StateOS: The Political Sandbox

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• Patch Notes·30 Aug 2026Official

  StateOS 0.2 August 19–29 Patch Notes

  StateOS 0.2 August 19–29 Patch NotesThis update substantially expands election simulation, government gameplay, world generation, congressional geography, campaign management, and the overall usability of StateOS.Election Night OverhaulElection night has been redesigned as a dedicated results room, with clearer standings, filters, returns, margins, and reporting progress.National and regional maps now use consistent lighting, relief, boundary contrast, and theme-aware colors.Full-chamber standings now combine seats elected tonight with seats not up for election, providing an accurate picture of chamber control.Nights containing several legislatures can report each chamber separately without filling the screen with dozens of repetitive state panels.Chamber panels now fit their available space and can expand to show parties beyond the initial summary.Election cards now identify incumbents, defending parties, seat changes, flips, and margins over the runner-up.Presidential results show the electoral votes available or awarded in each state, including split awards.Primary results now show delegates at stake, projected delegate awards, running totals, and the majority needed for nomination.Election details now report the contest’s real electoral system instead of incorrectly labelling everything first-past-the-post.State delegation screens can be opened directly from election night, with individual races and party changes listed.Numerous navigation, scrolling, click-handling, readability, and election-day softlock problems have been fixed.United States House DistrictsStateOS now generates congressional districts from county geography and population data.District populations are balanced exactly within each state, including fractional county assignments where whole counties cannot produce equal seats.Congressional candidates campaign among their district’s voters rather than the entire state.Each district now votes using its own population and demographic composition.Hous...
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• Announcements·19 Aug 2026Official

  0.2 Release Candidate Out and 0.3 Development

  0.2 Is Out Today0.2 has been the biggest update there probably will be in terms of difficulty for me and also the most substantial for adding core features back to the game.0.2 will need some extra work from me directly after this update. I do expect there to be bugs still lying around and some rebalancing of certain features like the new election system including some other changes.I plan on a series of small updates to 0.2 coming after this. I had to do a lot of testing as usual, but given the feature set, I'll need to release it and put together more refinements and changes to this massive update.The feature set is large and you'll for sure be able to explore it. My next update for 0.2 will be bug fixes, tweaks, and rebalancing to the new election system and other features most likely the scenario editor for example.Bugs reported for 0.1 have been addressed in 0.2. I will be patching bugs for 0.2 as they come because I can't catch everything myself.I'd recommend that you view the previous Steam announcement, 0.2 Details for the full details of the update or at least most of it anyway.0.3 DevelopmentI've begun development on 0.3 and its features. 0.3 will be set to release on September 30th. Giving myself some extra time between updates and to polish up 0.2. I already have added Canada, Japan, and a overhaul to the committee systems which I began work on in 0.2.0.3 will specifically be improvements on 0.2 given 0.2 sets a great foundation that will need some tweaks and changes including added depth.
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• Announcements·9 Aug 2026Official

  0.2 Release Candidate Release Date And Some Features

  0.2 Is Coming!I've been doing extensive testing and last minute changes for 0.2 over the past two weeks. The update will be massive and I'll be talking and showing screenshots of what is coming, but you can expect a release candidate on August 19th, a month since 0.1 released. This patch notes does not contain all screenshots or even all features coming in 0.2. But it covers most of it. Presidential primaries have been overhauled to be like they are IRL.Germany and the UKStateOS 0.2 brings in Germany and the UK, each with their own career routes: Prime Minister, Chancellor, the Bundesrat and the House of Lords. The UK has devolved legislatures, and their elections use their own local legislature maps.Elections work the way each country works. Holyrood counts 73 constituencies and 8 regional lists under AMS, with each party's D'Hondt divisor starting from the seats it already won in that region. The Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly race on their real constituencies. A devolved seat is an office in its own right rather than a seat number, so you can stand for one, and choosing a Westminster constituency narrows the devolved seats you're offered to the ones that overlap it.The Bundestag is MMP with a 5% threshold and the three-direct-seat rule alongside it, so a party that falls under the threshold can still be seated if it wins enough constituencies outright. In a German election you choose a direct constituency and a party list.Government formation is in for both countries, including Northern Ireland power sharing. One government forms per chamber, and a parliament that is a member or two short still forms one.Germany has Landtag Kreis, Wahlkreis and regular Kreis maps, with the caveat that potential legal attribution complications mean these have randomized geometry for now. The UK's Westminster and devolved constituencies are drawn from the real ONS boundaries.The UK has regional parties per devolved legislature, scoped to their home jurisdictions so the SN...
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• Announcements·31 Jul 2026Official

