Release day at last
This morning I officially declared Gratuitous Space Battles released, which means there is finally a demo, the price is up a little bit, and people can review it or try it without worrying that the current version is not representative. This game has been about a year in the making, and taken a huge amount of effort. It’s also cost more to make than any other game I’ve made, and was original IP, in a genre that I’m not especially known for, aimed at the hardcore(ish) PC gamer during a recession. In short, everything about this project has screamed “Don’t do it!”.
However, I’ve always made the games I really wanted to make. GSB was originally called ‘Dictator’ and was a sort of spiritual successor to Democracy. Things didn’t turn out that way, and I think I’ve made the right choices. It started life looking like this (once the idea of spaceship battles took over)
And ended up looking like this:
Which I prefer 
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who emailed me, posted on my forums, and here on this blog who gave me good ideas and good feedback, and encouragement to make the game as good as it could be. I should also point out that this is far from the end of development on GSB. If the game sells, I can keep working on it, and hopefully it will continue to evolve and get bigger and better for a while yet. More on that later.
In typical crap planning, the release of my most ambitious game ever has coincided with my birthday, and with me moving house (any day now). So I’m sat in the only room in the hosue not full of boxes, and with not much but the PC and this chair not scheduled for imminent boxing. (I’m moving on Monday). I am also very tired.
Please be understanding if the website is unresponsive today or the demo has a bug in it. I’ll fix both if they need fixing, as soon as I can. (AFAIK both are fine).
And go buy it now
Cheers
Congratulations on the release!
Congrats on releasing such a stunningly gorgeous indy game!
Cheers!
[...] Space Battles has been released! Demo [...]
As above congrats, and thank you
Congrats – like the original programmer-art shot
Congradulations on the release, its a brilliant game.
GSB is NYTIG – Not your typical indie game
i do not regret buying it, as it gives enjoyment for me 
i hope it sells well!
Congrats, and kudos (pun not intended) for following your dream!
Huzzah! I’m so excited to have a demo to try that I may have just soiled myself.
Fantastic job Cliff. I’d bet this game will prove to be your best seller yet. Great work! Now grab a beer and relax for a moment — you deserve it!
Hey Cliff.
You’ve really done a great job putting together this game. I was just giving the demo its first flight, and it turns out I spend 3 hours doing so. It really is that good.
I’ll be buying the game any day.
[...] in the surface, Cliffski decides that space battle sim Gratuitous Space Battles is a go for launch, Unity Indie goes free, and the Unreal Engine 3 Development Kit (that powers Batman) also decides [...]
Bought a few days before release. Just in time, I guess! I’ve not had a lot of time to play around with it, but it definitely suits the genre! I love planning different strategies, and different ships to go with different strategies. There’s a whole lot to explore in this game
I just wish I could zoom out more *hint hint*
The demo page still says:
“A demo for GSB will be released close to the final release date of the finished game”
(http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/demo.html)
Looking forward to having a look.
Just refresh that page and you should see the new version (shift+F5)