Headliner: NoviNews
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
Thanks again to everyone who supported the Racial Justice and Equality bundle, hope you are enjoying the game! As you know all profits went to charities so If you really like the game and would like to support our team, please consider also getting the game (or gifting it to someone!) on the Steam! You get a steam key and achievements, if that's up your alley! There's also the Soundtrack available, if you like our tunes :)
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A stack of news article sits on your desk, two stampers on each side - green to approve, red to reject. Your reporting team is hacking away in the background as corporate music plays through the loudspeaker. It's time to make decisions. Will you endorse nationalized healthcare, even though your love interest is worried about increased wait times? Will you demonize the new synthetic alcoholic drink, even though your boss stressed they are an important investor? Will you support current government, as tensions grow between the neighboring country?
After work, you emerge on the streets of Novistan, shaped by the very news you publish. Perhaps you will see more graffiti, angry bums or even a riot? Or perhaps you will turn the nation into peaceful utopia, filled with cameras and drones watching your every step? How will your channel address tragic events about to happen? Will you agree to meet the clandestine group of truthtellers, or stop to watch the Prime Minister's speech?
On the way home you meet with three main characters: Evie, your co-worker and immigrant, worried about her health and growing xenophobic sentiment; your brother Justin, an aspiring comedian struggling with impostor syndrome and social anxiety; finally Rudy, a single father trying to provide for his little girl and keep his store afloat, while a mega-mart opens up next door. Each day provides a glimpse into their life and how the media shapes their beliefs. 
But every Headliner deserves to relax at home from the stress of the job. Listen to the radio and unwind on the comfy couch bought with hard-earned cash, as you watch the city burn outside the window. Perhaps splurge on treats to feed your doggo? Adopt a drone? Have your brother over for dinner? Or maybe keep your doors locked, hoarding every penny, as your apartment slowly fills with piles of cash?
After good night's sleep, it's time to once again face to boss, new articles, a growing sense of responsibility, and.... power. 
* Read twice.... #FakeNews #Sad
Font License
Fonts in the game included under the Open Font License, which full text can be viewed here.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $13.99 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
Comments
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I just finished my playthrough and holy heck, this game is wonderful. It's so heartbreaking, but also hopeful, and intense and stressful. Honestly 10/10.
I'm playing this with a friend and we were shocked that it was made pre-pandemic. Absolutely prescient.
Tell me about it. I replayed it recently myself and forgot some of the dialogues I wrote and, oh boy....
We probably checked when it was published three times to make sure we didn't read the wrong thing. Goodness gracious. Definitely hits hard today. I'm loving it.
An absolutely incredible game, and I'm planning on replaying it a few times, but a quick warning for anyone considering checking it out: be aware that this game can get very very dark near the end (or at least it did in my first runthrough).
There is also one event in particular, that as far as I'm aware happens in every playthrough, that could use a very strong trigger warning. I'm going to put it under the "view rest" thing so anyone who wants to avoid spoilers can, but I feel the need to let people know if they want to know, because it genuinely shook me.
Trigger warning: sometime during the first week, there is a public six-person suicide. Six people are standing on the roof of a building near Rudy's shop, and then deliberately fall in unison; a few seconds later, they are then shown in bodybags. There is no gore imagery, but it's very clear what has happened and the characters in the game will reference it that day and the next.
Hey I really appreciate this!
this game is really good but boy is it stressful lmao
Yeaaa it did not age well.... or rather, it aged too well :/
How do I get this game, I brought the racial bundle however I can not add this game?
Hmm you should just be able to download it like any other game you already purchased. If it's not letting you, please contact Itch support!
Thanks for your help!
I'm not sure why but the game randomly crashes for me sometimes. I really like this game and want to keep playing it, but it's been crashing more and more. I can't even make it through one day now without it crashing, so I have to constantly reply the same day. I have the Mac version and any help/advice on how to fix the issue would be greatly appreciated!
