Spacebase DF-9: Sci-fi Dwarf Fortress from Double Fine

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Spacebase DF-9: Sci-fi Dwarf Fortress from Double Fine

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Arnold of Soissons: Mar 4, 2011; by XyloJW

Nemo2342 posted:

Can't say they never gave you post launch updates :v:

# ? Nov 7, 2014 12:58

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 15:03

IAmTheRad: Dec 11, 2009; Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!

Arnold of Soissons posted:

Can't say they never gave you post launch updates

They only said they'd do a couple of bug fixes after 1.0 was released. I doubt they'd actually make new content.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 15:26

SolidSnakesBandana: Jul 1, 2007; Infinite ammo

I love the art style of this game a lot. Every time I seen a screenshot of it, it looks polished as gently caress and slick as hell. Too bad about the rest of it. It probably doesn't look as good in motion.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 15:36

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

It looks even better in motion, it's just that it ends after 30 minutes of play or so :<

# ? Nov 7, 2014 15:38

IAmTheRad: Dec 11, 2009; Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!

If you want a good base building game, play Rimworld. Or hell, get the classic Startopia.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 15:41

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

IAmTheRad posted:

If you want a good base building game, play Rimworld. Or hell, get the classic Startopia.

Rename the thread to Spacebase DF-9: Just get Startopia already!

# ? Nov 7, 2014 16:41

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

Jack Trades posted:

Rename the thread to Spacebase DF-9: Just get Startopia already!

# ? Nov 7, 2014 16:46

Arnold of Soissons: Mar 4, 2011; by XyloJW

Jack Trades posted:

Rename the thread to Spacebase DF-9: Just get ~~Startopia~~The Spacials already!

# ? Nov 7, 2014 16:49

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Arnold of Soissons posted:

The Spatials definitely has potential but this is a thread full of people who got burned on pre-orders.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 18:20

Hav: Dec 11, 2009; Fun Shoe

MikeJF posted:

Ehh I dunno Will Wright made some pretty awesome games when EA didn't gently caress him up the arse and make him take all the cool simLife stuff out of Spore because 'it needs to be more like a game!'.

At that point, you tell them to stuff their job up their arse and refuse to do the hundreds of TV spots that they had him whored out for. The pre-orders were based on deception he was complicit with, and quite frankly _everyone_ blames the publishers...even Tim Schaefer, Peter Molyneux and Mecron.

I'm not suggesting that EA isn't partially to blame, that was in the height of their descent into 'button awesome', but I'm suggesting that you don't play nice _as the brand_.

Judge for yourself if you think this guy is being 'forced' -

quote:

EA's biggest PC game of the year and the brainchild of renowned game designer Will Wright, "Spore" hits store shelves today. The game has won Best of E3 awards and been lavished with positive pre-release coverage in the gaming and mainstream press.

So why is it getting 8s and 9s rather than 10s? And what does Wright make of reactions such as that of the New York Times' review, which concludes:

"Now if Mr. Wright and the Maxis team just take another few passes through Spore's later stages and release a big revision patch next year, they may finally end up with a game to match the stellar toy they have already unleashed."

On Friday, I had a chance to talk to Wright about the response the game has been getting, giving him a chance to clarify the goals of his design team and to reveal how he's playing "Spore." (As the week progresses, we'll be posting Wright's thoughts on each of the game's stages, which he also shared during the interview.)

I read Wright that Times paragraph and this is what he said:

"I haven't read that, but it's interesting. The feedback we're getting from people is that everyone has some level they like and some level they don't like. A lot of the reviews I've read have said that the Space Stage was far and away the best and they were disappointed by the earlier stages because they were too simple. Other people have said the Creature Stage is their favorite and that the Space Stage seems too complicated. We knew, since we were using different genres with every level, that everyone would have ones they really clicked with and ones they didn't. We've pretty much seen that. There hasn't been any consistent feedback. Some people have said the Civ phase is the best."

When I talked to Wright, I had played deep into the Space Stage, which I was enjoying. But I had seen complaints from hardcore game reviewers and message board posters that all of the stages have less complex gameplay than many gamers had hoped. As wonderful as the content creation and sharing options are, the one consistent complaint I've seen is that the gameplay seems to have been "dumbed down" for the sake of appealing to a more casual audience. Was it?

"I'd say that's quite accurate," Wright told me. "We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. "Spore" has more depth than, let's say, "The Sims" did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for "Sims 2", which was around 90, and something like "Half-Life", which was 97, and we decided -- quite a while back -- that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of "Sims 2" than the Metacritic and sales of "Half-Life."

