Cliff ‘cliffski’ Harris is the definition of the indie developer, the Han Solo of the gaming world. He’s in it for the cash, but in an honest way. He does all the development solo (mostly) and makes his way by developing decently priced, innovative games such as Democracy 2 or Kudos 2. I say all this without having ever played one of his games.
Shock! How the hell can I claim he’s Han Solo, then? Well, for one I read his blog regularly. And he has much to say about big titles, journalism, life, piracy and games development as a whole. This makes him a space pirate. He doesn’t regurgitate news or give PR spin, he tells you things. Interesting things. Possibly even unpopular things. He even gives pointers on how to approach games development. Cliff seems like a stand up guy.
I figured it was time to play at least a demo of one of his games, since some of his titles come to the Mac via Red Marble Games. I settled on Democracy 2.
It’s been an age since I’ve played a game that hasn’t been an FPS. Sometimes I feel like I am only an FPS ‘tard. Anything more complex – not immediately gratifying – and smoke pours from my ears. And let me tell you, Democracy 2 is no FPS. Democracy 2 has tutorials with lots of text. It has graphs. It has charts. It even has segments. And they look frightening. At first.
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Back up a bit: you’re the prime minister and your country is buggered. Debt. Disease. Dilemas. Get it on track or be booted out of your position. Simple. Now, those graphs and charts I mentioned? They are your friend. Graphs hold information and not only that, but information that is relevant and shows how many of whoever are interested in things like teaching creationism, smoking, oil pipes, immigration, weapons, the Royal family.
As we Buddhist’s know, all life is connected. Life is a web. Action and consequence. Cause and effect. Democracy 2 manages this wonderfully, just like the old Sim City games. You want to give your imaginary denizens the best possible transport system, the best schooling, you want to allow same sex marriages, be a liberal bunch. But that costs money! And we’re already running at a deficit. So what do you do? Increase gambling. Let the younger lot drink. Na, sack it – let ‘em all drink! But then crime ramps up! Gangs start! Shit!
It’s odd too. You start thinking about what it would be like to run a country, your way. Well, Democracy 2 factors in the time to change too. Some things take months – years – to accomplish. You can’t just decide overnight that your government should give particle accelerators to scientists and that everyone is pro-union. You have to plan ahead. Think. Above all, you must balance needs and desires. What the hell is relevant? Is same sex marriage relevant when there is a recession, homeless and your oil reserves have been eaten up by SUV driving fools?
And just as I got hooked, just as I started to want to win, to cull those conservative bastards and usher in my own utopia – the demo ends and urges me to purchase the full game. Bastard.
But then again, this is only the demo and the demo is a hook. The hook of the capitalist bastards that made all this popular! Head over to Positech/Red Marble Games and try Democracy 2 for yourself.
