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No Publisher Love For Darwinia 106

Posted by Zonk from the give-them-a-break-people dept.
Next Generation has a conversation with the lead designer of the much lauded game Darwinia. From the article: "It sports astonishing graphics and original gameplay elements that weave their way around a decent story. Reviewers like it but, as is so often the case, publishers can't seem able to convince themselves it has anything other than niche market value. We spoke to Chris Delay about the frustrations and challenges of independence and originality..."
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No Publisher Love For Darwinia More

No Publisher Love For Darwinia

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  • Highly recommended game (Score:4, Informative)

    by FromWithin ( 627720 ) <mike@ f r o m within.com> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @11:53AM (#13510481) Homepage
    This game should be at least tried out, especially by retro fans even though it's not a retro game at all. It's very respectful of old games in its style.

    It's a shocking indication of the state of the game industry that no publisher will pick this up. It is a superb game, exactly the type that people are clamouring for at games keynote speeches and such like.

    Someone needs to fire all marketing departments across the whole industry. What chance does the industry have to mature and develop if chances like this get blankly refused every time.

    • Re:Highly recommended game (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CDarklock ( 869868 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:05PM (#13510603) Homepage Journal
      Somewhere along the line, marketing stopped being about finding people who want something, and started being mostly about making people buy things they don't want.

      This industry reinvention has made it very difficult for most marketers to handle a good product, because they can't find the right people who don't want it.
      • "very difficult for most marketers to handle a good product, because they can't find the right people who don't want it"

        Now that's a load of bollocks if I ever saw one... or a very stealthy sarcasm-laced line.

        It's just like saying "I'm an used car salesman, I sold junk all my life, but now I'm having trouble selling these brand new non-polluting high-power low-price machines I just got".
        • It's just like saying "I'm an used car salesman, I sold junk all my life, but now I'm having trouble selling these brand new non-polluting high-power low-price machines I just got".

          Not exactly like that. Because these games, like it or not, are not desirable to the "unwashed masses" that own a console for the sole purpose of playing the newest annual incarnations of EA's sports franchises. Okay, maybe not literally to that extent, but you know I'm speaking of the infamous "MTV demographic" that didn't bec
          • The Isetta is a terrible car.

          • To move the analogy further, you have on one hand a car like, let's say a Bugatti Veyron (i.e. Darwinia) priced around 1 mil (30 for the game)... while on the other hand you have a fairly popular stock car priced around 20-30k (but 50 for a game fitting the profile).

            Do you see a vast discrepance here ?
            Note: currency intentionally left blank.

        • Re:Highly recommended game (Score:5, Insightful)

          by CDarklock ( 869868 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @01:52PM (#13511802) Homepage Journal
          Used car salesmen aren't so widely disliked because of what they sell, but because of how they sell it.

          Same with marketers. We all know "under ten dollars" means "$9.99", because that's what it ALWAYS means. Why don't they just say "ten bucks"? Because people always round down. $9.99 looks like $9 to most people, so it seems a whole lot cheaper than $10. Look at gas stations; a gallon of gas isn't 2.87, it's 2.879, because people don't count that last 9/10 of a cent. But they still pay it. That's what marketing is all about. You manipulate the world to make people think one thing and pay another.

          Nobody is complaining that the miniature blender isn't worth an extra dollar, or that the gallon of gas isn't worth the extra penny. They're complaining that someone is trying to trick them, which is precisely what is happening. We're wise to it. We don't *fall* for the trick. We just perceive that a trick is being played, and we don't like it.

          So when we can't see the trick, it doesn't make the marketer look honest and forthright. It just makes us feel increasingly suspicious, because we know marketers play tricks, and if we can't see what the trick *is*... chances are we're about to get screwed.

          Fool me once, and all that.

          • Re:Highly recommended game (Score:4, Funny)

            by Idealius ( 688975 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @02:53PM (#13512386) Journal
            Kind of OT, but I would have to agree with the fact most people round down 9.99 to 9.

            When I first noticed a friend back in my High School days make this mistake I was absolutely amazed.

