Quick fyi, Lucas Pope (the Paper’s Please guy) actually made a game before that called the Republia Times (http://dukope.com/play.php?g=trt) that seems pretty similar to the Westport Independent, though I imagine the latter will end up having a bit more depth and content.

Yes, a Lucas Pope influence, but not from his seminal Papers, please, but from his earlier free flash game work (which itself inspired the more complete commercial Papers) - The Republia times