Civitas- A new DRM-free city builder

[Tupin]

This appears to be a pretty interesting Kickstarter, I'm pretty sure they're trying to be everything the new SimCity isn't. How they're going to do it with just $250K, I have no clue, but it will be interesting to see how it develops.


Kickstarter is here (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1584821767/civitas-plan-develop-and-manage-the-city-of-your-d)

If this game can give me more gameplay screenshots and footage, this may be the first Kickstarter that I back.

[JSoup]

Neat. There are a number of really good non-simicity city builders out there, so I don't know that this one is really gong to bring anything new to the table, but I'll sure give it a hard look once it's released (if it's released, that is).

[Tupin]

I didn't want it to be true, but I'm pretty sure this thing's never gonna see the light of day. The development team has shown itself to be incredibly unprofessional and the funding is pulling out left and right because they haven't delivered on promises. They said that they had a beta ready but it actually looks way more like an early alpha from what they showed.

I don't think this was a scam, I just think the team was completely unprepared to deal with their newfound fame because of the discontent with SimCity and EA.

It's a total shame. If this does get funded somehow, I hope they can get their act together. What might actually happen though is it goes unfunded and they come back in a few months with a beta and a more professional approach.

[Ed Oscuro]

By coincidence I looked up some free projects the other day (an outgrowth of trying to get Batman DOOM running in the newest Eternity Engine): FreeCiv and FreeTTD (transport tycoon).

If what I read is right and the Civitas people aren't even willing to do an interview or put up contact info, well...

[Tupin]

What most people want, it seems, is a modernized SC4, which isn't what SimCity gave us. Civitas does look promising, but as I said, not sure it is going to go anywhere. Hopefully it does.

Those open-source implementations sound cool, but are they anything close to what SimCity or Civitas would provide graphically and gameplay-wise?

I think they're denying interviews because they're trying to get themselves out of a hole.

[Tupin]

Oh, and Civitas isn't open-source. It's essentially what people wanted out of the new SimCity.

[Clownzilla]

What most people want, it seems, is a modernized SC4, which isn't what SimCity gave us. Civitas does look promising, but as I said, not sure it is going to go anywhere. Hopefully it does.

Those open-source implementations sound cool, but are they anything close to what SimCity or Civitas would provide graphically and gameplay-wise?

I think they're denying interviews because they're trying to get themselves out of a hole.

I think an open-source game on the level of Sim City 2000 would be popular. I play FreeTTD quite a bit and it has a pretty large fanbase and a crazy amount of modifications even though it's based on an old game left for dead.

[Tupin]

Aaand they closed the Kickstarter. Apparently they got private funding.

I couldn't care less about whatever drama comes out of this, I just want the game. This probably makes it easier for them in several ways.

[Tanooki]

I read some of the details, they seem to come off pretty unprofessional and immature with some of their comments and ribbing on things. When it was being funded it was pretty ratty to expect to give people betas and only the initial release for $25, but for $30 more dollars then you get actual support and fixes if there's problem. And also they're unique to the whining about Nintendo having some evil setup pent up against third party indie developers because you can read around clearly on gaming sites people are gushing how Nintendo *was* like that on Wii but the new eShop/WiiU setup is more friendly than the other two guys so what gives?

[Tupin]

After over twenty years of treating third parties as less important at best and thieves at worst, some people can't be convinced.

Plus their dev kits are apparently really exclusive and expensive.

[Daltone]

By coincidence I looked up some free projects the other day (an outgrowth of trying to get Batman DOOM running in the newest Eternity Engine): FreeCiv and FreeTTD (transport tycoon).

FreeCIV and and FreeTTD are both great shouts. I am surprised there is not a free 'remake' of Sim City. Also - Batman Doom sounds.. interesting..

[Tupin]

Looking back and the dact that they've been "ready to announce beta" since March, I'd say this project is dead.

Just a reminder that spite projects rarely succeed.