Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It looks like Cliffski wants modding to start for Gratuitous Space Battles even before he’s properly released the game, as he’s releasing the ship models for people to fiddle with. “Basically I couldn’t think of a good reason not to give modders access to the raw models that are used to make the art in the game,” says Cliffski, “and I know that if I was a modder, I’d find that very handy indeed, and be churning out lots of variants and tweaks of it.” The full game launch is apparently happening this week, with the release version of the game going up on the Positech site on Thursday.

Jim and Kieron got to talking about the beta of Gratuitous Space Battles. Their ruminations follow.
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Earlier today we talked to Positech’s Cliff “Cliffski” Harris about his new game, Gratuitous Space Battles. There was also some discussion of a Saddam Hussein sim, the pitfalls of outsourced indie art, and the problems of small-playerbase multiplayer.
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In space, no-one can hear you be gratuitous.

Space is gratuitous. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly gratuitous it is.

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Gratuitous.

Ack, it’s no good. I just can’t decide which stereotypical sci-fi quote to tiresomely rip-off. Instead, just watch this video of Cliffski ‘Gets A Bit Feisty’ Harris’ new’un. BOOM.
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Positech have been busy capturing the essence of spacewar for their new strategy/management/simulation game, Gratuitous Space Battles, and we get a glimpse of it here: giant, glacial capital ships firing colossal beam lasers through swarms of tiny fighter craft. Yeah, that’s the stuff. Cliffski knows what to do. Now go! Witness those titular space battles below. (And I have to say, this one really interests me, and not simply because I’m an unmitigated spacewar nerd.)
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Positech (Kudos, etc) have announced a new game: Gratuitous Space Battles. That is all.

Just in case you’re casting about for something to play in the dark hours of our Northern Hemisphere winter (damn you, Southern Hemisphere dwellers!) Cliffski has put up a new demo for the rather realistic governmental simulation Democracy 2. It’s a genuinely excellent game with lots of icons, and we all love icons. But there’s more than icons: there’s brains too. And they’re not so visible. Anyway, Kieron discusses the game in a bit more detail here. The new demo is here, and there’s a patch out for those of you who already own the thing.

It’s a bit of an indie season, innit? News reaches us that comments-regular Cliffski’s latest game - Kudos 2 – is now available to buy for the sum of twelve quid. Its the sequel to his popular alternate-take on the Sims – think the Sims meet Princess Maker. And if you don’t know Princess Maker, think Championship Manager with a Teenage Girl, except Kudos is about 20-somethings. I liked the first one, and this one seems a genuine improvement, not least because of the cool indy aesthetic brought by Jamie “Suburban Glamour” McKelvie. A demo can be downloaded off the electric internet. It’s amazing! Like, a game just arriving on your hard-drive by clicking on your screen. This shit is going to catch on. Seriously, try it.

If there’s one name that’s come up each time in RPS’s perennial piracy comment threads, it’s Positech‘s Cliffski. The moniker of PC developer, Cliff Harris, he’s ruffled feathers with, surprisingly, the anti-piracy position. As Kieron mentioned on Sunday, Cliff decided to run a survey via his blog, and then via every other website on the internet, asking people to tell him why they pirate his games. It’s a remarkably modest and reasonable question to ask, and now he’s back with an anecdotal presentation of the results.

Cliff Harris deserves applause for taking this approach. But he deserves carrying aloft the shoulders of those who have loudly disagreed with him in the comments (me included) for his response to his broad survey. He’s changing how he develops games as a consequence.

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I’ve spent more than enough time with artist Jamie McKelvie over the last two weeks, so the knowledge I’m going to have to deal with him in my bloody day job is one to provoke a crushing sense of depression. Cliff Harris, who you may know as the creator of Democracy, the previous Kudos Band and 300-post threads about Piracy, has released the first images of Kudos 2, highlighting the art of Jamie “Kitten” McKelvie. Kudos follows its prequel in being an alternative-take on the Sims-life-management genre, seen through the filter of the Princess Maker games. Except much more twenty something. More here. And what did you do during your 20s, readers? I played videogames and drank. I would score lowly in Kudos 2.

Yes, it’s true, Hot Punk Girl. Jamie McKelvie, creator of indie comics like the critically acclaimed Suburban Glamour and Phonogram, will be providing character art for Positech‘s forthcoming sequel to Kudos. Putting aside the fact Jamie’s a friend of mine – yeah, I write That There Phonogram - I think this is an interesting move for Positech. As much as I like Cliff Harris’ games, they’re lacking in glamour and McKelvie is someone who absolutely keeps the grounded reality which Cliff needs while adding style. Compare and contrast a Kudos figure and Jamie’s rendering of a similarly grounded character. Which he’s bitching at me linking to, as it’s a few years old and he’d rather I show something more modern. Or this. Or even this. The perpetual whiner.

Which makes me think – is there any artist, comics or otherwise, people would like to see contribute towards a game? And what game, for that matter?