For decades, satirical publication The Onion has been the leading voice for razor-sharp political comedy. Now, at a time when the site feels like it's reaching an unhinged peak, it can add another accomplishment to its résumé: video game developer. After releasing The Onion Voting Simulator 3D on its website earlier this month, The Onion’s first-ever game is now available for free on Steam.
The short, lo-fi game draws inspiration from PC classics like Chex Quest to gleefully lampoon American democracy (and The Onion’s former owners) just in time for the midterm elections on Nov. 3. Ahead of its Steam launch, The Onion head writer Mike Gillis explained where the game came from and what unique opportunities the publication sees for satire in gaming. It may not be, shall we say, the most polished game, but it does represent an era of creative freedom for a rejuvenated gaggle of satirists.
Despite being best known for its political comedy, The Onion has long flirted with gaming as a target. In 2019, for instance, it launched Onion Gamers Network (or OGN, for short), to take aim at the weird world of gaming. That gave us gems like “Bad News For Gamers: OGN Has Learned Ocarinas Are Real And They Fucking Suck.” But the idea for The Onion to actually make a game came about two and a half years ago, after the site was sold by its former owner, the now-dead G/O Media under its CEO Jim Spanfeller.
So I just went off on a weekend and was like, what would an Onion video game look like?” A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later. Gillis had been experimenting with game engine Godot alongside a collective of developers in Chicago, and decided to put that to use to create a prototype for a short 3D “voting simulator.” The Onion’s management thought it was “fucking awesome,” but there was just one tiny thing in the way of making it a reality.
You may remember it if you were conscious in 2024. So, it was this thing that the staff was excited about, but it felt like it made more sense in the midterms.” You're between a rock and a hard place in modern American democracy. 2026 felt like a better time to lampoon the whole rigmarole of voting. The Onion Voting Simulator 3D simply throws you into a middle-school gym and tasks you with voting.
Well, except for all the hoops you have to double jump through to get there. There’s a long line to wait in, various forms of ID you need to wrangle to prove your American purity, and a hellworld beneath the floorboards where G/O Media burns. (“It's so strange that that's the foundation of the rot that all of the horrors of the modern world subsist upon!” Gillis said. While it’s all built on some absurd cynicism, the intent wasn’t to suggest that voting doesn’t matter.
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