Games As Art... Or Not

ABSTRACT
Primarily discusses the games Passage, Gravitation, Braid, Portal, Mario Kart 64, and Silent Hill 2 as being varying degrees of art.  Includes links to other commentary on several of these games, and discusses why it's okay that some games are art, and others are not.  AI War is noted as falling into the not-art category, the same as Chess and most other strategy games, but there are different reasons these games are valuable.  Concludes that some games are art, most are not, and while it would be nice to see more artistic games, there is still very much a place for the styles of games that are currently predominant.

Games As Art... Or Not

The Case For Co-Op Games

ABSTRACT
Discusses co-op games, why they are needed, and some of the ancillary design benefits that were found by making AI War co-op only.  The chief argument is that many gamers are getting married and starting families, and that co-op games helps to make gaming a family experience instead of a solitary one.  Based on observation and intuition, this seems to be an important emerging market that will only grow during the coming years.

The Case For Co-Op Games

AI War 1.003 Released (Free DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.003. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC:  Two new missiles are now available at your Missile Silos.  The Lightning Missile (shown right) is a comparably inexpensive missile that heavily damages all nearby ships when detonated.  Sending a swarm of three or four of these is a great way to take out a large group of tough enemy ships (even core or starships).

The second new unit is the Armored Missile, now the most expensive unit in the game.  It basically works like a Lightning Missile except that it has a smaller area of effect, and it is so heavily armored as to be all but indestructible.  This allows you to do precision strikes deep into enemy territory -- if your gate-raids have been failing on a planet, an Armored Missile might be your one chance for success.

There are also a few other small tweaks, and a fix to a crash bug that was affecting some users in the prior version (the crash occurred when starting new campaigns on a subset of maps, with certain AI types and Simple ship types selected).  Most users were not affected by this issue, but we're happy to have this fix out and be back to zero known issues with the game. More free DLC will be heading your way next week (including something other than missiles this time). Enjoy!

AI War Comes To Stardock's Impulse!

AI War is now available for purchase through Stardock's Impulse platform. Here is the direct link to the game. Impulse is one of the premiere digital distribution platforms for PC games, and working with the Stardock staff to get AI War on their system has been a really great experience. What a dedicated group of people. Be sure to check them out!

AI War 1.002 Released (Free DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.002. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC:  A new unit is now available in the CONST tab of your Command Stations! Missile Silos are an expensive new constructor that can build powerful missiles.  The first two missiles are the Nuclear Missile (shown left) and the EMP.  Each add powerful new strategic options for players, but there is a lot of risk involved with using nukes in particular (see in-game explanation for details).

In addition, there are a couple of performance improvements that should help with lower-end graphics cards and hard drives, and the usual milieu of balance tweaks and small bugfixes. More free DLC will be heading your way next week (including at least one new missile type). Enjoy!

More About Missiles...

AI War Trailer

AI War: Fleet Command - Trailer - Download High Quality Trailer

AI War 1.001 Released (First Full Version, Plus More DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.001. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC:  A new unit is now available in your Starship Constructors! Leech Starships (shown left) are basically an upgraded version of the existing Raid Starship. The Leech Starships are the first starships to have the Reclamator ability, which makes them take over ships they kill (like parasites or core leeches).


The AI also has two elusive new units:  AI Troop Accelerators, and Anti-Starship Arachnids. The arachnids might come out if you spam starships at an AI planet for too long, but for the Troop Accelerators you'll just have to keep your eyes open.  There's a small chance you might see one on any given galaxy map -- and there's a chance that they will even be inserted into your existing savegames when you install the latest patch.

In addition, there are a number of small balance tweaks, the most significant ones dealing with making the single player experience more akin to the multiplayer experience in terms of resources available. Lastly, the final two in-game music tracks are now in place (and they are beautiful); there is also now victory and defeat music.  AI War is now considered fully released -- we'll continue doing patches with AI upgrades, free DLC, and any minor bugfixes/balance shifts that are needed (like any other RTS game, players tend to find these small issues over time). Enjoy!

AI War 0.940 Released (With First Free DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 0.940. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

First Free DLC:  A new unit is now available in the DEF tab of your Command Stations! Tachyon Drones (shown left) are tiny  mobile tachyon beam emitters, great for discovering enemy mines and other cloaked ships.

In addition, the AI has learned a few new tactics on difficulty 5 and up -- this happens from time to time, and makes your already formidable digital opponents even more fearsome and realistic. The number of in-game music tracks has also doubled, and more music is on the way in Friday's release of version 1.0.  Lastly, there were a few tweaks to unit balance and a couple of minor bugfixes.  Enjoy!

Designing Games In A Vacuum

ABSTRACT - Part 1
In developing the space-based RTS game AI War: Fleet Command, I encountered an unexpected design challenge: namely, I hadn't anticipated the issues that would be caused by setting the game in space.  I've played many great games set in space, but most have either been action-oriented (Star Wars, etc), or very slowly paced (Homeworld).  The first and largest issue that arose was creating a sense of location in a non-action-oriented game.

Designing Games In A Vacuum, Part 1: Terrain & Positionality

ABSTRACT - Part 2
Continuing the discussion from the first part of this article.  Discusses the challenges of making unique spaceships memorable, RTS-genre issues caused by the lack of walls in space, and unit balance in a cooperative game.

Designing Games In A Vacuum, Part 2: Units, Walls, and Caps

AI War Demo And "Advance Release" Now Available

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the general availability of AI War: Fleet Command! You can now download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.

Our release date for version 1.0 of the software remains May 15, one week from today, but the current build is quite stable and a blast to play.  We decided to do an "advance release" of the pre-1.0 version of the game in response to requests from gamers who weren't able to be part of the closed beta.

All future patches for AI War will be free, regardless of when you purchase the game. We play this game ourselves (it's replaced our other weekly RTS sessions), so rest assured that we're committed to continually updating and expanding the game.  In addition to a pair of planned expansion packs (pricing TBA), we'll also be including free DLC for all players. During the first month after release, we'll have at least one free new unit, gameplay mode, AI type, or game mechanic per week. After the first month, we'll be adding at least one of those new features for free every month, even after the expansion packs come out in 3-6 months.

AI War is already a huge game -- it will take you well over 120 hours to see every current feature if you play full campaigns -- but we're committed to expanding it even further. So much of this game is about exploration that we want you to always have something new to discover!

Release Date Moved Forward Again!

Our beta testing has proceeded exceptionally well, and at this stage we are hovering at or around zero known issues.  Things have been going so well, in fact, that we've decided to bump up the release date once again -- at present our target is May 15th, just ten days away.  Not all digital distribution services will immediately carry it on that date, but it will be available for purchase through our site at the very least, and other services will likely follow in the weeks and months afterward. More details on that as the date approaches; we will also release a demo on or before the 15th, but we will not be accepting preorders.

Now that the game is more finalized, we've once again updated the Gameplay, Features, and Mini Strategy Guide sections for AI War.  The Mini Strategy Guide has seen the largest update, with the amount of content in it almost doubling.  Also: if you haven't yet noticed, we added forums to the site a few weeks ago.