  0.2 Custom Scenarios, Parties, and Steam Workshop Support!

  Ahead Of ScheduleHi everyone, another update from me. 0.2 is ahead of schedule and probably will release on August 30th instead of the original September 30th date. But I may still delay it if I need more time to test it, refactor, and work on it. I'd prefer not to repeat my old self here in regards to releasing broken experimental updates that people can't enjoy.I had promised Steam Workshop support months ago. Well it is now here. The Scenario Editor is much more detailed and also much easier to use.The problem was the old editor had a lot of features missing and wasn't easy to use. A bit complicated regarding coalitions which was a major issue with the old editor. Coalitions are important to the game itself especially in dynamic party popularity which is also added in 0.2.But having proper updates for party popularity in the scenario editor led to complications on the old Scenario Editor and general complexity that I disliked in terms of the code base and actual use.The new update has you mainly paint party popularity if you'd like. Making creation much faster. Creating scenarios should be something you can complete in a long evening or in a few hours if you're going for something very realistic.These scenarios can be uploaded to Steam Workshop directly from the game.Custom ScenariosRejoice! They are back. But much better this time. If your scenario will not work well with the game, it will tell you in the scenario editor and how to fix it.You can paint party popularity which is really nice. Or select something and edit it directly.You can choose who runs in elections and when those elections occur and more.Custom electoral vote numbers for the United States for each state.Custom government metrics.Custom starts. Yes you can now decide to play as historical figures in custom scenarios. You could try to win as Ross Perot in the 1992 election or play during the 1950s of the UK. Or even 1800s if you'd like although the game doesn't work as it should for that time pe...
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• Announcements·23 Jul 2026Official

  StateOS 0.2 Devlog: Germany as a Parliamentary Federation

  Welcome To GermanyA German campaign needs two ballots, overlapping administrative and electoral geographies, party lists, coalition government, parliamentary executives, Land governments, and a federal chamber whose members are appointed rather than directly elected.Germany now has its own campaign setup, candidacy routes, election processing, government-formation events, career progression, Bundesrat voting, legislation pipeline, and map read models.One Country, Four Geographic LayersGermany uses four related geographic layers.LayerCurrent coverageGameplay purposeLänder16Land governments, Land elections, regional statistics, and Bundesrat delegationsKreis and Kreis-equivalent areas418Canonical local population and popularity ledgerBundestag Wahlkreise299First-vote constituency contests and direct mandatesLand election districts843Landtag constituency contests, using the terminology configured for each LandA Kreis is not a child constituency and a Wahlkreis is not an administrative reporting unit. A Bundestag Wahlkreis may overlap more than one Kreis. A Land election district is another electoral projection of the same residents, not another population to add to the total.In a normal German campaign, the player selects:a Land;a home Kreis or Kreis-equivalent area;a compatible Bundestag Wahlkreis; anda compatible Landtag constituency or electoral district.Changing the home area removes downstream constituency choices that no longer overlap it. The selection is validated again by the backend before campaign generation, so an old or manually edited frontend state cannot create a player in incompatible geographies.The same separation continues into election night. The national and Land maps show aggregate party results, Kreis maps show administrative reporting detail, Bundestag Wahlkreis maps show first-vote candidate contests, and Land election maps show the corresponding state contest. The 2D and 3D presentations consume the same stable geographic IDs.Why the detailed...
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