Talking With Customers (or potential ones)

379 thoughts on Talking With Customers (or potential ones)

1. I played the demo. Thought the tutorial fights were awesome, but when I went in to the demo’s real areas I was hit in the face with way too many options. There needed to be some progression to the game for noobs like me where you sloooowly unlock things to become familiar with a very complex system. IMHO, YMMV.

2. To prevent my psyche from realising that I’m wasting my time playing games I need some form of progression in a game, a storyline, a campaign, unlocking harder levels etc.

   However the potential complexity of the ship configurations does appeal so I’ll be picking it up at some point in the future when I’ve finished some of the untouched titles on my desk.

3. I’m unsure as to what it is. Quick browse of the Steam description leads me to believe it is a turn based strategy game with an engineering or design element. Something like a mix between Upgrade Complete and Gal Civ 2. Since I find the design element interesting, I have avoided the demo or anything that would make me more inclined to purchase the game since for the past while since I have been just about broke.

4. Because you’re an absolute asshat on every forum you’ve ever visited. Your public persona is far too public, and who would ever want to give you money?

5. Thing is, I bought GSB months ago and I’ve still not downloaded it. I paid for it because its the sort of madcap idea that I dig, and because I’m a big fan of Democracy 2. I’ve not played it because, well… I own Galactic Civ II and Sins of a Solar Empire…

6. For me, I felt rather let down by the demo. When you see a game called Gratuitous Space Battles, it puts you in a certain mindset, and the demo just didn’t meet those expectations. It felt rather flat, rather sterile. Partly this was down to the lack of control, but also the minimalist approach to presentation. There was little to engage me on a thinking level because it felt like I was just lining up toys and smashing them into each other: there seemed to be little or no strategy or thinking behind it, and no control after the battle had started. Nor did it satisfy my visceral side, since the battles themselves were rather uninteresting to look at, they lacked any kind of spectacle. To be fair, both these problems may have been mitigated by the full version, but I was not willing to spend the money to find out. To put it bluntly: why would I spend even a little bit of money on a game that does not do any single thing better than any other game I own or might consider buying? I apologise for putting it in such a mean way, but this is honestly how I felt after half an hour with the demo.

   To bring it back to my original point about expectations, when I bought Democracy 2, I went in knowing what I would get: an indepth game about running a country with minimalist presentation. And that’s what I got, and I really enjoyed it. It did what it did better than any other game in it’s (admittedly limited) genre. But the demo of GSB did not deliver on any level for me. Again, I do apologise for these words, since on the whole I really enjoy the games you make.

7. To be particularly honest, this was a game I very much wanted to buy. I’m a rather die hard strategy gamer and a devote Sci-fi reader and fan. So naturally I found my self attracted towards this game.

   I’ll try to be as short as possible and condense my reason, there are already a lot of comments here and I doubt you want to spend all day reading a small essay when there are so many other opinions to see.

   I didn’t buy the game because, to be quite honest. It was boring, after pirating it and playing through a few levels to see just what the game was like it felt to me like little more than an interactive screen saver, setting up your battleships was all very much fun, deciding which one was to fill what role, and how they were going to carry it out was great. But then that was it, you hit the button to start the game and the ships amble around in a half hearted manner and randomly shoot at things. It felt like you may as well have just hit fast forward and gone off to do something fun or useful while the computer just calculated a lengthy (or sometimes short) battle.

   For the first few times it was quite good, you don’t know what works. So you have to observe and learn, but then after an hour or two. You know what does what, you’ve experimented enough to know how a battle will turn out if you do X with your ships, or if you do Y with all your fighters. You simply analyze the set up, throw some pre-made ships down onto your part of the feild, and then hit the button and wait for the game to finish.

   There’s really not a lot of strategy here, plenty of room to test things. But once you know the general winning formula and plans, you just tweak accordingly and skip the battle. If you could command your ships in the actual battle it might have been a lot more interesting, sort of like home world, or Nexus, or really any other space strategy where you have to organize your assault and try to counter if things are going wrong, that’s really the main flaw with this game. You simply can not interact with your fleet once the battle starts, you have to sit back and just watch as your ships do particularly dumb things, it’s agonizing to behold if everything starts going wrong.

