Gratuitous Space Battles

I have no idea how this game hasn’t popped up on my radar before now. Hell, I even follow the game designer, Cliff “Cliffski” Harris, on Twitter, and I still missed it. Which is good. I’ve been very productive the last couple months – that is all going to stop now.

Some games just knock me dead. They are black holes and they suck me in for weeks. Gratuitous Space Battles is one of those games. The mix of mesmerizing visuals, off-beat humor and asset management is a kind of tranquilizer for my brain. I am going to spend hour upon bleary eyed hour tweaking my spaceship load-outs and unlocking new upgrades. I am going to send thousands of brave pilots and their space cruisers to their dooms. I will rule the galaxy and probably loose more sleep doing it that I ever did for school tests, writing deadlines or any other equally productive pursuits.

I refuse to be alone in this. Go check out the demo and then reward Cliffski with some sheckles for his efforts.

(On a related note, does anyone remember Operation: InnerSpace from the early ’90s? On some levels, Gratuitous Space Battles reminds me of that game, which also stole far more hours of my life than I care to admit.)