• Added the State of the Union segment to the Turn Sequence (remember that this segment only occurs in years 2+). Depending on how well received your speech is, there will be some bonus modifications - or setbacks - on the board at the beginning of the president’s year.

• Added some additional actions to the China Acts segment.

• The Adversary Weapon Programs have been added to the board (Iran’s Nuclear Program and North Korea’s Missile Program). Allowing these programs to escalate will drive up tensions in their regions, and can cause automatic loss if either of those adversary states goes to war while armed with nuclear weapons. You can minimize the risk of nuclear proliferation by keeping Tensions low; more tools to manage these tracks, like Cyberattacks and Summit negotiations, are coming soon!

• Iran’s Actions have been added to the Ally and Rogue States game segment. Keep an eye on this constant adversary.

Major Bug Fixes

• [Gameplay] Soft locks from missing buttons in the Legislative Section have been eliminated.

Minor Bug Fixes

• [UI] The Save game panel will update to show any newly created save game files correctly after they are created.

User Interface/User Experience Updates

• [UX] The game now allows all the random number generators to reset at each restart, so no more getting the same results each time you reload a save file.

• [UI] The maximum length of a save game name has been enlarged to 36 characters.

• Added more actions for Peer Rivals (Russia and China), especially those related to gameplay systems that have recently come online, such as the Wars subsystem.

Major Bug Fixes

• [Gameplay] Fixed an issue where the save game was taking an unreasonably long time to write after the game progressed past the first few years in office.

User Interface/User Experience Updates

• [UX] Streamlined the setup of the initial game so players don’t need to roll individually for every element they don’t choose, like the public’s Legislative Priorities, Congressional Friends and Enemies, and your Vice President and Campaign Promise. This speeds up the game start, getting you into the action significantly faster.

• [UX] Added an ‘Express Setup’ option at the start of the game where the game will also choose Cabinet Members and Administrative Priorities automatically, if you want an even faster setup and are willing to accept the game’s choices for these elements.

• Added the Focused National Intelligence segment to the Turn Sequence. You can now focus the U.S. intelligence community’s attention on a specific region (or two, if you’re ahead of Russia and China in two key Strategic Capabilities). The presence of the FNI marker confers many bonuses to actions relating to terror groups and wars. .

• Added UN Actions segments to the Turn Sequence. Now there are more opportunities to effect positive change in various world regions.

• Added the Trade Agreements Diplomatic Action. Players can now make trade agreements with other nations and reap the benefits in the End of Turn sequence.

• Added an Auto-Save that occurs after every turn sequence segment to help prevent lost progress.

Major Bug Fixes

• [UI] Fixed an issue where table rolls that involved a check against a track for pass/fail would not open the correct result dropdown, making it unclear what the result was.

• [Gameplay] UN Speech action is now correctly limited to one use per activation phase.
  [Gameplay] Fixed a potential locked state in the Presidential Presence action where no option was selectable.

• [Gameplay] Fixed a potential locked state during a “make peace” resolution to wars where no option was selectable.

• [Gameplay] Fixed a potential locked state during “How the Sausage is Made” when rolling the best result due to selections not showing.

• [Gameplay] Fixed a crash that could occur when using the Back button after a change to a Trending track where the track moved a full box.

Minor Bug Fixes

• [Gameplay] Fixed issue where the World Economic Trend part of Allies/Rogues Group A would not add increasing trend to economies at value 7.

• [Gameplay] Fixed incorrect logic for removing Russia Influence tokens during Compromise to Facilitate Removal of Sanctions.

• [Gameplay] Fixed the ability to select the Joint Maneuvers and Training with an Ally action when there are no allies with Very Close relationship status.

• [UI] Fixed issue where the incorrect text would display while incrementing Russia’s Conflict tracks.
  User Interface/User Experience Updates

• [UI] Added a confirmation flow after clicking the Delete Save button to prevent accidentally deleting save files.

• [UI] Changed the player game loss flow to add additional flavor text clarifying the loss conditions.

• Added the “1 Action for POTUS and each Cabinet Member” action segments to the Turn Sequence.

• Integrated a crash reporter client into the game so we will now get reports when a player’s game crashes.

Major Bug Fixes

Rogue States were misbehaving a bit so we put in a few fixes for them. We also fixed a core issue with how our user interface was putting cards on the screen:

• [UI] Re-worked how various card widgets are added to the screen to prevent issues where quickly pressing “Continue” could cause cards not to show up, leading to the player getting stuck. This should fix a class of bugs that were reported where certain player selections were not available.

• [Gameplay] Resolving a war involving a Lvl 1 Rogue State no longer creates extra terror groups.

• [Gameplay] Cyber attacks against Rogue States now properly decrease their strength in the current war.

• [Gameplay] Defeating a Rogue State in a war no longer places terror groups in other regions.

• [Gameplay] DRMs referencing Secretary of State’s Diplomatic rating now correctly use Diplomatic skill instead of Domestic skill.

• [Gameplay] Players should now be able to Joint Raid with NATO in East Europe.

• [Gameplay] After winning a war, free military movement actions were not always accessible, leading to a stuck state. This is now fixed.

• [Gameplay] End of Turn Consequences now reduces Rogue State levels based on regional Stability.

• [Gameplay] Military Professionals action is now limited to one use per activation phase.

• [Performance] Game no longer consumes large amounts of CPU when not in focus.

Minor Bug Fixes

• [Gameplay] How the Sausage is Made no longer gives an extra friend in Congress on certain results.