   So in short, the game was a very interesting premises, the interface was great, the graphics were great, the design and music was fun.. But it wasn’t compelling, there was no real depth to it. No reason to stick around and invest your self in the game. All you really achieved were are few alternative hulls and items that really didn’t give you a terrible advantage, over the starting ones, which most of the time were much better and superior. Half the time it felt like you couldn’t be sure if you lost because the game had just fucked up and your ships did something dumb, or you sucked at setting up your fleet.

   Compare it to something like Nexus:The Jupiter Indecent, which while it’s not an low budget or indi game at all, was the same idea of capital ship combat. It gave you so much choice and control, and choice. That you really did everything, and when you lost in combat, which you had great control over. You knew it was your fault.

   So yeah.. Great idea, but the game just lacked an awful lot of depth, maybe it’s just because I’ve been playing strategy games all my life. But this just didn’t have anywhere near as much as I hoped it would have, very casual in nature.

8. My opinion on your game:
   Being quite honest, Gratuitous Space Battles is one of the Best Strategy games I have ever played, for the sole reason you’re more like a Head Coach (IN SPACE), so, you are just watching your plans and formations unfold into battle (rather than being more of an action-reflex game of orders). The awesome thing of that is that the game actually makes you feel your pre-battle plans are meaningful (the system has actually worked for me).

   Short personal story:
   It all started when a friend sold me the idea of the upcoming game Empire: Total War, where the company was introducing for the first time Naval Battles! Imagine a Total War game focusing on just that, a completely different game. He showed me some maps and strategies of the time period and suddenly I was fantasizing about the whole system of battle that could be involved when the game arrived. Sadly the Naval Battles were not that developed as the ground ones, it was more of an action game than a strategy-tactical one.

   Then later that year I discovered GSB, wich not being exactly of what i imagined, had all its gamplay aspects just right. The AI worked pretty well, you didn’t control your troops and added a good level of uncertainty at the moment of planning, formation commands, etc.

   I have not buyed your game because:
   Well, I have had not the time to spend on that game, I actually let the awesome discount of GSB complete on impulse pass (though if I someday buy your game, will do it via your website, unless there’s a really good offer). Thats the sole reason, if it helps your statistic stuff.

9. I purchased GSB and the first expansion pack. But don’t think I will be purchasing the second expansion for the following reasons.

   I am never sure if the weapons/defensive changes I make to a ship make any difference. Throwing several variations of customized fighters into battle with a huge variety of opposing ships does not help much. Are my new fighters converted into fireballs because of something I did or because of the strong anti-fighter defenses of the opposing force? The following would help;

   – A simulation mode; where I can customize both opposing forces in a ‘simulated’ battle to allow for the testing of specific ship configurations. For example, throwing many fighters at a ship with a modified anti-fighter defense to gauge just how many fighters the ship can defend against before it is destroyed. Then take that same ship and put it up against something larger with lasers etc., to see how long its armor will hold up. An army doesn’t generally design a new tank and then drop it and its crew into the middle of a warzone with a pat on the back and say ‘Good luck, let us know how things go’.
   – The ability to ‘overlay’ two or more ships during customization so that I can have an idea if replacing weapon x with weapon y will make a difference. For example, a “Radar Graph” showing with Energy, Crew, Armor, Shields, etc. etc., then overlay the properties and attributes of two ships to give some kind of comparison, at least.
   – Have the above graph update in real-time as armor/weapons etc. are updated.
   – A ‘Copy From’ button where if I screw up I can just copy the load-out from ship A to B.

