Candidate match game

Finally.

Today, months after coming up with the idea, we launched our candidate match game. This project has been a tough one. Not in a bad way, mind you. No, it’s just been a ton of work.

This graphic is a "game" in which users see how presidential candidates align with their views. To play, users answer 11 questions. With each answer, candidates who also share that view rise in the graphic. By the end, one can see how all 17 Republican and Democratic candidates compare. By weighing the issues, users can and watch how that changes the results. Roll over the answers to see candidates' positions and our sourcing.

We came up with the concept for this game back in April. By May, we had a rough wireframe (at right) of how the game would work. The original concept called for three questions on the four issues foremost in the minds of Americans. As we researched issues and positions, that concept started to break down. That's because candidates offer differing levels of detail on certain issues. Fred Thompson, for example, has said little about health care.

Researching candidates' positions and gathering the supporting documentation was one big job. Another was programming the graphic itself. The designer, Juan Thomassie, spent at least a month working on the code, making adjustments, adding new features and squashing bugs.

The result, we think, is a fun game that is also informative. We hope you like it. Try it out and then pass it along to your friends.