• [Gameplay] Fixed copy/paste issues in China Acts which referenced Russia and vice-versa with Russia Acts referencing China.

• [Gameplay] Crisis Card#104 now correctly reduces Relations with Media on a failed Prestige Check.

• [Gameplay] Add in missing selection in failure case of Raid Terror Group action.

• [Gameplay] Regional Major Crisis now correctly removes a level 1 Terror Group before adding a level 2 Terror Group.

• [UI] War Strengths visually update when moving US forces.

• [UI] Clicking the Settings icon in the top right could cause windowed resolution to drastically change; now the last resolution is retained correctly.

• [UI] Russia Acts stack now correctly shows the number of remaining actions when loading a saved game.

• [UI] Fixed typo in Arms Sales action.

User Interface/User Experience Updates

• [UI] Added additional summary information for the Media Slant procedure to clarify what was happening.

• [UI] Added new Tooltip for active war tokens to show the current war status and force ratio.

From saboteur Secretaries of State to some quite “unconventional” war setups, there were several high-impact bugs. We prioritized fixing them as fast as we could:

• [Gameplay] Secretary of State no longer sabotages Cabinet Improvement rolls and properly assists with improving the effectiveness of the cabinet.

• [Gameplay] Wars should no longer carry over combatants from previous wars (no more countries fighting themselves, civil wars are tracked with their own tokens).

• [Gameplay] Turn Sequence Phase 3: Any 4 Diplomatic or Military Actions segments are no longer skipped. This one was causing the game to be much harder than we intended. Now you’ll have an additional 4 (or 5 if spending 2 APs) actions each year.

• [Gameplay] Regional Major Crises are now correctly triggered in Central America.

• [Gameplay] Opponent’s passed Bills no longer remain as opponent bills if you re-introduce them in a later Legislative Segment.

• [Gameplay] Congress is no longer incorrectly antagonistic against your attempts to rally for bills; using the Bully Pulpit now applies the correct DRMs.

• [Gameplay] Use Military Professionals action had numerous issues. This action has been completely re-worked and should no longer have these problems.

• [Gameplay] Gather Intel/Drone Strike/Air Strike/Raid Terror Group also had several issues, especially with the DRMs, these actions have been re-worked and these problems should now be fixed.

• [Gameplay] The Joint Maneuvers and Training action could sometimes decrease your Ally’s relative strength. This has been fixed to correctly increase it instead.

• [Gameplay] The De-Escalate action now properly reduces the conflict between RoK and DPRK and removes Tensions counters from both nations involved in the conflict.

• [Crisis Cards] Added more event cards to Year 1 crisis card deck to reduce the chance of running out of cards. Due to us having fewer Cascade cards than event cards, this deck was smaller than it should be. We’ve added more Event cards than the paper game calls for temporarily to account for this until we have more Cascade cards implemented.

• [SFX] Sound effects now correctly play if you Load Game or start a New Game.

• [UI] Loading games during certain in-progress choice selections should no longer lead to a hard-lock due to selections not showing in the UI.

Minor Bug Fixes

• [Gameplay] Left-most and Right-most can be confusing. The initial Bipartisan Cooperation value is now set to the correct box based on the number of Radicals and Moderates.

• [Gameplay] How the Sausage is Made should no longer force you to be for/against a bill when rolling the best result.

• [Gameplay] When Cyber-attacking, if China and Russia accuse the US of Warmongering, you no longer lose all of your UN Goodwill counters and a decrease in World Opinion of US.

• [Gameplay] When Cyber-attacking Rogue states, they now correctly lose strength in their active war.

• [Gameplay] The Attempt to Remove Chinese or Russian Influence action is no longer selectable if there is not a valid influence token to target.

• [Gameplay] Tensions tokens should no longer be drawn with their number side up.

• [Gameplay] Min/Max DRM range added to Corralling the Cabinet as well as fixed incorrect procedure description.

• [Crisis Cards] Card #120 correctly removes Russian Influence from the Eurozone instead of a random region.

• [Crisis Cards] Card #159 now correctly removes a Russia Influence counter.

• [Crisis Cards] Card #164 correctly adds strength to DPRK and not RoK.

• [Crisis Cards] Card #174 text no longer spills outside of the card face.

• [SFX/VFX] Certain token changes (trends going from Increasing/Decreasing to none or DARPA Rapid counters being added/removed) should now correctly make sound effects and flash.

• [UI] Corralling the Cabinet action showed a D10 in the Take Action box instead of a D6.

• [UI] Terror/Chaos table roll now mentions the correct D10 roll range for Chaos.

• [UI] Tooltips should no longer get stuck on the screen, especially in the top left corner.

• [UI] Fixed a few occurrences of widgets staying on screen when they shouldn’t such as the left side shadow or certain choice selection widgets.

• [UI] 1 Action for POTUS and each Cabinet Member segment now properly greyed out in the Special Activations Phase to show that it is not currently in the game. (We’re working on it! See Upcoming Features/Changes below)

• [UI] Tensions on POTUS/Cabinet Focus now correctly display in loaded games.

User Interface/User Experience Updates

For this first patch, we mostly focused on bug fixes, but there were a few things we wanted to tweak to better help players understand certain aspects of the game.

• [UI] War Status tracker added to the Board Walkthrough.

• [UI] Better Tooltip descriptions of how certain tracks (State of Economy, Regional Alignment, Cabinet Effectiveness, etc) work and what the Trends mean for these tracks.