   I like the idea of ship upgrades but I think this could have been executed better. I love Homeworld. I like that I can identify an enemy ship and immediately know its capabilities and weaknesses. Homeworld 2 I like less, not because it introduced ship upgrades, but it does not have a mechanism for visually identifying the capabilities of two opposing ships of the same type. Guessing really sucks. GSB is all about the upgrades. So it would be nice to visually identify if ship A is loaded with rockets or lasers before it hits the fan.

   A variation of ship types that have clear capabilities and clear weaknesses to encourage a mix of vessels in battle. Smaller ships shouldn’t just be cheaper, but should have capabilities that the larger ships do not. There are reasons why an aircraft carrier does not have the heavy guns of a battleship, or a battleship have the anti-submarine capabilities of a destroyer. So certain kinds of upgrades should either not be available to certain ship types, or use of certain upgrades should drastically reduce the viability of a ship type if so used. Every ship seems to have the same weapon load-out.

   Homeworld has ships that have a single capability; the shield ship, or the repair ship, or the mine layer. You see a ship and immediately know what you are up against.

   It is difficult to identify ships in combat. By this I mean I want my ship names displayed; for example “Heavy Laser Platform A”, or “Heavy AA Loadout, Light Armour”.

10. I played the demo, and didnt expect a game where you couldnt control the ships, the way it is doesnt interest me

11. I discovered in the Demo that GSB didn’t detect my keyboard layout (assuming QWERTY though I was using Dvorak – WinXP). This was really frustrating and I didn’t purchase it for a while, until it was bundled cheaply with some other games (so I guess I’m not who you’re exactly talking to, but I do want to say I would’ve paid more, earlier, if there were less frustrating UI experiences–they typing being one of the greatest of them).

12. The main reason was I didn’t feel it had enough content for the asking price. The game as it stands (last time i checked, anyway), with expansions would be what I’d expect to get for the retail price for the base game.

    The core reason for that is the lack of any narrative, and having the same scenarios simply playable as different races felt quite lacking. If every faction had (ten?) or so unique missions, preferably tied together with a story I’d have been far more tempted.

    As it is, I did like it, but there wasn’t enough content there for me as a pure sandbox game, and the designed missions were too few in number and lacking context. The user submitted challenge editor wasn’t enough to convince me it would hold my interest for very long.

13. Why I didn’t buy Gratuitous Space Battles:

    – When I did see the ad, there wasn’t enough of a hook to catch my attention. Until now, I thought the game was an arcade shooter.

    – The game was chopped up in pieces that are for sale. First of all, study your market. When enough of your target consumers have bought your games, then plan on selling them the paid DLC. As I see it, you should expect less people to buy your DLC than those who got your base game. Some owners need to be convinced to get DLC for a game that they initially meant for a one time purchase. A game is less attractive for purchase the more price tagged attachments the grow.

    There should be a rule that only proven games should even dare to make paid DLC. I would suggest that you slowly nip away at your original sales target by continually growing your game. TF2 is a good example. More people were convinced the more the game grew and the longer it stayed relevant. If you’re worrying about a huge production overhead then you can also look to Audiosurf. Audiosurf’s content comes from outside the development studio. All they did was manage the community and kept them updated with news and blog entries. Another way is to make your game easily modifiable or have it take user made content. Things like giving users tools to create their own ships with editable specs.

    The market is saturated. You should always put that into consideration. If your game cannot stand out with just the concept on paper then it means you have to do other things to get around that hurdle.

    Good luck.

14. The reason I haven’t bought GSB is a mishmash of the different concepts. I’m a huge strategy fan, arguably my favorite game genre (Bioware rpg’s being the only thing close, yes that’s a genre in my book) More particularly Science Fiction is a particular love of mine. Why then haven’t I bought GSB, as it seems perfectly matched for me? Part of it (probably the main part) is the limited control of battle. While I love preplanning and delicately balancing my forces, the biggest rush is then using those forces in battle, the subtle feint, the flank, the thrust and parry. Using all tactical elements to overcome my mistakes, and generally being more clever than my opponent. Not being able to do those things drives me bonkers.

