--- title: "Boom and Bust: A Minister's Dilemma | Economic Strategy" canonical_url: https://www.ministersdilemma.com/ inLanguage: en last_updated: 2026-11-12 --- A macroeconomic strategy game # Boom and Bust: A Minister's Dilemma The old government has fallen. The Korzar is losing value by the hour, three banks are hiding losses large enough to take the rest of the system with them, and the provisional government has just handed you powers **no finance minister has ever held here**. [Wishlist on Epic Games](https://store.epicgames.com/p/boom-and-bust-a-ministers-dilemma-f5cfeb) [See the desk](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/#desk) Wishlisting is now open on Epic Games. [Wishlist details](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/#interest). Solo campaign · 2–10 player multiplayer Windows PC · In development Provisional Government, Personnel File 001 ## Instrument of Appointment Under the Emergency Economic Administration Act, the bearer is granted direct authority over taxation and customs, public expenditure and salaries, sovereign borrowing, banking regulation and emergency liquidity, foreign exchange and reserves, the restructuring of state enterprises, capital controls, and all economic negotiation with foreign governments. The President may dismiss the bearer. Parliament may investigate the bearer. The courts may, in theory, restrain the bearer. In practice there is no one else left in the building. ![A rubber stamp reading APPROVE, struck across the letter.](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/stamp-approve.png) ## Screenshots These screenshots come from the English development build. [ ![The ministry desk](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/ministry-file-1280.5d6481589f96.webp) ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/ministry-file.jpg) ### The ministry desk Read the file. Choose a stamp. Live with the decision. 1 / 18 Choose a view below. Select the image to enlarge. [ The ministry desk ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/ministry-file.jpg) [ The budget book ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/budget.jpg) [ The statistical terminal ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/terminal.jpg) [ Inside the minister's office ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/office.jpg) [ Taxation ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/taxation.jpg) [ Monetary policy ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/monetary-policy.jpg) [ The central bank ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/central-bank.jpg) [ Elections and politics ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/elections.jpg) [ An audience at the ministry ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/audience.jpg) [ The journey to work ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/chauffeur.jpg) [ State assets ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/state-assets.jpg) [ Sovereign borrowing ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/bonds.jpg) [ The balance of payments ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/balance-of-payments.jpg) [ The current account ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/current-account.jpg) [ Your first quarter ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/opening-desk.jpg) [ Ministry Square ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/ministry-square.jpg) [ Arrival at the ministry ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/arrival.jpg) [ The ministry doorway ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/gallery/doorway.jpg) Captured from the current development build. Screens and artwork may change before release. ## Trailers [VCESR on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@VCESR/videos) [ ▶ Play story trailer ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qUKAGw28xk) ### Story trailer A republic in crisis, an appointment to the ministry, and the people who live with your decisions. 1:31 [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qUKAGw28xk) [ ▶ Play gameplay trailer ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q8XweLVLXs) ### Gameplay trailer See the desk in motion. Read the papers, write the budget and follow the economy through the terminal. 1:31 [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q8XweLVLXs) [ ▶ Play the original teaser ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsh9oH-xNQ) ### The original teaser This original teaser shows an earlier build and includes an old Steam announcement. You can now wishlist the game on the [Epic Games Store](https://store.epicgames.com/p/boom-and-bust-a-ministers-dilemma-f5cfeb). 