By Kieron Gillen on June 15th, 2010 at 11:00 am.

The previously covered Dogfighter has launched on Steam for last night, at 25% off until June 21st. That means you can have it for nine – count ‘em! – pounds. I bring it to your attention mainly as everyone who got into the beta will be able to play the game until Wednesday, so you can see how the game ended up and see if you want to buy it. It’s like a very exclusive demo or something. Also, as a note to RPS subscribers – there’s still a few beta codes left in that Subscriber-codes site I mailed out prior to the main distribution, so if you fancy seeing the finished game, you can go there and grab one (if you haven’t already (Because if you try and grab another one it won’t work. And that’s very greedy anyway)). Er… that’s enough parenthesis. Here’s the trailer?
Yes, there’s the trailer.


Looks fun. *mhm*
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Guys, just to clarify on why we did this. We really appreciate the help that we got from our beta testers and wanted to express that by giving them some time with the full product, even if they decide ultimately not to support by buying the game :).
The current people in beta aren’t actually able to buy the game until we take back the access (yes for the first possible time in history a developer is not letting you pay just yet?!?!?!)
Several of the suggestions that made it into the full version of game originated RIGHT here in this lovely comments section (albeit another article)
We plan on supporting the game with
#1 Dedicated Servers
#2 More controller options
+ other things including new content.
The decisions are being made based on community demand.
Feel free to get invovled even from a community aspect, our staff are really really easy to get in touch with.
PS. If you are a games writer type and want to cover this game.. send me a mail!
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excellent stuff, I’ve just got myself an xbox controller specifically to play this :)
CAPTCHA today: NUKE
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That trailer, the art direction, and the fact that you just appeared in an RPS comment thread have made me very much want to play this game. Is there going to be some sort of demo available? My laptop’s a bit close to the edge of the minimum specs and rather finicky.
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@Sam , unfortunately no demo ready right now. It’s something we were talking about just this morning but not sure what is happening yet. We decided not to do one for launch as we were literally working up to the last day.
If you are one of the RPS subscribers, there are some keys left which is valid for a few days.
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@Noxy: completely understandable. I think I’ll just go ahead and buy it anyway. Too difficult to resist.
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If there’s a bit where you get to duct-tape hamsters to chickens I will buy the game straight away!
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Cool that they’d give beta testers a taste of the final game, although I’m not sure it’s something I’d buy. Too much endlessly flying in loops to catch people I figure.
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Thanks for the tip, Kieron! I very seldom look at the Steam store so these things tend to pass me by if someone doesn’t point them out. Purchased.
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This game looks quite fun. I’ve always been craving a Arcade Style 1920-40′s airplane mutliplayer experience just because the vertical dimension in “competitive” play is quite interesting. My <3 is out to you Indie guys, always looking out for untapped markets!
Noxy, enjoy the hooker's n' blow courtesy of my 9.99$ :) j/k, you need to move more units than that to afford a good night!
CAPTCHA: u2fu
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12.47 $ usd well spent. Still, a great deal! Oh, just so you know Noxy, if you had never showed up on this RPS message string, I would still be on the fence about purchasing this game. On the fence until the deal had ended and I would have let that decide it for me.
When Indie developers come on to chat, even for a few messages, it inspires confidence in me (perhaps others) that the people who made this game care about the player base enough to get out there and talk with potential players. I’m glad when developers like you treat us not as customers but as players who have a voice. Just wanting to say thanks, BROSKI
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I wonder, have the controls been improved? I was in the beta and *man* were they shitty. This was playing with a keyboard and mouse, I find using a controller on a pc game rather… insulting.
Anyhow, how are they doing on that regard? The game was otherwise quite fun.
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Tempted by this, especially as I recently bought a 360 controller – what’s the general consensus on the game then?
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Excellent fun but a very steep learning curve
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Steep? THis is about as shallow a curve as you can get – oh it might take you time to get good agsint other -human- players…
But you’ll be tuning down bots in the single player challenges within 30 seconds of your first load.
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gunning down… bleh – wireless keyboard fail combined with finger typing fail = fail.
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Urgh… not in my experience, but maybe I just suck. I love the game but I find the plane controls so hard.
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My Logitech gamepad doesn’t work with this game… This is one of those dogmatic GFWL-esq Xbox 360 or Keyboard ONLY. Really lame, and it sucks that I have to start up a 3rd party program in addition to this game just to play on it. Would be lovely to get actual gamepad support, just sayin.
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I enjoyed the limited time I put into the beta but will not purchase until after there is support for more controllers.
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I’ve been playing the beta mouse and keyboard and got on alright with it. It’s more fun when you get to grips with the advanced flight mode and can swoop more. The auto-levelling makes it easy but no so much like flying. Admittedly, if you’re a serious flight-sim kinda person then you might not be into plane-mounted shotguns.
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The controls are still horrible. You really can’t play this with a mouse and keyboard. Maybe with a trackball…
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This is a great little game and easily worth a tenner…
If you have a 360 controller (or a gamepad that can emulate it) – mouse and keyboard is always going to suck for a biplane arcade shooter.
I know we all love our M&K but come on guys some games just suck with a mouse and nothing is ever going to change that – complaining about bad M&K controls in this game is like complaining about bad M&K controls in Devil may cry, or Street fighter 4.
The game Devs have said they’ll add support for other controllers, but honestly by this point every PC gamer should really have a 360 controller – it’s been the default PC controller for at least 4 years now.
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Nah, totally disagree. I don’t know anyone who uses a 360 controller with a PC.
The developer should change the controls so they work fine for a M&K, simple.
Tried game, hated controls, uninstalled, move on.
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Really great game!
Looking forward to more controller options but I seem to be doing fine with keyboard and mouse.
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Um, plenty of people use a 360 controller on PC games, deal with it. It sucks that you can’t invert the controls, I want to play how I want to play when i spend my money on something. Oh well, to Snoopy Flying Ace on the 360 I shall go
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==CONTROLS:
i dont understand all the crosstalk. the controls are simple and easy. its straight QUAKE controls. and they can be toggled any way you want.
==360 controller:
its been out for ages and its the standard pc controller. everyone supports its and so does dogfighter. good job darkwater devs! now ive got a thrustmaster and a sidewinder and love using them but less and less games are supporting them so it may be that I retire them. the 360 controller is a lot better anyway in my opinion.
==gameplay:
its great. real fusion of mario cart racing and quake deathmatch. lots of options when setting up a server lots of game modes and weapons reminds me of 007 goldeneye for the n64 in that regard.
overall its a really unique gameplay experience. i think the only people who are complaing are the people who expected it to be a WW2 simulator. but the darkwater guys and gals make it clear on the sales page that THIS IS NOT A SIMULATOR. so sim-fans need to rtfm.
==overall
a really good game lots of potential beautifully-crafted planes and levels. cool indie development studio very good at listening to feature requests and getting them out to the players (for free!) fast. I read a few days ago that joystick (yes! thrustmaster shall thrust one more!!!) and dedicated servers are coming in the next month.
after playing dogfighter, snoopy feels either too slow or too kiddy. and hawx just feels like a boring flight sim.
its hard to describe how much this game has changed my gameplaying taste for the better. its like tf2 and carmagedo and burnout and quake and diddy kong racing. it just works.
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that was a really nice comment mate thanks.
Since your post we HAVE joystick support and the dedicated servers are being tested today.
Fingers crossed chaps!
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