            Ironically enough it was for a PC game purchase.

            The Price was something like 46.99 and he rounded down to 40!

            Myself, I usually ALWAYS round up because of sales tax. e.g.

            I think of 42.99 as 50. After a 7% tax it almost is 50.

            It's funny because there are so many analogies one could use to show how ridiculous this practice is.

            1: "Why do your reports show 0 patients?"
            2: "Because they're all amputees"

            1: "Hi boss."
            2: "You're late. We were supposed to meet at 12:00"
            1: "Sorry I had to clean out my car. I just
            rounded down. It's still 12:59, what up?"

            1: "May I have your credit card number?"
            2: "Ok, 4000000000000000"
            1: "I'm sorry sir but that credit card number is not valid."
            2: "Hmm, did you enter the expiration date? it's 12/00, rounded down as uuuussuuuall."

            1: "Thanks for bringing those parts over"
            2: "No problem."
            1: "Hey where's the distributor cap?"
            2: "Meh I couldn't fit it in the box so I just rounded it down, you know, because it makes so much goddamn sense."
            • A lot of people don't really round, I've found -- they just truncate. That's the theory behind the "99 cents" -- that people just chop off the non-dollar, and look at the first number. The further you go, the less significant the numbers appear to be.

              It's not a universal, mind, as you point out yourself. But it is quite common, and exceedingly easy to get caught in the truncating trap.

    • Re:Highly recommended game (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Flayra ( 79912 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:34PM (#13510883) Homepage
      Darwinia is very impressive, but I think mostly only to game developers or afficionados. That said, I don't see why they need to get into retail in the U.S.: they are profitable already and they used raw persistence and cohones to get themselves into UK retail.

      They've gotten great PR for themselves, and they are able to sell their games directly from their website at essentially 100% profit. They don't NEED retail!

      If they ever go out of business, they should be able to land a sweet game job, save up some cash and do it again. They've earned quite a reputation.

      If I were them, I would just keep doing what I was doing.

    • Same as music (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Morgaine ( 4316 )
      The clueless corporate purchasing minions are the same everywhere, in all walks of commerce. Just like in music, they only buy the crap they bought before, to strict formula. After all, their jobs could be on the line for a bad decision.

      So don't expect any of the larger publishers to buy a truly original game. They're not staffed by gaming *FANS*, but by 9-to-5'ers who have no personal love for the genre. It's a job.

      In any event, forget publishers. It's 2005, self-market online. If you need help, use
    • Shrugs, demo crashes on me on launch with no indication as to why.
  • It's the base story of Planescape:Torment all over again.
    Once you make a game that's awesome for a certain type of people (let's stereotype "Slashdotter" here a bit), you're pretty much locked in that demographic.
    Publishers hate niche products, even if they would be embraced by 90+% of that niche and a bit of the "neighbouring" ones... it's just not "profitable enough" for them.

    On the other hand, the fact that the game is so small (and has no shred of decent copy-protection) makes it a prime candidate for "
  • I've seen the game on sale in most, if not all, games shops and in some it makes it into the #10 (though maybe this is the review chart and not the sales chart?)

  • Wow... (Score:2)

    by Shads ( 4567 ) *
    ... that really sucks, darwina is a *great* game, I had a total ball with it. Unfortunete that the new xcom's and privateers aren't going to see the light of day in a big way because publishers are afraid to step a half inch outside the formula of unoriginal duplicate games they've been selling for two years. It's a large part of whats hurting the game industry at this point. sad really. :(

    • What is hurting the industry isn't the fact that publishers have been putting out unoriginal crap for the past two years....it is that we keep buying it.
      • You're absolutely right. I pretty much know what to expect from the next generation FPS games, but this is something that looks simple to play. I read through the instructions and they seemed very easy to pick up.

        It reminds me of this very very old game that came out, where you could browse your filesystem in a hovercraft or something. And you would shoot down viruses that were trying to infect your files (It was called "Virus" I think). It was fun because the game would use actual filenames from your h
        • There was one called Inner Space too I think it was. It used a file explorer like interface on one side that showed you where the virus had spread. You had to go in and kill the virus while managing your relationship with the other ships that reside on your computer.

