Chris Crawford on Game Design

Third-World Dictator

The player is the dictator of a small third-world nation; his goal is to survive for twenty years. The key structural element of the game is the ministry, a primary governmental department. Each ministry is headed by a minister, has a budget that the player sets each year, is broken down into departments headed by deputy ministers, operates under the player's directives, and yields results that can be readily examined. There are eleven ministries, ranging from Defense and Education to Trade and Transportation.

The game is played in one-year turns. At the beginning of each year the player receives a budgetary report from the Ministry of the Treasury, specifying total revenues available for the year and last year's budget values. ...