Subpoena Power is a politically-charged side-scrolling Flash game by NoEvil Productions. Your mission is to eliminate corruption on Capitol Hill by circumventing lobbyists and serving subpoenas to Senators and Congressmen to separate the Honest Tribunes from the Perfidious Scoundrels. The game does much more than just entertain, it shows you how easily the government erodes into a corrupt establishment and how adhering to the laws it was founded on can maintain order.
Subpoena Power has a bumpy learning curve if you aren't familiar with the terms. Fortunately, underneath the jargon and fancy wording is a nice and simple game. Green-suited lobbyists use their money to pay sycophants to sway politicians and gain favorable votes. It's a practice that, frighteningly enough, happens in the real world every day. Watch and listen for lobbyists prowling the halls of Capitol Hill, then pounce and serve them a subpoena to force them to drop their cash. Each briefcase of money you find decreases the corruption meter on the left side of the screen, preventing sycophants from getting paid to do their dirty work and allowing politicians to function on their own. Keep the corruption level low and you'll find more honest Congressmen and Senators as you continue handing out subpoenas.
Another key activity in Subpoena Power is gathering evidence. You have a limited number of subpoenas to serve and will run out quickly if you use them against toadies and sycophants. Search behind doors, on bookshelves and in potted plants to find evidence, then watch for the Judge and show him what you've found. For every 1000 evidence points you have he'll give you a subpoena. There's an intricate system of gaining evidence points for almost every action you take, so read the in-game instructions to learn more.
If the description seems complex, don't worry, the game is remarkably easy to get into and ends up being quite a lot of fun. Use the [A] button in combination with the arrow keys to search for evidence, [S] to serve subpoenas and [D] to jump. Register for free and you can save your progress, an absolute must if you want to serve subpoenas to all 535 Senators and Congressmen on Capitol Hill.
NoEvil has done a great job turning a complex political topic into an entertaining game that still manages to educate while you play. It's an eye-opening fact how easily corruption seeps into politics, but fortunately there's a system in place to keep things in check. Subpoena Power reminds us that government is run by laws, not people, and at the end of the day that's what will hold it together.
Jay adds: Kat Caverly of NoEvil Productions was very kind to send us a genuine Subpoena Power T-shirt that we'd like to give away to the first person that serves subpoenas to all 535 Senators and Congressmen in the game. At the end of the game you will receive a message from the Judge. Be the first to post the entire text of that message here in a comment, and be sure to include the email address you used to register with the site so that we may validate your achievement (Privacy note: your email address will not be published.) If you correctly (and considerately) hide the text within spoiler tags we'll also throw in a limited-edition Casual Gameplay T-shirt as well. =)
Update: There are now 2 additional t-shirts up for grabs! In addition to being the first to complete the game today, Kat will also award a t-shirt to the best score of the day, too!
Update 2: Congratulations to Yany, Aaron, and Wiser for all winning t-shirts and for helping to save the Republic! =)
When you did the link dump a while back, I did end up playing through the whole game. However, that violates the spirit of the contest, and as such, I will only post my record here as a challenge for all y'all:
> Name: Parse
> E-Mail: [REDACTED]@[CENSORED].com
>
> End score (Honest / Scoundrels): 410 / 125
> Date: October 23, 2006, 5:48 pm
>
>
A few tips of my own:
- You can jump between levels, of which there are three - the bottom level, the top level, and the stairs. If you press up or down in midair, you will switch between them.
- The mudslingers are a pain in the butt. Your best chance at avoiding them is to change what level you're on.
- The screen is infinite length, so don't be afraid to run away from your problems. Or towards other stuff.
- There can be evidence in the chandeliers. Why? For Science! (Actually, I have no idea. But it is cute being able to search the chandaliers and come up with pages of evidence.
- Don't waste your subpoenas on the sycophants. They're easy to dodge.
- Be a subpoena ninja! You can issue them when you're jumping!
It's a great concept, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did get a bit long around 400, but I don't think I went crazy. At least, not too many times.
The message we're looking for comes from the judge, and it's quite long. ;)
I quite enjoyed playing that. It does get a bit tedious after a while, but I think it should be a little easier to get your towels replenished, since the game ended after I used mine all up from being pelted with mud. I finished at 103/17 and I don't have the patience to try and beat it.
At the moment i have 82 honests and 48 scoundrels. The game is fun but the best part is what happens when you go into an elevator after the go crazy signs show up. Try it.
Hey Jay, is this what you're looking for?
Score:
**End score (Honest / Scoundrels): 363 / 172
**Date: October 18, 2006, 9:06 pm
Letter:
I'll freely admit that after getting half way through the game I had to finish it. And I'm still warry of mud puddles.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I KILLED THE JUDGE MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yany: \o/ =D
You did it!
I'll be emailing you to get a shipping address to send the T-shirts to.
cheers!
LOL, Revenge!
Just make sure you go crazy again and *NOT* shoot him this time, or else you'll be subpoena-less. (small glitch in the game)
Although I have to say, the killing was a great stress reliever when the sycophants and toadies got to be too much. Definitely one of the more useful *not so hidden* secrets of the game. Killing the Men in White lets you keep going crazy for longer, fun fun.
Oh, and Jay,
if you'd prefer to allow someone who actually played the game and won *AFTER* you posted the challenge, then please remove my previous post and chastize me accordingly. Also instead of using the email address I use for typekey, I used my school address, sorry. Feel free to use either to yell at me.
My Bad.
The point of posting the challenge was to get the text of that message up quickly for those that may still be sitting on the fence of whether to vote.
Your honesty just seals the deal and makes you quite deserving of the reward. =D
How do you check the chandeliers for information?
