Civic Story

very idiosyncratic game about trying to get a handle on modern Canadian politics. would be really good for civics classrooms!

Civic Story is incredibly delightful. I'm one of the developers and our team did a really great job creating a world where learning about Canadian politics and civics is engaging and fun, with a delightful cast of characters. (Chef Mondo is obviously the best, but I'm also a big fan of hating Tom.)

DISCLOSURE: I'll mention that I was a tester for the game, with about 1/2 of my hours played post-release so that I could explore the game in its entirety!! What's most notable is that this game draws a lot from Ace Attorney games, which I have a huge nostalgic affinity for. The Debate scenes were mainly what I replayed the game for, to receive/see the final arguments, which were unavailable during my series of testing. Coming from that standpoint alone, I think that the Debates are dynamic, original and are obviously inspired from AA games but situate them in the Canadian-political context extremely well! I also do love a visual novel, and knowing that all the music is an original score is really incredible work. I genuinely believe that as an edu-game this one deserves a try if you're interested in learning more about the Canadian political and voting process, but in a much more engaging way. Diversity, equity, health systems, political scandals (spicy!), and more themes are explored in this beginner-friendly visual novel game.

Sooo as someone who knows very little about politics. I really enjoyed it. I heard about it from a friend a while back and with all the Election talk going in the US and now recently in Canada on this year, I figure I'd give this a shot. I normally find politics confusing and depressing and thought I understood the gist of it, but this game really proved me wrong. It was a really amusing and funny way to learn things like politics and after playing it, some stuff I've been hearing about in tehnews and online lately is starting to make a bit of sense. It also helped that some of the characters seemed just as confused about current events as I was so it wasn't very preachy either and the characters were cool. I definitely wanna try doing some of the other routes later. Wish there were more debates, I liked those. There was some moments with framerate drops, but I didn't have too many issues. Definitely changed my tune about ignoring elections, so I'm gonna think about voting next time one comes up. Loved Tamika, the Moderator, and Major Masque, but I REALLY loved Chef Mondo! He's MONDO COOL!

This game touches on some surprisingly deep topics while also still keeping a light hearted feel. Also comes with some banger music. Quite a bit of replay value too with different endings and LOTS of side content to read through.