By Jim Rossignol on May 30th, 2011 at 9:26 am.
Vic Davis, he of Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum fame, has revealed that his latest game, a strategic cowboy cardgame called Six Gun Saga, is now available to folks who want to get in on the whole pre-order for early access sort of deal. We’ve just got our hands on the game and – as Kieron was quick to point out – it’s one of those games where we’re going to need to take our time. We even need to read the manual. Anyway, expect some more thoughts on it soon, and in the meantime trip back into the recent past to find Vic explaining the game for us.
30/05/2011 at 09:39 Meat Circus says:
I’ve always admired the way Vic’s games could embed themselves in your brain and colonise organelles you didn’t have. It was always a shame I couldn’t get to play anything as like as much multiplayer Solium Infernum as I’d liked.
Anyway, pre-order GET.
30/05/2011 at 12:52 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
I bought Solium Infernum, but then never played it with other people. Trying to find other players was hard enough, but that I’d have to manually email save files around was too much.
30/05/2011 at 14:43 adonf says:
I’ve been waiting to have my chloroplasts colonised for a long time, thanks for the heads up.
30/05/2011 at 15:31 Rinox says:
@ Velvetfistironglove
Dropbox is ideal for getting around that problem. Works like a charm. :-)
30/05/2011 at 18:35 deanimate says:
I’m intrigued about this game after having played Solium Infernum although I wish it was multiplayer. I’m still playing SI since release and still come across bits that I did not fully understand. It’s so much fun! Obviously I’m talking about playing against other people. To play this game against the AI is a crime to how much fun you can have vs opponents with a brain.
My last game for example; I was maxed out in attributes and higher than 6 in some. 14 in charisma I believe and 10 in destruction. My opponents were nowhere near this, especially after I dropped 4 machines on them (I was also in possession of the Bowl of Abject Darkness so no worries about retaliation machines). 9 legions under my command meant I was laughing….until a disaster struck.
Some git had their own legion upgraded to 5 move points and also had it armed with the orb of oblivion. No problem I thought, if they take out one of my legions I have loads left (I was excommed at this time). They didn’t take out my legion. They attacked pandemonium…and blew it up. Removed from the map, gone…there no more. I thought it was a bug but the orb can actually do that. Oh and then the bastard played the Writ of Rescindment so I wasn’t excommunicated any more and so couldn’t even try and destroy the highest prestige players before the token struck 20/20. David vs Goliath moment that.
Bloody love it :D
If anyone is looking for a game then get onto crypticcomet forums and create a post. It does look quite dead but if you say you want a game you find people will respond pretty quickly. Finally, everyone uses dropbox these days which is a hell of a lot easier than email so that’s no excuse for not playing.
30/05/2011 at 09:48 Kieron Gillen says:
You’ll find the manual in the install folder. You will need to read it.
KG
30/05/2011 at 10:02 Schaulustiger says:
…and there was much rejoicing!
I actually found myself to be printing out user-made manuals for some of the Paradox games lately (especially Victoria I) and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. There’s probably a lot of nostalgia involved, but a well-made manual is something I truly appreciate and I have no problem with a game that drops its tutorial for a manual.
Now Vic just needs to let go of Macromedia Director and he’ll be a true king amongst strategy developers.
30/05/2011 at 11:35 Man Raised by Puffins says:
And it is also here: http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/SGS/SGS_manual.pdf
30/05/2011 at 15:32 Rinox says:
I was equally happy at there being a substantial manual to the Witcher 2. No time wasted on a (real) tutorial equals more game. :-)
30/05/2011 at 10:52 Olero says:
Ah, what the heck, pre-order it is… I’m a sucker for card games, poker and the outlaws setting, so I don’t really have any arguments why I shouldn’t buy this game anyway.
30/05/2011 at 11:41 sendmark says:
SI was beautiful, wish this was multiplayer though – or some clever bod could help him make it multiplayer.
30/05/2011 at 12:00 Hematite says:
Further curiosity can be sated by downloading the manual from the ‘has revealed’ link.
30/05/2011 at 12:39 Kieron Gillen says:
Just have five or so games, and it’s a very elegant Vic design again.
