Spacecom is a minimalistic game by design. Flow Combine has reduced complicated systems down to their core elements of move, attack, defense, and build. What we’re left with is a lightweight and heavily tactical combat game that rewards and strategy and bravery.

Games consist of battles against up to 5 opponents, where players must gain control over different sectors of the map. Three different types of ships are available for players to build, each with their own unique main function. Battle Fleets launch initial planet strikes and battle other ships, Invasion Fleets capture planets once they’ve been weakened, and Siege Fleets destroy planets to render sectors uncapturable by anyone. Planets may be upgraded to provide a moderate level of defense against future attacks.

Spacecom at its core is relatively simple, it’s possible that players have experienced games of this style before as elements of Spacecom are popular on mobile devices. What sets Spacecom apart from the competition is the vicious multiplayer battles that await those brave enough to venture online. While the campaign missions and skirmishes against the AI will provide most players with an enjoyable challenge, the real Spacecom experience rests in the highly competitive multiplayer lobbies.

After going head to head with the AI for a while, we sat down for some serious space battles against some living opponents. Where the AI is somewhat predictable, real opponents are an entirely different story. My multiplayer opponents were daredevils, kamikaze pilots hellbent on rendering my precious supply lines unusable and undefendable. In 6 player multiplayer combat, battles are happening on all sides of the your base, usually at the same time. Managing resources, defending already captured territory, and capitalizing on your opponent’s weaknesses all seem to happen at an even quicker pace when you’re up against live opponents.

By streamlining the overly complex systems normally found in multiplayer space combat games, Flow Combine has created a game that plays in a very cerebral way. It’s as if they took the best of what makes Civilization so great, and condensed it all down into a much easier to understand package. Don’t let the word Civilization scare you away from Spacecom though, matches don’t last nearly as long as those 12 hour marathon Civ games that you’ve sacrificed so much sleep for.

Spacecom Review Peter Downey November 23, 2014 7 10

Summary: Highly strategic gameplay and vicious multiplayer battles make Spacecom an a challenging experience for gamers of all ages.

The first thing that you must know about This War of Mine is that it isn’t based on any specific real-life war. Instead, the team put in many hours researching various wars in throughout history. Rather than diving into the political debate regarding any specific conflict, 11 bit chose to remain conflict agnostic, and instead tell the human side of war.

Everything began about 2 years ago. Grzegorz Miechowski (founder/managing director of 11 bit) brought an article titled “One Year in Hell” to the office, which was an interview with a man who had survived the siege of a city in Bosnia in the early 90s. That was a thrilling and absolutely moving piece, and a spark that instantly ignited the team to make this game. From then, we’ve done (and are still doing, actually) extensive research on many modern conflicts, looking for memoirs and stories from regular people, civilians. Many of those small stories have been forged into events in the game. Examples are the well-documented siege of Sarajevo during the Yugoslavian war in early 90s; “Robinsons of Warsaw,” which relates to people who survived in the ruins of Warsaw during and after the Uprising of ’44; the great siege of Leningrad; as well as Kosovo and modern Syria.

In addition to the historically-inspired stories, 11 bit studios called upon their own team members, friends, and family to populate the game’s world. Check out this video for a look at how they turned a programmer into a priest.

Additionally, the team has tried to faithfully create a very “human” game, and so have scanned themselves, photographed themselves, made 3D models of characters based on their own postures. The fictional characters in the game are based on them, their friends, wives, colleagues. Anton is based on Mirek, the security guard in 11 bit’s office, who happens to also be a very nice man that became a friend as the team worked on This War of Mine.

Diving into the gameplay is pretty straight forward. I gained control of 3 unique characters (Pavle, Katia, and Boris), all taking refuge from the conflict inside of a war-torn building. Time is quickly revealed to be a very important factor that players must manage throughout the game. Surviving, scavenging, and preparing for the unknown is your goal every single day.

