Dear Mr. Drake, or Mr. Drake,
I am having a bad day of archery, in Sherwood Forest. I have already lost two arrows, and that is my pensioner disposable income blown. I am sure that Dead Belt would help me feel much better. PLEASE help me breathe!
Fantastic!
One of my favourite board games of recent years is Deep State: New World Order - great solo rules, great artwork, great production - or you can play it for free on Tabletopia.
SW4QW is going to fulfil the video game itch.
BTW, Citizen Sleeper uses many of the BitD/FitD paradigms (clocks, drives, etc). And it works.
Please sign me up for any demos. Even alpha testing would be good.
Apart from these updates is there time for you to complete the 'Meet the Conspiracies' series? And maybe a write up of the proposed game mechanics - just to keep us hungry for a release.
P.S. I still think you might be overdoing it with the geographical bits. Will the game really need that amount of detail?
Hi, It's good to read your dev thoughts, and encouraging to know that you are committed to a final vision.
I'd like to throw in a two-penneth worth, that might sway a decision.
You say "...enough detail to portray the Earth's geography with any acceptable level of detail". I would question if this is necessary in a political game (whether nation level or geo-political). Unless you are planning tactical warfare, that requires geographical considerations. In which case this game ceases to be of interest. That sort of game is ten-a-penny. You are obviously aware of the original 'Silent Weapons' document and know that it deals with economic and media manipulation, to control the populace - a 'Quiet War' not a 'Shooting War'.
Years ago there was a game, Republic: The Revolution, that promised some truely original (political) gameplay concepts. Unfortunately, for some reason known only to the developer, they decided to concentrate much more on pushing the graphics capability (of the day). This resulted in a completely unnecessary 3d world to move around, that added nothing to the game play.
I could be completly wrong, but I suspect that the average political conspiracy game player will appreciate devious options over looking good. Crusader Kings, not Total War!
Of course I am saying all this to A. Detere you from wasting your time, and B. Speed up the release!
Even an alpha version would be gratefully received.
A5 is the perfect size. Kind of like a notebook. Very Winston.
The previous playtest contents pages showed no mention of a solo mode. However you had previously stated that this would be part of the game. Can you confirm that will still be the case? This game, more than any other, cries out for solo journaling.
Gary
I should have paid more attention (caveat emptor, a they say). This is version 0.9
There is little use of colour and no illustrations.
There are mentions of 'later versions' and content to be added, but this is very bare bones.
I paid the $9, not realising that this would get me 38 pages of text!
I am disappointed, but hopeful that version 0.9 will be updated. Or maybe an option to off-set the cost against the final PDF?
However, for all that, the game is intriguing:
Most decisions, choices, occurrences, and outcomes are decided by the player, without the randomness of dice.
So this feels like less of a game. more of a thought experiment, that might fit well at a creative writing workshop.
Having said that, the number of choices for character creation gives 87,333,120 combinations, so I wont be running out any time soon.
Congratulations James.
I do believe you have produced the game I have been waiting for since...well probably nothing as good since Balance of Power!
I have now completed my first game - Achieving a simultaneous Democratic and Consumerist victory, at age 66.
(Incidentally the victory screen overlaid the two announcements! I guess you envisaged players going all out for one victory).
The gameplay was smooth, intriguing and at times challenging.
The writing is superb - at times cynical, ironic, though-provoking and even downright subversive. My hat off to you sir!
I look forward to further developments and will be posting a couple of suggestions and bug reports (which I'm sure you are aware of but might help to prioritise things)
Good luck and thank you
Gary Breinholt