Gratuitous Space Battles

As the title suggests, there is no plot per se; the battles are entirely gratuitous. The player is presented with a number of skirmish scenarios in various space locations. Missions are not linked with any particular narrative, nor are there any briefings, debriefings, or scripted sequences: the battles are purely gratuitous.

File:Gratuitous Space Battles screenshot.jpg

Gratuitous Space Battles challenges players with defeating opposing space fleets through careful pre-battle planning. For each skirmish or engagement, the player has a fixed budget and a maximum number of ships (pilots), as well as various other limitations or rules which influence the outcome of the battle. For example, a given environment may reduce the effectiveness of ship shields, or may reduce weapon ranges. Players must take this information into account when selecting and positioning the ships that form their own fleet. Once players have selected their ships and issued orders to the ships concerning how to engage the enemy fleet, the battle begins.

The battle itself proceeds completely without human interaction, with the outcome being determined entirely based on the initial configuration, rather than on player reflexes or mid-battle decisions.{{ cite web | url = http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/index.html | title = Gratuitous Space Battles - The Game | publisher = Positech Games | accessdate = 2010-02-25 }} Players are only able to move the camera and speed up the gameplay to four times the normal speed.{{cite web |url=http://www.diygamer.com/2010/01/hear-scream-spacegratuitous-space-battles-review/ |title=Did I Just Hear a Scream in Space?…Gratuitous Space Battles Review |author=Peter Eykemans |date=6 January 2010 |work=DIYGamer |accessdate=15 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125230129/http://www.diygamer.com/2010/01/hear-scream-spacegratuitous-space-battles-review/ |archivedate=25 January 2012 }} Customized fleets can be shared online for others to play with.

Gratuitous Space Battles encourages players to win battles using as few resources as possible by awarding honor for any unspent funds. That is, for each point of budgetary allocation which a player could have spent but did not, a point of honor is awarded upon victory. The game tracks the maximum honor previously awarded per battle at each difficulty level, so players can continue to earn more only by beating their previous best. After amassing a sufficient quantity of honor, it can then be traded (spent) to unlock new ship modules, new ship hull configurations, and new playable alien races.

As Gratuitous Space Battles consists solely of combat in space (foregoing any of the other elements of a traditional 4X game), it gives players a great deal of flexibility in how ships are designed. For a given playable race, players have a number of hull configurations from which to choose, made up of three different sizes of ships (fighters, frigates, and cruisers). Different ship hulls have different numbers of mounting points for modules and weapons, as well as having various inherent characteristics (in the form of overall bonuses in specific areas). Shield generators, crew quarters, and reactors to power the ship are also able to be placed.{{cite web |url=http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/11/gratuitous_space_battles.php |title=Gratuitous Space Battles |author=Marcus |date=November 22, 2009 |work=Jay is Games |publisher=Casual Gameplay |accessdate=16 April 2012 }} Players must balance ship cost, weight, speed, power, crew, and offense/defense capabilities in deciding what combat role a given spacecraft will fulfill.

Gratuitous Space Battles began as a "dictator simulation" in late 2008 when Cliff "Cliffski" Harris was starting on his next game after Kudos 2. After only several weeks of work on the initial concept of a "Virtual Saddam" game, the title went in an entirely different direction and instead became a space strategy game.{{ cite web | url = http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/makingofgsb.html | title = The Making Of Gratuitous Space Battles | publisher = Positech Games | accessdate = 2010-02-25 }}

As with many indie video game projects, development cost was a significant issue. After an initial experiment spending several hundred dollars to purchase stock spaceship models, Harris eventually solicited quotes from 3 different artists and selected the most expensive one. The user interface was constructed by Chris Hildenbrand, a UI expert, leaving Harris to do his own special effect and user module graphics.

To maximize performance and minimize texture swapping, the graphics engine was an entirely new DirectX 9 engine that was custom-developed for the game. It includes a variety of special case code to deal with the requirements of rendering ship and weapon graphics during battles.

