Cortex Command: IGF Audience Award Winner

[Eduardo X]

I follow the IGF Awards pretty closely, usually finding some fun games I'd never otherwise hear about. I noticed that this game, Cortex Command (http://www.datarealms.com/games.php), won this years audience award. I'd never heard of it and tried the demo, and even though it feels a bit unpolished and unwieldy, I'm having a blast playing.

Basically, you control a bunch of soliders you can buy, Scorched Earth style. They come down in rockets, and then you march them around. The physics engine is really well put together, meaning you can shoot the rockets and destroy them before they hit the ground in spectacular fashion, though at times it'll mean your own death in the process.

I'm hoping online multiplayer is coming in the future, but for now the skirmishes and campaign feel good enough.

Anyone else playing? Or tried the demo?

[BobJustBob]

Yeah, someone recommended this to me a month or two ago. It's very incomplete in some ways but even at this stage it's neat to play and it seems clear how far the concept could go. I think my favorite part came when I was crouching on a ledge and shooting enemies below me. When they were dead I used my jetpack to take off and discovered that I had shot my own legs off in the battle -- my body ended at the waist.

[garin]

This game's been in the IGF five times. Surprised you haven't noticed it before now.

[Eduardo X]

This game's been in the IGF five times. Surprised you haven't noticed it before now.
Good for them.

[caesarbear]

Wow, even the tutorial is freaking hard to manage. Really interesting stuff in this game that's trapped inside a Dwarf Fortress level of obnoxious control.

[JDSIDD]

Wow, even the tutorial is freaking hard to manage. Really interesting stuff in this game that's trapped inside a Dwarf Fortress level of obnoxious control.

And yet I keep going back to it. There's a good game buried in there somewhere. Or at least there seems to be.

[caesarbear]

Maybe if there was a bigger reticule indicating the direction your facing, ala Abuse or something. I gather that there's an intention for things to be a little wobbly to control, but that's just a painfully stupid design choice to actually go through with.

[Tyjenks]

I first tried this a couple of years back and also thought it looked like a lot of fun once I waded through some of the how to stuff.

[chequers]

There used to be regular updates of the public build for people who paid, but I don't think even one has come out this year.

[Eduardo X]

The Humble Bundle saw a new release. We'll see when he updates again. I hope it's soon, as I really like the game and want to see it finished in the next year or two.

[lesslucid]

...the latest build of this just came out. It's getting pretty good. Say what you like about the dude making it, but he's persistent.

[Tim James]

I thought I read somewhere recently that he was reinvigorated about development. I got the impression that a finished release was more promising now. I can't remember where I saw that though.

[Dreamshadow]

This is why I like to read this forum. I learn about indie games I don't think I would have heard about (or paid attention to) otherwise.

[TurinTur]

I thought I read somewhere recently that he was reinvigorated about development. I got the impression that a finished release was more promising now. I can't remember where I saw that though.

The second or third to last entry of their dev blog says it, they said the build will be the last public build before the final 1.0 version.

[Harkonis]

If we bought this through the Humble deal, where do we get the most recent version?

[lesslucid]

If we bought this through the Humble deal, where do we get the most recent version?

The HiB link should give you the latest version, but failing that, there's this:

http://forums.datarealms.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=31378

[Teiman]

I follow the IGF Awards pretty closely, usually finding some fun games I'd never otherwise hear about. I noticed that this game, Cortex Command (http://www.datarealms.com/games.php), won this years audience award. I'd never heard of it and tried the demo, and even though it feels a bit unpolished and unwieldy, I'm having a blast playing.

Basically, you control a bunch of soliders you can buy, Scorched Earth style. They come down in rockets, and then you march them around. The physics engine is really well put together, meaning you can shoot the rockets and destroy them before they hit the ground in spectacular fashion, though at times it'll mean your own death in the process.

I'm hoping online multiplayer is coming in the future, but for now the skirmishes and campaign feel good enough.

Anyone else playing? Or tried the demo?

You can download it on steam now :D

[Alan Friesen]

$17.99... I was going to complain about the price but that's what I paid for it back in 2009. It's exactly like Scorched Earth but real-time and with soldiers instead of tanks. That, and it's got a lot more playability and wonky physics. For those who prepurchased way long ago, you can go to their site and get the steam key from them. That's what I did.

