of the game?

 

[Hellion]

Can u become a superpower too or u get to stay a minor nation for the rest of the game?

You can certainly try (and maybe even succeed) at making Sordland a formidable economic and military regional power, but becoming a world superpower wouldn't be logical within the context of the game world.

Since the game takes place in a fictionalized 1950s, where you have the fictional equivalents of the USA and USSR fighting for world influence, making Sordland into a superpower would essentially be the equivalent to a country like Romania or Mexico becoming a superpower in our 1950s.

 

[vota DC]

Too short time anyway. Even for becoming regional power since your pathetic start condition. Unless you use some Spectre like plan with superweapons but then It would make useless the theme of being a skilled politician.

 

[Hellion]

On my first playthrough I tried to stay completely neutral and do business with both Arcasia and United Contana, but in the end

Spoiler

they both abandonded me, Rumburg declared war on me and steamrolled to my capital because I had no military allies, taking me prisoner and executing me.

On my second playthrough I allied myself with Arcasia, and this caused

Spoiler

Rumburg not to attack me, but in the end of my 4-year term I lost my re-election due to my shady deals with the oligarchs being made public, and faded into obscurity.

Now I started another playthrough and instead of pushing for constitutional reforms I declared a state of national emergency and gave myself special dictatorial powers. This should go well.