Let your fellow Flareopaths ponder and pass judgement. If your pitch isn't amongst the fifteen indexed below and perusal of the competition does nothing to dissipate the nagging feeling of injustice, do post your pitch in the comments section. Some ideas that failed to make the shortlist may well have tickled the dragons more than some that did. Accuse me of double standards if you like, but in the light of recent terror attacks, I just couldn't bring myself to shortlist a game in which one possible role involved recruiting jihadis, collecting bio-toxins and carrying out “major attacks on population centres”. Only one pitch was sidelined on taste grounds. There was, for instance, only room for one Patton's Best-style single-tank roguelike in my shortlist, and unfortunately for Adam 'Escape From the Falaise Pocket' Kusiak, I ultimately concluded that Patton's Best-style single-tank roguelike should be Brothers in Armour. Sometimes a pitch lost out because it resembled another fractionally stronger one too closely. Others felt like sims or action games at heart rather than true strategy titles (Sam Crisp's Forward Observer game - “Virtual-O but with High Explosives” - and Guy Atherton's Behind Enemy Lines - “basically a first person survival game, but with Soviets instead of zombies” - for example). ![]() An ingenious historical city builder/archaeology sim and an intriguing Bronze Age trading game spring to mind. Some ideas failed to make the shortlist simply because they weren't war-torn enough. ![]() A shortlist was necessary and, despite my best efforts, that shortlist inevitably ended up reflecting my own prejudices and predilections. Even if you don't receive a “When can you start?” call from Slitherine's Iain McNeil in the next few days, perhaps your idea will sow seeds in the mind of a young coder somewhere or help nudge an established designer in an exciting new direction.įairly soon after posting the introductory article I realised I wouldn't be able to send every submission dragon-ward without subjecting Steve Grammont (Battlefront), Tomislav Uzelac (2x2), Iain McNeil (Slitherine), Johan Nagel (Every Single Soldier) and Richard Bodley Scott (Byzantine Games) to days of solid reading. A hankering for more characterful combatants, thicker fog of war, and more fibrous and fallible command and control modelling. If the ideas submitted are indicative of popular desires - widespread frustrations - then it's clear that there's a real craving out there for fresh themes and innovative mechanics. ![]() Those submissions together with a few personal favourites are displayed at the end of this piece.Ī huge 'Děkuji' to everyone who took the time to share a cherished pipedream. While no two dragons first-prized the same pitch, praise did tend to cluster around a particular clutch of submissions. Choosing a dozen or so pitches to put before the Flare Path dragons (five industry notables whose creations frequently grace this column) was horribly difficult, but the shortlist was eventually drawn up, the Scaly Ones summoned. The response was magnificent, the calibre of submissions Paris Gun high. Two weeks ago I invited readers to send in their ideas for military strategy games.
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