UK Politics Simulator (UKPolSim) is an in-depth political simulation game focused on the UK political system. It models political life at multiple levels, from local government upwards, with an emphasis on systems, consequences, and long-term decision-making rather than scripted storylines.
No release date has been announced or decided yet. When it is, it'll be well publicised here, on the official website, and on all social media channels.
The game starts in the present day. The exact start date is expected to be fixed at release, rather than advancing in real time after launch.
Yes. UKPolSim is currently focused entirely on the UK political system.
No, not at launch. This would be a significant undertaking and would delay the game's release.
UKPolSim is a long-form, data-driven, emergent political simulation game.
It models political life as a complex, evolving system rather than a puzzle to be solved or a ladder to be climbed. There are no win conditions, no optimal paths, and no single “correct” way to play.
No.
While players can meaningfully influence society over time, all change happens within realistic political, legal, and social constraints. There is no arbitrary or instant reshaping of the world, and the player is not treated as a god-like force acting from outside the system.
Change emerges gradually through interaction, consequence, and context.
No.
The game does not surface every system or outcome explicitly. Information is partial, contextual, and sometimes ambiguous, reflecting how political decisions are made in the real world. It prioritises simulation over transparency, modelling uncertainty, incomplete information, and interpretation rather than presenting politics as a fully "knowable" system. You won’t always be shown exactly why things happen. Understanding outcomes often means reading the situation, noticing patterns, and drawing your own conclusions.
No.
There is nothing to beat. Like Football Manager, the value of the game lies in the journey rather than an end state. A long, complex, or unconventional political career at council level can be just as valid and engaging as one that reaches the highest offices.
No. Not primarily, and in many playthroughs not at all.
Holding the highest office is only a small part of the overall experience. As in real life, the majority of politicians are not aiming to become Prime Minister. Everyone has their own individual aims, objectives and ambitions. Knowing your own ambitions for each playthrough will open up a completely different experience for you each time you play.
Most of the game focuses on navigating political life at all levels, managing relationships, responding to events, and operating within constraints long before — and often without — reaching the top.
No.
All politicians and political actors are fictional and generated dynamically. This avoids legal issues and allows each game to evolve differently. All NPCs are generated fresh with every new game. No two game worlds are the same.
The exception to this rule is the monarchy, which exists largely as a background system (unless you are the PM or in other high office). Charles III is the reigning monarch at the start of each game, and his real-world line of succession exists at this point, too. Within each game, the monarchy evolves emergently over time as monarchs age, die, and new generations are born. None of these events are pre-programmed, and will differ greatly between games.
Both local council and national Westminster politics are fully playable.
Not at launch.
UKPolSim fully represents Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland within the Westminster system, including constituencies, elections, MPs and national political dynamics.
The devolved legislatures themselves (the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru and Northern Ireland Assembly) are not playable at launch. These institutions may be added in the future once their distinct powers and structures can be modelled realistically.
Yes. Electoral and administrative boundaries are drawn using the latest real-world data.
No. At launch, players will not be able to create their own political party. This may be possible in the future.
All major UK political parties (and many minor ones) are represented. At present, players can choose to be a member of the following parties: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Reform UK, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru.
Northern Ireland is fully playable within the Westminster system. Players can stand for election in Northern Irish constituencies and play as UK-wide parties operating there.
Northern Ireland–specific parties (such as the DUP and Sinn Féin) are included in the simulation but are not currently playable. This may change by launch if they can be implemented to the same standard of realism as other parties.
Yes. Coalition governments and administration are fully supported at both Westminster and local council level.
Yes. Players can attempt to remove or replace party leaders from within their party, including staging leadership challenges or internal coups as an MP.
Yes. Party leadership elections are implemented for all parties. Each party's in-game rules and methods for selecting new leaders are based on the party's real-life rules, where these are known and publicly available.
Not at launch. However, it may be possible in future versions to pass legislation that changes electoral systems. However, this would only be relatively minor (for example, changing the voting system to AV, PR or something similar). There won't be an option to make the UK a military dictatorship: there are already plenty of games that offer that sort of gameplay.
Yes. Snap elections can occur for a number of reasons.