  • This is what we have been waiting for (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Inoen ( 590519 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:35PM (#13510892)
    Publishers have been bashed so much recently ( here [slashdot.org] ), being accused of not wanting to make/publish anything that doesn't fit within their established success template.

    Everyone has been waiting for an successful game to be developed and distributed independently. Well, here it is (maybe...)! I sincerely hope they can get distribution in the US market without a publisher, and possibly show the way for other developers. In time this can create a new development and distribution model that does not rely so heavily on marketing and fiscal-year concerns.

  • And this is new? (Score:4, Informative)

    by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:40PM (#13510952) Homepage
    Publishers pass on most of the creatie and unique titles in favor of "safe" ones. I've been on this side of the industry and it really begins to piss you off when you see great, innovative project after project get scrapped or turned away time and time again from publishers. It is so frustrating.

    The next-gen 360 and PS3 aren't going to help matters either. The development costs and efforts are going to be big risk and no one is going to stray much from the center. This is a loss for all gamers everywhere.

    I get bashed for saying it, but these two consoles need to fail and fail big. If they are massive successes the game industry is going to become even more fractured and broken. They are doing nothing but perpetuating the core problem of the industry, and amazingly making it worse.

    I am hoping Nintendo can buck the trend, not out of fanboyism or love for Nintendo, because I would say the same of any company that was taking their stance in this new console war.
    • Hopfully Nintendo will also allow easy indie publishing through their download service.
      • Exactly, this is part of what I was alluding to. They have basically already stated that they are courting small/indie publishers and will make it viable even for a single person. This is great news and should really be a boon to the system and to the industry as a whole.

        The other key aspects are the return to a simpler/userfriendly controller which will ensure massive audiences and market for these smaller dev's to shoot for. The lower system costs. The fairly standard platform (we know it will be the same
        • This is Slashdot. They'd love Nintendo even if the Revolution turned out to be nothing but a huge cow turd in the box. You'd see stories about how Nintendo's cow turd based technology, while it can't out-dazzle the competition, is much more fun for the consumer with games like, "Don't Step On The Turd!" and "Dungball."
          • yeah, this is Slashdot alight. Where hypocritical bastards such as yourself are behind the little guy and the companies who stand for innovation and creativity... but then back huge corporate scumbags who shovel as much DRM, Anti-everything, Restrictions, Region Specific code, Price gouging, non-competitive, non-innovative, hallywood-like crap by the ton.

            Sony was nothing more than sour grapes over Nintendo's decision not to purchase the technology, and their attempt to beat them by brute force and numbers o
            • Iam a huge nintendo fan due to the quality of their products, but don't kid yourself nintendo practically invented anti-competitive corporate bullying. the patented lockout chip in the NES which served only one purpose: force legitimate publishers to pay Nintendo Royalties if they wanted to sell NES compatable games.

              • Didn't Tengen make working unlicensed NES games? I don't recall any of their stuff ever having Nintendo's seal on it, and their packaging was very different too.
                • Tengen originally was unlicensed, but became a licensed developer eventually. There were acually a number of unlicensed NES developers and carts, the poster has no idea of what he speaks. Nintendo's licensing was mainly a QUALITY ASSURANCE. It degenerated in the later years but it served its purpose quite well.
                  • the unlicensed developers eventually won in court i think it was tengen who sued nintendo and eventually got the patent invalidated because it wasn't a useful invention in and of itself
            • Your ability to be so ignorant of videogames and their history continues to astound me.
    • I dont doubt your observations, but you make it sound like publishers dont have the first clue what makes a good game, when in fact they are just following the market/money. "Safe" -> more predictable sales, while "innovative" -> uncertain revenue. It's not hard to see which route most companies are going to want to take. I'm sure there are publishers out there that are so dumb as to believe 'eXXXTreme Back-Alley Bumfights' would make a good foundation for a game, but I dont believe the industry on th

