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Campaign or cheat your way to office in electoral strategy game Political Animals

"I'm Piggy, and I approve this message"

Fancy putting the world to rights? Politics-themed strategy game Political Animals is now available on Steam, and pits your public spirit against your corruptibility as you try to govern a world of cute furry creatures.

Fan of quirky passion projects with cute art styles? Check out our list of the best indie games on PC.

It’s been an eventful year, to use politically neutral language, and as the US Presidential election looms, observers of current events might (or might not, whatever) feel that they could do a better job than the folks in power.

As with any good fantasy, a videogame exists to fulfil your wish. Political Animals officially released on Steam yesterday, and is already proving popular, having entered the popular new releases chart in second place.

Political Animals challenges you to win political office by defeating your opponents in campaigns, testing your integrity with shady shortcuts as you go. You can play fair, canvassing your electors and attentively reflecting their needs in your platform, or you can play dirty, relying on bribery, scuppering your opponents and making empty promises.

Each game cycle is one short but deep campaign of up to two hours. There will be huge differences between campaigns, however, with over a dozen stylised animal candidates to manage and customise, eight maps based on countries around the world, and political events inspired by real-life politics (the developers must have been spoiled for choice this year).

Political Animals is the first game by Squeaky Wheel, a new studio founded by ex-Prison Architect artist Ryan Sumo. To add to its pedigree, it’s published by Positech Games, the people who brought you one of the leading political games on PC in Democracy 3.

Political Animals is on Steam now. It’ll set you back £10.99 ($14.99 US), but there’s a 10% discount available to celebrate its launch.