And one way of getting there is to present a narrower range of options than a hardcore player might be expecting?

"Yes," he said. "Part of this, in some sense was: can we teach a "Sims" player to play an RTS [or Real Time Strategy game]? ... I think the complexity we ended up with was toward that group."

As simplified as Wright says "Spore" gameplay is, it should be noted that when you ask him how he's playing the game, he proves that one can find a complex approach. I asked what he's been up to in the game. He replied: "I like the Space Stage a lot. It's kind of like 'The Sims' in that you can have multiple saved games and have them interact with each other. You can start one game, let's say as the Klingons, and go all the way up and have the Klingon empire. And then have the Romulan empire and go meet the Klingons and start a war. I've always liked that kind of high level storytelling where I have multiple saved games interacting."

The doesn't sound simple at all.

"Spore" is out today for Mac and PC. You decide if it gets the job done.

- http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/09/07/will-wright-reacts-to-crtical-spore-reviews/ (emphasis mine)

Unless you missed it, the hype train for Spore started in 2006 based on Will Wright's Sim stable, and continued right up until release. He had daily spots on Attack of the Show and ran the media circuit. It was one of the first overarching examples of hype _designed_ to create massive day one sales, and was the beginning of the 'don't pre-order' mantra that has become a lot more common. They even suggested that they'd be able to re-add content through DLC, but you got, what a single creature part pack (assuming that you want to re-run the first three minigames again), and an expansion for the endgame...

And he hasn't done anything in gaming since this. I think that speaks volumes, personally.

Jack Trades posted:

The Spatials definitely has potential but this is a thread full of people who got burned on pre-orders.

That was quick.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 18:58

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

Spacebase DF-9: The Only Thing You Can Build Here Is Disappoint.

Now, you all are referring to Spatials 2 as the Early Access one, right? I'm confused at times.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 21:00

deep dish peat moss: Jul 27, 2006

Jack Trades posted:

The Spatials definitely has potential but this is a thread full of people who got burned on pre-orders.

Yeah, I picked it up based on discussion in this thread and I really wouldn't say it's any more "complete" than DF-9 is at this point. It does have potential but I wouldn't recommend getting it right now because there's no real "gameplay", your dwarf equivalents are immortal and don't have any sort of vitals yet, the vast majority of the mission content isn't in yet (and what is in of the planet exploration stuff is... pretty bad). All you can really do right now is lay down buildings and craft things to sell to visitors, but you can make credits and resources faster by farming things in planet exploration anyway.

It seems like it could be a cool game in time but definitely do not pre-order it expecting it to be a more complete and playable game than DF-9 right now.

Jamfrost posted:

Now, you all are referring to Spatials 2 as the Early Access one, right? I'm confused at times.

http://thespatials.com/ I'm referring to this one, which is called "The Spatials" but they have a blurb saying "The Spatials 2 is now available as Early Access for PC and Mac." but I can't find any evidence of a previous game in the series existing - on the developer's website, "The Spatials" is the only game listed and it links to the URL above.

deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Nov 7, 2014

# ? Nov 7, 2014 21:32

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

Man, that's some confusing language. I guess they mean Spatials version 2 or something.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 21:38

Fishstick: Jul 9, 2005; Does not require preheating

Jamfrost posted:

Man, that's some confusing language. I guess they mean Spatials version 2 or something.

If i'm not mistaken, 'Spatials' is an already-released iOS game, and the Early access/PC game is called 'Spatials 2' but is also referred to as "The Spatials" on PC/mac platforms. So yeah, very confusing.

# ? Nov 7, 2014 22:33

Arnold of Soissons: Mar 4, 2011; by XyloJW

The dev posted in this thread, actually

The Spatials (1) was a phone game, and they decided to make it bigger/broader/more/better for the PC, so they're calling that Spatials 2 and I think giving everybody who had the original on their phone a free update or something, making 1 fully defunct? Not sure

# ? Nov 8, 2014 01:44

Helical Nightmares: Apr 30, 2009

Has anyone played Maia? How does it stack up compared to this?

# ? Nov 8, 2014 05:56

unlurked: Jan 20, 2006; Set phasers to HURT!

We started with a v1 only for iPad, called "The Spatials". Then we began the PC port and nobody ever heard of us except the iPad players, so we called the early PC port versions "The Spatials 2" to make the distinction clear: v1 = iPad, v2 = PC/Mac Early Access (and not on iPad until it's done).