      • Re:And this is new? (Score:3, Informative)

        by adler187 ( 448837 )
        Not to nitpick, but the game is actually spelled Disgaea. Weird name and a weird game, but a very fun one. The thing that makes it one of the best Tactical RPG's ever is that it doesn't follow the same war/corrupt government theme. It is also comedic and has almost infinite replay value.
      • >If anyone is to blame, wouldnt you point the finger at the millions of people who just eat up all the derivative crap we see rehashed again and again? When the likes of a Katamari Damacy consistently outsells Madden and the Sims, maybe then we would see a change in how games are selected and developed. Until then, you'll have to look to the independent publishers to bring you those cool offbeat titles.

        Stated perfectly. I've said it for years, and you can't imagine how many times on boards i've been fl

  • Is it just me or is there a nod to tron in one of the screenshots? http://www.darwinia.co.uk/screenshots/t_image6.jpg [darwinia.co.uk]

  • Why? Because its not risky enough (Score:4, Informative)

    by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:56PM (#13511115) Homepage
    Publishers make their real money by putting down the cash for the development of a game. Darwinia is finished; this means they get less control over the game, and less money for their investment. Given the already overwhelming number of talented independent game makers wheeling and dealing for publishers, the people who work for publishers are interested in the next big hit, a financial blockbuster.

    Darwinia isn't going to be a blockbuster. It's interesting, but it hasn't had the press scores and coverage that publishers leverage for their piece of shit "like metal gear with more buttons". The good news is that Darwinia can be self-published quite easily. They won't ever score the big contract with Wal-mart, but there's plenty of publishers who regret that once their stock languishes on the shelf.
    • Sorry, who the hell modded this informative?

      Ok, the first part is insightfull, but this part is utter crap:

      >'It's interesting, but it hasn't had the press scores and coverage'

      Really?

      Read:
      http://www.darwinia.co.uk/exposure/index.html [darwinia.co.uk]
      - PC Format: 90%
      - PC Gamer: 90%
      - PC Zone: 84%
      - IGN.com: 88% (8.8 out of 10)
      - Others, never dropping below 70% (7/10)
      Read:
      http://www.darwinia.co.uk/exposure/webreviews.html [darwinia.co.uk]
      - All but three reviews scored the game at 80% or higher (some gave it 100%).
      - The scores that were not o
      • When I say 'press scores' I mean general coverage of the game, not 'I give this game eight and a half lobsters.' Darwinina has had moderate success as a indie developer getting coverage from websites and obscure PC gamer magazines, but what really helps out is 'previews' those rabid articles that reveal scantily clad games in the most beneficial light possible. For reasons too complex to describe, this domain belongs big budget sequals, and turds from publishers who've previously handed out big budget hits.
        • >obscure PC gamer magazines

          Whoa funny. PC Zone, PC Gamer and PC Format alone hold about 98% of the UK PC mag market for games. They are not 'obscure' by a long shot.

          As for 'general coverage', Darwinia has featured in Edge, a few UK newspapers, had a spot on TechTV (or whoever owns it now), and been part of keynote speaches by some very large figures in the gaming world.

          The sad part is, most of the coverage has been UK based. Introversion haven't managed to convince anyone that it is worth publishing Darw

  • Publisher? Or PC publisher? (Score:3, Informative)

    by cei ( 107343 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @01:06PM (#13511229) Homepage Journal
    Maybe they haven't found distribution for their Windows version... but I got the Max OS X version of Darwinia two months ago from Ambrosia Software [ambrosiasw.com].
  • While I deeply appreciate their try to run on different platforms and have to admit I dislike anything remotely like RTS, I have a few points to note, stupid decisions, ultimately leading to me not suggesting someone give Darwinia a try, let alone pay 20 bucks for it.

    Stupid decisions:
    1. ALT+TAB to switch between units. How braindead can a developer be? Under WinXP, of course that brings up the real taskmanager... I have to say I'd have been really frightened if it didn't. So you have to click on the unit i
    • ...or someone making fun of those who actually think like that.

      1. # ALT+TAB to switch between units.

