Making a complex indie game isn’t hard, says Gratuitous Space Battles developer Cliff ‘Cliffski’ Harris – it’s just that most game developers are lazy.
Democracy 3 is a PC strategy game released back in 2013 by Positech Games, a small indie studio, which went on to be a huge hit on steam. Until now, the games focus has mostly been on the mechanics of government, rather than the process of getting re-elected, but that looks set to change with the announcement of a new expansion pack for the game: Democracy 3: Electioneering
GSB and GSB II are real-time strategy games that you don’t play in real-time. That is to say, all the strategy (and player involvement) comes before the battle is joined and the death-rays leap across the void to destroy the enemy. Acting as a sort of grand admiral of a space armada, you design the individual classes of ships, determine the composition and formation of your fleet and issue general orders that affect your ships’ behavior in combat. Then, you sit back and watch the show, hoping your planning was good and your AI commanders know what they’re doing. “I wanted to design a game where having no control was actually the main mechanic…” Harris says.
So yup, GSB2 is now taking pre-orders direct from my site, and this gives you access to the beta. You can grab it right now from
the developers site.
Note that this is a proper beta, not some super-early-access proof of concept thing where most of it doesn’t work. In other words, most stuff works! it’s playable. Hopefully its fun! It’s PC-only and English only for now, but that will change come-release. There will of course be bugs, and myriad balance issues. And I will be adding some extra voiceover and a few other bits and pieces. But hopefully this is something you can play and enjoy right now. You get a download link, an online serial (for challenges, if you want to use them), and a steam code for its eventual steam release (the code obviously isn’t working yet).
Cliffski... It's Cliff Bleszinski mixed together! XD
Title of this is misleading. He says that INDIE GAME DEVELOPERS are lazy. Not main stream developers.
The OP needs to edit the title - it's misleading. Indie devs are not the same as big main-stream and triple-A studios, that's why 'Cliffski' was specific and not generalizing.
well time = money. There has to be a balance.
I don't think developers are lazy, its just that publishers aren't giving them complete creative freedom due to the high cost and risk of making games. Make a big enough financial loss and your team is either cut or dropped all together.