0:43 [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsh9oH-xNQ) ## Your appointment ### You left as a child Your family fled during the collapse and settled in Franklin, capital of Columbiana. You studied public finance there and spent your career at the Union Monetary Fund telling other people's governments that their budgets were fictional and their banks were insolvent. ### You volunteered Most qualified expatriates refused. Your colleagues called the decision irrational; senior officials gave the provisional government months. You told the recruitment commission that the country would never be stable if everyone able to rebuild it stayed abroad. ### Then the post arrived The first death threat came before the office had working electricity. A parcel followed containing a single devalued banknote and a rifle cartridge. The Presidential Guard assigned officers to your home. Some of them served the old regime. ## The ministry desk There is no map screen and no city to build. There is a desk, five books, a drawer of stamps, a tray that keeps filling, and a terminal that tells you, only afterwards, what you did. ### Ministerial Notebook ### Monetary Book ### Fiscal Policy Book ### Elections & Accounts ### Briefing & Forecasting ## Ask before you sign. Meet **Menger** (Menger 0.4B), your in-game AI economist. The model was fine-tuned on **134,592 examples generated by the game's own simulation**. Bring a policy question to the Statistical Terminal and get a second opinion grounded in the economy you are governing. **Advice that follows your campaign** Ask yes/no questions about interest rates, tariffs and infrastructure spending, or check economic indicators against your own targets. Menger uses your current campaign conditions and the decisions available to your office. **An economist on your own computer** The bundled advisor runs locally on your PC. Your questions and economic information stay on your computer, with no cloud AI service needed for consultations. [Wishlist on Epic Games](https://store.epicgames.com/p/boom-and-bust-a-ministers-dilemma-f5cfeb) [Explore the HERMETIC economy](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/#model) ### Ask the Economist In-game consultations use English. Try these questions in the advisor. ![The in-game economist in a suit and striped tie](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/menger-economist-96.b024d0eb0505.webp) - Should I increase tariffs to 20%? - Should I raise interest rates? - Is government debt above 60% of GDP? **You make the final call.** Menger offers a yes/no assessment and, where supported, a short explanation. The advisor is in development; its predictions can be wrong. ## Five files a quarter, minimum Each one is somebody's actual problem, costed to the last figure. None of them are wrong to ask. Banking Urgent ### Foreign-currency mortgage book The People's Mortgage Office reports that a third of its book is written in XAU to households paid in Korzars. It requests guidance and, failing that, indemnity. Industry Routine ### Enterprise social assets The combine still runs the town's clinic, nursery and holiday camp. Selling the combine means somebody else must run them, or nobody will. Health Standing ### Maternity ward consolidation Closing four small wards saves a measurable sum and adds forty minutes to the journey for the districts they served. ## The stamps ![Rubber stamp: APPROVE](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/stamp-approve.png) It gets paid for. The money comes from a line you will have to shorten somewhere else. ![Rubber stamp: REJECT](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/stamp-reject.png) The budget holds. The district that asked remembers who refused it, and for how long. ![Rubber stamp: DEFER](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/stamp-defer.png) Next quarter's problem, at next quarter's prices. Some things get cheaper by waiting. Most do not. ![Rubber stamp: CLASSIFY](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/stamp-classify.png) It never reaches the Gazette. It also never stops being true. Or you sign nothing, drop the file in the referral tray, and let the President own the decision. He will notice that you did. ## The statistical terminal Official statistics, market prices, bond yields and staff forecasts. Not the truth, the published version of it. Official Statistical Terminal Quarter 14, Kvatograd Inflation, annualised 41.7 % Policy rate 28.0 % Real GDP growth −2.4 % Prime-age employment 61.2 % Korzars per XAU 214.60 Reserves, months of imports 1.9 Public debt / GDP 88.4 % Presidential confidence 34 / 100 > QUERY: EQUILIBRIUM OUTPUT, NEUTRAL RATE, CAPITAL-FLIGHT PRESSURE > NOT AVAILABLE TO THIS OFFICE ## The HERMETIC economy HERMETIC stands for **Heterogeneous, Expectational, Reconciled, Macro-Economic, Temporal Investment Cycle**. It is three models that have to agree every quarter: agents make decisions, the accounts reconcile, and the projection engine closes output, inflation and the exchange rate. [Explore the HERMETIC Engine at VCESR](https://www.vcesr.com/hermetic-engine) ![HERMETIC Engine logo](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/hermetic-logo-260.4fd1f21eda33.webp) VCESR simulation architecture ### People with their own books Acting households, firms and banks borrow, hire, save, price and default on their own balance sheets. The agent model carries who receives new money, who bears a shock and which failures spread through credit. ### Accounts that cannot disappear A stock-flow-consistent ledger gives every asset a liability and every payment a counterparty. That reconciled economy feeds a quarterly projection model, so credit, demand, prices, jobs, the currency, reserves and debt close together. ### A central bank, not a slider Set the policy rate, work the balance sheet, run auctions, intervene in foreign exchange and manage a sovereign bond book written in Korzar and gold. Credibility determines how far an order travels before it reaches the loans people actually pay. ## In-game educator The **Noscere** demo teaches economics through Korzarkia's fictional