You can pre-order A More Perfect Union now.
You will receive the latest sneak-peek Alpha (pre-Beta, not playable yet) version immediately (Windows currently, Mac will be added), updates as they are released as we move towards official release, and then access to the official release (estimated 2025).
More info below, and if you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for supporting A More Perfect Union, and helping to make this project a reality!
A More Perfect Union for pre-order is US$ 25.
It will be available for Windows and Mac.
What is A More Perfect Union?
You play as a party or ideological faction of one of the evolving two major parties, from revolution to the future!
Vie for and dominate the decision making for all major aspects of the U.S. government – Presidency, Cabinet, Senate, House, Governors, Military, and Supreme Court!
A More Perfect Union has been play-tested by hand with a team of play-testers for hundreds of hours – now we are making it into a computer game!
Note: screens pictured are for illustrative purposes.
Build the personality of your faction by acquiring politicians with similar ideologies, interests, and lobbies!
The game includes over 7,000 historical politicians, all with their own ideologies, abilities, expertise, interests, and personality traits, over 15 Historical Eras!
What-if’s
What if Alexander Hamilton had become President? Or Henry Clay? Or Oprah Winfrey?
Was there a way that we could have ended slavery without fighting a Civil War?
What if we responded differently to the attack on Pearl Harbor, or to 9/11, or to COVID-19?
What if John F Kennedy hadn’t been shot? What if Lincoln had survived?
What if Susan B. Anthony could have held political office?
What if we’d made a much earlier commitment to manning a mission to Mars or combating climate change?
You can change the history of the U.S., exploring all sorts of ‘what-if’ scenarios as you forge a more perfect union from America’s foundation to the future!
Where
A More Perfect Union was created in Philadelphia, PA – the first capital of the United States – by Prof. Jonathan Hobratsch after hundreds of hours of research and development, play-tested throughout the United States by a team of play-testers led by Ted Froats, and development of the computer game will be in Vancouver, Canada by 270soft.
Why?
“This is the game I always wanted to play. It did not exist, so I created it. I have been working on this game for about 3 years! It’s well worth the labor!” – Prof. Jonathan Hobratsch.
What people are saying
“The most engaging and ambitious political game that I have ever seen comes to life in every stage.” – Joshua Rihner
“A More Perfect Union will enter the market as the most comprehensive political simulator.” – Ethan Hedges
“For years, I have been looking for a political simulator that would allow me to help dictate how the United States was formed, and now we have one. For those who enjoy studying American history, politics, and/or government, this is the game for you.” – Jesse Green
“I’ve looked for a game to fill the desire to rewrite American history for years, and this is looking to be the best on the market. You can take any politician and turn them into a political superstar with some luck, skill, and good timing. You can ensure the early downfall of your most hated historical figures, and your hometown hero from over a century ago can become one of America’s greatest characters. There’s no limit to what you can and can’t do in A More Perfect Union.” – Caleb Perry
“Have you ever wanted to rewrite America’s political history? Elect the first woman to become President with an all female cabinet, appoint your own Supreme Court to revisit America’s most important decisions, give minorities the right to vote in the 18th century or fight the Civil War in a different era. It’s now your turn to lead America.” – C. Karl Pratsch
Game Play
Game play covers all major aspects of the U.S. government from 1772 to the future. From developing budding politicians to guiding the Supreme Court, from drafting legislation to fighting foreign wars. You can change the course of the country as an ideological faction or party.
- Play in one or all of the 15 Historical Eras designed to give a historical feel to the gameplaying experience!
- The game includes over 7,000 historical politicians, all with their own ideologies, abilities, expertise, interests, and personality traits! Includes dozens of what-if politicians, such as Tecumseh, Susan B. Anthony, Tad Lincoln, John F. Kennedy Jr, Harvey Milk, and Martin Luther King Jr!
- See over 1,000 pieces of legislation, and hundreds of events and actions! Every playthrough is unique!
- Handle the awesome responsibility of responding to critical historical events, hypothetical events, general events, presidential actions, governor’s actions, and Supreme Court decisions!
- Run politicians in one of many elections — presidential, congressional, senate, and gubernatorial!
- For presidential elections, run through the gauntlet of the primaries, build support and make promises at the convention, and earn the people’s vote in the general election!
- Draft your politicians every four years, somewhat resembling an NFL football draft, in order to build a powerful faction!
- Place your recently drafted politicians on one of several career tracks, somewhat resembling the minor leagues in baseball, to mold them for a stronger political career in the future!
- Dominate the smoke-filled rooms of politics by linking the behind-the-scenes kingmakers with their electable proteges!
- Build the personality of your faction by acquiring politicians with similar ideologies, interests, and lobbies!
- As president, select your cabinet wisely, make sound decisions to critical events, enact presidential actions, and inspire the people to support you for reelection!
- As Speaker or Senate Majority Leader, ensure you can pass legislation that is both favorable to your party and for the nation. The chance of success of some laws can be volatile. A law the works in the short-term might not in the long-term and vice versa!
- As Chief Justice, lead the court to define the Constitution.
- As Governor, select governor’s action that are best for your state and for the nation. Attempt to make your state the leader of a national industry or use the office to springboard to the presidency!
- Conduct foreign policy to avoid war, provoke war, or to secure a loan.
- Appoint competent generals to avoid defeat on the battlefield.
