CHOOSE YOUR ELECTION

FIELD GUIDE

THE STALL SHOPFÊTE OUTFITTERS · EST. 1977

HOW TO PLAY

The Integrity Pledge: Rule one: every voter votes. We just make sure they get a snag and a smile on the way in. We don't fight people — we persuade operatives. With sausages.

THE SETUP. Election day! Angry party-machine mobs — placards, matching shirts, zero chill — march on the polling booth to capture it with spin. Every mob that reaches the door costs Booth Integrity; at zero, the booth falls. Hold all 26 waves and the seat is yours.

① STALLS (your defences). Drag a card from the roster onto the grass — anywhere, but stalls can't overlap each other, the path, or the booth (teal ring = good, red = blocked). Drag a built stall to move it (2s pack-up). Tap a stall to upgrade (3 levels, visibly grander) or sell. At level 3, choose a specialisation — two paths per stall.

② THE THREE CURRENCIES. DemBucks (Disclosures): per-run cash from persuaded mobs — builds and upgrades stalls. ❖ TRUST: permanent. Earned by winning campaigns, converting mobs and handing out HTVs — it unlocks new stall types between runs. ♥ VOLUNTEER CRED: per-run. Earned from held waves, HTVs and bosses; spend it on the glowing footpath posts to station HTV volunteers (3♥) or upgrade them (5♥). 🗳 THE MANDATE: per-run, earned only by How-to-Vote work (hand-outs, clean-sheet waves, converted voters). It is the only thing the booth accepts for repairs and works, and co-signs ★ super transformations.

③ HOW UNLOCKS WORK. You start with the Sausage and Flyer stalls. The other six show a padlock and a ❖ price in the roster — tap a locked card to spend Trust and unlock it forever. New maps unlock by winning the previous one (any difficulty). The Eternal Campaign (endless) unlocks per map once you've won it. Harder difficulties pay more Trust; medals (★ to QUOTA!) record your best.

④ THE FOOTPATH. Ordinary voters stroll the grey footpath during waves — they are never targets. Volunteers you station hand them How-to-Vote cards (+DemBucks, +Trust progress). Converted mobs join the footpath too: teal shirt, gold cap, AD-logo placard, straight in to vote.

⑤ MOBS & BOSSES. Watch for Tinfoil Tims (tomato-lobbers — wipe splats with a tap), earmuffed mobs (immune to noisy stalls), bubble-wrapped ones (pop with a Beacon), and convoy types. Every few waves a boss arrives — bosses never convert: drain their spin and they flee, or the Integrity Commission van escorts them off. Nobody is ever harmed.

⑥ CONTROLS. Desktop: drag from the left roster, number keys 1–8 arm stalls, U upgrades / X sells the selected stall, space toggles speed, Esc pauses. Tap a glowing ♥ post on the footpath to station a volunteer. The A button toggles auto-play. Mobile: drag from the bottom deck, tap to inspect. Settings has reduced motion, 2D mode and a loader for your own music.

⑦ VOLUNTEERS & THE CORPS. The grey footpath has glowing ♥ posts. Tap one to station a named volunteer for 3♥, or tap a stationed one to upgrade (5♥, to level 3 — trestle, flyers, a poster) or recall. Each volunteer has a hidden affinity (commuters, parents, tradies, students, retirees) that lifts their how-to-vote success on matching voters — their blurb hints it. New volunteers join as waves pass; the rival Machine sometimes claims an empty post for a while. Volunteers also earn service stripes from their own hand-outs — 10/25/50 cards promote them to TABLE CAPTAIN, BOOTH MARSHAL and ★ LIFE MEMBER (each stripe sharpens their catch odds and pays +2 🗳).

⑧ SPECIALISATIONS. At level 3 each stall picks one of two permanent paths (offence ↑, support ↓) or a unique capstone — each with a tier-1 buff and a tier-2 signature effect (burn, slow, income, reach). Plan a path early; it can’t be changed without selling.

⑨ STRATEGY TIPS. Cover both corners of the path; pair a slow Beacon with damage stalls; keep a Marquee for steady DemBucks; hand out HTVs to passing voters for bonus cash and Trust; spend Trust between runs to widen your roster; and remember you can drag a built stall to reposition it (it packs up for ~2s).

⑩ MOBILE. Play in landscape. Tap a stall in the left rail to select it, then tap the grass to drop it (tap the stall again to cancel; long-press for its stats). Tap the + bottom-right to zoom in once; with two fingers, drag to pan the board. Tap a placed stall for its upgrade sheet; tap a ♥ post for volunteers.

CREDITS

AUSDEM INTEGRITY DEFENCE
An Australian Democrats production.
Keeping the bastards honest since 1977.

A satirical game. All characters are fictional archetypes, not real people — any resemblance to actual politicians, living or politically reincarnated, is coincidental. No voters were harmed in the making of this game: everyone here still gets to vote. Authorised satire, fully disclosed.

Authorised by A. Castrique, Australian Democrats, 15 Bassett Street, NAIRNE, SA, 5252.
Copyright © 2026 Australian Democrats | All rights reserved.