• [UI] Tweaked the crosshair indicator when targeting Terror Groups to improve readability of their levels.

• [UI] Added clarifying text that Israel cannot use the Joint Action: Stabilize Region.

• [UI] Added a new widget to the Begin Turn: Set Starting Action Points segment to better explain where the Action Points were coming from.

• [UX] War Status tracker added to the WASD mappings.

• [UX] Arrow Keys for panning map added to the Controls section of the Walkthrough (this one was in the build on launch, we just forgot to call it out in the Walkthrough).

• [UX] Increased the maximum zoom level so you can now get a closer look at the board.

• [UX] Removed a few places with empty pauses where the Continue button needed to be pressed but nothing happened.

Known Bugs not fixed in this Patch

There were quite a few bugs reported across the channels and despite our desire to fix them all, we just haven’t had enough time yet since launch to do so. Below are a few of the larger bugs that we’re aware of that are not yet fixed in this patch. Not all of the bugs that have been reported are listed here, just some of the bigger ones, though we are tracking all of the issues you report.

• [UI] Quickly spamming the Continue button can lead to UI widgets not appearing on screen and this can lead to a locked state (usually fixable with the Get Unstuck button).

• [Gameplay] Loading a saved game does not always correctly apply the restrictions on certain player actions leading to the ability to take some actions more than once an Activation Segment or Phase.

• [Gameplay] China/Russia Acts Espionage table roll 4-7 result not correctly adding strength to US opponent in war.

Upcoming Features/Changes

Our highest immediate new feature priority is the POTUS + Cabinet Member Action segment at the start of each year. This just barely missed Early Access launch, but it’s the player’s only action window before a Peer Rival activation, which in the event of really bad rolls can lead to a pretty nasty situation for the player without much they can do about it. We’ve also heard your consistent requests for an autosave feature, so we’re looking to get that in ASAP as well.

Right now, the missing pieces in the Early Access version are:

• The POTUS + Cabinet Member Action segment, as noted above

• The Summit, Trade Agreement, and Sanctions player actions

• The lower-end actions for China and Russia

• Unilateral Ally actions

• Adversary actions (Iran and North Korea), and their Missile Tracks

• Part of the Missile Tracks feature is adding the two auto-loss conditions if either Iran or North Korea reaches full nuclear capability and becomes involved in any war

• Several of the Cyber Attack variations (particularly relating to Adversaries - once we add e.g. North Korea’s ability to advance its nuclear program, players need the Cyberattack option to disrupt it in that way)

• UN Actions

• Great Society legislation

• These are large-scale, transformative legislative packages that are harder to pass (they have to go through the process twice) but have larger impact, and aren’t repeatable

• The remaining Crisis Cards, Crisis Chits (particularly NSA and Good Times)

• The Chaos portion of Terror/Chaos in Activation Phases 2 and 3

• The State of the Union Segment

• Re-election for a second term as well as the Mid-Term elections

• Difficulties other than Normal (Harder, Easier)

• Exceptional White House Resource cards

• Scandals track and update procedure during the Legislative Segment

• New Year’s Surprise during the Begin Turn Segment (omitted due to low number of Cascade Cards at the moment)

• Focused National Intel placement and effects segments

In celebration of Washington’s Birthday and Presidents’ Day, we’re excited to announce that Mr. President is now available on MacOS.

We’re also providing an overview of our next major content patch scheduled for March 19. Since our launch less than a month ago, we’ve delivered 23 major bug fixes, 34 minor bug fixes, and 11 UI/UX updates for a total of 68 fixes. It’s time to focus on more content and features!

Here’s what’s coming next:

• Focused National Intel placement and effects segments

• UN Actions

• Trade Agreements

• The rest of the action lists for the PRC and Russia:

  • The PRC will get its Secure Sea Lanes action, its ability to veto sanctions and invest in global oil partnerships, and further invest in the PLA and cyber warfare. Most dangerously, if they have a lot of actions, they’ll be able to access their Prepare for War action - this can lead to war with either India or Japan.

  • Russia, meanwhile, will get the ability to more directly test or confront NATO, and get rid of sanctions (this can have a big impact, since they start the Sandbox scenario with Multilateral Sanctions in place). Two of Russia’s actions, though, will have to wait until the North Korean and Iranian missile programs are in the game.

These features will continue to flesh out the turn sequence and get the Peer Rivals closer to the threat level they’re intended to have.

Try Now!

Last but not least, we want to recognize a few of our community members who have been extra helpful. On the Steam forums, Finarfin and Rockhopper are not only finding and reporting bugs, they are helping other players. On Discord, we have folks like birb, pepper0nc1n1, JustAnotherNerd2025 and many others helping new players. And it’s been incredible to see players like Black Knight (Discord) reach 60 legacy points, VeronicaCardican (Steam forums) with 71 legacy points, and Lenty (Steam forums) with 66 legacy points, playing through bugs and a lack of features.

As always, we appreciate your continued support.

Happy Presidents’ Day!