Yes. Election nights include exit polls. Election nights are full 'live' experiences. You will be able to watch the constituency results roll in throughout the night (and yes, Sunderland will be one of the first!), with live projections and commentary offered throughout.
No.
Campaigning can improve or worsen your chances, but it cannot override political reality. Long-term alignment with the electorate, credibility, reputation, and context all play a major role in determining outcomes.
No.
Voters respond to what you do, not just what you say. Past actions, public behaviour, consistency, and how you handle events all influence voting decisions over time, often well before an election is formally underway.
No.
Demographics are modelled in detail, and different groups respond differently to issues, events, and campaign activity. Shifts in opinion can happen anywhere, from individual wards up to entire regions.
Polling and projections exist, but they are deliberately - and realistically - imperfect.
They provide guidance rather than certainty, and results can change as campaigns progress or as new events unfold. Surprises are possible, even if you believe you have done everything right.
Yes.
Local, national, and international events can materially affect election outcomes. Timing, context, and how you respond to unexpected developments can matter as much as planned campaign activity.
Losing an election is a normal and expected part of political life in UKPolSim.
The game does not treat defeat as failure or an endpoint. Elections act as checkpoints rather than win conditions, and setbacks can shape future opportunities, relationships, and trajectories. Lost elections also provide benefits such as gained experience, name recognition and improvement of some hidden attributes.
Time generally progresses on a weekly basis. During active election campaigns, this shifts to a daily turn structure. This timing system is currently being refined.
You don't have to, but there are consequences for failing to attend key events or engagements. Remember: this is a realistic political simulation!
Yes. Dynamic events such as weather incidents, terrorist attacks or international conflicts can occur, and players can respond to them if they are in a position to do so.
Yes. Your character’s background affects gameplay and how events and opportunities unfold.
Yes. Players can customise aspects such as age and political views. Visual appearance customisation may be present at launch, but it is expected to have limited gameplay impact.
That depends on what you mean by "advance". The game doesn't have explicit levels or a set route. You are free to play however you wish, whether you want to become Prime Minister or the most experienced and overly-qualified local volunteer and council election kingmaker!
No. Players cannot be elected as Speaker at present. The main reason for this is that it would shut off the vast majority of the game to you. You would lose all intra-party interaction (as you'd be de facto Independent) and - for the game to be realistic - would not be able to participate in votes or engage normally with the press and media. There might be scope for a specifically-designed Speaker module further down the line, but that would require creating a separate additional gameplay system on the side.
No.
UKPolSim does not use a fixed or linear progression path. There is no single route, no optimal sequence of roles, and no predefined end goal that all players are expected to reach.
Political careers emerge organically based on choices, relationships, reputation, experience, attributes, and how the wider game world develops over time.
Progression is shaped by many interacting factors.
Elections matter, but so do relationships, credibility, competence, past decisions, ideological alignment, experience, and how you respond to events. The political landscape in your specific game will shift in ways that create or close opportunities dynamically.
As a result, two playthroughs with similar starting choices can diverge significantly.
No.
The game does not present checklists, thresholds, or visible requirements for future roles. Opportunities arise contextually, often without advance notice, and players are not always told what they might have qualified for or missed.
This reflects the reality of political life, where advancement is rarely transparent or guaranteed.
Yes.
Careers can plateau, change direction, or reverse without the game treating this as failure. Setbacks are a normal part of political life and can shape future trajectories rather than ending them.
Not in the traditional sense.
A game only truly concludes if your character retires from political life or dies. Otherwise, political careers continue to evolve indefinitely, shaped by circumstance, opportunity, and choice rather than by win conditions.
Policy and legislation are position-based rather than scripted. Backbench MPs can propose legislation, but it is about as likely to be implemented as it would be in real life (in other words, not very). Secretaries of State and ministers with portfolios have the power to implement legislation more freely. Your stances influence outcomes, relationships, and political dynamics.
Yes. PMQs are included and are tied to recent events and developments within your game.
Yes. Cabinet reshuffles are designed to reflect realistic political considerations and pressures.
