People Power: the Game of Civil Resistance is a Turn-Based Political Strategy Game and a follow-up to the 2006 A Force More Powerful. It was developed for the Adobe AIR runtime environment by York Zimmerman Inc. in collaboration with Art+Logic Inc. Originally released as shareware in June 2010, it was later made available as a free download on October 15, 2015.
Like the AFMP, the game features a general set of mechanics that span multiple self-contained scenarios. In each scenario, the player assumes the role of The Strategist of a nonviolent resistance movement pushing for societal change. The four original scenarios are:
- "Amessian Dictatorship" (set in 2000): End a President for Life's uninterrupted twenty-year reign.note
- "Brybury Coast" (2004): Lead an anti-corruption campaign in a small tropical nation.note
- "Kwiet Question" (1998): Seek the recognition of an ethnic minority's civil rights.note
- "Pourinian Occupation" (1999): Throw off an ongoing foreign military occupation by nonviolent means.note
Unfortunately, the game's official website, peoplepowergame.com, has gone dark around August 2024, i.e. there is no official way to download the game anymore. That said, since the game was eventually released as freeware (specifically, version v.f121
), it may be morally okay to download it from any of the Abandonware websites instead. It still runs perfectly well on modern Windows, Linux, and Mac machines, though you will need to install in an Adobe AIR runtime first.
The game and its four original scenarios contain examples of following tropes:
- Corrupt Politician: State corruption is the main concern of the "Brybury Coast" scenario.
- The Government: The Regime is basically your main opponent in all scenarios.
- Level Editor: The game shipped with a free level editor for players to create their own scenarios in the game's engine.
- Political Strategy Game: Like its predecessor AFMP, People Power is explicitly political in both its themes and mechanics.
- President for Life: Caesar Markhan from "Amessian Dictatorship" has been ruling Amessia for two decades straight and won't leave office unless forced out by the Movement.
- La Résistance: All of the Movements qualify for this trope, but of particular note is the Spillan resistance to the eponymous military force of "Pourinian Occupation".
- The Strategist: This is basically your role for the Movement.
- Turn-Based Strategy: The game plays out in turns, each equaling to a single in-universe day. Each action you plan usually takes multiple turns/days to prepare and to carry out, so skipping several turns until the next action update is common.
- Updated Re-release: The initial shareware version of the game was only 44 MB large, but when v.f121 was released for free in 2015, it bundled all the upgrades and additional scenarios released since then and so clocked in at 105 MB.
- Violence Is the Only Option: Deliberately inverted. As nonviolent movement, your goal is to avoid engaging in violence at all costs, as it quickly lowers your Movement's Momentum.