GSB: New Gameplay Video

Posted by Derek Yu Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:37:00 GMT


Here’s a new preview trailer of Positech’s upcoming strategy game, Gratuitous Space Battles. Man, this looks so beautiful. But I can’t help but feel like the opening tagline, “Imagine tower-defense with space fleets,” is doing a bit of disservice to the concept…?

(Source: Steve Swink, via his Twitter)

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Comments

  1. Lorne Whiting said 15 minutes later:

    Looks pretty cool, but yeah I see no connection to tower defense.

  2. Rob said 30 minutes later:

    Well the TD comparison probably comes from making a weapons system (towers in TD, ships in this) then setting it loose against hordes of enemies.

    The comparison certainly cheapens the idea.

  3. Ezuku said about 1 hour later:

    I want this game so much.

    I just hope it’s along the lines of battleships forever though, in the case of not “cheating” with the projectile physics and hits vs miss.

  4. Markham said about 2 hours later:

    This has got to be the coolest space game I’ve seen in a long time.

  5. Flamebait said about 3 hours later:

    Incredible. Somehow it’s even more of a visual feast than the last time I saw it, and I’m glad to see the UI doesn’t suck.

  6. Ezuku said about 5 hours later:

    Yes, overjoyed that a supreme commander style zoom is implemented, it’s something far more games need to use.

  7. XSportSeeker said about 6 hours later:

    From the YouTube description: ” The game plays like Tower-Defence. You design and select the ships, give them orders and formations, then hope for the best during battles against ai-owned or other player-designed ships.” Yep, in that sense it’s kinda like tower defense alright. Still an awesome idea though… I was never interested much in space games, but this one makes perfect sense.

  8. hanzo said about 8 hours later:

    This looks really amazing. It’s one of those games I have always wanted to see made by somebody, and now it’s becoming reality! This is great! It’s Xenon II meets RTS meets TD meets robotwars all on steroids :)

  9. Craig Stern said about 8 hours later:

    Looked beautiful last time–still looks beautiful. :) The tower defense in space thing sounds like marketing to casual gamers to me, but hey, maybe he’s just being honest about his game having limited strategic possibilities.

  10. Paul Eres said about 9 hours later:

    it’s interesting to see what cliffski can do what he makes non-casual games again (his kudos and democracy games went on so long, but his first game was also a space-shootey game).

    i don’t think comparing a game to a TD game cheapens it, there are plenty of great TD games (ahem, ahem)! and if that’s what the gameplay is like, the comparison is warranted. but if he wants to avoid the negative connotations in the mind of some people, he could just call it an RTS game (TD games are basically RTS games with immobile rather than mobile troops)

  11. nihilocrat said about 11 hours later:

    I’m more hyped about this game than I am about Fez :o

    Might be the first game I’ve bought on release day since I was a kid.

  12. Ezuku said about 12 hours later:

    Hah, now missing a unique game like this, that I would be sulking about

  13. Adam Atomic said about 13 hours later:

    alternate taglines:

    “AAAaaah! HOLY SHIT”

    “Fucking OMG, did you see that shit”

    “OH SHIT”

    “LASERS!!!1”

    “FUckin it’s giant spaceships versus GIANT SPACESHIPS buy it motherfucker”

    Definitely agreed that “tower defense with spaceships!” is just casual namby-pamby. This game deserves curse words.

  14. avoidobject said about 18 hours later:

    Tower Defense is where you place stationary guns that fire at moving targets in order to prevent them from getting to a certain point in the map.

    The TD label doesn’t seem accurate for this game at all. You can move your ships around and it doesn’t look like you’re just standing around trying to prevent weaker enemies from getting past your defenses. Hell, both sides are on offense attacking each other.

    Calling this a strategy game would have been a better idea. There are plenty of games where you upgrade your weapons systems. That alone doesn’t make it TD.

  15. Juhkystar said about 22 hours later:

    Tower Defence? Please. This game needs a genre of it’s own. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game in this style so well thought out.