KG
30/05/2011 at 12:47 Mr_Hands says:
I spent a stupendous amount of time on this game over the weekend, and, yes: very elegant. Probably his “friendliest” game yet. As with AE and SI, a strong sense that this was a labour of love.
30/05/2011 at 16:54 Janek says:
Mmm, although I think it lacks the finely-balanced elegance of Solium Infernum, simply due to the smaller scope. I find it very reminiscent of Race For The Galaxy. Except with cowboys.
Shame there’s no MP. Or a physical card version for that matter.
Hopefully it’ll pick up enough sales for Vic to plough on with the SI expansion (though last I heard it was on indefinite hold)
30/05/2011 at 12:50 Shazbut says:
Does nobody remember Doomtown? Does nobody own the rights to Doomtown? Does nobody care except me?
30/05/2011 at 16:44 Alphabet says:
After you – I guess it was you – posted on the last write up on this, I looked it up. It looks awesome, and yes, at first glance, its relationship with this game does seem more than slightly coincidental…
30/05/2011 at 19:35 Shazbut says:
That’s nice to know. I’m all for a computer version of Doomtown, by the way. It just annoys me that he hasn’t acknowledged it anywhere, especially because it appears to be exactly the same damn game. He’s even kept all the names the same.
Really don’t think he should be allowed to get away with this.
30/05/2011 at 21:31 Matzerath says:
Wizards of the Coast isn’t exactly a small, helpless indie company. If they have a problem with Vic’s game, I’m sure they’ll let him know.
EDIT: Checking the Doomtown wikipedia page, it seems to be owned by AEG, who have been sitting on it for a while. It is basically defunct. While there do seem to be similarities between Vic’s game and Doomtown, Doomtown appears to be a lot more in depth by design, with a persistent story that progressed to a climax. Also, magic spells and zombies.
The main problem is that if you’re making a wild west themed game, you pretty much have to call dudes dudes, outlaws outlaws, deeds deeds, and if you get killed you’re gonna go to boot hill. And nobody holds a copyright on the game of poker.
30/05/2011 at 21:57 Bullwinkle says:
They’re not the same game at all.
30/05/2011 at 12:57 Ian says:
I suspect this will follow my usual path with Davis’ games.
Stage 1: General disinterest. “Interesting but not for me”, I’ll think.
Stage 2: I’ll read the WIT.
Stage: Buy,
30/05/2011 at 15:06 Meat Circus says:
Stage 4: Vow never to read an RPS opinion again. It’s too damn expensive…
30/05/2011 at 16:07 Ian says:
Stage 5: Continue to read RPS opinions anyway and continue to basically buy whatever quirky thing I read about like I am a MERE PUPPET.
30/05/2011 at 17:27 Mr_Hands says:
@Meat Circus: It’s 11.99. Agreed that SI and AE were definitely pretty steep for what was (initially) a novelty buy on my part, but after finally grokking the basic mechanics, they quickly slid into regular rotation for me. And, yeah, seeing the price for SGS, it was a no-brainer for me.
30/05/2011 at 21:03 Meat Circus says:
I didn’t mean the game is expensive (I think Vic’s games are worth every penny), I meant that reading RPS is expensive.
So much shiny.
30/05/2011 at 15:08 mwoody says:
It’s still a damn shame that this is written in Director, making it limited to 1024×768 windowed and incurring other limitations as a result. But at least the price is more sane than his other work. I’ll probably end up picking it up.
30/05/2011 at 21:07 Meat Circus says:
It would be nice if Vic one day makes enough money that he can afford to hire a developer, so he can focus on matters of game design.
It’s clear his genius lies in finding mind-expanding mechanics and their ensuing dynamics, and a proper (i.e. not using Director) developer would free him up to do that.
30/05/2011 at 15:09 Elmokki says:
Vic’s games have been cool, but no multiplayer is a really bad thing especially since this concept seems like a game that might actually work even as a boardgame with minimal adjustments – unlike his earlier games.
Under 9 euros isn’t a bad price for an hour or two of fun and this game could probably provide more than that even without multiplayer, but I believe that as much as I love the art and the general feel in Vic’s games, I’d get more joy out from for example Terraria.