On behalf of the development team,

Jon

The Early Access launch of Mr. President on Steam - Monday, January 26 - is upon us! And we have a new trailer for you to watch - so check it out, even if you watched the previous one. Progress on the game is going fast enough that it’s now easier to say what isn’t in the Sandbox Scenario than what is. We’re still working on the most complex actions, like Summits and Trade Agreements, and the nuclear tracks for Iran and North Korea won’t be in. Unilateral Ally actions will also be in one of our earliest post-Early-Access-release updates. But the Early Access build (finally!) has Rogue States and Wars, along with the necessary Military Actions (like moving forces) to support that gameplay. Joint Ally actions are also in, as are more (but not all) of the China and Russia action lists. And there are a LOT more Crisis Cards for players to deal with - including some Natural Disasters and Terrorism events - along with Cabinet management and the full Legislative Segment.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the End of Year Cleanup and Consequences procedure is in; this really drives home the importance of a good board state and an aligned world. It also generates Legacy Points and allows players to play out a full term.

We’re looking forward to this Early Access launch, and we’re so grateful for all of your support. We’re also looking forward to the Early Access period itself, when we’ll be releasing consistent updates to finalize the game and incorporate feedback from our Early Access players. Please join us on the Mr. President Discord; this will be a great place to talk with me and the rest of the development team, and give your notes, feedback, and bug reports!

Mr. President Early Access begins on January 26, 2026 during Steam’s Board Game Fest. Mr. President is a solo sandbox simulation of the U.S. presidency. Set in a world of high-stakes diplomacy, lethal global threats, and complex domestic policy, you must lead the nation through its most defining moments.

Wishlist now!

Why Early Access?

Mr. President will continue to receive substantial UI, feature, and content updates on a monthly basis for the next year or so. We would like to involve the community in the game’s development so that we can create the best presidential simulation in the market.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

Mr. President will be in Early Access for approximately 1 year.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

During Mr. President’s development, we plan to make the digital version have feature parity with the paper version (2nd edition) and include additional digital-only features. The full version will include 100 additional Crisis Cards which will be delivered in subsequent updates as we build upon the initial Early Access Build. Also any missing gameplay systems from the board game such as Scandals, Nuclear Missile Tracks, and the remaining Crisis Chits and table roll entries will be included in the full version. The full version will also include several special scenarios based on modern presidencies as well as two additional difficulties (Easier, Harder) for the Sandbox scenario.

Additionally, we plan to implement some special digital only features such as:

• Allowing for the player to select an avatar portrait to represent themselves in the game.

• A detailed Legacy screen summarizing all events that took place in a player’s presidency.

• Steam Cloud Saves and Achievements

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

Players are able to play through a significant part of a presidential term in the Sandbox scenario on Normal difficulty. This includes Actions (domestic, diplomatic, and military), Terror and Chaos, Wars and Civil Wars, UN Acts, joint and unilateral Ally Actions, Rogue States, Russia Acts, China Acts, Conflict Tracks, landmark legislation, the Nobel Prize, the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, Cabinet priorities, Summits, and more!

No more forgetting to apply your start-of-turn presidential attributes!

We’re putting some rules call-outs in informational hover-buttons, so players can drill down to see how some of the more complicated game-state changes work, without having to break flow and access rulebooks:

Likewise, the digital version parses the board and finds your die roll modifiers (DRMs) for you:

On Crisis cards that involve custom player choice (e.g., choices that don’t just mirror other types of choices, like picking a terror group on the map), we’ve added buttons right on to the card. Note also the stack on the left; that keeps track of where you are in the current Activation Segment, so you always know what’s next:

Another example of showing players the full table that they’re about to roll on, right when they need it, so they can see not just results but the range of possibilities:

Some actions in Mr. President allow you to spend up to 2 Action Points (AP) for additional die roll modifiers. Rather than come up with a clever approach, we went with the least confusing one, since this doesn’t have to scale up to larger expenditures, and just give two separate buttons:

Next week, I’ll write about some wider design questions, and share some more about what Early Access gameplay will look like. After that, we’ll see some Wars and Rogue States in action, and the critical Year End sequence, which rewards or penalizes you for the state of the world.

We’re marking the end of the government shutdown with something special — an updated demo featuring the Legislative Segment (now live on Steam) and we also have a few exciting announcements to share.

Legislative Segment

Adding the Legislative Segment was important for two reasons. First, we wanted to tackle the top feedback we received from our June Steam Next Fest Demo:

1. Players weren’t sure how to tell whether they were doing well or making progress. The demo emphasized the risks and dangers in the foreign policy sphere, but “survive the demo” is only a small part of the picture.

2. Provide a more intuitive user interface. Some players wanted even more tooltips whereas other players felt that the zooming options were not sufficient (text too small).

If you look at the flow below, we’re exposing more of the breakdowns and modifiers involved in resolving actions. Here you can see just one display that tells the player what their overall political leverage in Congress is, along with the result (increased or decreased support for your bills).

Second, the legislative segment is a major source of Legacy Points, which is how you win in Mr. President. It’s not enough just to survive the many possible loss conditions - will you have a high Legacy score at the end?

Key Announcements

Early Access is getting closer — we’re locking in a Q1 2026 launch! We’ve got a specific date in mind, but we’re teaming up with a few media partners to make sure the announcement lands big.

Before then, we’re running playtests in Brussels with NATO staff, plus we’re opening up an exclusive in-person session for Mr. President fans, strategy gamers, and wargamers. Sign up to join the action: https://luma.com/kmlhtnii/. Two participants will also win a signed copy of Twilight Struggle — autographed by Ananda Gupta!

I’ve always loved portraits.

Since my early years—through middle school and later in art school—I’ve always been captivated, almost mystified, by the power of portraits.

I grew up Catholic in Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador. I named my son after my beautiful town with so many wonderful memories as a child. Like many families back then, my family encouraged me to become an altar boy. I did and spent a lot of time at church, where I found old paintings that sparked my interest in art.

