Recently I was asked about what strategy games I have enjoyed and I remembered playing this one in my High School years (During my very brief Socialist period, I blame reading Animal Farm).

Stalin's Dilemma is a turn-based economic strategy game. Beginning in the 1920s, you, as Joseph Stalin(!) have to lay out three five-year plans to turn around the backwards Soviet economy, end starvation, improve standard of living and resist the pending German invasion.

You have direct control over the various sectors of the Soviet economy. Agriculture is needed to keep your workers fed. Energy produces fuel for all the other sectors. Mining produces metal for Industry. Industry produces tractors, trucks, oil rigs, mining equipment, weapons, consumer goods and additional factories, though these can also be purchased with surplus food, fuel and metal through foreign exchange. Transport is needed to shift items between the sectors.  Finally, the military is needed to protect the USSR from Operation Barbarossa.

I'll note that even though the game may possibly be advocating planned economies, it does not advocate Stalinism. The very goal of the game is to do a better job then Stalin did, by turning the USSR into a superpower without the associated barbaric loss of life (The lack of a 'purge dissidents' button or a 'Gulag' sector are conspicuous by their absence).

Each game lasts for only three turns, making this the only historically based strategy game I know of that can easily be played through in a single coffee break. The game is free to download from The Home of the Underdogs. Anyone who has an interest in history, economics, politics, socialism or dictators should definitely spend a few minutes checking this one out.

Shockingly, the Escapist is more then just Zero Punctuation. A few weeks ago they did an article on Sidhe Interactive, New Zealand's biggest gaming company (and probably the only ones to have released titles on XBox, Xbox360, PSP, Wii, PS2 and PS3).

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'll post some brief news about whats happening with my game development.

First of all, there is an updated version of Derelict out on the games page. This includes a bug-fixed version of the speedfix patch, and includes a cool new feature - autosaving. This still isn't the "definitive" Derelict though, in a fortnight to a month or so I will release yet another edition, this will include the Commercial release version of Derelict's theme song, "Enemy" (soon to be available for purchase on iTunes and Amplifier, congrats Kristie).

I may also update the levels and story as well. And of course, this will also include the level editor. At the start of this month I began work on Mobile Warfare, my idea for an ultra simple action game playable over the Internet. I didn't get that far before I started to lose motivation to work on it. Below is a screengrab I've released of a very very early test edition, which I thought looked pretty good, if a little "too realistic" for the type of game it was going to be.

Part of the reason why I lost motivation to work on it was because at the Auckland Game Works meetup this month, I was informed about yet another game development competition. This one is a "Demakes" competition, the idea of which is to remake a new game to look like it was developed for an older system (the example they gave was "Cogs of Conflict" for Atari 2600).

The first idea I got was Ultra Plumber Universe, a 2D sidescrolling remake of Super Mario Galaxy, and I had some good ideas how to make the game fun and interesting. Unfortunately I discovered that not only has someone else in the competition has got the same idea, but someone else has been remaking Super Mario Galaxy with SNES graphics and it looks damned good. Incidently, this is what my version looked like before I gave up on it:

After thinking about it some more I started working on a C64-like adaption of Duke Nukem 3D called Princess Plutonium 2D, with gameplay inspired by Metal Slug and Robocop but levels that look almost exactly like sidescrolling versions of the Duke3D shareware episodes, but even that project is going nowhere fast and time is rapidly running out for the competition.

So, yeah, I haven't really felt motivated to work away on games like I normally do. Its, strange, it feels like years since I last made so little progress working on game projects. I may just forget about this competition as well as mobile warfare until next month, when the Retro Remakes competition starts... stay tuned

I've decided that, out of my shortlist of game projects I posted earlier, Mobile Warfare is definitely the one I want to do first. Being a multiplayer project it wouldn't be the easiest game in the world to develop, but pulled off right it could be a great multiplayer experience that appeals to both casual and hardcore players alike.

BUT.. Retro Remakes have just announced their 2008 competition, starting 1st of September. And i'm tempted to enter it. I have a few ideas about what I might do as well. The C64 port of Thunderblade was one of my favourite games on that computer (as well as being based on one of my favourite movies..). My girlfriend is particularly partial to Wonderboy in Monster Land for Master System, and I also enjoyed that during my youth. Blue Max and LightForce were among my favourite shoot-em-ups on C64. I only ever played the C64 version, but I thought a remake of Led Storm would also be cool. I also briefly thought about doing The Last V8, but, you know, make it possible to play.

I'm still leaning towards getting to work on Mobile Warfare in a month or two, but I could always do that later. Should I forget about the competition and focus on my original projects, or should I have a go at bringing an old classic back to life?