It’s a huge shame. Vic should really get in touch with someone who can help him make his games multiplayer. It’s a huge stupidity when the games themselves are clearly designed in a boardgame or a cardgame format which revolves around multiple players and they just have AI instead of potential human players. Well, SI had multiplayer and it was surprisingly brilliant in all it’s simplicity.
And honestly, I haven’t tried Director, but I doubt it’d be that awful to write the games in C# or Java or something relatively simple (and not to say: free with a decent IDE) like that.
30/05/2011 at 15:22 Kieron Gillen says:
I didn’t realise that it was $11.99, which skews it even more favourably. I’ve been playing it all day. It’s definitely worth it for that.
KG
31/05/2011 at 11:00 Baboonanza says:
What Solium Inferno (and to a lesser extent AE) needs is a web version. It wouldn’t even be that difficult to do I suspect.
30/05/2011 at 16:17 smokingkipper says:
Instant purchase.
30/05/2011 at 20:33 Severian says:
Agreed. Vic has earned enough cred with his prior two releases, that I know I’m guaranteed a creative brain-burner like nothing else on the market.
30/05/2011 at 17:39 Vinraith says:
I’m glad to see Vic back to making non-MP games. Awesome as Solium Infernum was in concept, actually organizing a game of it was next to impossible, and the AI simply wasn’t capable of playing it. A really great game I can never play isn’t worth much to me, plain and simple.
A single player game with a solid AI, on the other hand, is a beautiful and valuable thing.
30/05/2011 at 18:07 illway says:
Dammit RPS, making me spend all of my money! Frozen Synapse and now a new Vic game!
Now I could never get into AE but I love Solium Infernum. My only issue was that the AI wasn’t aggressive enough. How is the AI so far in his new game?
30/05/2011 at 20:54 illway says:
So I caved and bought it. Is there anyway to get this to run in full-screen? It seems to automatically run in windowed mode, and the top and bottom of the game are cut off for me (I have a 1366×768 display).
30/05/2011 at 21:55 Bullwinkle says:
No, it’s windowed only, unfortunately. Can you resize your display to a bigger height?
30/05/2011 at 21:58 illway says:
Sadly, no. 768 is as high as she gets =\ I saw that Vic will be doing a fullscreen patch after the actual release, so I suppose I’ll have to wait.
30/05/2011 at 23:19 Cronstintein says:
I didn’t like his space game very much but Armageddon Empires + expansion was amazing.
I love the western theme and card games in general so… BUY!
30/05/2011 at 23:32 Vinraith says:
Space game?
30/05/2011 at 23:55 PleasingFungus says:
Vic Davis has published three games: Armageddon Empires (post-apocalyptic), Solium Infernum (Hell), and this.
No space games.
31/05/2011 at 00:03 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
Maybe you made a connection to Neptune’s Pride.
31/05/2011 at 00:51 Fuxalodapus says:
…or AI War whom RPS also likes to
advertise forgive nods to.Hope the computer can play as a decent opponent with this one.
31/05/2011 at 01:00 Cronstintein says:
Argh I wish I could pull up the name but I haven’t played it in a long time. I guess it was a different programmer but that really surprises me because it’s similar in many ways. (cards, victory points, very similar engine, similar complexity, etc…)
31/05/2011 at 01:09 Bullwinkle says:
Do you mean Race for the Galaxy? Vic himself has mentioned it as a game similar to SGS.
31/05/2011 at 01:31 Fuxalodapus says:
Dominion?
Deadlands Doomtown?
31/05/2011 at 05:19 mwoody says:
He probably means Race for the Galaxy, yeah. Totally different guy. I like Vic’s games better, the game engine worse.
Race for the Galaxy, played against a silent AI, has a big problem with just “whoops, you randomly lose” happening, a result of there being so much luck involved and so many ways to win. I can’t count the number of times I’ll think I’m doing well when, without me even noticed, the AI has generated an astronomical number of points and just wins regardless.
31/05/2011 at 18:12 flagg49 says:
Yeah, it’s quite similar in some aspects. I suspect Race is a deeper game, but it’s hard to tell when all you can play SGS (which I like a lot!) against is the AI. Race has a good online implementation; I wish Vic would do one for SGS!