Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Gratuitous Expansion Pack Released!

cliffski

Ok, so it’s finally here. The long awaited invasion of the space tree-huggers* is upon us: THE TRIBE!!!!!!!!! bwahahaha

Video!

I’ve never released an expansion pack for a game before, but I think GSB was the perfect game to do so. I have no idea how it will sell. I hope to at least pay back the art costs (which are not trivial). If it does that, then I’m a happy man. Basically this is an extra fleet for the game. In theory this would be moddable, but obviously this way other people will be more likely to also have the same fleet, and it uses the same super talented artist as the others so it has a consistent look. I’m sure there will be GSB players who will buy it immediately, and some who will not see the point, which is fine because that’s what DLC should be about: Options for the player. (someone make some DLC for Company of Heroes. Russian + Japanese + Italian armeis plz)

This doesn’t add any huge gameplay changing features. It’s not the direct-control or 4x meta-game expansion people sometimes suggest. It’s just mroe ships/modules/maps.

That’s not to say some big-ass future expansion that adds meta game stuff or whatever is not going to happen. Who knows where I’m heading next after Supply Limits?

I await the verdict of the interwebs with gritted teeth. At least if people complain about the price of DLC, ‘space armour’ sounds more l33t than ‘horse armour’ surely?

Check it out here:

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/tribe.html

*used in a jovial fashion. I’m a bit of a green geek myself, so I’m not having a go.

11 thoughts on Gratuitous Expansion Pack Released!

  2. I honestly don’t know right now. I’ll make sure there are no obvious problems before I contact the portals about the pack. I’ve never sold an expansion before so I don’t know how keen such sites are to stock them, so we shall see…

  3. well Stardock does mad expansion packs for their games… GalCiv2 has like 4 of them, Sins has 2 or 3 now on there. all of Spore’s expansions are on Steam, as are episodic content from other games…

    I could only assume they support that system. And you could probably bundle the 2 in some sort of discounted pack for those who haven’t yet purchased.

  4. OMG!!! Downloading and installing! I’ll give a proper review later after I’ve blasted some aliens.
    Hmm… I’ve had a marketing idea… you could release a patch along the lines of CoH patches that were released when an expansion was released. It would add compatibility between the two versions as well as holding a great, fat, juicy carrot up to the people who don’t have the expansion yet. That way you could encourage people to buy the expansion directly from you and so make more money.

  6. Good work Cliff! That was fast.

    Btw I think it’ll be pretty hard for anyone to give you hard time over releasing a DLC pack after seeing how forthcoming you are about what is in it.

    It’s not like Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 multiplayer mode that they said they could not have possibly included in the game for release yet was only like a 500Kb download or anything.

  7. Ok, so far I’m loving it!
    I have detected one small problem, though. When you win a battle (I won! :D) the victory text of the Tribe is the same as the Alliance. It’s only a cosmetic thing, though, so it doesn’t matter that much.

  9. Do expect to be buying this, but have to wait a bit — I’m swamped down with a ton of other games right now. Maybe I’ll wait for another expansion (or some more patches with new features) so that I have twice as much to chew through when I can afford to get re-addicted to the game.

    Really excited by the new content. Keep supporting the game and we’ll keep supporting you. :)

  10. Oh, Cliff, you’re going to have to try harder than six bucks if you want to cause any price outrage in me. I mean, seriously, skip one lunch and you have that.

    Looks great, can’t wait to try it out.

  11. I am enjoying this game so much that I will buy any DLC you sell on Steam. I am kind of a Steam addict though, so if it doesn’t come through there I might hesitate =)

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