      The unit are programs... It's the most logical thing to do. To terminate them is to hit Control+C just like you would in a Unix terminal. Oh my... A game that actually acts like a real world computer system.

      2. Mouse Gestures only to create units. It's slow and thus counterproductive, RTS-nuts will hate it and I have to ask "why?".

      I bet you don't use mouse gestures in other programs either. Like... Um... Firef
      • I think the game sucks major ass from a usability standpoint. You disagree, fine, but stay polite please.

        The unit are programs... It's the most logical thing to do. To terminate them is to hit Control+C just like you would in a Unix terminal. Oh my... A game that actually acts like a real world computer system.
        That'd be a wonderful idea. If it worked. On my system, at least, the real taskmanager pops up, I change out of the game, ok? Is that hard to understand? I probably wouldn't if I closed all other
        • Sorry about that the insult. Everything you said was almost as if you had played the game and liked it and then as an attempted troll, pointed what was supposed to be positive as something negative.

          It's as if you were complaining about the fact you had to run and jump in Mario Brothers game series as it were the "main positive feature" of the game.

          Look. The game is retro and is supposed to look like that. I downloaded it on a whim one night and found myself really enjoying it to a point where I bought it. I
        • Not sure why you can't Alt-Tab in the game I was trying out the demo on an XP machine (at work) and the Alt-Tab for the in game task manager worked fine for me.
          • Until somebody tries to actually SWITCH TASKS. Even if it works correctly, which obviously it doesn't all the time, it's still a bad idea to take a keyboard shortcut that's owned by the OS and has a rigidly defined use and make it do something else entirely.

            How do you switch out of the game, for that matter, if you can't use alt-tab?
    • Points 1 and 2 are already being addressed in a patch currently in beta testing, which gives you the option between two control methods.

      Point #3 - I like it, if you want to inform the developers that you don't like it, post on the forums [introversion.co.uk] instead of on slashdot. You can also rebind the keys, IIRC, but I can't remember if the mouse is configurable.

      Graphics - Introversion are a 4 man team. They tried realistic graphics, decided that they couldn't do them well enough, so instead decided to go for the retro feel
    • You can use ctrl-alt-tab to switch between units. Sometimes this is necessary because if you start a "program" but don't actually place it anywhere, there'll be no unit to click on in order to terminate it (you can only run a few programs at a time). Yeah, you might get carpal tunnel doing this, but it works.

      Mouse gestures are kind of annoying, yes. I didn't much care for it with Black and White, either, mainly because it was too easy to call up the wrong thing or just have it not recognize your gesture
    • ALT+TAB to switch between units. How braindead can a developer be? ...

      I never experienced that problem myself, but I haven't tried the windows version

      Mouse Gestures only to create units. It's slow and thus counterproductive, RTS-nuts will hate it and I have to ask "why?".

      I would expect that they were attempting something, you know, new with this game. The last thing I wanted was a C&C clone.

      Navigation. WASD only + mouselook and up+down via QE or mousewheel, which works the wrong way around for me. Does

    • Regarding #4, I don't mind the retro look, but I could do without the aliasing and screen tearing. (I tried the Linux demo. I don't know if the Windows version is any different in this respect.)

      I could also live without the occasional

      ./darwinia: line 39: 11241 Segmentation fault $here/lib/darwinia.bin.x86

      on startup.

      Also, the interface doesn't work well for us dvorak users. WASD isn't exactly intuitive on dvorrak, so I use the arrow keys. Unfortunately, the right ALT doesn't work, only the

    • I have played the game, and I have loved the game, so I find it hard to see the highest moderated post about this game to be such an inflammatory critique, especially from someone who only tried the demo.

      While I deeply appreciate their try to run on different platforms and have to admit I dislike anything remotely like RTS, I have a few points to note, stupid decisions, ultimately leading to me not suggesting someone give Darwinia a try, let alone pay 20 bucks for it.

