Six guys spent two years independently producing a strat game that scope-wise ideally would have had 16 – the day of release, we made ourselves available on the board to discuss the game (something we’ve continued to do every day since then), something we specifically wanted to do, counter to the common gaming press model of no-devs, no answers.

And yes, we stood up to the guy that came through the door within hours and started peeing on the furniture – it was regrettable, but if we were going to make ourselves accessible, we had to be firm – discussion was wide open, but “you guys suck and I can say that as much as I want” was out. Nobody can take that day in and day out. That’s why you don’t often get devs on messageboards. Nobody wants to put up with that kind of hassle.

So, yes, we killed and ate the first self-important jerk to show up. It was self-defense, yer honor. And we’ve listened to everybody else since then – sometimes we explain why things are the way they are and we will be standing by our design choices. Often it has resulted in updates that not only contain bug fixes, but requested features, and extra content.

I totally get it if a few people will avoid SotS because we wouldn’t, couldn’t eat every shovelful tossed at us – standing on the principle of gamers should be heard is one we understand, since it’s the same principle we based our decision to be available to hear from gamers in the first place, instead of standing apart and letting PR flaks handle things – but, if that’s the way things have to be, then, best of luck.

As for buying it, if you’re curious, you don’t have to – the new demo allows up to 3 people in multiplayer, using 3 of the 5 races. It’s a big, healthful chunk of the full game. PLUS it has Paul’s vids, so the learning curve is that much milder. Thanks Paul – you did us a real solid, letting us build your tutorial vids into the game/demo.

Apologies to Alex – I don’t normally soapbox (that’s what our board is for, after all – nyuk!), but I appreciate the nod and letting me chime in. Nice demo article btw – it got me thinking back to our first demo. We learned some hard lessons on that one.

@Paul: Since I’m in the same position as Stromko (flamed by head developer once demo came out), I’m also going to have to vote, “My money is better spent elsewhere.”

-Bob the Tomato a.k.a. the guy who’s refusing to purchase games from pricks.

@Stromko: a lot of the changes in the past almost 2 years since the original release have been driven by user and review comments. The demo is free and you can easily tell if the game works for you no matter what you think of the people who made it.

-Paul a.k.a. the guy who made the tutorial vids

I saw someone else already made the same suggestion, and was flamed by the head dev for his gall. Well, wtf. I don’t have high hopes for Kerberos when they treat honest and earnest suggestions to make their games better, as attacks on their personal character.

Seems like a really nice game.