economy. Lessons and experiments use the game's economic engine without changing your campaign. ![The in-game economist pointing towards the economics topics](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/in-game-economist.png) The in-game economist - Compare nine schools of economic thought on scarcity, opportunity cost, measurement and causality. - Run interest-rate, spending and supply shocks against a baseline using the same starting conditions. - Inspect assumptions, hidden variables and charts. Results depend on the model and your choices. [Explore Noscere at VCESR](https://www.vcesr.com/vcesr-educator) [ ![The in-game educator's Shock Laboratory, with policy-rate controls, an assumption inspector and charts comparing baseline and shock scenarios](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/educator-shock-laboratory-768.4d41a5a92d5e.webp) ](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/educator-shock-laboratory.png) ## The world atlas Fuel, ports, mines, votes, or simply that you fail publicly enough to prove a point. The world atlas on your desk gives you their statistics. It does not give you their intentions. ![Columbiana flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/columbiana-48.59093b5d789f.webp) Columbiana Investment and military guarantees, tied to reforms you may not survive. ![Volgar flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/volgar-48.ab7c97dbe6d8.webp) Volgar Fuel and protection, in exchange for a say in who governs. ![Luyang flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/luyang-48.7fa71cc02fd6.webp) Luyang Factories and credit, secured against strategic infrastructure. ![Nambeko flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/nambeko-48.f8861f866945.webp) Nambeko The breakaway east: hungry, revolutionary and still claiming reunification. ![Qasran flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/qasran-48.72f6959deb61.webp) Qasran Oil, and the only price on the continent you cannot argue with. ![Selucia flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/selucia-48.0789112f0679.webp) Selucia Merchant fleets that trade with every bloc, and ask no questions. ![Velmora flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/velmora-48.4e22aa2f032f.webp) Velmora Banking cantons. Discreet, and useful to a minister with plans. ![Edrisia flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/edrisia-48.0ee62d2416f3.webp) Edrisia Social democracy, national wage agreements, and a great deal of advice. ![Rovenia flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/rovenia-48.f003d12cfc1f.webp) Rovenia Land, family, continuity, and grain you may badly need. ![A guarded Korzarkian frontier crossing at night](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/frontier-before-dawn-360.4b3b7d653140.webp) From the game · The frontier, before dawn ### The Nambeko frontier Nambeko broke away when the government fell. It still calls itself the revolution, still masses forces beyond the eastern crossings and still depends on Korzarkian grain. Its leaders speak of reunification. Some mean an accord. Some mean a march west. Aid, military spending, migration and foreign guarantees all move the frontier. Hold it and you may inherit a country. Lose it and you may rebuild under somebody else's flag. ## Multiplayer Two to ten players. One country each. Name your republic and its currency, take your own ministry desk, and find out what happens when the minister on the other side of the border is your friend. ### Run your own economy Set your budget, taxes, monetary policy and laws. Each country has its own households, firms, banks and political consequences. Your desk papers are yours to sign, and yours to pay for. ### Deal with the neighbours Trade, negotiate treaties, lend, invest across borders, and set tariffs or sanctions. Shared markets and world shocks connect the decisions made at every desk. ### Close the quarter together Prepare your orders at your own pace. Once every active player locks their decisions, the host settles the shared quarter. Play for up to sixty quarters, then compare the final ledger. Play over a trusted LAN or direct online invites. Epic Online Services lobbies are available in configured builds. Everyone needs the same game version, and the host must keep the match open. The Korzarkian story campaign is a separate solo mode. ## How ministries end - I Kvatograd Hyperinflation: the Korzar ceased functioning as money. - II Sovereign Default: foreign payments stopped, and with them the fuel and the credit. - III Dismissed by the President: your extraordinary authority was revoked. - IV Nambekan Invasion: foreign-backed forces crossed the frontier. - V Repudiated by the Country: no faction would defend the ministry. - VI The Kvatograd Rising: the ministry stopped existing. - VII Military Government: the general staff relieved the civilians. - VIII Government Collapse: the cabinet went down and took you with it. - IX A quiet flight, an account abroad, and a country that does not extradite. