Dissent on Mars is the latest game to be developed by Michael Hicks. It is a unique game in the simulation genre that allows players to design different styles of economies. What makes the game unique is that it has the option to develop a democratically planned economy, one which is heavily influenced by Participatory Economics, an economic vision developed by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel.

The trailer for the game shows the option of being able to choose a democratically planned economy.

 

To dive a bit deeper and reveal the influence of Participatory Economics on the game, below is an interview with its creator Michael Hicks.

Michael, you’ve recently developed a game called Dissent on Mars. Can you give a short overview of the game?

Dissent on Mars is a sci-fi life simulator where you create new societies unlike anything on Earth. You’ll design your economy and government, build your colony, and experience your choices firsthand by living as a colonist.

While designing your society, you’ll make decisions about what type of allocation system is used, how property is owned, how colonists receive income, and more. Your decisions change the rules of the game, and each society has different pros and cons.

You can create dozens of different societies to live in, and in a way, your decisions place you on a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you can create capitalist societies similar to the ones we live in today. On the other end, you can create quite radical societies that have never been attempted before.

 

Something that sets Dissent on Mars apart from other games in the genre is the inclusion of aspects of a Participatory Economy developed by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel. What drew you to include those ideas into the game and can you explain how you incorporated those ideas into the game?

Before designing the game, I spent years absorbing material from anyone I could find talking about alternative economic systems. Somewhere along the line, I was discussing a proposal I was reading with someone on Twitter, and he recommended I look into Participatory Economics.

What struck me was a graph on the old website that was talking about the criteria for how plans are approved. It said something like “if BCR > 1, approve. Otherwise, reject”. And I was like “wow, this is just like computer code!” It was the most detailed proposal I’d seen, and I immediately started thinking about how it could be translated into code.

The most important thing I took away from Participatory Economics was the ability to clearly identify the “interchangeable parts” every economy has. For example, every economy has a set of principles that determine how people receive income, principles for how decisions are made in workplaces, etc. This influenced my approach to the game’s design.

The game also has a democratic planning procedure that’s inspired by Participatory Economics. It’s a little different from what they propose, but the core concepts are the same.

How did you approach the game design to ensure that players actively engage in the planning process and make meaningful decisions?

Players experience life in their society by living as a colonist, so you’ll help them fulfill their needs (eating, staying clean, having fun, etc), take them shopping, take them to work, and more.

If your society uses democratic planning, you’ll create plans for what your colonist wants to produce and consume, and then use these to negotiate a plan for the entire economy.

Everything is simulated in great detail, so every decision has some kind of impact. Usually, it has some kind of cascading effect. For example, electronics require copper to produce, so if for some reason the colony produces too many electronics you could potentially deplete your copper supply, which in turn could lead to a bunch of other problems.

 

In what ways does your game simulate real-life participatory planning scenarios? How did you ensure accuracy and relevance in the game mechanics?

I tried to model the core economic systems as accurately as possible. Computer systems are biased towards consistency, so that helped me stay on the right track. If something in the system isn’t logically sound, the game won’t function properly, or it will crash due to bugs or something.

Designing a functioning system forces you to consider all of the small details and make sure they’re sound.

However, a lot of game designers resort to “magical solutions” to address various problems. For example, most game designers manually set the prices of in-game products, and this is done to create an illusion of progress. They want players to feel good about themselves as they earn more money and start buying more expensive products.

I don’t do anything like this in Dissent on Mars. Prices are entirely generated based on supply and demand, and both of these things are highly variable. Each colonist has a unique personality that determines their tastes in products, so it’s possible to have a scenario where the producers want to make meat-based products, but almost everyone is a vegetarian! This will have an impact on prices, and different societies will deal with these scenarios in different ways.

How did you address the potential challenges of representing complex planning processes in a game format? Were there any trade-offs made during the development?

I tried to make the planning process as simple as possible for players, even though there’s a lot going on and it can be a challenge to wrap your head around it.

Here’s one example: while making your plans, you can tell the computer your personal preferences and have it automatically generate plans for you. You can also make them manually if you want.

I tried to set things up where you can choose the level of detail you want to get involved with. To truly master the game, you’ll need to understand all of the details, but if you just want to get something up and running there are tools to help make it easy.

 

Were there any specific development frameworks or game engines you utilized to create the game?

I wrote my own game engine using C#, FNA, and MonoGame. FNA and MonoGame are open-source frameworks that help me draw graphics, play sounds, and support different types of platforms.  

 

Did you see this game as an educational opportunity for players? If so, how did you balance the educational aspects of the game with the need to make it enjoyable and engaging for players?

I never thought of this as an “educational game” or anything like that, but some testers told me they learned a lot from playing.

However, I do think all games are educational to some extent. When you first pick up a game you need to learn the rules so you can play. To get better, you need to learn more detailed things about the system so you can master it.