- The game includes many hypothetical situations in regards to expansion, secession, coups, impeachment, early emancipation, early women’s suffrage, what if politicians, and more!
- Play from one of several start dates, including the Revolution, Washington’s presidency, Lincoln’s presidency, FDR’s presidency, Reagan’s presidency, Obama’s presidency, and more!
- The Era of the Future includes several hypothetical events, legislation, etc. to cover what could happen in the rest of the 21st Century. A name generator will create hypothetical politicians for the future.
- Attempt to balance the interests of your faction, your party, and of the nation as you keep a keen eye on federal revenue/budget, economic stability, domestic stability, military preparedness, foreign relations, honest government, quality of life, and the planet’s health!
- A team of play-testers have spent about 24 months of paper-and-pen playtesting, continually refining game play, compilation of thousands of historical figures, events, and so on!
- Roughly 100 books, as well as countless online sources, consulted in this game’s creation!
- Play as a faction of one of the evolving two major parties from revolution to the future!
- Vie for and dominate the decision making for all major aspects of the government – Presidency, Cabinet, Senate, House, Governors, Military, and Supreme Court!
- Forge a more perfect union!
Play-tester quote from latest play-test
Caleb Perry is one of our play-testers, and has been manually (not in a computer game) play-testing with a team of play-testers for months, refining the game mechanics.
Here’s what he has to say about the latest play-test, which is currently on-going.
“Our current playthrough is a BLAST.
The first President of the United States was Benedict Arnold and he belongs to my faction. It was an incredibly rare series of events that got him there. I first got him appointed as a general during the Revolutionary War, and when you are appointed as a general in the current state of the game you get a small chance of gaining a “military leader” trait that lets you be a Senior General/Chief Admiral. He got this!
When we established the Navy, I controlled him and Esek Hopkins, the only two people now available to be the Chief Admiral because it requires that trait. Of course, I had Hopkins decline so I could bring America’s scoundrel to some level of fame. And he performed admirably! So admirably, in fact, that he was still the Chief Admiral at the end of the war.
Washington had failed in battle after battle, and General Artemis Ward wasn’t eligible to run for president because he lacked the relevant ability. Benedict Arnold had randomly gotten the ability to run for president through chance because he was my Faction Leader, giving him a small chance of that.
When he won the war, he obtained the Celebrity trait, which is given to war heroes. In the current iteration of the rules, we have something to represent Washington’s unanimous election in the first electoral college. We call it the Washington Rule. If a politician is a Military Leader, celebrity, and party preference favors your party, they get an automatic 50% chance of a unanimous victory in the first election.
Arnold accomplished this. Hooray! I had stretched the bounds of realism so far…
But at what cost?
Arnold’s presidency began with incredibly difficult times. The war dragged out longer than IRL, and the economy and the state of our army was in shambles. While we passed strong federalist packages to try and get the nation back on track, the nation hit worse than the Great Depression and we were losing to natives in the Northwest Indian War.
Now, Arnold’s reelection chances are all but doomed. It was a good run, but it has definitely come to a close. His legacy might be a good one for all the things he tried to fix the economy and his role as a hero in the Revolutionary War.
Or… it could not. Populists can attempt a coup. Benedict Arnold, as a Right Wing Populist President losing an election, can attempt a military coup and face a very slim chance of overturning the election. It’s less than 10%, I feel, but I’m tempted to take it and continue my Benedict Arnold power fantasy.
However, there are incredible risks associated with that. It will only harm the nation further, and if it fails surely President Arnold will face a treason trial. Further, those in my faction who are controversial and populist may well be found treasonous too. If I had my way, I would have spent time trying to find a way to ensure that I got all of the electoral votes rather than fixing the country. How unfortunate it is that the game ends if the country gets too broken.
Well, here we are. I hope that this gives some kind of perspective on the role that populists can play. We haven’t gotten to the age of the game where voting restrictions are really in play, but I’m sure players will be conniving against each other to gain an edge.”
What’s the game like?
Think The Political Process meets Rick Heli’s Founding Fathers meets a political version of Koei’s Romance of Three Kingdoms with a Madden NFL Football-like drafting of rookie politicians. Actually the game is too unique to compare!
Release Timeline
2025, with early access (Alpha) immediately.
The Team
- Professor Jonathan Hobratsch, creator of this game who teaches at Drexel University. He has previously worked for the Huffington Post and has taught at Pace University. He’s been a voracious reader of US history books since 2nd grade. He is based in Philadelphia, PA.
- Anthony Burgoyne, founder of 270sims, which has successfully completed a series of political computer games that have been featured in publications from The Washington Post to The Globe and Mail. He is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Ted Froats, lead play-tester and co-producer. He is an Iraq War Veteran, has worked in radio and television news around the world, and has spent the past decade working for various U.S. Federal agencies as a crisis communications specialist. He is based outside Dayton, OH.
- And about a dozen volunteer play-testers, encompassing nearly the full spectrum of our current political ideologies, including C. Karl Pratsch (also our data input specialist), Caleb Perry, Dakota Hale, Jesse Green, Joshua Rihner, Veljko Bojovic, Ethan Hedges, Elizabeth Scott, James Mueller, Dakota Mikita and a few temporary playtesters.
Which platforms?
Initially, A More Perfect Union will be released for Windows and Mac. Versions for tablets and Linux are possible after that.
Get A More Perfect Union
A More Perfect Union for pre-order is US$ 25.