I don't get the campaign. No idea how to actually get into combat.

[Blips]

Looks like a $2.99 buy for me - something to play around with for a few days but then put aside for a long period of time until re-stumbling upon it while browsing your game library and once again thinking that it might be fun to play for a bit.

[Tim James]

I might be imagining it, but it seems like the characters are easier to control now. Their limbs are less likely to collapse on a hard landing. On the other hand, the physics seems a little more jittery. Everything shakes a bit on the ground.

The default controls are tuned for an X360 gamepad. There's very noticeable pointer acceleration. There's probably a config file for that. I like the gamepad controls. Just be careful pressing the select button. It restarts the scenario...

I'll give the campaign a try soon.

[lesslucid]

$17.99... I was going to complain about the price but that's what I paid for it back in 2009. It's exactly like Scorched Earth but real-time and with soldiers instead of tanks. That, and it's got a lot more playability and wonky physics. For those who prepurchased way long ago, you can go to their site and get the steam key from them. That's what I did.

I don't get the campaign. No idea how to actually get into combat.

Click on a site, pull the slider across to indicate how much money you want to "invest" in your invasion, click the button at the bottom of the screen.

Loving the new weapons and the new faction!

[unclean]

Well worth checking out the developers playthrough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhyZFT4Aw_Y) if you're like me and have absolutely no idea what you're doing.

This game has come a long way though, when it was featured in the Humble Bundle I don't remember it even having AI.

[unclean]

Okay, so I just played and won my first two campaign playthroughs, and the AI seems pretty bad. When it's on offense it seems to land in the same place every time, so I managed to hold off 6 invasions with one troop by just sniping the brain right after it stepped out of its dropship. And on defense it managed to make some brutal chokepoints, but it just let its troops just sit around while I grenaded them to death. Really the only difficulty either time came from aiming the fiddly weapons.

Seems like it might be a pretty fun multiplayer game though, in a QWOP meets Worms kind of way.

[Tim James]

This game breaks my heart. I'm sure I'm not the first one to think that way.

It's really quite fun. Shooting all the guns and blowing things up is satisfying. I hate to throw out the card for "steep learning curve, rough around the edges, blah blah." But it's true. The wonky feel is still there. Moving around is a pain. It's odd that your units destroy the terrain as they walk around, making it harder for them to move.

What I was really excited about digging into was the base building. It vaguely reminds me of being a kid and setting up forts or LEGO scenarios or those crude early videogames like Battle City. Unfortunately, the base editor is incomplete. There is no way to remove objects or save what you've created. Of course it's buggy too. One time I put together a complicated base defense for the Endless Skirmish scenario. When I started the scenario, my units were unable to pick up the guns I placed at their feet.

I read on a forum that you can use the more-powerful scene editor to build a base, then paste it in a scenario. I need to look into that.

I can't recommend it to everyone. If my description above sounds enticing, I suggest you skip the campaign and play all the scenarios first. That will give you a good feel for movement, purchasing units and items, and what to watch out for when the bullets start flying. Don't forget there are scenarios above the Tutorial Mission in the list. Those seem to be more of the advanced scenarios that require building.

Not sure if I should shelve this game for another year (or ten) or keep messing with the scene editor. I just want to set up one awesome endless base defense scenario, starting with a ton of cash, and have fun trying to survive against the AI.

[EDIT] That was pretty easy. Here's how to design the base and save it: http://steamcommunity.com/app/209670/discussions/0/882962139154593280/

You still have to place actors and guns each time unless I'm missing something.

[Tim James]

I have about 10 hours into this. I'm really having a lot of fun now that I've gotten the hang of the controls. I'm not frustrated at all. Every 4 or 5 missions, a unit will explode because it glitched out on the scenery or something, but that's about the only problem I have. It's easy to build a base, then zoom around and kill the enemies with a glorious variety of destructive devices.

There is a pretty good mod scene. I've tried out some replacement factions, new maps, and new scripted scenarios. Everything seems well done.

I don't think it will last forever. I can only watch enemies explode in entertaining ways for so long. But it was definitely worth the effort to get over the learning curve.

[RichVR]

Can you still make crab bombs?

[Tim James]

Can you still make crab bombs?Looks like it! Haha, I had to look that one up.

[RichVR]

In that case I'm going to have to get back into it. Crab bombs are totally awesome.