The Republia Times [2021]

What she found, tucked between the financial ledgers of ’44 and the weather records of ’45, was a manila folder labeled simply:

The game serves as a playable critique of the Chomskyan concept of "manufacturing consent." The player learns that "news" in Republia is not what happened, but what is useful to the state. The gamification of readership stats illustrates how media outlets are incentivized to prioritize entertainment and loyalty over truth to maintain market share (or in this case, regime stability).

Do not build another statue of me. Build a library.

— E.V.

The game features multiple endings based on the player's final stance:

The first page was unremarkable. Birthplace: Riverdown District. Education: Military Academy of Applied Governance. Decorations: The Crimson Star, First Class. But the second page—the second page had been typed, then stamped RETRACTED , then typed over again.

Sarai, who had spent five years sorting through the discarded memos of a dying bureaucracy, knew exactly what he meant. Republia had grown quiet lately. Not the quiet of peace—the quiet of a clock whose spring had finally uncoiled. The propaganda broadcasts still played at noon and six. The Party Youth still marched on Founders’ Day. But the slogans had begun to feel like old wallpaper: still clinging, but yellowed at the edges. the republia times

And inside that cavity, wrapped in oilcloth and tied with faded red ribbon, was a handwritten letter.

The bronze split not along the fracture, but along a seam no one had ever noticed. The statue’s chest swung open on hidden hinges, revealing a cavity inside.

The gameplay loop is deceptively simple, consisting of a single workday where the editor must select stories to fill a limited number of slots on a newspaper layout. What she found, tucked between the financial ledgers

There are depending on your performance and loyalty choices by Day 11:

The Architecture of Complicity: A Comprehensive Report on The Republia Times