Aww Jay, yer making me blush!
*Rock The Vote!*
@Razorgirl: When you're on the second floor, jump [D] and grab evidence [A], while pressing the up arrow. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The timing is similar to serving subpoenas when in the air.
I just received this note from Kat Caverly of NoEvil...
There's your mandate, folks. Get cracking!
"Just make sure you go crazy again and *NOT* shoot him this time, or else you'll be subpoena-less. (small glitch in the game"
Actually it didnt make me "subpoena-less", the judge keeps showing up, but it takes longer for him to show up.
Forgot to mention that theres a glitch with the elevators
After you open the elevator doors press p to pause and you will still go to the bottom while its paused.
Its very usefull if you got on an elevator and don't want someone to get away,or are dodging mud.
What are you all doing home playing games? Go out and VOTE already!
VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
It only takes a few minutes to vote. Been there, done that, and back again. =)
*whew* 135 down and again, no towels >.<
FEAR THE MUD!!!
I, for one, voted before today. As I'm away at school, I voted via absentee ballot.
I hate the fact that as SOON as find a suitcase full of money in the game, those annoying guys find three more!
(It's near impossible to get it from the top to 10% when this happens)
(Yes, I'm looking in all the spots)
What does
"Go Crazy" do? and what are advantages/disadvantages (So far you I've seen you can get escorted back to 'Go normal'
Horray for Absentee Voting! Makes life at school easier.
Harukio:
Remember, for every 15 scoundrels you get, the judge'll restock towels, so there's still hope! But, as Parse said, switching levels really quick tends to help avoid most of the mud. Just make sure to listen for the toadies, if you don't see 'em ya might just hear 'em before they get ya.
And Jay, thanks to you and Kat both, y'all rock.
Fun game, but it gets tedious after a while, at least if you're trying to keep the corruption bar down. I stopped after about a hundred...
A couple of things:
The toadies are really annoying when they just walk into you from the edge of the screen and give you a full-body smear without your having a chance to react - I know you can listen for them, but it's hard when there's more than one around, and when you're busy chasing a lobbyist. Very easy way to fix this would be to just have the screen start scrolling while you're farther away from the edge.
The new towels mechanic seems backwards - you get one for every X corrupt people you find, yet the objective of the game is to keep that number down as much as possible. In effect, trying to play for a high score (only subpoenaing politicians when the bar is at 10%) like I tried to essentially punishes you by providing fewer towels. I think getting towels for honest politicians would make more sense, at least gameplay-wise.
HURRAY I finished it today!, however the mail hasn't arrived yet and I would like to sleep. I'll post it as soon as possible!
Whew... finally finished it.
Final score: 436 good / 99 bad
Time: November 8, 2006, ~1:45am, EST
Still waiting for email message.
Screenshot at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiser/292111251/
Now I just have to remember to blink again...
P.S. Sorry about the previous two postings. Please delete them.
Is it just me or does the bloke who says "Let us save the republic" (happens on some of the guys when you give them a subpoena and they're 'good') sound like Johnny Cash?
How do we load a save... I feel kinda stupid, but I was pretty far and now I can't get that save...
Ok like I promised, the mail I got this morning, apparently Kat has been celebrating the democratic victory. which btw I want to congratulate all you voters for. you did a great job
> Name: Aaron Demortier>
> End score (Honest / Scoundrels): 414 / 121
Date: November 7, 2006, 8:56 pm
it really took a huge amount of time, luckily I don't have any classes today.
go to www.subpoenapower.com
Yes, to load a game, use the subpoenapower.com link, not the pop-up. Sorry about that. I should have linked to that, but I was just trying to make it easier by saving a step.
Cheers for that Razorgirl!
From what I can see by the details posted above, both Wiser and Aaron are deserving winners of t-shirts.
Aaron for being the first to finish, and Wiser for the best score. =)
I'll be in touch shortly. =)
I think I figured out why you only get towels for catching the corrupted ones:
Your character said that corruption is in the office;
mudslingers try to make what you say is untrue;
towels are used in order to clean off the mud.
But it's still a little flawed...
And because my question didn't get answered:
What's with the 'go crazy' option on the lift(Avilable after 75 Honest Tribunes) actually do? (I know it gives a ray gun.. but what's the advantage to doing it? Get rid of stress?
Drgamer the whole point of going crazy is to
blast the baddies and have fun. Just try not to kill the judge very much. Also if there are a lot of toadies around then they cant hurt you when your crazy, but you can kill them all.
Woot! 453/82 ! ...that took a whiiiile.
JIG is getting awfully political in nature... :-p
I get stuck at the judicial memorandum. It pops up whenever I get 10 honest tribunes and it will not go away so I can't get back to the game. Is anyone else having this problem?
I keep getting this message about someone in the halls and to get the bad guys with the money. This pops up during play but then nothing happens. It doesn't say I've lost and it doesn't Say I've won or allow my to continue. What is this and why is it happening?
443-92!
Shame there isn't an award for getting over 400 :/
I wonder if anyones gotten a perfect?
Oh, and the save system seems to be down or something :( (So yeah, I did that 443 in ONE straight run...)
I hate those spawn-of-satan lobbyists. Why isn't there a law making their bribery punishable with jail time?
Almost as bad are the mudslingers. How dare they tell lies about an honest fellow just trying to keep government clean and fair? More than once, a lobbyist got away because of me being covered in mud.
Oh and about the gameplay: it's a little weird jumping with the D key. I keep hitting S by mistake. We use W as an "up" key; that would be a better choice than D. Alternately, the game could let you configure the controls.
Is it just me, or is the site no longer working? :(
Update