    I was going to purchase it when you had it in the bundle with AI war and Soleum Infernum, but missed out by an hour…. stupid time zones. Truth be told if I see it come up in a bundle like that again, I’ll probably spring for it, that or when a ‘gold edition’ with all of the additional races comes out I’d probably be forced to give it a go. As a whole I love the under the hood tinkering concept, and love the boldness of the indie scene when it comes to oddball ideas like this, and want to continue supporting it. I’ve been on the fence about this game, some good some bad, but it’s on the radar, and if I see a deal come up I’d spring.

    Keep doing your thing though.

15. Hello Cliffski,

    Was directed here by RPS.

    Besides the fact that I have pretty limited time for playing games, I didn’t buy GSB because:

    1. I like playing games that have a narrative of some sort. In fact, those are almost the only kind of games I play. I played the shit of out of the Starcraft (and Brood War) campaigns, but never considered going online. If a game resembles a sport- if I’m richer only in the satisfaction of beating or being beaten by an opponent (and in no other way), it’s just not fun enough for me.
    This means no SupCom, no Sins of a Solar Empire, no GSB, no Team Fortress and no Just Cause (where the narrative isn’t exactly the point), although I do play demos of these kinds of games. This means loads of Starcraft, Half Life, Deus Ex, even World of Goo for its satire and non-sequitur.

    Short version: I like campaigns that have interesting (and epic) stories to go with a game that has interesting gameplay.

    2. I did play the demo. I found it hard. Not challenging, but just requiring a lot of trial and error. I don’t know how else to put it, but the game just didn’t “click” for me. Even if it had been fun, I would have played the demo a few times and then left it at that.

    There’s probably some inconsistency in my thinking here, but I haven’t given a lot of thought to why I like the kinds of games I do. I don’t want to deconstruct my thinking.

    You’re like the model indie dev: passionate and full of interesting surveys. I just wish I liked your games enough to buy them.

16. I liked the demo, though I couldn’t see spending more than an evening playing with layouts and trying different battles. It needs a meta-game (campaign if you like) with a sense of advancement and unlocks to draw people in.

    I think over $20 puts it out of the range of impulse buy. $10 or under and you probably would’ve snagged a bunch more folks.

17. I can’t really say why I didn’t BUY it, as I didn’t really get a chance to play it. The demo didn’t run on Linux with WINE, and it didn’t support the screen resolution of my Windows computer.

    I like the idea of sitting back and watching space battles, though. :)

18. It wasn’t that it was a 2D game (i do buy other 2D games). It was more that it was a 2D game set in space with spaceships and I feel that, in looks at least, it comes across as an arcade shoot’em up. A type of game I’ve never been interested in and therefore was not interested in finding out more.

    if I had known it had been a strategy game I would probably of tried the demo. But I seamed to of missed that point because I saw the screen shots initially and dismissed it out of hand for being something it wasn’t.

19. From what I read, the game was basically “set everything up, then press a button and watch” (note that I didn’t try the demo to see if this was true – not a conscious decision, just not enough hours in the day).

    For me, a big part of gaming is thinking tactically on the fly, adjusting and reacting to what is thrown at me – this game did not appear to offer this and thus I chose not to buy.

    Of course, if this wasn’t true, then you have a whole different issue – that of consumer perception.

20. “I already have lots of space strategy games” – Mostly that and that I’m not that much into strategy games anymore. I might play some stuff like Civ4, HOMM5 or some pseudo-cardgames every now and then but just because I actually am doing strategic things rather that the classic 4X OMGSPAMMING spawning queues, microing workers and stuff…

21. ^
    It also seems that I have no f****g idea what the game is actually about, but as I’ve stated I just don’t feel dragged to it, probably because of the theme+genre…

22. My impression (because I haven’t played GSB, and have only vaguely followed its development) is that it has a lot of RPG-like crunch to it (via customizable and upgradeable ships) but that it doesn’t have a lot of RPG-like story to it (via relatable characters and their assorted problems and dramas).