I used to draw Marvel and DC Superheroes on the front of my Trapper-Keeper (IYKYK) to impress my friends. The more I drew, the more I started to analyze the old paintings on the wall in Church that you can see in the picture below. Although the paintings were small, they had that beautiful style of Leonardo or Michelangelo, the Masters.

That’s when art truly captured me. As the days turned into years, I would sit for hours, studying and emulating the delicate shading and the sublime faces inspired by Romanticism and the Renaissance masters of Italy

I studied the shading in Leonardo’s religious works, discovered the elegance of Sargent’s pencil sketches, and drew everything I could on paper—using only a pencil to mimic the rich texture of charcoal, which I couldn’t afford at the time.

I would angle the pencil on its side, using the broad edge to mimic the natural thickness of charcoal—the same technique Sargent often used.

It wouldn’t be until many years later, when I immigrated to the United States that I would purchase my first stick of charcoal for $0.99 cents, and my first giant pad of charcoal paper to begin drawing my first 3D Sketches.

My style was unrefined and rough, but I dreamed of working for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)—a dream I’m proud to say I eventually achieved. To prepare, I always began with sketches before moving on to the final character models for my first portfolio. Over time, my passion for this process, combined with my love of the raw Catholic art of the Masters, made sketching my specialty. I became fast, deliberate, and deeply connected to the craft.

I never stopped drawing portraits, and over time my skills improved. Even when my French teachers disapproved, I embraced Photoshop—because I believed, just as I do with AI today, that it represented the future of art, whether they liked it or not.

Fast forward to today, I was very excited when the Mr. President team decided to use presidential portraits as the centerpiece of the end-of-game assessment screen. Specifically, the game compares and “grades” your legacy against that of past Presidents: Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, and so on.

Given my previous work with charcoal, I felt this style was the right fit for portraying presidents. Charcoal carries a timeless quality—whether it’s the shading that creates a sense of the sublime, or the simplicity of black and white, it always feels evocative. For me, nothing captures nostalgia more than a charcoal portrait, which is why I still begin every painting this way.

In our project, we extended this approach to create portraits of Lincoln, Jefferson, Taft, Roosevelt, and both Adams presidents. This allowed us to compare your presidential term within the game against some of the Founding Fathers.

John Adams, the second President of the United States and a leading figure of the American Revolution, was instrumental in advocating independence and helping draft the Declaration of Independence. A principled but sometimes combative statesman, he prioritized building strong institutions over popularity. His presidency (1797–1801) was marked by tensions with France, the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and his commitment to avoiding war. Though often overshadowed by Washington and Jefferson, Adams is remembered as a devoted patriot whose vision helped solidify the young republic.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President, led the nation through two of its greatest crises: the Great Depression and World War II. Elected to four terms, he launched the New Deal, a sweeping set of programs to stabilize the economy, create jobs, and provide social safety nets. His leadership style combined optimism, communication skill, and pragmatic experimentation. During WWII, he built alliances, mobilized the U.S. economy for war, and helped lay the groundwork for the postwar international order. FDR’s legacy endures as one of resilience, reform, and transformational leadership.

Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President, embodied energy, reform, and robust leadership. A driving force of the Progressive Era, he championed trust-busting, conservation, and expanded the role of the federal government in regulating industry. Internationally, he strengthened America’s naval power, built the Panama Canal, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Famous for his “speak softly and carry a big stick” diplomacy and love of the outdoors, Roosevelt reshaped the presidency into a more dynamic, activist office.

James Buchanan, the 15th President, is widely regarded as one of the weakest occupants of the office due to his failure to address the mounting sectional crisis over slavery. Serving from 1857 to 1861, he believed the Constitution left him powerless to act against secession, which allowed tensions between North and South to spiral unchecked. Though experienced as a diplomat and statesman, his indecisiveness and passivity in the face of national division left the Union on the brink of collapse when he handed power to Abraham Lincoln.

The paintings are created by hand on my Wacom tablet in Photoshop, with shading guided entirely by me. I use a custom AI model that I personally trained in my own charcoal drawing style (via a LorA), which runs locally on my 5090 GPU. The process is fully hands-on: I begin the sketch, direct the model on where to apply shading, and refine everything manually. Once the artwork is complete, I upscale it using either ComfyUI or Topaz Gigapixel for the final finish.

Time passes, tools change - but the painter, stays the same.

Until then: Go paint some color into the world.

- Joshua Balcaceres

Major War

No American aircraft carrier has ever been destroyed, so we chose to depict a U.S. carrier engulfed in flames to represent a significant loss of face and prestige as well as a major military setback vs. a near-peer competitor. To heighten the gravity of the moment, we deliberately avoided showing identifiable figures, using only silhouettes and broad strokes instead of detailed illustration.

Several symbolic elements reinforce the message: a vacant presidential chair, a red “Secret” folder, and the president’s signature written in red ink. The empty chair suggests that the decision was not made lightly—the president has stepped away, leaving advisors and cabinet members to carry out the consequences.

Painted over three days and built from 85 layers, the composition employs somber blues and muted oranges to evoke sadness and regret. The palette makes clear to the player that this is a moment of profound consequence, not triumph.

Rogue State Threats

If the US attacks a Rogue State that has acquired Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and a natural, unmodified "10" is rolled on that Rogue State's action roll, the Rogue State uses the WMD on US forces and infrastructure.