      If you have a bias against RTS games, wh

  • I looked at it a while back. It wasn't clear from the website exactly what the game was. Quoting from the game guide:

    The Task Manager is designed to allow you to operate several programs simultaniously - eg Squads, Engineers etc. The Task Manager is accessed by holding down the ALT key

    You can switch between all your running Programs in the Task Manager by pressing the ALT-TAB. You can Terminate a running Program by pressing CTRL-C while it is selected.

    If you scroll left by pushing the mouse to the

    • Indeed. The website should have a flash animation of a half-naked vampire stripper grinding against a pole, next to screenshots dripping with blood and gore. It should also include a bunch of ridiculously exuberant quotes from glowing reviews which clearly were written by someone who didn't spend more than ten minutes with the game.

      I really hate it when a game website gives actual information that actually gives you a sense of the mechanics of a game. I demand buzz words!
    • PLEASE tell me you're trolling here...

      It also describes the requirements as "Windows 98". I do have a windows box set aside for games, but it runs XP. It didn't look likely enough to run nor interesting enough to play to be worth downloading teh demo.

      I'm sorry, but use some common sense. A commercial game, released in 2005, and sold in high street shops (in the UK) is not going to be limited to Windows 98.

      You also say that you have the Windows machine set aside for gaming; unless you have a lower-end mach

      • I never saw it in shops. I saw it mentioned somewhere and looked at the website. There's nothing on the website to suggest it was released any later than, oh, '99 or so. It looked like some random shareware game released in the late '90s, and not a particularly good one at that.

        My main machine is a mac. Apparently Ambrosia have a mac port, but the main darwinia page doesn't mention that anywhere.

        And it's not as though I spent hours investigating it. I heard about it, looked at the webpage, decided that

        • >My main machine is a mac. Apparently Ambrosia have a mac port, but the main darwinia page doesn't mention that anywhere.

          What site did you look at?

          From darwinia.co.uk's front page:
          Download Demo
          for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux

          Oh, look! Mac!

          >It looked like some random shareware game released in the late '90s, and not a particularly good one at that.

          Not a good one? From about 20 or so reviews, the *average* score is a 8.5; the most popular score, however, seems to be somewhere around a 9.

          As for the date...
        • The fact that you looked at it before seeing this story makes more sense; however, as for the Mac port, on the front page of darwinia.co.uk it says "Download Demo for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux", and I believe this has been there since each port has become available.

          I'm going to assume you live in the US here (apologies if I'm wrong), in which case I imagine it's easier to miss Darwinia (if you'd seen it in a shop, you'd know about it - GREEEEEEEEEEEN), but on the demo download page (I assume this is where
    • At LEAST windows98 and up, and Linux.

      And how about trying it before bitching about how lame it is.
  • like Ambrosia [ambrosiasw.com]. They have Darwinia listed. I think I will snub my nose at the "Big" publishers that lack the stones to give a game like this a shot. So my advice to all of you out there. Go to small shops like Ambrosia and others like them. Buy from them and show your support for creativity.

  • What about Steam? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Morgon ( 27979 )
    I'm sure this company was looking for something more mainstream (i.e. box and CD), but SOME publisher is better than NO publisher, right?

    With that odd Kung Fu game coming out on Steam in just a few weeks... assuming that works out as planned, would it not be a viable option?
    • Introversion already has their own store [introversion.co.uk], which sends a physical copy by post and lets you download a copy whilst you wait for it - what benefit would steam give? (Other than annoyance for the end-user.)
      • I am incredibly confused by the random statements here and there saying Steam 'annoys' end-users.

        The only problem with Steam I ever had was when reformatting my drive - I backed up my GCF's, and restored them in the same directory format... but the new Steam exec's had changed the installation, so I had to re-download all my games again. But even that wasn't a big of a deal, and not any different than if I hadn't backed them up at all.

        What's so wrong with Steam? It's a very convenient distribution channel.
        • For a start, in general, it means that you have to have steam running just to play the game. I prefer to just launch the game, and not have to fire up some 3rd party app then launch the game, having the app in the background taking up resources.

          Then you have the problem that Steam is Windows-only. Darwinia is multi-platform. Linux users wouldn't exactly be a fan of this model of distribution...