Try disabling Post-processing and if that doesn't help, lowering the graphical settings :)
Same... also it often crashes for me when I speak to a specific character or on a given day of the story (depending on which storyline im not sure) I have a mac too so maybe this is a mac issue
I expected a Papers Please style bureaucratic news article simulator and instead got a story based adventure game with quite a few friends and stories I get to explore along the way while I steer the public opinion into a certain direction with my chosen news articles. The game does a great job of showing how different choices can all lead to positive and negative outcomes in some way or another, while it wraps itself in its core message of how media coverage and the news we consume can ultimately shape an entire nation. Endearing character art, great replay value if you want to see how this game ticks and an important game to play in 2020. 4,5/5
More Racial Justice bundle impressions and ranking:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice
I tried the experimental Linux build, and the screen only showed flashing colors. It's a old Unity error on Linux, solved by changing Resolution Width and Resolution Height on prefs file (1920x1080 in my case), located at /home/$USER/.config/unity3d/Unbound Creations/Headliner_ NoviNews/
After doing that fix the game works fine and i could finish it without any other problem.
Great game btw, makes you think twice about decision making in RL, ;)
Thanks yea I think that's the solution that worked for others. Thanks for chiming in and glad you enjoyed it :)
Slight spoilers for the first HEADLINER game (this is just me putting my review in the comments as i dont think you can view whats written in reviews
Novinews is a noticeable improvement over the original HEADLINER i don't have much to say but I recommend picking this up, I'm definitely going to play this again since there's some bonus content that unlocks after you beat the game, ill update my review if I have any complaints but this game is noticeably better, with it not heavily punishing you and only punishing you for pushing for what you believe in.
the score i put for this game is 5 stars, i might go back and edit my review to explain more, but there are probably others that can do a better job and i dont feel like i have a different enough of a opinion to go super into detail, unless i feel like explaining why this game is better than the first game in the series "HEADLINER"
Crazy that this game is two years old. Feels more relevant now than ever.
Absolutely Fantastic.
As far as the "be in a position of power/influence" genre goes this is definitely my favorite next to titles like Papers Please or Orwell.
The human element is the strongpoint of the game. Characters offer a wide range of opinions and personalities yet they always remain endearing on some level.
Which articles you publish often has immediate and devestating impacts on said characters.
There's a lot of attention to detail in the world building, it makes you care about the society you're a part of and the changes you bring.
I also greatly appreciated the artstyle, it's square and minimalist enough to portray an entire city without feeling overwhelming, meanwhile the detailed character portraits have plenty of personality.
If i had to give a suggestion it'd be that should you waste all your money early on there's not really a way to come back from that (that I found). Some sort of devil's bargain for quick cash would put the player in an interesting position.
To make it work on Mac:
* move app to Applications
* run this command in the terminal:
chmod +x "/Applications/HeadlinerNoviNews.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac"
* Click on the app, it will throw an error
* Open Security Preferences pane and click "open anyway"
keeps crashing on mac
I figured out a fix for opening the game on Mac Catalina! Instead of letting Safari automatically unzip the game upon downloading, go into Safari and click the 'Safari' button on the top left. Click 'Preferences', and in the 'General' tab there should be an option at the bottom called 'Open 'safe' files after downloading'. Uncheck that box. Download the game, then manually right click and unzip it. I used The Unarchiver. After that, right click on the game and choose open. Hope it works for others!
can't play on Mac.
Playing on Mac. Game has crashed several times in the 20 minutes I have played.
yeah, it has happened to me too. Only during the 3rd day, tho
I tried this game with the experimental Linux version, but at launch only a white screen was shown, music and sound worked. Looked at prefs file in config folder and saw Resolution Width and Height were set to 1. Changed them to 1920 and 1080 respectively and now it works fine.
It's a nice evolution compared to the first one. Thanks and keep up the good work.