Since daylight is the best time for open conflict between factions, civilians are safest within the confines of their home. Players use this precious time to do the various things that they must, in preparation of a night of scavenging. Early on, I decided the best use of my time would be spent harvesting my own surroundings for precious resources such as bandages, wood, and whatever food was left behind. As the daylight grew dim, I had Katia craft a bed so that at least one of them didn’t have to sleep on the floor.

As night turned to day, I selected Pavle to go out scavenging. Before the war, Pavle was a football (read: soccer) player. His speed on the field might translate into something useful in case things get hairy out in the city at night. As Pavle left for a night of uncertainty, I was left with a difficult decision on just the first night, what do with the others do whilst he was gone. After some thought, I chose to give Boris a relaxing night in the freshly built bed. The other, Katia, was tasked with a long night of keeping watch.

I was offered the choice of a few locations to scavenge for the evening. What exactly awaited me at the building you choose was mostly a mystery. Will there be a glorious stock of exactly what I needed? Or instead, could other, less-than-hospitable, scavengers already be there? As the days went on, I exhausted the resources available closest to me. I was clear that I needed to branch out further.

During one of the nights while Pavle was gone, bad guys broke in and beat up my other 2 characters. They were in pretty bad shape. I needed bandages, medicine, and food. Katia hadn’t eaten in 2 days, not by choice. I had to do something. I gave Pavle as much rest as I could during the day. No matter what, I was coming home with food and bandages for Katia, even if it meant doing something crazy.

That evening, I came upon a quiet house. It looked like this might be a place to get what I needed. As Pavle reached the unassuming home, I peaked through the keyhole for a small glimpse at what might be inside. To my surprise, and elderly man sat comfortably in his recliner. I told myself it didn’t matter. I broke into the house. Alarmed, he rushed towards me, though unable to do anything to stop what I was going to do. As I rummaged through his cabinets, the old man begged me to stop. I had grabbed the last of his food. My bags half full, it was time to head upstairs. His cries continued. “Take what you want, just don’t hurt us” he said. As I reached the upstairs bathroom, his concern became more focused on what I was really after. “Please don’t take our medicine, my wife is very ill”. His pleas were beginning to get to me, but I knew what I had to do. One of mine was sick. Katia would die if I didn’t bring back some medicine, his wife’s medicine.

As Pavle handed out the night’s score and explained what he’d done, it was clear things would never be the same. The food, medicine, and bandages had gotten Katia back on her feet, but at what cost? The guilt of what Pavle had done for her was too much. Katia and Boris were no longer sleeping through the night due to severe depression on account of Pavles actions. Without rest, they couldn’t do what was needed during the day. Any entry in Pavle’s journal reveals his guilt as well. In the quest to stay alive, he and his companions had lost their humanity.

Another night, another opportunity to scavenge. I took Pavle out again in hopes of getting ahead, maybe finding something of value to trade. Instead, as I opened that door, I found my fate in the form of armed Bandits. Pavle never returned home that morning. No food would be on the stove for breakfast, no wood to keep the fire burning. Katia and Boris would never find out exactly what happened to Pavle, he was just gone. Now there were just two of them. Maybe it was better that way, it would be easier with one less mouth to feed.

This War of Mine is easily one of the most powerful and thought provoking games I’ve ever played. Despite this only being a limited preview of the game, I stand here today sending out a simple message to you. Get this game.

This War of Mine is currently in development. The game is scheduled for release on November 14th, 2014 on Steam. Learn more about the game at ThisWarofMine.com

For your PC Master Race purchasing pleasure, click to add the game to your glorious Steam shopping cart. 

11 bit launchpad took to PAX Prime to reveal their latest publishing project, Jameson The Pilot. Along with a picture gallery, fans can check out a reveal trailer for the game which promises players the ability to be a pirate, miner, trader, explorer, or even something a bit R-rated.

