My new surprise obsession: A game about running a 1930s newspaper

In News Tower, I published lies for the mob, then printed a blank front page to impress an artist. Review: I had an amazing time.

My glorious news tower. Never mind the protestor temporarily blocking my reporters from entering and filing. Screenshot: Sparrow Night, captured by Game File.

I have never saved the world, nor been forced to choose whether to do so.

I’ve never played an ocarina to go back in time. Not once has anyone asked me if an empty lot down the street should be zoned for residential, industrial or commercial.

I’ve never had to pause, when speaking to someone, to think about whether I’m more of a paragon or a renegade.

I also have never published a newspaper in New York City in the 1930s, the subject of the marvelous, intricate new PC/Mac strategy game News Tower. But, of the hundreds (thousands?) of video games I’ve played in my life, this may be the one to which I can most closely relate.

And rarely have I played any game that has more masterfully mined untapped source material as News Tower has done. It’s a refreshing new release from the tiny Dutch first-time development team Sparrow Night.

Divert your eyes, for a moment, from the familiar challenges found in video games.

Put a pause on all that world-saving, that city-planning and those adventures through the galaxy. Take a break from the chance to control ninjas, NFL players, special forces soldiers, and stylishly dressed people who fight monsters one turn at a time.

Instead, give some attention to a video game about every journalist’s favorite topic: themselves.

No, seriously, this game is incredible.

News Tower is all about the excitement and stress of assembling one newspaper a week for readers across New York and New Jersey in the era of Prohibition, The Dust Bowl, and the rise of Hitler.

Play it, and share with me the pressure of deciding just what kind of news to publish to attract new subscribers.

What should we print? What do the people want? More articles about crime? More sports? Deeper investigative pieces? Social interest stories?

Are we too dry? Should we publish more sensational stuff?

What about photos? Maps? What about charts? Should we put some energy into making some graphics with lines that go this way and that? (Longtime Game File readers can guess what I decided about that one.)

Oh, would you like to get serious and role-play real journalism?

Take a deep breath and assign a reporter to an important story that is likely to attract a lawsuit. Hope you’re ready for what comes next.

In News Tower, players can vicariously weigh the trade-offs between saving room for another article in the week’s paper or filling that space with a more lucrative ad.

Players can consider hiring faster reporters or more thorough ones, or hiring an editor instead who will iron out flaws in a reporter’s copy. Warning: all that editing will lengthen a story’s production time, which you can hardly spare.

In News Tower, you do all of this, and it’s captivating: a complex system of systems, about managing time and, if it matters to you, telling the public the truth. Steam says I’ve played this game for more than 37 hours in the past two weeks. I’m enthralled.

I was even more impressed once I spoke to the people who made it.