By now more people is finding us by the way of the PC EA version so the "2" designation makes less sense (they never saw/heard of v1) and we are dropping the "2" for the final release. We have to fix that line in the web site, yes. Actual build versions will still be like "2.3.0".

# ? Nov 8, 2014 09:04

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

unlurked posted:

We started with a v1 only for iPad, called "The Spatials". Then we began the PC port and nobody ever heard of us except the iPad players, so we called the early PC port versions "The Spatials 2" to make the distinction clear: v1 = iPad, v2 = PC/Mac Early Access (and not on iPad until it's done).

By now more people is finding us by the way of the PC EA version so the "2" designation makes less sense (they never saw/heard of v1) and we are dropping the "2" for the final release. We have to fix that line in the web site, yes. Actual build versions will still be like "2.3.0".

Alright, thanks for the explanation. May your Steam debut have no complications.

-

From my understanding and Community Hub viewing, Maia is still very much in the alpha stage and needs more time in the oven. It's not ready for purchase as a consumer. Bugs.

# ? Nov 8, 2014 09:23

Arnold of Soissons: Mar 4, 2011; by XyloJW

unlurked posted:

We started with a v1 only for iPad, called "The Spatials". Then we began the PC port and nobody ever heard of us except the iPad players, so we called the early PC port versions "The Spatials 2" to make the distinction clear: v1 = iPad, v2 = PC/Mac Early Access (and not on iPad until it's done).

By now more people is finding us by the way of the PC EA version so the "2" designation makes less sense (they never saw/heard of v1) and we are dropping the "2" for the final release. We have to fix that line in the web site, yes. Actual build versions will still be like "2.3.0".

I was kind of close!

Good luck with your game, I picked it up and am looking forward to downloading it on steam

# ? Nov 8, 2014 11:35

Fishstick: Jul 9, 2005; Does not require preheating

Helical Nightmares posted:

Has anyone played Maia? How does it stack up compared to this?

Maia is very very barebones right now in terms of features and actual gameplay. The development doesn't seem to progress fast either.

# ? Nov 8, 2014 13:25

Carecat: Apr 27, 2004; Buglord

Maia is very overhyped. It's basically a tech demo.

# ? Nov 8, 2014 13:58

Fermented Tinal: Aug 25, 2005; by Pragmatica

unlurked posted:

We started with a v1 only for iPad, called "The Spatials". Then we began the PC port and nobody ever heard of us except the iPad players, so we called the early PC port versions "The Spatials 2" to make the distinction clear: v1 = iPad, v2 = PC/Mac Early Access (and not on iPad until it's done).

By now more people is finding us by the way of the PC EA version so the "2" designation makes less sense (they never saw/heard of v1) and we are dropping the "2" for the final release. We have to fix that line in the web site, yes. Actual build versions will still be like "2.3.0".

I have enjoyed the hell out of your game so far and am eagerly awaiting the next release so I can laugh as my crew go insane/die due to my insane base layout.

# ? Nov 8, 2014 15:46

FronzelNeekburm: Jun 1, 2001; STOP, MORTTIME

Helical Nightmares posted:

Has anyone played Maia? How does it stack up compared to this?

I thought the art style was pretty nice before Spacebase came out, but yeah, it's in no hurry to develop interesting gameplay, and your colonists tend to just wander through walls and straight out of existence if the game doesn't crash before then. Maybe in another five years.

# ? Nov 9, 2014 01:39

Mokinokaro: Sep 11, 2001; At the end of everything, hold onto anything; Fun Shoe

Carecat posted:

Maia is very overhyped. It's basically a tech demo.

Yeah, it's a very small team and seems to be more of a hobby project for them then their fulltime jobs.

# ? Nov 9, 2014 02:54

Nth Doctor: Sep 7, 2010; Darkrai used Dream Eater!
It's super effective!

Heads up, if you throw :10bux:

at this week's Humble Weekly Bundle, you get some weird abandonware.

# ? Dec 5, 2014 21:48

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

Nth Doctor posted:

Heads up, if you throw at this week's Humble Weekly Bundle, you get some weird abandonware.

Cities in Motion 2 is worth $6. The rest? :iiam:

# ? Dec 8, 2014 10:20

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# ? Apr 24, 2024 15:03

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Nth Doctor posted:

Heads up, if you throw at this week's Humble Weekly Bundle, you get some weird abandonware.

Average purchase is 3.76$ and 10th largest purchase is 26$. Nobody (almost) wants Spacebase even for 10$.

# ? Dec 8, 2014 10:37

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