New Gettysburg Game Base on Mad Minute Manassas Code
 

One of the two former Mad Minute owners is preparing to release the new game, which you can read about here:

http://w3dgb.norbsoftware.com/news.html

Multiplayer online combat is promised.

The black side of this story is how the Mad Minute duo broke up and the question of who owns the code. For a bit on that history, see:

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.as...mpage=1#302195

The upside is that if the multiplayer is as good as the core game this one is a
dream game for Civil War gamers.
Take Command 2nd Manassas is asweet game.
Everything you could ask for in a ACW battle game except multiplayer.
I HIGHLY recomend it.

I'll bite.
I bought Campaign Gettysburg & found it not to my liking.
SSpoom can you further enlighten me on a players take of this game?

Looks like a Civil War version of "Combat Missions."

I have 2nd Manassas too. It is a very good game. Your comparison to CM is spot on, with a few differences. It's real time, but the movement of brigades and such is all on foot, so it's not frentic like a modern battlefield; thus, it's certainly not a click fest. You have to do careful planning, and timing is essential. If they do the multiplayer right, this game could be HUGE -- as in many many people will love it and play. Honestly, this game would be awesome as a multiplayer with 4 vs 4 capability. There's a pretty decent demo for 2nd Manassas that will give you a decent feel for the game: http://www.madminutegames.com/downloads.htm

Steve talked me into getting it about a month ago. I'm not dissappointed. The only drawback is that 2nd Manassas isn't multiplayer. I'll definetly buy the new multiplayer version.

Oh yeah... I got dibs on Hood's Division.

Written by Norb Timpko
Friday, 30 November 2007
Tag it:
The concept behind NorbSoftDev is to reward all of the people that contribute to the game. In my previous company, MadMinute Games, the company was owned by two people and they received all of the profits.

No, they did not get rich, there is not a lot of money in these games. The point is that these games are made by a lot of people. MMG could never have released any games without the contributions of a core team of people. These people worked countless hours helping MMG create the Take Command series. They put in almost as many hours as the two man MMG team. Help with maps, scenario creation, board moderation, tech support, design, historical research, testing, all of these jobs were done in part by unpaid volunteers. After relying heavily on the team for the first game, and then to an even greater degree in the second game, I realized that the model just wouldn't work. Two people should not collect all of the profit from the efforts of so many. These games are a labor of love and take an entire team of people to get right. They cannot be done, in any type of timely matter, by the efforts of a few. I myself, as an experienced programmer and game designer, could never pull off creating a game of this magnitude by myself. I need historians to let me know how the men should act, artists to make the game beautiful, sound design, testers, project management, music, scenario designers, level design, etc. The list goes on and on. Not to mention the most basic fact in that it's better to work on a team than by yourself. The shear amount of work would never have allowed us to finish a game in under 6 years working with just two people.

In order to handle this issue properly, I started NSD. Here games can be created and everyone that has a hand in the soup gets a cut in the profits. Yes, we will probably have a volunteer test team as we reach Beta stage, but everyone who is here in the beginning gets a share of the profits. This way, it's everyone's baby. It's not just for MMG or NSD, it's for themselves and something that they helped create. By starting over with a new company design, it was easier to make this happen the way I felt that it should. Every member of the team will get the sales reports, so they will know where we stand.

I'm really excited about this and we are working hard to get our first game out. It's not anytime soon and I'm not going to mention any dates. Right now it's fun without dates. We can do things in our own time with no pressure. Once I mention a date, then I'll kill myself and everyone around me to reach it, so it's good for our mental health to not have any dates. The game will be like former War3D engine games. We are using a newer version of the PowerRender engine for this game and plan on not having the terrain limitations of previous versions of War3D. It's going to be very cool. There are other features that we know you want that we plan to do, but I'm not saying anything until we're ready. So keep playing and modding MMG games for now. I designed the entire modding system and plan on doing it much the same in this new engine. We know you want more games like these and the team is here because they loved what MMG did. We won't let you down.



Norb Timpko

NorbSoftDev, Inc.


I like this guy.

Palantir...(and others) I dont know anything about "Campaign Gettysburg"
but Take Command 2nd Manassas is a really great American Civil war
battle game.
Everything that I have read about ACW battles seems to be very accurately
portrayed in this game.
I find it a blast to fight the battles with accurate troops, weapons, leaders and tactics.
When you are fighting a battle and see your line wavering, the effect that R.E. Lee, Longstreet or Jackson have on the troops is just marvelous.
A wavering line will stand and fight when someone like (3 above) comes into command range. But if the circumstances are so dire as to no-one being able to rally them
they will still break and run,but may re-form faster under the Influence of said commanders.
Real tactics pay huge dividends, and gamey things such as running troops all over
will pay the corresponding penalties (exhaustion, lowered morale and ineffectiveness)
Plus the TC2M community has taken this game and made many mods, maps and Orders of Battle. MMG opened up the code to some extent to allow this from the players.
The maps are simply Incredible and very accurate to the actual battlefields.
The players added Gettysburg, Bull run, Antietam, Chickamauga and a few others already
along with tons of OOBs covering many different battles.
Try the Demo, be patient with learning how to control the units, it can be a little trying at 1st but once you get the feel for it the game is easy to play and the units are easy to control.
When they finally do come out with the multiplayer version of this game look out!
Weapon ranges are very well done, some troops have converted flintlocks with limited range, others may have rifled muskets and still others are shooting smoothbore muskets with ball and buck. This game is very deep and I am still surprised by its realistic battle feel.

TRY THE DEMO!! =) I was hooked on it when I tried it =)

I'm assuming you mean HPS Campaign Gettysburg? What didn't you like about it if I may ask? It's one of my favorite games.

Hi,
I've tried 4 separate times to get into & play HPS-G but the game style & management irritates me: I thought I'd love it after reading all the posts but not so. (I liked the 2D graphics style offered at this scale)

I've played several other PC CW games: a "TOAW" version, "Age of Rifles" which was fun, but HPS-G I just don't like disappointingly.

TC2 could be fun, the MP possibilities sound interesting.

TC2M is a great game. Even though it's only singleplayer, the campaign battles are very immersive. The battle engine is one of the best imo, especially considering the fact that this game was made by a team of 2 dudes. I still play it once in a while ...

You can bet i'll give a go to that new game.

Here's more info and discussion concerning the game posted at Usenet:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp....cccabf9?hl=en#