Battleground States

Players choose their favorite presidential candidates, build a staff of ruthless aides and storm across the country rallying supporters, raising cash and slugging it out with opponents for control over the country.

Popular Vote

With its combination of strategy, humor and the mimicking of the conventions of a real political environment, Campaign quickly developed a large and loyal following including a feature write up in the New York Times.

Political Tactics

The political setting provided us with some entertaining metaphors to work with — e.g. money serving as ‘mana’ that can be used to cast ‘spells’ like the Attack Ad. Various political jargon (mud slinging, hatchet jobs) provided some good/terrible puns to use for attacks.

Multiplayer Campaign Strategies

Players would try different strategies in multiplayer player — building a teams heavy on fundraisers, focus on taking and holding the southeast, saving up money at the start for a series of devastating attack ads.

Check the Polls

Every game of Campaign was tracked via location, and wins and losses were used to generate charts of which candidates were winning nationally and in each state. This feature encouraged retention as players returned to fight for their favored candidate.