    I like such game elements, ergo, I am not happier, more intelligent, more descerning, and certainly not as attractive as those who enjoy GSB.

23. GSB looked to be too cerebral for my liking. If it actually was a 2D arcade shooter, or more down the Starcraft end of strategy gaming then I’d have been interested.

    I am a fan of thinking, but I can’t keep up interest in a game for long if it doesn’t also have moment-to-moment action/activity.

24. Hello Clifski,

    I intend to but GSB but haven’t yet, because of a crazy backlog of games.

    Don’t understand people complaining about DLC. If you don’t want it don’t buy it!
    It doesn’t make a game that you own any worse just because an expansion exists for it! It’s very weird thinking to me.

25. Nothing really jumped out at me that made me want to play it.

    Couldn’t tell whether it was trying to be full on actiony, RPG, parody or straight.

    I have enjoyed other spaced based games, predominantly EVE, and was drawn to it because it had a clear message.

    A player based MMO, all on one big server, trade, kill stuff, fight over territory, get into wars, etc.

    Yours I only have a vague idea of lots of shooting and some possible levelling elements. Doesn’t seem to be doing anything particularly innovative, and that hasnt been done better elsewhere.

    Maybe I’m wrong (didn’t feel compelled enough to play a demo when theres lots of other stuff i want to check out), but thats how all the media came across (i.e. Rock Paper Shotgun)

    While I havent read an in depth preview, all the small previews I heard no concise or compelling reason to play.

    Best of luck

26. Hey Cliff,

    I can say that the convenience of Steam helped to push me away from game piracy pretty much entirely. So that’s a pretty decent solution to your earlier problem at least in one specific respect. Nevertheless, I did not buy Gratuitous Space Battles for a couple of reasons.

    Big Space Battle Games don’t really have much of personality that can be easily read. I am far, far more likely to buy a game if it has an aesthetic that appeals to me. The game doesn’t seem ugly by any means, but it had an attractiveness in the purely abstract sense, and to me it ultimately felt too much like what a computer game actually is – a bunch of pixels moving around on your monitor. I hesitate to specify what specific aesthetic I’d might recommend as of course that is entirely up to personal taste. Nevertheless, there’s an odd thing that occurs with scale in regards to strategy games… it can be very hard to make them feel as gratuitous as they aim to be. Instead of seeming like a huge fleet, the experience felt more like an ant colony.

    Also, and perhaps more importantly, there exists no decent review structure for smaller press, independent games. I think review culture in the game industry is at a low point anyway, scores are slanted way to high and that leads to dissappointment among casual gamers – to find that they’ve bought the same game five times on reccomendation from a particular web site.

    It seems to me that many ‘independent game’ players would perhaps be those who fell off the mainstream of gaming because of steeper system requirements or a busier adult life. That said, they want to play a game now and then. However, there’s no immediately apparent unbiased review sources that can help with a decision. Most review sites specialize in mainstream games and typically I find casual game sites with reviews to be overly generous. This leads to cold feet and causes me to buy games only when I’m completely positive they’ll be good.

    Finally, I couldn’t help upon viewing that I had played this particular kind of game before. My own experience in recent years has been that we’re at a point where most established genres have been exhausted, and even with balances or tweaks I really am looking for something geniunely new in terms of design. If I’m going to go out on a limb for a game, it would have to either have a distinct visual appeal, or new design elements that I hadn’t seen before (I’m not just referring to minor tweaks). Your game may very well have had those – but as stated above, there wasn’t realy a forum in which they were presented to me.

    Thanks, and good luck!
    -Owen

27. “I wanted direct control of the ships, and that was frustrating”

    I would have really enjoyed a top-down, 2D strategy experience along the lines of Homeworld. Also with this, multiplayer as an option.

    The customize-your-ships-and-then-let-them-go style just didn’t cater to my interest.

