Not for Broadcast

Not For Broadcast is a darkly comic, branching narrative game in which you run the National Nightly News as the country descends into totalitarianism. During live broadcasts, you choose the shots, censor troublesome content and make quick decisions about what the public sees. Your choices shape public perception and the nation’s future, as well as the fate of your family.

Run the broadcast

You decide which headlines and stories make it to air, and how to present the people in them. You might portray a sportsman as a national treasure or an alcoholic disgrace, cover scientists trapped in Dante’s Taint, or investigate the double life of a new boss at multinational giant Rymmington-Svist. You also choose whether to make the new government look benevolent or reveal what may be wrong with it. Keeping the audience’s attention can mean following the party line or promoting scandal.

The broadcast room brings its own hazards: it overheats and can try to electrocute you. You must keep the show running through events such as a newsreader refusing to continue, naked streakers at the Sportsboard Final and the growing threat of nuclear war.

Shape the story

The branching narrative follows both a country and a family, with choices that affect what happens later. You decide whether to help your spouse’s sibling flee the country, and what to make of Disrupt: concerned citizens or a more revolutionary group. Meanwhile, your son spends more and more time with them.

You and your spouse must also decide whether you can afford life-saving treatment for Grandma or should use one of the government’s new Transition Centres. The game has 14 distinct endings.

Choose the ads

You select from more than 50 ads, using them to influence public opinion. You could run ads for companies in which you own shares to earn extra cash for difficult decisions at home, or advertise dangerous toys to the nation’s children. Musical numbers also feature in the game.

Key features

• Deep and meaningful gameplay decisions
• Darkly comic branching narrative
• More than 42 hours of full-motion video