This defeat screen was painted in the chiaroscuro style to emphasize contrast and drama. It portrays an atomic strike on an unnamed U.S. city, intentionally left vague so players can imagine the tragedy striking any community. Subtle details deepen the impact: a faint EMP distortion effect, and a lone red mailbox marked “Home,” underscoring that ordinary citizens—far removed from political decisions—bear the ultimate cost.

Completed in two days with 56 layers, the composition relies on chiaroscuro’s dark browns and oranges to convey radioactive clouds and destruction. The mushroom cloud is the focal point and the only element rendered with detail, symbolizing both finality and devastation.

Conclusion

Together, these defeat screens play a vital role in Mr. President. They are not celebratory or decorative works of art, but deliberate visual statements. Through color, composition, and symbolism, they embody sadness, failure, and the heavy weight of leadership. They remind players that the presidency is not only about strategy—it is about responsibility, and the human consequences of every decision.

Hey everyone,

Thanks to the thousands of players who spent time playing our short demo and for providing feedback! We wanted to give an update on lessons learned and next steps.

First, a whopping 88.1% of players surveyed (n=201) answered “very high” and “high” to the question: Based on what you saw in the demo, and the components indicated as "under construction", what's your interest in playing the full version? Those who answered our survey were primarily our core audience – those familiar with Mr. President already.

We’re excited by this result but we know we still have a long way to go. We agree with a lot of the feedback provided, which ranged from macro suggestions to micro changes. Here are the top three:

1. Provide more details on “what happens, what can happen, why am I doing things.”

2. Provide a more intuitive interface, UI/UX. Some players wanted even more tooltips whereas other players felt that the zooming options were not sufficient (text too small).

3. Provide a better onboarding experience.

Next Steps

1. We will keep our demo up, which is a change from our original plan of turning it off on June 16, because there were players who downloaded the demo but were not able to try the demo just yet.

2. We’ll prioritize some immediate changes to the current demo that this cohort of players can benefit from. Specifically, we’re working on an action log that shows you previous actions, rolls, and results.

3. We’re going to circle back internally to start planning towards a second demo that can showcase our implementations of player feedback and more progress on the game.

If you haven’t played yet, please watch Ananda’s walkthrough in lieu of an onboarding experience. Thanks again to all of you who tried out the demo or watched Ananda's video or left feedback for the demo. Please continue to monitor our blog or X for updates!

Thank you!

-The Mr. President Team

In the full game, you’ll be looking to score Legacy Points. These come from major successes: winning wars, passing legislation, and maintaining a strong political position at home (with high Public Approval, relations with Congress and the media, etc.). In the demo, though, your main concern will be China: containing the PRC’s influence and managing crises that can precipitate two of the 15 different auto-loss conditions.

The first of those requires China to reach 15 total influence on the map. You’ll need to take actions to reduce their influence, which can come on to the board through several of the Crisis cards. The second auto-loss condition triggers if China and Japan go to war; you’ll need to keep an eye on their Conflict Track and use diplomatic actions to mediate these two countries’ disputes. If you can reach the end of the demo without either of those happening, and with US-China relations still neutral or better, then you’re in good shape, and in the full game you’d have some breathing room to advance your other goals.

In the demo, the best way to understand the gameplay is to look at all the tooltips you can. We decided that the best approach to demo-ing a sandbox game was to make the rules and systems available to the player, and to avoid scripted scenarios and rails. We may change our tune on this for the full release, but for now, the tooltips on all of the counters and markers and tracks should give you a sense of what you need to watch out for and what actions you should consider taking.

Looking for some more hints?

• Look at the Regional Crises tracks in the world map part of the board and check out the tooltips on those track markers. Are any of them close to precipitating a major regional crisis?

• Look at the targeting conditions in the Remove China/Russia Influence action. Can you manufacture those conditions somewhere, so as to enable you to keep the PRC’s global influence under control?

• Read the tooltips on Terror Groups, and the action descriptions for SOF Raid and Air Strike / Drone Strike. Are there opportunities to degrade terror groups?

We’re thrilled (and a little nervous) to announce that the demo for Mr. President: The American Presidency 2000–2020 is now available as part of Steam Next Fest! We plan for this demo to be live only during Steam Next Fest, which runs from June 9th to June 16th.

This is our first playable public build, and while there’s still a lot under construction, we wanted to get the game into your hands early. If you’ve been following the project, you know Mr. President is a different kind of political game — it’s not about running for office, but about what comes after: governing.

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What’s in the demo?
You’ll get a hands-on preview of several core systems, including:

• Crisis events, both historical and counterfactual

• A full Activation Segment for the People’s Republic of China, showcasing how one of the two Peer Rivals in the game operates

• Domestic, diplomatic, military, and Presidential player actions

Some systems are still in progress — think of this as a guided tour through a construction zone. You’ll see the structure taking shape, even if the scaffolding is still up. That said, what’s here should give you a strong sense of the game’s direction and depth. Make sure to check out the tooltips we’ve added to almost all of the game pieces and components - they’ll help you learn the flow of the game.

Whether you're trying to push legislation through Congress, contain international crises, or just keep your approval rating above water — this is your first chance to step into the Oval Office and see what the job really feels like.

We’re a small team building something ambitious — and your feedback means everything to us. Try the demo, and then let us know what you think. The good, the bad, and the confusing: we want to hear it all. Please drop your feedback under this Steam sub-forum!

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Thanks so much for your support. We can't wait to hear how your presidency goes.