28. TBH i think the game sounds and looks fantastic, just i picked up AI war around the time, i’ll buy the game once all the DLC is finished and all into one package =) maybe thrown into a weekend steam deal n im sold 110%

    good luck with your future projects ;)

29. It is difficult for me to pay digitally, It is simply too much of a hassle to pay for things online in my life.

30. I’m pretty sure it’s not for me. I’ve never been a space battler of the sort seen in your screenshots/videos, though I do like most online Flash space shooters. It’s probably clear that I’ve not taken a close look at what sort of game GSB is. The videos are sufficiently off-putting for me.

    I already know about you and your games, but have yet to be hooked by any of them. If you make even one game that appeals to me, I’ll be more likely to check into your back catalog and follow what you’re working on in the future. Examples of devs I pay attention to and why — D. Yu (spelunky), Podunkian (merry gear), Chubigans (shellblast), nenad (ccw and rescue the beagles).

    (Coming from RPS, and hoping to help.)

31. I didn’t buy GSB simply because it’s not my kind of game. Although I love 4x, GSB struck me as being more of a Football Manager or MLB Front Manager game. Lots of little stats to tweak, lots of variables to analyze, mostly a logistics game broken down to a repetitive algorithm.

    I’m a programmer by trade, so when I play a game and notice that most of what I can do can be mapped to a simple decision tree and scripted, likely to produce performance near to my own or even better, then I simply lose all desire to continue playing. I recognized that trait in GSB before I even started.

32. Looks like a game I would really enjoy, but I have been busy and recently bought Sins of a Solar Empire when it was on sale. Don’t feel like 2 space RTS types at once.

33. Well, I was interested in this from the moment it was announced and got excited by the first videos, before the game or demo were actually released. Having already bought Kudos 2 (from your site) and Democracy 2 (from D2D), I must say I really enjoy the games you make.

    I got disappointed when the fact you don’t have direct control mid-battle was revealed. At least before realizing the real part of the game lies in the build-up to the actual combat. Now if you care for some suggestions, a story driven campaign would make it a lot more appealing, even if that was conveyed through text messages.

    The 2D graphics of the game seem great to me, since I pay more attention to ambiance and style over technical excellence. As for the game UI, it seems pretty straightforward. It’s not as accessible as Kudos 2, but I don’t think anyone who could handle the depth of Democracy 2 would have any problem with GSB.

    After reading about the DLC, I decided to wait for a full package (Having a really big list of yet-to-play games I own – that’s more than 100). And I don’t mean at a bargain price, for I don’t care for paying full price for indie games (while I would never buy AAA games with expansions or DLC before “Game of the Year” packs are released).

    Being a freelance graphic designer and having 2 cats myself, I can pretty much agree on your pricing. Kudos 2 was worth the 20e and I’m sure GSB is worth its money, too.

34. Admittedly, I did buy GSB, however, looking back, if I had the chance I wouldn’t purchase it. I love the concept of building my own ships and sending them in a fleet into battle, but i started to feel bored with the game at times because there was nothing for me to do during battles. I realize that’s the idea, but for their length i wasn’t compelled to continue on past the first few hours of gameplay, and I told my friends it wasn’t worth the cost.

    If i could have captained a ship directly, or manned a turret, or got to do something besides just sit there, i would probably have changed my mind on this. Otherwise, you’re completely awesome for your attitude as a developer and thank you for these open forums.

35. First, it was exactly the kind of game I’d have wanted to play on my netbook, and I had issues with the screen resolution in the demo.

    Second, the interface felt clunky. The game was fun, but I felt like I had to fight with the UI to get there. Sorry I can’t be more specific about it, but it’s been a while since I tried the demo.

36. I didn’t buy GSB because I couldn’t get into it. The screens and vids looked amazing, but after trying the demo, I found the game to be shallow in terms of gameplay. Sure, you’ve got a literal ton of stats that can be tweaked, but I prefer my games to feel a bit less like an accounting package.

    You nailed the look of an updated battle screen in MOO2 but without the tactical decisions or the strategic relevance. I found GSB to feel more like the combat ‘simulator’ from GalCiv2 than something that I’d want to play as a standalone game.

