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Here Comes The Summer: Venture Arctic Free

Written by Kieron Gillen on December 30, 2008 at 11:52 am.

It's a bit of a moose.

At least, if you act quickly. As Pags mentioned in a comment thread, the management game which won gametunnel’s Sim of the year in 2007 is available for free until the new year. Simply download Venture Arctic, select the Buy Now option and enter the code they mention in the blog. It’s basically an environment management game, based around trying to create a coherent ecostructure – which was one bit of Spore I actually really liked, though this is far, far more developed than what Maxis did. You’ll find a video trailer beneath the cut, along with one of the developers talking on a news show. Personally, I’d download it and unlock it just on principle. But do it swiftly! Thaw-cometh.
The teaser…

On the visual-watching-machine…

(Actually, I suspect that this will relock come January 1st, but it’s still a lot of free play before then)

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Tags: demo, free, indie, Pocketwatch Games, Venture Arctic

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Pags says:

I still haven’t actually played this yet. I just love free things.

December 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Naurgul says:

I downloaded it a few days ago (Wow, I’ve come to the point that I’m faster than RPS to find freebies?!). Haven’t gotten around to trying it but I eventually will.

December 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Mathieu says:

This game should get a lot more love from players and editors. It’s pure indie and it’s made with love and wisdom.

December 30th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

caesarbear says:

Eh, I really enjoy games where I learn something, but I’m not getting much from this one. There’s just not enough factual information about an arctic ecology in this game. It spends too much time trying to be cute and “fun”, that it just isn’t interesting. It’s too complicated for little kids, and too boring for adults.

December 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

Pink Cigarette says:

I’ve played this for about five or six hours so far, over a couple of days, and I really like it. Contrary to caesarbear’s opinion, I have actually learned a few things about Arctic and sea life that I hadn’t picked up from the Discovery channel.

Anyway, regardless of the educational content, it’s actually quite good fun trying to juggle everything. Plus it has Puffins. PUFFINS. And when they die, they go all Sims stinky and float away on the ocean currents. Haha. I hear there are lemmings in here too at a later level…

December 30th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

Tei says:

I must download it. If only, to replace all textures by matrix scrolling text ones, and pretending I am growing my own “Dark Crystal City” virus cyberfactory.

December 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

Hmm-hmm. says:

I’m not much of a sims-person, but I liked this when I tried the demo (althugh I believe I failed majorly). Thanks for the heads-up.

December 30th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

Dizet Sma says:

Downloaded and installed, but kept getting some type of hardware ‘Guru Meditation’ message on startup.

December 30th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

DuBBle says:

There’s a good chance I’m just being an idiot but I can’t find the download link anywhere, unless I’m supposed to be activating the demo? It didn’t come in the email after I made my ‘order’ :(

December 31st, 2008 at 1:48 pm

Andy says:

yes DuBBle you are supposed to activate the demo :)

December 31st, 2008 at 2:48 pm

DuBBle says:

Thanks Andy. You answered my question so gently I hardly felt like an idiot at all :)

December 31st, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Andy Schatz says:

This is Andy Schatz, the creator of the game. The demo will not relock, it is really free. I’m just glad people are finally playing! It’s been a struggle to get people to try it out… people assume just because it’s about a supposedly “educational” topic, that it’s not fun. I don’t watch Planet Earth to educate myself; I watch it because it’s freakin cool. :)

December 31st, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Kieron Gillen says: