By Adam Smith on October 29th, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
Mr Caldwell introduced the riotous delights of Wildfire Worlds a week ago and now there’s a tech demo available so you can see the unrest simulator in action. The one hitch is that none of the unrest is in place yet: no subversive influences, no catalyst for calamity or change, and no interaction.
The tech demo is a little town doing it’s cute little routine thing, with everything going to plan. The first build will allow you to browse around and watch your subjects going about their business. They are a bit sheep like right now.
Still worth a look. The trailer shows how quickly things will get out of hand once the player has a molotov or two strapped to the cursor.
The devs are looking for feedback, particularly as to how well your PC runs the demo. There’s a thread below the download.
29/10/2012 at 15:03 Qazinsky says:
I must say that I really like the style of the houses and and cars, it gives a cozy feeling for some reason… WHAT JUST HAPPENED, THERE’S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!
29/10/2012 at 16:03 PostieDoc says:
NEE NAW NEE NAW
WOOooOOoo Wibble Wibble Wibble WooOOooOO
29/10/2012 at 19:38 Spengbab says:
Not sure if riot or dubstep
29/10/2012 at 19:39 Astroman says:
I love it before the blood. Almost completely lost interest after.
29/10/2012 at 15:14 Cooper says:
The modelling of crowds during protest and riot has been a core compenent of control and coercion.
Driving decisions on control, management and policing based upon abstracted bird’s-eye-(or more aptly helicopter; news or police) thinking and vision leads to the kind of decisions that lead to injury and death.
Whilst I’m not going to suggest Wildfire games’ simulation is going to be used in this way, it does replicate that distanced viewpoint. The viewpoint of the news reporters and the police commanders giving orders that distanciates decisions and opinions from personal reality. The viewpoint that leads to the riots being dismissed by the media and its viewers as “purely criminal”, and the viewpoint that leads to crowd control strategies such as kettling.
Sure, this viewpoint and simulation is fun; it’s certainly interesting and engaging. But I hope this is more than a “isn’t it interesting” project, and that wildfire actually do something with that interest. A bit of analysis of their own utilisation, their own take and their own angle on this helicopter-esque view.
29/10/2012 at 15:25 DarkShroom says:
or so your salescompany says…. but actually people don’t behave like mathematical models, only on a generalized statistical sense
in reality people don’t have integer value for their “anger level” which determines their “probability of just randomly rioting” right there… no consideration if the kids still need to be collected from school
so frankly I think we’re still no close than my sims rioting in sim city because pollution + not enough trees = anger
29/10/2012 at 15:36 Teovald says:
Objects don’t have arrows pointing in and out of them to indicate the forces applied to them either. But it does not mean that this Physics model is wrong.
29/10/2012 at 15:32 SocraticIrony says:
I think the police commanders would love to get to meet and greet every rioter and discuss their concerns over a cup of tea and a bourbon biscuit, but sadly the inferno raging around Debenhams and the mob emptying Currys of iPhone chargers make such concerns as what really drives John Doe to swipe a bag of Basmati rice less of a pressing issue. Simulations and crowd metrics might leave little room for care, but they’re useful for stemming the immediate problems. Politicians and care workers can argue about little Wayne’s rights once the police have taken his lighter off him.
29/10/2012 at 16:59 kikito says:
Yeah. And his mobile phone and his camera.
We don’t want Wayne’s pictures & videos endangering other people’s rights.
And policemen hide their ID plaques while they do all this because otherwise they would be helping child abusers.
29/10/2012 at 22:34 Cryomundus says:
Wait I thought that last bit was a zombie apocalypse.
29/10/2012 at 15:20 Snids says:
That looks gorgeous. I just want to play with it. Just give me a set of tools to mess with.
29/10/2012 at 15:25 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
It IS beautiful indeed, but it’s also killing my PC, usually quite capable for its age, especially during night time.
29/10/2012 at 15:35 jatan says:
“in my country i used to be a neurosurgeon”-classic – i assume its the cabbies saying this
29/10/2012 at 16:04 asshibbitty says:
Between this game, the Prison Architect ad under the post, and the link to the new MoH review on the right, Im starting to wonder what the fuck.
29/10/2012 at 16:24 Petethegoat says:
The depth of field is spot on. Possibly the only game to have ever used it properly?
29/10/2012 at 16:35 Gnoupi says:
Yes, it’s nicely using this kind of trick, to give the impression of a paper miniature.
Really nice effect.
29/10/2012 at 16:39 MrNash says:
Yeah, I thought so as well. It’s very well done. =)
29/10/2012 at 22:02 LionsPhil says:
I think so!
29/10/2012 at 17:00 DaftPunk says:
Downloading,never did i report bcak to devs about game feedback but i’ll gladly do for this one. Really looks cute.
29/10/2012 at 17:14 godofdefeat says:
THIS WILL BE FUN.
If it´s gonna be good, i am so pre-ordering this.