— The Mr. President Team

The most obvious model for the real-world conflict this month is Crisis card #90, “Violence in Kashmir Escalates.” It’s a sharp event, and not a Cascading Event, that adds tension to the map and also boosts the India/Pakistan Conflict Track by one box:

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Conflict Tracks are how Mr. President models the closeness of serious armed conflict between plausible adversaries in 2000-2020, and who will start with a military advantage. There are ten of them, and India appears on two (India/Pakistan and India/China). The Status column is a 1-5 scale; if the marker moves to 5, war breaks out. For two of the tracks - China/Japan and Russia/NATO, if this happens, the game is over. For the rest, the war system is used, with an immediate War Progress check and then more such checks as long as the war is going on. The Relative Strength column is a bonus that one side or the other gets added to its base strength when the war begins.

Going back to the Kashmir Crisis card, we can see that the card immediately escalates this conflict track by one box, and adds tension to both India and China (with India engaged, China has two reasons to escalate its own actions - India’s distraction, and the danger posed to Pakistan, with whom China has been building a strategic and economic partnership during this period). It’s unlikely this card by itself will start a war, unless mediation fails. Note that the player has the option to bow out of mediation by declining to spend two Action Points - but even if they do, and cooler heads prevail, they’ll still reap some political benefits).

So this card all by itself has a few different narrative possibilities - and the card doesn’t specifically describe the violence. The player can use their imagination to fill in those specifics, as well as what happened in the ensuing clash. And whether or not the Conflict track was pushed to 5 would influence the story quite a bit! But what if the player had previously drawn this card as well?

Now the Kashmir violence could be imagined as a purely military retaliation, or a spark ignited from the heightened tensions generated by this border skirmish. The Regional Crisis increase seems like an afterthought, but a Regional Major Crisis could add more fuel to this fire, in the form of additional, or leveled-up, Terror Groups, refugee crises, or Stability penalties.

And what about all those tensions markers that are getting added by these cards? Well, if you don’t tamp that down, India is much more likely to get a high result on their Unilateral Action table - which will occur during their Ally Group activation.

See that 13+ result? And the fact that this d10 roll gets +1 to its final result per Tension value on India? Now it’s easy to see how what seems like a calm Conflict track, sitting at 2, can rocket up to 5 - and war - when the key events and actions happen in a fateful order. But if the order is changed, the scene changes, and so does the story in the player’s head.

James Dunnigan referred to historical tabletop wargames as “paper time machines.” But Mr. President is also a story-making machine. Each playthrough will prompt the player to envision new ways the movement of the pieces, the results of the table rolls, and the draw of the cards might have manifested as real life events. We hope you’ll have many hours of fun writing the story of your own presidency in digital Mr. President!

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In Mr. President, the avatar itself doesn’t have any gameplay effect (although your Presidential Attributes certainly do!). So why invest scarce development resources into a beautiful selection of presidential portraits? Why not follow the board game and leave the president’s appearance to players’ imaginations?

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It’s because Mr. President is an aspirational game, in which we want players to feel that someone like themselves could sit in the big chair. Mr. President is not a satirical game; it’s a serious treatment of a subject that’s both historical and contemporary, with an ultimately optimistic vision of the presidency as an institution. That optimism means we want players to feel as welcome and natural in the game as possible, and be able to realize the presidential fantasy of having a portrait in the White House. And that means players should have some choices about what that portrait would look like. Joshua Balcaceres, the art director for digital Mr. President - and whose specialty is character art - has some further thoughts to share.

In designing the Presidential Portraits for Mr. President, our goal was to reflect a broad spectrum of players while honoring the dignity and gravitas associated with the office. We began with a traditional image—a male, older president in the mold of historical figures like JFK or Teddy Roosevelt—but quickly saw the creative opportunity to expand that vision. Each portrait aims to present a leader who feels authentic, commanding, and worthy of being remembered—no matter their background or style. That meant pushing past convention, exploring diverse visual cues, and reimagining what a modern president might look like while still capturing the seriousness and stature of the role.

Some presidents might have a nontraditional style that hints at their individuality, but the core message remains the same: this is someone who leads a nation. The portraits are not just aesthetic—they’re invitations. They say: this could be you. And in a game that encourages players to step into the Oval Office, that sense of possibility is essential.

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Until next time - go paint some color into your world.
- Joshua Balcaceres
Exia Labs - Art Director

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First, let’s look at some Natural Disasters.

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This card represents a catastrophically severe drought in California. Natural Disaster cards share a format: they usually allow you to spend some Action Points on your initial response - and this is one of the key reasons to retain some Action Points throughout the year, in case of a natural disaster - and potentially make some political gains. Moreover, you’ll notice that on the best possible result (which is not available unless you spend at least 1 Action Point), the second stage of this card is skipped; it goes to the ‘3’ pile, so you can only draw it once more.

The drought is also rare in that in its future recurrences, there’s a chance you’ll just get bailed out by the weather, and the card goes straight to Discard with no further effect. Most natural disasters aren’t like that, though:

This card can’t get discarded by a lucky rain result (indeed, rain would make this one worse!). But, like the California drought, it’s a blow to the US economy, and the political fallout if you under-invest your Action Points (political capital) can be dramatic. The aftermath can also create a drag on your domestic tracks, which is very dangerous in year 2 when you need all the domestic track position you can get to maximize the chances of a good result in the midterm elections (or, in year 4, your re-election campaign!).

