5 /10 1 Votes
49% Metacritic Initial release date 27 October 2014 Genre Space simulator Director Tim Schafer | 5/10 Steam Mode(s) Single-player Developer Double Fine Productions Publisher Double Fine Productions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Platforms Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems Similar Double Fine Productions games, Other games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nerd early plays spacebase df 9
Spacebase DF-9 is a space simulator video game developed by Double Fine Productions. It was prototyped during Double Fine's open Amnesia Fortnight 2012, directed by JP Lebreton. After being released as an open beta on October 15, 2013, it was officially released on October 27, 2014, for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. After the official end-of-life of the game in May 2015, the community took over the development based on an open-source code fork.
Contents
Gameplay
The player designs, builds and maintains a space station, and must keep its inhabitants happy while fending off alien threats.
Development
Spacebase DF-9 was one of several ideas presented for voting for Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight 2012 project, where users would be able to vote for the game concepts they felt they would want to play the most. Spacebase DF-9 was an idea presented by designer-programmer JP LeBreton. The title received the second most votes and was one of five other titles that Double Fine stated they would develop into full games. A full commercial version of the game was announced on October 15, 2013, with an alpha version being available to purchase through Steam Early Access. Double Fine announced on September 17, 2014 that the full game would be released in October 2014. In addition, they promised to release the game's Lua source code to allow the community to develop new content and features independently.
Release
The release of v1.0 commenced on October 27, 2014, simultaneously with release of Lua source code. The retail version included a tutorial mode, goals screen and bugfixes.
End-of-support
After the release of v1.0 on November 21, 2014, twelve employees were laid off including the programmer and project lead JP LeBreton. On December 16, 2014 Greg Rice posted on the official technical support forums stating that there were no further plans for patches and there was no team assigned to the project.
Open-source and community-support
In May 2015, after Double Fine ended the support and abandoned the game, part of the source code was released under the CPAL open-source license to the public. Following that event, fans have been working to continue the game's development and support. Based on Double Fine's documented plans the game's community develops bug fixes, extensions and additional features to the game. A first community patch became available in October 2015, latest one is from February 2016.
Controversy
In September 2014, Double Fine announced that they were going to bring Spacebase DF-9 out of early access status, and add features to make the game a full commercial release, due to a lack of sales for the game during the early access period. After the commercial release, Double Fine will release part of the source code and no new features will be added, but Double Fine will still be offering support of the game and making bug fix releases. The news was met with controversy, with some fans expressing anger over the fact that the game wouldn't continue development, and some developers questioning whether a failure by a well known developer to successfully use the early access model would tarnish that model for other developers.
Reception
Spacebase DF-9 has a 46/100 Metacritic score. IGN gave the game a 6.8/10 score and commented: "Spacebase DF-9 is charming, and its random events give you more to do and worry about than something like Banished. However, it lacks the depth and polish needed to make the tasks of expansion and crisis management go smoothly."