  16. Al3xand3r said about 23 hours later:

    Tower Defense? Interest went from over 9000 to -10. I would have preffered a larger scale, prettier, Return to Infinite Space as it seemed to be at first. Focused on the combat aspect only of course. It even has a similar interface for outfitting weapons and gear to your ships.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pKmpqiz9ak

    http://www.shrapnelgames.com/DigitalEel/WW/WWpage.html

  17. Dynamite said 1 day later:

    This should have an online feature, wait, it might already have one. This game is epic!

  18. Paul Eres said 1 day later:

    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game in this style so well thought out.”

    battleships forever?

  19. Ezuku said 1 day later:

    It seems to me that you don’t do much in the way of control after you give your ships their initial orders. In that way, it’s sorta like a tower defence…

    And I’m guessing that turret placement on your ship will be a big thing?… dunno

  20. Al3xand3r said 1 day later:

    Was my comment deleted or something?

    I said my interest went DOWNHILL with the tower defense comparison (and no, you can’t move your units around in this game avoidobject, you only set your army beforehand, and it’s play by e-mail for multiplayer, so it’s all about pre-battle tactics).

    And I was syaing it looks like a large scale combat based version of shrapnel games Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, but since it’s nothing like it after all it’s not so appealing to me.

    http://www.shrapnelgames.com/DigitalEel/WW/WWpage.html

  21. Firesword said 1 day later:

    The only similar games (in battles) to this one that i can think of are Star Trek Armada and Conquest Frontier Wars, but probably there are some few more..

    If they implemented some space empire building this could have been a master of Orion 4, and probably one of the best space rts ever made since mo2 and HomeWorld.

    Still a great game, with cutting edge graphic and probably very entertaining.

    An mmo with a model like guild wars would have been cool too..

    Farewell Terrans.

  22. Flamebait said 1 day later:

    ^ I was thinking along similar lines. avoidobject mentioned the word “strategy”, which made me want this with some kind of strategic wrapper. Not even 4x in space, just a war-focused empire building game.

    Hopefully in the sequel?

  23. Foppy said 2 days later:

    How about “space ship defence”.

  24. Alex May said 2 days later:

    day 1

  25. Ezuku said 2 days later:

    Space RTS… what is this MO2 you speak of? I’m assuming you don’t mean MoO2…?

    Anyway, anyone know when it’s coming out? Or is this a “when it’s done” kind of deal?

  26. Firesword said 3 days later:

    Yes i meant Master of Orion 2, i said rts cause in Gratiutios Space Battle the fleet fights in real time and not turn-based as mo2. So basically a mo4 should be turn based during empire building and rts during battles.

    Ok? lol

  27. Firesword said 3 days later:

    I think this game ‘s gameplay is (should be) similar to siltherine’s Legion, where through a campaign you set up your legion (fleet-turrets-upgrade) give them orders (fleet maneuvers) then watch battle..

  28. Jotaf said 3 days later:

    The TD analogy is to keep the casual gamer from thinking it’s controlled in real-time, which would be pretty daunting. Saying it’s strategy would set up the wrong kind of expectations!

    Anyway this is extremely cool! And maybe releasing a GSB 2 with empire building on top of this wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. But the gratuitousness of setting up a battle just because is one of the strong points of the game IMO :D

  29. Eleven said 3 days later:

    Ho-lee shiiiit! This is an indie game??

    Ahem

    Awesome stuff.

  30. Ezuku said 3 days later:

    After reading through the description on a website, the “tower defence in space” title definitely suitts it.

    Your ships are entirely autonomous (maybe some intial directions?) and the focus on the game is on your ship design and wwhere you place your turrets. Sound familiar?

  31. skaldicpoet9 said 4 days later:

    Wow, I don’t know how I missed this one but I am sold for sure. Day one purchase (if I have the money :D) when it comes out.

  32. Sparky said 4 days later:

    This looks really appealing. I don’t know why I haven’t heard of this…

    Count me in.

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