There’s also a hidden risk. Note that the aftermath effects can include Domestic Crises. If you don’t manage these correctly, you risk a Domestic Failure (that’s what happens if your Domestic Crisis level rises to 3). To control that risk, you’ll need to spend precious actions on “Address a Domestic Crisis.” So it’s not just public disapproval and tension with Congress and the Cabinet that these cards can drive - they’re also a subtle action drain.

Now let’s take a look at a Terrorism Crisis. These vary in structure much more than Natural Disasters do, and their effects and resolution depend on the target. For example, here’s a domestic terror attack:

Here, your Homeland Security level is paramount. A Homeland Security check is a d10 against the track rating, which ranges from 8 (robust capabilities) to 3 (compromised). If you pull this card, and pass that check, the attack is averted (well done!). You’ll get public approval and an RNG-free ding on a terror group anywhere you like.

But for an attack like this, the price of failure is severe. FOUR Tensions markers go on your Cabinet Priorities list, which means that anything but your top two priorities won’t even get rolls at the next resolution. And the Legislative Segment is skipped (possibly twice, if this is drawn early in the year)! However, you’re able to start an air campaign against the Rogue State you deem responsible, without needing to wait until an Action segment or spend Military actions to move the necessary air assets or actually kick off the offensive.

For a very different example, let’s take a look at this card:

This card represents a wave of terror attacks and operations in multiple African countries, rather than a single attack. As such, it’s handled as a Cascading Event rather than a one-time event. It leads to the buildup of African terror groups’ strength (represented in the card by Boko Haram), and pushes Regional Crises there pretty hard. Since a Major Regional Crisis in Africa can cause a refugee crisis, the spillover risk is significant. But you can play around this by aggressively assisting African states with anti-terror support - if you’re able to bring terror groups’ strength down such that there aren’t any at Level 2 or higher when you draw it again, this card will get pitched.

Here we have a dramatic terror attack against a highly symbolic target, but not in the U.S. In this case, the French will take unilateral action to deal with the attack, and will expect your support. If you don’t provide it, that’ll bruise relations with the EU - but in this case, the 2 Action Points provide a big die roll modifier, representing close collaboration and relationships between American and European anti-terror institutions and agencies. If the free Intel attempts result in identification and targeting of the responsible group, you’ll also get a free SpecOps raid against that group, likewise with a bonus.

I hope this deep dive on some of the nastier events in Mr. President has been exciting, if a bit worrisome! Look for Mr. President on Steam later this summer, and please do add it to your wishlist!

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This Crisis card represents a major bank failure. Like many other Cascading Events it has a clear play-around: if you can rescue the economy and get it back to 6 or more, then its stage 2 and 3 events will fizzle. Many of the economy-themed Crisis cards adjust one of the four State of the Economy tracks modeled in the game - U.S., China, Russia, and the Eurozone.

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Sometimes one power’s economic problem is another’s opportunity - here we see Crisis Card #79, Oil Prices Spike to Record Highs. This card shows a unique pattern: in addition to immediate political pain in the form of Domestic Crisis and a Public Approval penalty, the public demands specific action in the form of energy independence legislation. Russia, as a major gas exporter, gets an immediate economic bonus; and if China and the U.S. are on good terms, a deal can be struck to help both countries recover.

But why do these economic tracks matter? For you, as U.S. President, a strong economy will offer political advantages. At high levels, you’ll get continuous upward pressure on your approval rating, bonus Action Points, and Congress will warm to you (every elected official wants to be seen as part of the solution to economic problems!). You’ll also get Economic Assistance actions that allow dice-free improvements to relationships with foreign allies or Regional Alignment - and those are precious, because it’s often easy to miss on them with standard actions, and high Regional Alignment will help you counteract the spread of Russian and Chinese influence. But a poor economy will cost you in all of these things, particularly with respect to your relations with Congress.

For Russia and China, your peer rivals in Mr. President, economic success brings bonus actions during their activation segments. This generally leads to more headaches for you: more influence spread, more military growth, or even war.

The Eurozone’s economy mostly drives that region’s Stability - at high levels, there are a couple of phases where the Eurozone can improve its Stability just by having a good economic level. Stability, of course, limits the presence of terror groups and civil wars, so more stability almost always means fewer headaches for you as President.

TRADE AND SANCTIONS

Two economic elements that get some explicit handling in Mr. President are Trade Agreements and Sanctions. Trade agreements, created with the Make a Trade Agreement action, require good relations with Congress to have a reasonable chance at passing, and carry a host of benefits and risks. In high Stability regions, they can lead to a lot of American economic gains on the State of the Economy and Public Approval tracks. They can also directly remove Russian and Chinese influence. But they can also lead to friction in both the trade partner’s Region and at home. Maximizing the impact of Trade Agreements requires a close eye on actions that preserve or improve Stability, and a strong relationship with Congress.

Sanctions, conversely, can only be targeted at four specific nations: Russia, China, the DPRK, and Iran. Sanctions make it harder for the latter two to develop their nuclear programs, and consume critical actions from Russia’s and China’s action budgets (which may mean fewer actions to spare for greater mischief).

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WRAPPING UP

That may have seemed like a lot, but the simple track-based approach for modeling economic health, and the relatively small but well-purposed suite of actions that allows the player to interact with them, give economic considerations a scope and complexity budget appropriate to Mr. President’s big-picture design approach. The most complicated economic phenomena are reserved for the Crisis Cards, who can use their individual text to inject economic uncertainty and drama into the game without requiring players to learn a complicated economic model.