Politics and video games go together about as well as female main characters and subreddits. Despite this, one brave indie developer is putting his all into making a point-and-click adventure game that satirizes various elements of today's society. He calls it Political Quest, and it looks like the game will take shots at everyone. Players will be able to debate with podcast hosts, fight off annoying protestors, and discover the secret of "Youtoob" algorithms.
The creator of Political Quest is David Longo. He used to be a video producer at the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. Now he wants to create the point-and-click adventure game he's had in his mind since childhood. While he's been developing the puzzles for years, it was the recent political tensions he's been covering that inspired the story. According to his Kickstarter page, Political Quest will star an opinionated vlogger who goes on a quest to amass followers and funds.
The trigger for the main character's quest is the disappearance of a YouToob friend. The vanished Youtoober is named Aneeta, and she made a series of videos criticizing stereotypical depictions of women in media. Players will run into similar thinly-veiled depictions of sort-of-famous figures, such as podcaster Josepth Rogaine and debater Petey Jordison. All of these encounters will serve to further the quest to find Aneeta and answer life's greatest question: "Why would anyone leave behind a successful YooToob career?"
While the story will be modern, Political Quest's gameplay is heavily influenced by old SCUMM style adventure games. Longo cites the Monkey Island series as one of his main influences. He wants that style of exploration-based gameplay, only bigger. If the Kickstarter makes funding, Longo aims to have over 100 locations and the ability for every puzzle to have alternate solutions. Players will be able to make the main character align with extreme political ideologies, solve every problem with violence, or approach NPCs with logical debate.
Political Quest sounds like an ambitious project for one man to take on alone. And indeed, Longo admits in the Risks and Challenges part of the Kickstarter page that the game may be subject to delay. He thinks a year is a reasonable goal, but a man can only dedicate so much time to game development. Especially when he plans to make a game as huge as his ideal version of Political Quest. Check out his Kickstarter to see what he's done already, and what he plans to do.