Extraordinarily so. Put simply, there is no other political simulation in existence which offers anywhere near this level of granular data. Demographics are modelled heavily, right down to council ward level, using real-world Census data as well as other data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) as well as other sources. Changes in public opinion or population occur emergently in specific locations rather than uniformly across the country.
Yes. The electorate and demographic makeup can - and will - shift as the game progresses. This is not pre-programmed; it is entirely responsive to game events. For example, if the local council builds a large amount of social housing in a ward, or if a new university is built, the area's demographics - and, therefore, the voting intentions of the electorate - will begin to shift.
At launch, the economic system is relatively simple, with plans to add greater depth over time. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has the power to set tax rates and bands across a range of taxes, including income tax, VAT, corporation tax, inheritance tax and more.
Events in UKPolSim represent the world moving independently of the player.
They can occur at local, national, or international levels and are not always triggered by your actions. Politics and the wider world do not wait for you, and developments will continue to unfold whether you are directly involved or not.
Events can range widely in scope and impact, including political crises, policy developments, external shocks, social changes, and unexpected situations.
They often affect multiple systems at once, influencing public opinion, media coverage, relationships, elections, and ideological shifts simultaneously.
No.
Some consequences are immediate and visible, while others emerge gradually over time. An event may appear to be handled successfully in the short term, only for longer-term effects to surface weeks or months later.
You are usually given choices in how to respond, but there is rarely a single “correct” option.
Responses often involve trade-offs, risk management, and damage limitation rather than clean solutions. Even well-handled events can reshape the political landscape in ways you did not intend or fully control.
Yes.
Events can have lasting effects that alter political dynamics, shift public attitudes, strain or strengthen relationships, and create new challenges or opportunities. The world in UKPolSim is persistent and reactive rather than resetting after each crisis.
Not always.
As with other systems in UKPolSim, the full impact of an event is not always spelled out. Players are expected to interpret outcomes, notice patterns, and adapt over time rather than rely on explicit explanations.
Every character in UKPolSim — including the player, NPCs, parties, and the electorate — has political views shaped by their background, experiences, and demographics, much like in real life.
These views exist across a wide range of policy areas rather than on a simple left–right scale. Each individual, group, and area occupies a position on each of these issue areas, and those positions can change over time in response to events and actions.
In UKPolSim, political ideology is not a single left–right scale.
Every character, party, and electorate group is defined across 18 separate policy areas, each representing a distinct political issue. For each of these areas, two things are modelled:
This means two characters might broadly agree overall, but still clash intensely on a small number of high-salience issues - or appear similar on paper while behaving very differently in practice.
These positions are not fixed. They evolve over time based on behaviour, decisions, lived experience and events. Actions matter more than stated beliefs, and long-term behaviour gradually reshapes both perception and underlying ideology.
Ideology is a core simulation system that actively influences gameplay.
It affects how voters respond to you, how party leadership and colleagues perceive you, how willing others are to cooperate, how events play out, and how the media covers you. It also influences relationships with journalists and outlets, which have ideological positions of their own.
Yes. Ideology is not fixed.
Your views, and those of NPCs and the wider electorate, evolve in response to actions, decisions, and events. What you do matters more than what you claim to believe — consistently acting against a stated position will shift how you are perceived and where you sit ideologically.
Players are not shown raw numerical values, but you will often see clear indications of where individuals, parties, and areas sit on the spectrum for different issue areas.
This allows you to understand political alignment and tension without reducing ideology to visible numbers or optimisation.
No. UKPolSim avoids hard gates and favours realistic, emergent gameplay.
While ideological misalignment can make certain outcomes extremely unlikely, it does not make them mathematically impossible in absolute terms. The game models political reality through pressure, resistance, and probability rather than binary restrictions - even if that probability is 0.000001%.
No. Ideology matters at every stage of the game.
Whether you are a party member, a councillor, an MP, or a party leader, ideological alignment influences how others react to you and what opportunities realistically emerge. The game is not primarily about holding power, but about navigating political life within the constraints of belief, behaviour, and perception.
UKPolSim models politics as a social system. You build individual relationships with other characters, each shaped by your actions, behaviour, ideology, competence, and reliability over time.
These relationships are personal and contextual rather than abstract or faction-based. How one character views you may differ significantly from how another does, even within the same party.