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do I need to know economics to play? No. Every order states in plain language what it does, what it costs and who it will annoy, before you sign it. A field guide sits in the desk explaining the quarterly routine and how to read the terminal. Economists will find the model holds up. Everybody else will find that the politics arrives first. ### What is the in-game educator? The educator is a demo of Noscere calibrated to Korzarkia's fictional economy. It combines lessons in economic reasoning, comparisons of nine schools of thought and experiments powered by the game's economic engine. You can compare shocks and policy changes with a baseline and inspect the model's assumptions. Laboratory experiments run separately from your campaign. ### How deep is the economic simulation? The updated HERMETIC engine joins three layers that must agree each quarter: an agent-based model in which households, firms and banks act on their own balance sheets; a stock-flow-consistent ledger in which every claim has a counterpart; and a quarterly projection model that closes output, inflation and the exchange rate. Its central-bank suite includes the policy rate, balance sheet, auctions, foreign-exchange intervention and sovereign debt in Korzar and gold. The player sees published statistics, never the true state. ### How long is a campaign? The solo campaign runs sixty quarters, or fifteen years, with an election every twelve quarters. It can continue beyond that while you hold or regain office. A multiplayer match runs for up to sixty shared quarters and closes with a final ledger. ### Does it have multiplayer? Yes. A separate mode supports two to ten human players, each governing a country and naming its currency. Countries share trade, finance and world shocks. Everyone prepares their own orders, then the host resolves the quarter once all active players have locked their decisions. The Korzarkian story campaign is a separate solo mode. ### How do we connect for multiplayer? Use a trusted local network or a direct online invite. Epic Online Services lobbies are also available in configured builds. All players need the same game version, and the host must keep the game open. Direct online hosting may need router setup. EOS can connect players directly or use Epic's relay service. ### What do I actually do each quarter? Read or delegate the desk files. Check the Gazette, the visitor waiting outside and the election countdown. Set the budget line by line. Spend your three policy orders on tax, labour, housing, banking, trade or business law. Set the policy rate, the banking order and the exchange-rate regime. Read the terminal. Close the quarter and find out. ### Can I delegate the paperwork? You can hire an assistant out of your own salary and give them rules to work by. They are fast, they are cheap, and they will occasionally approve a contract you would have read twice, miss a piece of espionage, or leave a trail an auditor can follow straight back to you. ### Is there a family? There is a spouse, two children, a rent book and a salary that is paid in the currency you are responsible for. They make requests. The game does not treat this as a side quest. ### Where and when can I play it? Windows PC, built in Godot 4. The game is coming soon. You can wishlist it now on the [Epic Games Store](https://store.epicgames.com/p/boom-and-bust-a-ministers-dilemma-f5cfeb) and check the store page for the latest release information. ![The red Korzarkian lion carrying the national flag](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/assets/optimized/lion-standard-48.8c6a8c09c1b2.webp) ## Korzarkia must rise Whether it remembers you as its rescuer, its auctioneer, or its last finance minister is decided behind one office door. [Wishlist on Epic Games](https://store.epicgames.com/p/boom-and-bust-a-ministers-dilemma-f5cfeb) [Read the technical briefing](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/#model) **Our Epic Games Store page is live.** Add the game to your wishlist on Epic's store. ### Wishlist conditions and Epic Games terms Sign in to your Epic Games account, open the game's page and select **Wishlist**. See [Epic's wishlist help](https://www.epicgames.com/help/c-34254770/c-33726977/a20128508?lang=en-US) for instructions. - Wishlisting is free. It does not purchase or pre-order the game, reserve a copy, or guarantee a release date or price. You can remove the game from your wishlist at any time. - An Epic Games account is required. Epic's age requirements and parental controls apply. If you are under the legal age of majority where you live, a parent or legal guardian must consent to the Epic Games Store agreement. - Epic manages your account and wishlist on its own service. This website does not ask for your Epic login or receive your wishlist details. Review the [Epic Games Store End User License Agreement](https://legal.epicgames.com/store/eula), [Epic Games Terms of Service](https://legal.epicgames.com/epicgames/tos) and [Epic Games Privacy Policy](https://legal.epicgames.com/epicgames/privacy-policy) for Epic's full terms and data practices. Our own [website privacy policy](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/website-privacy/) covers this site; the [game privacy policy](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/privacy/) covers the game. ## Related pages - [Game overview](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/) - [Contact VCESR](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/contact/) - [Guide for agents](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/llms.txt) - [Website privacy](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/website-privacy/) - [Game privacy](https://www.ministersdilemma.com/privacy/)