37. I didn’t buy GSB because it lacks depth. Yes, we get to customise the ships, but the automated battle rubs off a lot of the benefits of customising, and in the end, it doesn’t make a difference (at least to the eye of most of the players). I want to get into in it, to understand all the benefits of each weapon and what it counters and what not, but the lack of real game play makes it hard.

    Like many of the youtube videos show, “I put a lot of these ships and these and these. I don’t know what they will do, but let’s play it out and see. Oh look I won, but not sure how, but I won, so there’s no point to learn anything.”

38. Tried the demo, didnt seem like there was a significantly deeper strategic portion to the game in the full version.

    I was really hoping for some more ability to order the ships around (set their orders before starting)

39. Think a fair amount of people have said this, but the two things that turned me off from trying/buying were 1) battles were really hyped up in the promo material, but actually are apparently totally passive, which was a big letdown to hear, and 2) costs twenty bucks (or more with the DLC). I bought the Orange Box for twenty bucks for chrissake, and I *knew* ahead of time everything in it was great.

40. I haven’t bought it, YET, because my finances have been exceedingly tight lately.

41. I would have, but I have far too many unplayed games already! :<

    Zee market, eet eez saturated with indie charm.

42. The entire reason I did not buy this, was because I hadn’t heard about it! Market more, my friend! I will look into buying it.

43. I’ll have to agree with the second comment on this page:

    “GSB looks very cool but I haven’t even had the time to try out the demo. I guess that means for me personally, it looks like a cool and interesting game but (for me personally) not cool and interesting enough to jump the queue infront of everything else. PS Strategy games are probably about my third or fourth favorite genre, so it’s probably nothing wrong with your game or maketing, but with my own personal tastes and interests.”

    I’ll add that I tend to play and enjoy strategy games only briefly before getting bored with them. Without something to hook me in (a great plot, friends who play, etc) I just don’t spend enough time on them for it to be worth paying for them.

    Will be sure to look at whatever your next game is, though, and hope it’s something I’ll be interested in. Also looking forward to hearing the summary results of this poll, it seems like the answers could be quite interesting. ^^

44. It’s a combination of factors. Mainly, the game just never entered my radar to consider it.

    I’ve seen it mentioned on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and, I believe, on Steam. I never stopped to actually read up on what type of game it was. From the screenshots I’ve seen, it looked arcadey. I tend to play RPG’s so never explored further.

45. I haven’t even played the demo, for two reasons:

    1) It seems like the sort of game that would take some time to get one’s head around, and time is something I really don’t have a lot of these days. I’m looking for quicker, smaller experiences.

    2) I bought Democracy 2 (when you had the Obama special on it) and concluded that, although I admire the amount of work and attention to detail you put into your games, I don’t like games with a lot of details. I think there’s a spectrum of game design philosophy ranging from what you might call minimalism or abstraction, to simulationism or realism. I’m pretty far on the former end of the scale, and my experience with D2 confirmed what should be pretty obvious from looking at any of your screen shots, which is that you’re on the other end. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not my cup of tea.

46. I am waiting for a 50% off or a game of the year edition on Steam.

47. Hi.
    The reason I did not buy GSB was because it slipped neatly past my zone of interest. I saw frequent coverage of it on Rock, Paper Shotgun, and was never quite intrigued enough to find out more. Not quite my genre, I guess. Also, a lack of disposable income was and always has been–but hopefully won’t always be–a factor. Anyhow, good luck.

48. I thought GSB looked really cool when i saw it first, but didn’t buy it because it wasn’t available for linux. It looks cool, but not enough to make me want to reboot constantly. That’s pretty much it.

49. The game was not gratuitous enough.

50. I played the demo and really enjoyed it. However, I felt that the full version would offer little in the way of depth from the game over the demo, and I wasn’t willing to pay $20 for that. Maybe if it was closer to $5. Please note that this is not an insult to the game. I am aware that I am a cheapass gamer.

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