This game looked neat, but the controls were too confusing for me! It told me which key approved and rejected articles, I forgot what they were, and then there was no way to look it up or set it. I actually restarted the game to be told again -- and this time it only gave me mouse control instructions! Not to mention that the arrow keys scrolled through papers in the reverse of the direction I expected.
I'd really love to give this game another try ... if there's a way to set the controls. (A way to turn off the flicker wouldn't hurt, either. I get motion-sick.)
This is a really cool game (downloaded from the bundle), but the mac version crashes on me after five minutes of play. Any insight on the constant crashing? (I'm on the mac High Sierra update).
After it crashes, can you send me the log file "output_log.txt" or "player.log", which can be found at:
Please send me the contents of the log via here: http://unboundcreations.com/contact/
Thank you for including the best Japanese!
i love this game,but i think this is a bug, or maybe this is intentional.
the memos you have to stamp them o else the game wont let you exit.
hey, is this game 32-bit? i run mac os catalina and when i try to open the file i get a system dialogue saying the app "can't be opened" :(
EDIT nevermind, i reinstalled it and it works fine! looking forward to playing the game :)
May I ask how you did this? I've been trying to open the game for days on Catalina and I'm still getting the same error no matter now many times I reinstall.
so when i downloaded the game file, it was a .zip file - the first time, i double clicked the zip and a game file appeared which refused to open. the second time, i right clicked on the .zip and used the unarchiver to open it (i believe that’s the system tool?), after which it worked fine.
This is a fantastic game, I started playing it last night and got a few days in, and I really want to see what happens next! But I am experiencing a strange bug that makes the game freeze up, no error message, I have to terminate it from desktop. The crashes don't happen all the time, there is about a 50/50 chance each day. This only happens at the end of the day when character is at home (but before the chance to save). This might be a problem related to my system which is a buggy mess rather than the game itself, but I thought I should report it. I'm using Win 8.1 and (usually) have no problem with much more memory-intensive games.
Right after it crashes, can you send us your error log? Here's info:
Please send the the log file "output_log.txt" or "player.log", which can be found at:
Please send me the contents of the log via here: http://unboundcreations.com/contact/
Thanks! Sent.
Hey, could you please assign platforms to your downloads for this game? That way those of us who use the itch.io app will be able to update it whenever there's a new update available. Thanks :)
Thanks for the heads up, just did!
Thanks for taking care of that so speedily, it solved my problem. I played the original Headliner on Steam (more times than I'd care to count…) and I have been really excited to play the followup. :)
In case any linux users have an issue launching this game where you get a full screen colored image that doesn't do anything, I found this fix on a Steam post mentioned below: "Looks like I fixed the issue for myself. I opened up the prefs file in the folder ~/.config/unity3d/Unbound Creations/Headliner_ NoviNews/ and changed the values of Screenmanager Resolution Height and Screenmanager Resolution Width to my native resolution, and the game seems to be running fine!"
Thanks for posting this :)
I can't download this game via the itch.io app. I've posted a message on the app development page. but thought I'd also mention it here, in case its something you need to do to fix. The original Headliner game downloads fine via the app.
Yeah you click install and you get redirected to the store page to buy it. :/
Same here. It's like they didn't set up the JSON properly on the download links, and the installer saying "open page" to go buy it is a slap in the face.
Note: you can download it from the bundle download page just fine. There is a link at the top of the page "You own this game", and a download button.
I just assigned platforms to the files, maybe that fixed it? Can you let me know?
Yes, that fixed it. Thanks!
I was thinking about playing this for a while, and now I feels so wrong to buy it with bunble. I should buy it full price instead.
Really great game indeed. And even if I have no such experience as in the game, I can tell that the pressure is real because I work with news agency irl. lol
Sorry for long post (and my English). Keep up the good work!
Thanks for getting it and glad you enjoyed it :) Go get the bundle, we're happy to be part of it! If you super want to support us you can still buy it later (or on Steam) but do not feel bad about it either way!