Jameson The Pilot is a space sim offering players the freedom to do almost anything they want. They can be explorers, miners, traders, pirates or even… space bus drivers! Combined with the rich system of customizable ships, guilds and quests, Jameson The Pilot offers a huge world full of endless possibilities.

Everything is served in a beautiful pixel-art graphics and 8-bit music for your visual and audible pleasure. What differs Jameson from other game though, is the approach. The game is all about fun, so you shouldn’t expect huge SAVE THE GALAXY quests. What does it have in exchange? A lot of humor, pop culture references, and cheesy jokes (that’s for sure) while players relax and fly through endless space.

Developed by Rezoner, Jameson The Pilot is coming to Steam Early Access this Autumn. For more information about the game, visit www.jamesonthepilot.com and follow the team on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jamesonthepilot

Spacecom is a strategic-to-the-bone starfleet-command game with a heavy focus on multiplayer. Using three types of fleets (siege, invade, battle) and four types of planetary systems (hubs, shipyards, repair yards and supply systems) command your armies to dominate in the galaxy. Capture enemy hubs using proven maneuvers learned from military legends (blitzkrieg, burnt-ground, cut supply lines, outflanking) or devise your own plans. Exalt smart thinking over fast clicking in galaxies with up to six players in MP mode.

Check out the video above to get all of the important details about the game, presented by producer Marek Ziemak.

Learn more about 11 bit launchpad at http://www.11bitlaunchpad.com/. Be sure to check out the reset of 11 bit’s games at http://www.11bitstudios.com/

Anomaly Defenders continues the storyline from the previous games in the Anomaly series.This time around, we get to experience things from an entirely new perspective. Instead of defending the humans from alien invaders, Anomaly Defenders puts you in control of the aliens who have been pushed back and must now defend their own planet.

My press build came with 24 action packed levels, though I’m unsure if there will be additional levels at launch. Initially, the levels start off on the easy side; seasoned tower defense players will likely be able to play through the first few missions on hard mode on the first try. As the story progresses though, things gets much more difficult. By level 6 the game begins to rise in difficulty by adding dangerous new elements for the player to endure such as Rocket Mechs and meteor showers. It’s in these deeper levels that Anomaly Defenders really begins to stand on its own as a traditional tower defense game.

In a departure from the previous Anomaly games, Anomaly Defenders does away with the singular wave of units in favor of the more traditional wave-based tower defense design. In addition, the maps are much smaller in size, which makes for a lot of fast-paced combat. It just wouldn’t be an Anomaly game if there wasn’t an element of danger mixed in with that strategy; in Anomaly Defenders, the waves shoot back at you. The humans have invaded your planet in response to your previously invading theirs, so it’s fitting that the attackers that you’re defending against will also be trying to destroy you. It adds so much excitement to the overall game, it really made me wonder why other tower defense games don’t employ this mechanic more often.

During each wave, the human forces do huge amounts of damage to your towers. Initially, you’ll have the ability to repair your turrets during battle using a secondary resource that you manually pick up after destroying those units. Progressing through the game awards technology points that allow you to spec down a variety of trees that unlock tower upgrades, new types of towers, and various abilities. Because the combat is so fast-paced, you’ll find yourself depending on your abilities to recover from particularly nasty waves quite often.

Initially, I felt as if the game might be too easy; As the game progressed though, the difficulty increased right along with it. 24 levels, each with 3 levels of difficulty, should be enough to satisfy the hunger of tower defense fans looking for a challenging game that might require repeating a level a few times. With the tower defense genre being most popular on mobile devices, many games end up being easy casual games or impossible because they’re behind a micro-transaction paywall; Anomaly Defenders is thankfully neither easy nor micro-transaction locked.

Veteran players of the series will find the gameplay to be both familiar and very different at the same time. A mixture of speed and strategy makes Anomaly Defenders a title that tower defense fans will definitely need to try out. Anomaly Defenders is set to release on May 29th on PC and mobile devices.