{{Video game reviews

| MC = 72

| Destruct = 8/10

| EuroG = 70

| GRadar = 7/10

| rev1 = Jay Is Games

| rev1Score = 4.8/5

| rev2 = bit-tech.net

| rev2Score = 8/10{{cite web |url=http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/11/15/gratuitous-space-battles-review/1 |title=Gratuitous Space Battles Review |author=Harry Butler |date=15 November 2009 |work=bit-tech.net |publisher=Dennis Publishing |accessdate=16 April 2012 }}

}}

The Eurogamer review noted that initially the choices faced by a player can be bewildering.{{cite web |url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-09-gratuitous-space-battles-review |title=Gratuitous Space Battles Review |author=Quintin Smith |date=9 December 2010 |work=Eurogamer |publisher= |accessdate=15 April 2012 }} Although there are tutorials, gameplay was far from intuitive. Eurogamer also thought the graphics were beautiful and that after a while the element of surprise tactics was missing. A GamesRadar review described it as a fleet-management game and felt it was suited for players that liked to tinker.{{cite web |url=http://www.gamesradar.com/gratuitous-space-battles/ |title=Gratuitous Space Battles |author=Jim Rossignol |date=19 December 2009 |work=GamesRadar |publisher=Future US |accessdate=15 April 2012 }} The reviewer felt that the shipbuilding part of the game needed more clarification and that the battles can leave a player confused as to what worked and what didn't.

GamesTunnel described the graphics as spectacular and enjoyed the ability to zoom in on the action as well as the music.{{cite web |url=http://gametunnel.com/game/gratuitous-space-battles/ |title=Gratuitous Space Battles |author= |date= |work=GamesTunnel |publisher=Indie Media LLC |accessdate=15 April 2012 }}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} A DIYGamer reviewer thought the fight sounds could become annoying and that while the battle graphics were very good, the menus were unpolished. A Destructoid review appreciated the "precisely detailed ships" as well as the humour. The reviewer also drew attention to a lack of balance in single-player missions when only deploying masses of the large cruiser ships.{{cite web |url=http://www.destructoid.com/review-gratuitous-space-battles-157830.phtml |title=Review: Gratuitous Space Battles |author=Josh Tolentino |date=December 15, 2009 |work=Destructoid |publisher=ModernMethod |accessdate=16 April 2012 }} A review at Jay Is Games described the game as "an excellent, deep, seriously fun space battle game" which was an "extremely tactical experience".

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In 2024, designer Cliff Harris acknowledged Gratuitous Space Battles as the first example of the auto battler genre, preceding its development in the late 2010s.{{cite web | title=Designing a system of orders for units in a war game |last=Harris | first=Cliff | website=Positech Games | date=2024-03-24 | url=https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2024/03/24/designing-a-system-of-orders-for-units-in-a-war-game/ | quote=Imagine a game where you have to place down a large number of units, on a map, and give them orders. The game then plays out the resulting battle against a pre-placed AI enemy. These days the kids call that an autobattler, but AFAIK I made the very first one (Gratuitous Space Battles), so I didn’t have a name of it back then. | access-date=2025-05-23}}{{cite web | title=Ridiculous Space Battles: how and why? | last=Harris |first=Cliff | website=Positech Games | date=2025-05-03 | url=https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2025/05/03/ridiculous-space-battles-how-and-why/ |quote=Realizing very late that I somehow invented an entire genre (autobattlers) and never really capitalised on that is very motivating. When I look back at GSB, its a very very innovative game, but it was a first-go, and suffered from a load of obvious game design mistakes. | access-date=2025-05-23}}

In 2025, Harris announced a spiritual successor{{cite web | title=Ridiculous Space Battles | website=Positech Games | url=https://www.positech.co.uk/ridiculousspacebattles/ |quote=RIDICULOUS SPACE BATTLES is the spiritual successor to the first ever autobattler game: Gratuitous Space Battles! | access-date=2025-05-23}} titled Ridiculous Space Battles, which had been in development since late 2023 and is planned to release in 2025.{{cite web | title=Announcing Ridiculous Space Battles |last=Harris | first=Cliff | website=Positech Games | date=2025-04-29 | url=https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2025/04/29/announcing-ridiculous-space-battles/ |quote=For the last eighteenish months I’ve been working on a project as a hobby that turned into a serious hobby that then turned into a full time thing, and has now become an actual game that will be released on steam this year (into Early Access anyway), called Ridiculous Space Battles. | access-date=2025-05-23}}

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• [http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/index.html Gratuitous Space Battles web site]

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Category:2009 video games

Category:Indie games

Category:Linux games

Category:MacOS games

Category:Positech Games games

Category:Single-player video games

Category:Video games developed in the United Kingdom

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