Cortex Command – have you tried it?

It’s important to play a lot of games if you aspire to be a great game developer. Or so I keep saying to myself anyway.

I want to let you know about some of the games I play and that I find inspirational. This post is about a game with really, really nice physics: Cortex Command. The developers, Data Realms, also use an interesting business model.

What’s it all about then? Well, it’s not finished yet, but it’s a great sandbox to play around with. It’s got pixel-perfect physics. Also, you know how recent big games brag about “destructible terrain”? Cortex Command has destructible everything. Blow stuff up and watch the pixels and parts flail around, or dig a tunnel with the “digger” to get to your enemy (Worms, anyone?).

Check out the video below, it’s a bit hard to see the details so watch it in full screen. Then go to the official site: Cortex Command

There’s a free demo to try out.

“But”, you are probably not thinking, “What about the business model?”

Well, Cortex Command is not nearly finished and they have been charging for it for years now. The money they get from that helps them keep developing the game. And that is interesting to us. By accepting pre-orders, we could embark on making a bigger game.

But, even more important, they get valuable feedback from their customers. Potential customers might say that they would like to have this and that feature, but do they pay for it? By charging money during development, Data Realms get hard data on what customers really do like as they put their money where their mouth is.

Money and Feedback. Sweet. In Sweden, we call that “killing two marketers with one blow“.