You run a newspaper in a nation on the brink of revolution. Twist headlines to suit your agenda, upgrade your printing press, mastermind a distribution strategy to grow your readership and evade being censored—or worse—by the Secret Police. With enough influence you can change the course of history.
As stories flood in, choose what gets reported, and how. Every event can be spun to suit your agenda - whether you're convincing readers to support the revolution, boosting your sales with a scandalous headline, or telling a barefaced lie to change the narrative.
Start from humble beginnings and buy more advanced printing presses to keep up with the growing demands of your readers. Unlock bigger paper sizes, more printing capacity, new distribution tactics. When you run out of space, it’s time to upgrade your factory.
Everything you print has an impact on the world. Weigh in on debates and influence history in a richly detailed 1930s world, with storylines inspired by real revolutions from the past and multiple endings to explore.
Your actions will lead to difficult moral dilemmas. What if the faction you helped into power starts doing things you disagree with? What if the truth helps the wrong people? What if the only way to keep the presses running is to betray a whistleblower who risked everything for you?
But watch out - powerful groups will try to exert pressure on your editorial freedom. Will you crack under pressure and become the regime’s pawn, or defy its draconian censorship and risk everything? Will you take bribes and print adverts for big business - even if your readers disapprove?
Follow your storytelling instincts and your moral compass... or exploit every opportunity to make your numbers go up in an immersive simulation. Target demographics, plan deliveries across 14 distinctive regions, hire your journalists carefully, and find the sweet spot for your newspaper's price. With millions of potential readers hungry for news, how many can you reach?
Features
Tens of thousands of possible headlines across thousands of hand-crafted events
A rich simulation of millions of potential readers in 14 regions and dozens of demographic groups
20+ machines and 5 beautifully drawn factories to put them in
Over 100 charismatic journalists and sources to bring you the latest scoops
A story that reacts to what you do, with multiple endings and many ways to get there
Powerful modding tools to build your own storylines and share them with the community
It\'s been a wild month in the newsroom at Stop the Press! When the last dev diary went to print, the Steam page had only just rolled off the presses. I had no idea that less than a month later I\'d be making in-game headlines to announce that the game had already blown past 10,000 wishlists.
\nBut there\'s been no time to celebrate as this month I\'ve been drilling down into the system of crime and punishment, so this dev diary is a great opportunity to share a little more about that side of the game.
The Censorship Bureau has authorised the release of the following previously restricted information...
Even though I haven\'t gone into detail on this in previous dev diaries, many of you will have seen in the trailer a little hint of the censorship system.
There are 4 different levels of censorship in the game, from low (where most headlines are permitted as long as you\'re not directly inciting violence) up to Draconian, where anything less than full-throated support of the regime is against the law.
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/b60778ccf0c7d24993508e5bc3d15121350255ab.png\"][/img]
The level of censorship will change up and down over the course of the game, depending on who\'s in power and how tightly they feel the need to control the press. It starts at Low censorship, but as the crisis engulfs King Louis and his Royalist regime, his Secret Police and Censorship Bureau will rapidly crack down.
\nThat means that headlines that might be perfectly legal one day could be illegal the next. As you\'re editing headlines, you can see whether or not they\'re illegal (the colour indicates the severity of the violation):
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/86265f48fa80990c0661d56330312904a3763685.png\"][/img]
Every time you break the law, the Censorship Bureau who read all newspapers in Guadelique will issue you with a penalty notice. You can ignore the fine, but that doesn\'t mean it\'ll go away...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/0d529c16eeec1b0e12cf446f4c2b623e8c954094.png\"][/img]
If your crimes mount up, your case will get referred by the Censorship Bureau to the feared Secret Police. Whether or not they take immediate action will depend on a number of things including the number and severity of your crimes, but also your readership numbers. After all, if nobody reads your paper why would they expend effort going after you?
At first you might get a friendly warning that they\'re taking notice of you...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/dbe8321268502ec611f483e6080fa66a6b2d6bce.png\"][/img]
Or a not so friendly warning...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/9cb7e6702825ff62c9eaab6c482ce11969be54e9.png\"][/img]
You\'ll never know exactly how much trouble you\'re in, but your Editor keeps a log of any interactions, so you can try to figure out how thin the ice you\'re standing on is. Sometimes you might notice things there you weren\'t otherwise aware of...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/8879ca8e1d0eeab0af52d57c687966c711cb2827.png\"][/img]
Continue to transgress, and you might start getting Secret Police officers turning up at your press...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/84dbfcd94f34fe260fbbeabb6cafcb6684af5569.png\"][/img]
Im focussing on getting the demo ready at the moment, and in the demo theres not time to commit enough crimes to warrant the really serious penalties but the Secret Police have a fearsome reputation for a reason, so if you continue to disobey, youd better be prepared to face severe consequences...
There are ways to mitigate this, however. Print a few pro-government headlines and they might start to back off. Sometimes the police might strike a deal for help advancing a particular narrative in exchange for looking the other way (more on that mechanic in a future dev diary). Or you can take a more blunt approach...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/645a5503b48a985a59b7830f1e86d991545f0378.png\"][/img]
In extreme circumstances where your survival is at stake, you might choose to sacrifice one of your journalists...
[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45871631/f0add181495f66e1818043c18920fbc054d226f9.png\"][/img]
Of course, you might be printing slavishly pro-government propaganda anyway, in which case you mind find the Secret Police more of an ally than a threat. Just watch out if theres a changing of the regime as the new governments agents might not be so friendly...
PS - If you\'re looking for dev diaries from before the Steam page went live, they\'re all in the Discord server where all of these updates are also posted.
Minimum Setup
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or equivalent
- Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD FX-4300Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.2 compatible GPU (Intel HD 620 or equivalent)
- Storage: 1 GB available space
Recommended Setup
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or equivalent
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6400 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 750 / AMD Radeon R7 250X or better
- Storage: 1 GB available space
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