Hello! I can't play the game on linux: it starts, I hear a music and the screen turns to a pulsating white-blue, and nothing happens.
There is a known issue with Unity on certain versions of Ubuntu. Check out this Steam Thread for some potential fixes!
Enjoyed playing over and over again!
Do you have something to unzip the 7z file with? Preferably 7zip itself.
.7z files work as containers for multiple files. Simply extract the included files by using a program like https://www.7-zip.org/download.html into a folder on your hard drive and run the .exe file. :)
Thank you!!
I now re-uploaded them as regular ZIP to make it easier for people to unzip it :)
oops thanks for pointing it out!
I just bought your game here but would it be possible to get a patch in French?
It's now updated to include French :)
I'm having trouble opening the mac version. I downloaded and was able to extract the 7z file, but when I click on the icon it just says "The application “HeadlinerNoviNews” can’t be opened." Any advice?
Hey Adam, sorry about the problem, that is the first time we're getting a report of this I believe. Does it give you any other errors? Does it say anything if you try to open it via terminal/command line?
Also, what Mac version do you have?
I'm also having this problem, Terminal returns:
LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed for the application /Applications/HeadlinerNoviNews.app with error -10810.
10.12.6
I'm having the same error on OS X version 10.13.6.
I am also having issues with this. I'm on 10.14.6
Sorry about the issues everyone, we'll work on updating the Itch version soon and let everyone know.
OK we uploaded a new build, can you guys give it a go and let us know if it works?
New build works. Thank you!!
Edit: Adjusted some settings after the update, and the game ran like a dream! This is fantastic, and so much more than I expected going in. If you're at all interested in the role of the press, this game is thought provoking and surprisingly deep. Give it a shot, I stayed up until 4 in the morning with this, and am looking forward to replaying it to explore more story options!
I downloaded the new build and I am still experiencing the same issue, with the message: "The application "HeadlinerNoviNews" can't be opened."
I'm on OSX version 10.15.4!
This new build gives me the same error message on OSX 10.15.5
Im having the same issue on OS 10.14.6
Sorry about the issues everyone, we'll work on updating the Itch version soon and let everyone know.
It might be a problem with your security settings and using non-apple store apps. If you go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and allow the app manually it should run. I'm still on High Sierra so not sure if this will work for a more recent OS.
Thanks for sharing the tip!
Ack I really want to try this but as I launch it on Linux I only get a cool song and a light blue "flashing" screen. Any clue why this would happen?
Hmm we saw this issue on certain linux distros. Can you check outthis Steam Thread that has some potential fixes?
I will give it a shot! works fine on windows though :D
Bugged for me. The game seems to think left/a-button is always pressed. If I try to change game volume, the sliders keep going toward 0 and when playing, the character is constantly running toward the left. This doesn't happen in other games/programs, including the other Headliner game.
Hmm that's odd. Do you have a controller plugged in by any chance? Can you try unplugging it and let us know if it's any better?
I have no controllers connected. I have restarted the computer and tried installing through both Steam and Itch, same problem.
That's really weird, sorry you are experiencing the problem :< Hmm, can you try unplugging your keyboard and see if still does that? No idea what would even cause that issue. We only had maybe 1-2 people report something similar and it turned out to be the controller causing the issues. What OS you are using?
EDIT: Also feel free to request a refund if you don't want to troublehsoot, no hard feelings and sorry again :/
Does the same thing, even with the keyboard unplugged. Every USB thing I have plugged in: mouse, keyboard, my monitor's USB hub (which has a charging cable for my headset connected), receiver for headset and charger for headphones.
That and 2 monitors (one HDMI, one DVI) and network is everything I have.
Dang that's really odd, only time we ever seen that was an issue with a controller being plugged in. What OS are you using?
crazy. this looks cool and the closest game i've seen to an idea i had.
Haha oh yeah? What's different in your idea?