1914: The Great War

[The_Stranger]

Does anyone know what happened to this game? It was sup[posed to come out in 2002. Was it ever actually released? The company that was supposed to make it, JoWood, has no info about it on their site, that I could find.

review:
http://www.gamershell.com/reviews_1914TheGreatWarReview.shtml

screenshots: http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_Strategy_1914_The_Great_War.shtml

[SFT]

Stranger, I read the review you posted and it wasn't very good for the game. Maybe, they can't find a publisher. Many publishers are going with licenced titles these days anyhow and aren't taking many new games from independant developers.

I see they mentioned Red Baron. Has anybody played that old ('93, '94), flight game. That was a great game.

A nice WW1 game would be cool. Sometimes these games are too high tech - heat seekers, guided missles, and something like trench warfare might be interesting.

[SoBeiT]

I agree Stranger & SFT, sneaking around can make a game more fun.

[The_Stranger]

I poked around a bit more, and this is what I found:

It seems like the developer was a company called Trinode Entertainment, the publisher was fishtank Interactive, and the game was distributed by the German company Jowood Http://www.jowood.com (http://www.jowood.com/) (also the distributes the game Soldner). There are some searcheable, but unlinked pages on the German Language version of the Jowood site: http://www.jowood.com/gamers/index.php?site=2&lang=de&ScreenID=5077&GameID=tgw1914 (http://www.jowood.com/gamers/index.php?site=2&lang=de&ScreenID=5077&GameID=tgw1914), although the "Offizielle Webseite (http://www.1914-online.de/)" link for the game redirects to Jowoods's homepage.


The game is also listed at amazon, but is "not stocked or has been discontinued": http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007M9NI/gamerankings/002-2933247-2040064 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007M9NI/gamerankings/002-2933247-2040064)


3D gamers has a pre-release demo video in German: http://www.3dgamers.com/games/1914greatwar/ (http://www.3dgamers.com/games/1914greatwar/)

I think it may have been released in Europe last year, and then sucked into a black hole.

The main reason I was interested, besides the unusual subject matter, is that 1914TGW was turn-based. I have a good friend in RL, that I used to play strategy board games with. He is likes computer strategy games, but gets flustered by the twitchiness of RTS games(slow reflexes, I guess). We used to play a lot of Warlords II and III via email, but there haven't been many good turn-based games that I have noticed coming out in the last few years.

Red Baron was great. I think it was the first game I bought for my Mac IICi (33 mhz, + 8 mb of Ram owned!) It had a really nice flight model: the dynamics of the rotary engine for the Sopwith Camel was especially cool. I remember having to use a lot of rudder to keep from stalling while making right turns.

[SFT]

I used to do artwork for a game company here in New York (this was trading card games back in the Magic card days). They used a German company in Europe and got destroyed, ripped off and essentially folded up and died. The last royalty checks I was getting was through a law firm. Unfortunately, that's the other variable in the gaming business (other than your game is boring).

As far as turn based games goes, I still play 'The Perfect General II." I have an older computer setup to play my old DOS games. It's a turned based game and I just love it. Also, if you're into those old turn based games you may also know the old Talonsoft games - Battleground: Ardennes and Gettysburg. I still love those turn based games and I know exactly what you mean by the twitchy little finger factor. Of course, I think we can do better than those old email moves. That can use an update. I never played Warlords or Siege or any of those games, but I know peeps who played 'em all. Damn, I remember spreading out paper maps on an 8 by 4 piece of plywood and playing a game for a month of Saturdays. Goofy stuff.

I have nothing against the RTS and FPS stuff, if you haven't already noticed. I'll never forget the first time I played DOOM. That first level is welded into my brain. I mean you have to admit it, when everybody saw those realtime 2.5D graphics you knew we were entering a whole new gaming world.

Wonder if there's still a market for turn based games? I could have a turn based game done in two months. :D

[The_Stranger]

I used to do artwork for a game company here in New York ...Wonder if there's still a market for turn based games? I could have a turn based game done in two months. :D
What card game were you doing artwork for (just curious)? I had a brief connection to the card game world when TG was still kinda new.

I used to have the old "'The Perfect General" for my Amiga, lol. It was pretty fun, as I remember, but I can't say that I remember too well. I never saw 'The Perfect General II'

I'm not sure there is much of a market for turn based games, at least not with the production values (and therefore cost) of producing mainstream RTSs. The only recent entry into that category I know about is "Disciples: Dark Prophecy" http://www.disciples2.com/D2/ which looks fun, but is a little too much of a fantasy RPG for me to get too worked up about. You might break even or better selling a low-priced turn-based game --something simple that bored office workers could trade back and forth without attracting attention.

[SFT]

I think the company was called Galactic Empires. This was a while ago. A lot of my friends did stuff for magic cards though. Hell, one guy I know made enough to buy a house on the North Shore. lol

I think there is a turn based game out there which is one of those galactic conquest type games, but it's pretty much distributed by the one-man developer. He has a small following but I'm sure he makes a couple bucks off it.

Many of these cute little pass-around office games like Whack-a-mole are just fronts for a backdoor, so I wouldn't want to get involved in that stuff.

I probably just continue writing a FPS and sell it off to the first company that waves a couple bills at me. Independant developers are like poll dancers these days. Especially with all the licensed games out there. It's just like Hollywood now. Nobody wants anything new. I have some really cool ideas, but I can't do them until I have a little more cash/time/AllOfTheAbove. Plus the hardware needs to improve a bit. :)