No.
Relationships are presented qualitatively rather than as raw values or meters. You are given a general sense of how others feel about you, but not precise figures. This reflects the reality of political life, where social standing is rarely measurable with certainty.
Ideology plays a role, but it is far from the only factor.
Competence, consistency, loyalty, success or failure, public behaviour, private interactions, and how you handle events all contribute. Two characters with similar views may still dislike or distrust each other for entirely different reasons.
Yes.
Relationships can improve or deteriorate indirectly through events, third-party actions, public decisions, or wider political developments. Your absence, silence, or inaction can matter just as much as what you actively do.
Relationships and reputation strongly influence promotion, access to opportunities, and how others treat you within political institutions.
Formal advancement alone is not enough. Being well-regarded, trusted, or seen as useful can open doors, while poor relationships can quietly close them — even if you are technically eligible.
Not always.
As in real politics, the reasons behind shifts in attitude are not always clear or explicit. You are expected to infer causes from context, timing, and behaviour. Misreading social dynamics can have real consequences, and learning to navigate that uncertainty is a deliberate part of the experience.
Not in the conventional sense, no. UKPolSim is designed around realistic personal and social limits. Politics is not just about ambition or opportunity, but about attention, judgement, and the ability to manage competing responsibilities.
The game models this using a custom Social Bandwidth system, which represents your capacity to juggle roles, obligations, and relationships over time.
Social Bandwidth is one of the game’s core drivers of narrative, risk, and long-term outcomes, shaping how events unfold rather than simply limiting what you can do.
Social Bandwidth reflects your mental and social capacity rather than physical stamina. It is not an action-point or stamina system, and it does not gate actions in a mechanical or gamey way.
It represents how much responsibility, pressure, and ongoing commitment you can realistically handle at once. Party roles, constituency work, campaigning, meetings, and relationships all contribute to this load.
This is not a traditional “energy” system, and it does not prevent you from acting outright.
Taking on more commitments can accelerate progression, but it also increases risk.
When you are overstretched, outcomes become less reliable. Decisions may land badly, opportunities may misfire, small mistakes may be noticed, and negative situations become more likely. These effects are often indirect rather than explicitly explained.
The game does not tell you that something went wrong because you were overcommitted. Instead, you are expected to recognise the pattern.
Not explicitly.
You will not see raw figures or direct warnings. Instead, signs emerge through outcomes, reactions, feedback from colleagues, and changes in how events unfold. Managing your workload well requires attention and judgement, not optimisation.
Yes.
Failing to attend to responsibilities, neglecting roles, or disengaging from people can have consequences. Equally, choosing what not to do is part of playing effectively.
UKPolSim is built around trade-offs rather than exhaustive completion. Success comes from managing focus, not from attempting to do everything at once.
The media in UKPolSim is a fully simulated part of the political ecosystem, not a single abstract voice.
Thousands of real-world media outlets exist across the game world, including national broadcasters, local newspapers, radio stations, blogs, and other publications. Each outlet operates independently and is staffed by individual journalist NPCs.
Yes.
Major national outlets have identifiable political leanings that influence how they interpret and present events. Local media is treated more cautiously, reflecting the difficulty of accurately modelling political alignment at that scale, but coverage can still vary significantly between outlets.
Yes.
The same event may be framed in very different ways depending on the outlet, the journalist, their views, and their relationship with you. Divergent narratives are normal, and there is no single “correct” interpretation of events.
Yes.
Journalists are individual characters, and your relationship with them can influence how they cover you over time. As in real life, trust, familiarity, and past interactions matter.
No.
Media reactions are not explicitly explained. You are expected to infer why coverage landed the way it did based on context, timing, behaviour, and past relationships. This uncertainty is intentional and reflects how media dynamics work in reality.
Yes.
Media coverage influences public perception, political momentum, and how others respond to you. It can amplify successes, magnify mistakes, or quietly shape narratives in the background. Managing media attention is part of navigating political life, not a separate minigame.
No. Some systems are still being refined or expanded, and certain features may change before or after launch. Where functionality is not confirmed for launch, this has been noted explicitly.