          Of course, one of the main points of annoyance with HL2 - that is, having to have an Internet connection to play yo
        • It locked me out of single-player HL2 (and multiplayer, for that matter) for the better part of two days last year. The issue may be resolved now-- it had to do with the order in which they handled authentication. It would delete your cached authentication if it detected ethernet, without actually getting a new one from the server. So if the steam server was down, you couldn't play, even single-player, because steam helpfully deleted your offline authentication.

          Like I said-- it could be resolved now. Bu

  • Fie! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <brian@wylfing . n et> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @02:00PM (#13511922) Homepage Journal
    Wake me when there's a native Linux port! Why should I care about games that don't --- What? Oh.

    Nevermind.

  • Oh Crap (Score:3, Funny)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @03:25PM (#13512663) Journal
    "Next Generation has a conversation with the lead designer of the much lauded game Darwinia. From the article: "It sports..." (emphasis mine)

    Great, sports, so how long until EA negotiates an exclusive license?
  • I looked at their website and thought to myself, "yay, it works with Linux!" Alas, upon running the executable I encountered the following:

    ./lib/darwinia.bin.x86: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    Unfortunately, fedora core 4 uses libstdc++.so.6. I installed compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm, though, and everything was fine. It looks like it might be a fun game, though the interface is cumbersome and the units don'


  • Man, what a great time it was to download the Darwinia demo install script, run it, and play it on Linux.. I'd been keeping an eye on this game (I'm a huge llama fan) while they got the Linux demo ported, and I just want to say: superlative job.

    I would say games on Linux are waaaay ahead of the competition for ease of use, if Darwinia is an example. The darn thing just ran, and I played, and .. it worked.

    It may not seem remarkable to you young-uns', but there was a time when such ease of use gaming in Unix

  • Try some of those that are more 'indie friendly'. Garagegames, Mstrix games, Dreamcatcher, JoWood(well, maybe not them).

    I think its a good idea to give a bit more love to the smaller publishers, be integral in their growth and see where that leads interms of financial success and noteriety....

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • game simply not 'fun' ? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by yuud ( 690436 )
    in the demo, I didn't really find this game very fun. I liked the 'world' and it held my interest for a while, but at the end of the day I was just making a squddie, then manually controlling them to shoot at little arrows moving around and lobbing a few nades, and that was about it. I didn't understand how that was supposed to be fun.
    • Did you play the original demo or the newer one? the original was a level out of the game which didn't have a lot of guidance, then they re-released it, and it had tutorial aspects that helped a lot.

      I've played through the game, and some of the later levels are quite challenging, and of course, fun :)
  • I only read the stuff modded 3 and up and didn't see this mentioned as an option. Why not set it up as a disk image and sell it via an e-commerce solution to we US-ians? Or some other method of internet distribution? Maybe bit-torrent it and have a front end attached to the software that allows you to purchase it once it's launched. Given, then you're limiting your distro to broadband users but isn't that who primarly plays PC games anyways? Just a few thoughts.
  • when I learned that I needed to buy the boxed windows version to play the Linux version I went to my local HMV had no problem finding the game, took it home ran the linux install from the web site and spent the next couple of weeks enjoying a really cool game.
    It worked first time, was interesting, different and engaging.
    Perfect learning curve, envolved the longer you played and well worth the money.
    Its a pity that HMV will rack it up as another windows sale :(
    And the retro winks really added to the experien
  • This is not what Video Games are about.

    Darwinie its a absolutelly brillant AAA title. If publishers dont want to help this title, we hare doomed. Only absolutelly CRAP will get distributed :(
  • It's an interesting thought I just had, staring at the low amount of interest and sales my new "Arcadia Project" has had since being announced a few days ago( http://www.stormcloudcreations.com/arcproject. htm [stormcloudcreations.com]), and wondering why publishers are cautious about non-formula or "risky" titles.

    The fact is, many general level gamers are pretty apathetic these days and don't really want much originality or want to stand up and offer support to smaller developers, forcing them to assume huge financial risks or pro

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