The main goal I had with this game was to create a playground where people can experiment with different social systems…. which is an educational thing I guess, isn’t it? haha.

I don’t know, I guess I avoid using the word “educational” because it makes things sound dry and boring… like the experience a lot of people had in school.

Can you describe the target audience for your game? How did you tailor the gameplay experience to suit their needs and interests?

I think the ideal player is someone who enjoys simulation games and is interested in the game’s subject matter. However, I tried my best to make the game accessible to different types of people.

One of my main testers is my mom. She isn’t a gamer, but she’s put a ton of hours into it and I’ve had a blast watching her play. I also test with hardcore gamers. I’m responding to some feedback right now from a guy who loves city builders.

This might seem like I’m tailoring the experience to certain people, but I don’t look at it like that. I try to have a clear vision of what the game is and then use testing sessions as a reality check for how close I am to achieving that vision.

 

When researching the game, what kind of advice or help did you get from Participatory Economy advocates during the development phase? Could you say a little about that process and how it aided the development of the game? How did their insights contribute to the game’s overall design?

Right before development, I had a phone call with Robin Hahnel where I asked him a bunch of questions about the model.

Throughout development, I had long email discussions with Robin, Jason Chrysostomou, and Michael Weisdorf about some of the technical problems I was facing with the democratic planning procedure.

At one point, I think I became a little overwhelming. I remember Robin saying something like “look, we have kids and all of this other stuff going on, we can’t keep having these hour-long conversations” haha. I don’t think they realized the scope of what I was doing until later on.

I was also inspired by the computer simulation Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Michael Weisdorf, and Robin worked on. At one point, I had a Zoom call with that group where we talked about pricing algorithms.

I’m thankful because a lot of times it felt like I was stuck in the middle of the sea on my own. Talking with them helped with that.

 

Have you encountered any ethical considerations or potential biases in designing the game? How did you address them?

This is something I thought about a lot. Many games use algorithms to determine outcomes… so something like “if this person doesn’t have a job, they’re homeless.” Or, “if A and B are true then crime should be occurring in the simulation.”

In Dissent on Mars, none of the outcomes are programmed by me; they emerge based on the interactions between the colonists and their society.

Unfortunately, I had to make decisions about the default behavior of people and the various rule sets. I don’t see a way around that. But I tried to structure it in a way where players can subvert my bias in the algorithms and experiment with different setups.

For example, I assume most people have an average work ethic. If you don’t agree with that, you could create a bunch of lazy colonists. Alternatively, you could make all of the colonists hard workers. The personality traits you pick overwrite my default choices.

The fact that everything is so variable leads to all kinds of interesting situations. One type of society might work really well with certain types of people, but with different types of people it could become a disaster.

 

What kind of impact do you hope your game will have on players’ understanding of alternative societies?

I came into this project with certain views about how an ideal society should function. After working on the game and playing it for many hours, almost all of those views have changed. Hopefully, players will have a similar experience and will have discussions about it so we can all learn from each other.

I’ve learned things from watching people play, which is pretty cool I think. Usually in the arts, we think of the creator as being some type of god that has a bunch of knowledge they’re trying to impart. But in video games, it’s a two-way street. Players will do things you never expect, and in the process, you’ll learn something new about your own creation.

 

Do you think there is scope for further development and an even more comprehensive attempt to create a game around these ideas?

Yes and no.

It would be easy to continue working on this for the rest of my life; there’s a ton of stuff I’d like to add, and I plan on doing some of it.

But somewhere there’s a line where it becomes too much for people to comprehend. I think it’s best to keep things focused and not get carried away with trying to simulate all of reality.

 

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Michael, thanks for the taking the time to discuss Dissent on Mars. It is available to Wishlist on Steam now. Hopefully it gets the support it deserves and is successful.

Perhaps the success of Dissent on Mars might encourage more game developers to investigate the benefits of engaging with simulating other aspects of a Participatory Economy or to gamify a Participatory Economy as a whole.

Showing the possibility of a functioning, democratically planned economy sheds light on the feasibility and gives confidence to the potential for an actually existing Participatory Economy. Being able to see aspects of the model presented in game form gives a different perspective on the model and opens it up to diverse new audiences to investigate it.

Hopefully too the inclusion of the option of a democratically planned economy will encourage more people to seriously consider the possibility of discussing these ideas with others more deeply developing real life participatory institutions that can lead to toward the actual development of a participatory economy and a participatory society more broadly.

For more information on Dissent on Mars visit the website. For more information on Democratic Planning and a Participatory Economy recent works by both Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel provide accessible introductions to the theory. The podcasts RevolutionZ and PEP Talk from the Participatory Economy Project also discuss these topics. For information and discussion on a Participatory Society check out www.realutopia.org and their Discord channel.

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