Iron Brigade

[Sno]

I think it has the best gameplay foundations of any Doublefine game i've played, but it kind of ended up being a brief once-through affair with some seriously impaired replayability.

I'm kind of in this spot where i really want to keep playing the game, but the things it has left me with to do at the end are less enjoyable than the things it offered when i started out.

The big problem is how the progression leaves you far too strong for the earlier levels to be any fun, only the last couple levels still giving you interesting unlocks and a challenge.

Really, really, really needs some kind of harder-difficulty level remixes, or an endless mode, or something.

[Sno]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-30-board-game-blocks-eu-trenched-release

And this would be why it isn't available in Europe.

[Squid Division]

Damn that sucks. Hopefully it comes out quick, the game is pretty great. I agree that it does need an endless mode AND a harder version of the first levels. I wish the amount of enemies scaled to your level. They mentioned DLC plans on their twitter, so I'd expect and endless mode there.

[Patters]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-30-board-game-blocks-eu-trenched-release

And this would be why it isn't available in Europe.

Fucking Spaniards with Sean Connery accents.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The name stinks, anyway. They should just come up with something else and release it.

[Squid Division]

Marketing money already spent, etc.

Though that might be nothing compared to what the time and legal fees would be.

[Noyb]

:edge: :edge: :edge:

An innovative developer's game

Cannot be sold

Due to a trademark

On a common English word?

Where have I heard this before?

:edge: :edge: :edge:

[Karimi]

Why can't they release these games for PC ? God. Life sucks.

[Thrik]

Ouch.

[Nachimir]

That's the most pretentious and shit marketing for a boardgame I've ever seen. From the about page:

Since immemorial times, the Top 3 of the Classic Games around the world has always been composed of the forever eternal games: Chess, Checkers and Backgammon.

But now, finally, there is a “real” competitor, which will stand still and will probably become a cult game, famous worldwide.

Fuck off. They've been working on it for three years, don't have a publisher yet, take stands at toy fairs, and make a lot of noise about trademarks. All of those things indicate these people are trouble to work with. It reads as someone who has invented a boardgame, got attached to an aesthetic ideal for it, can't possibly fund production themselves and are *still* hoping someone will come along and make them rich.

That's probably why the boardgame will languish, forever unpublished. Dread Pirate, for instance, had an amazingly opulent first edition, but was a rubbish game. Second edition tidied up the rules, but there was no way a publisher was going to produce it to the same standard and expense as the first.

With precedent like that, why would a publisher take a punt on these twats? They come over like all the worst artists and academics I ever met while working in those worlds.

[Tanukitsune]

This doesn't make any sense, if he trademarked "Trench" then why can't they release a game named "TrenchED"?

Does this mean he has claim on any product with the word "Trench" in it? I thought it had to be the exact same name?

[Thompson]

This doesn't make any sense, if he trademarked "Trench" then why can't they release a game named "TrenchED"?

Does this mean he has claim on any product with the word "Trench" in it? I thought it had to be the exact same name?

Derivatives.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Hmm! With all that in mind, I hope DoubleFine steamroller them. What nonsense!

[stewmull]

Thats a real shame :/ was hoping it would get a pc release but yeah, i dont see that happening...

[Nappi]

Trench website is the best. I love all the bullshit he has managed to pile on top of a board game that probably doesn't even have complete set of rules yet. And the video..

Trenched looks pretty neat too. To bad that – now for two reasons – I will never be able to play it.

[Thrik]

This doesn't make any sense, if he trademarked "Trench" then why can't they release a game named "TrenchED"?

Does this mean he has claim on any product with the word "Trench" in it? I thought it had to be the exact same name?

It actually makes complete sense if you have a vague understanding of trademark law. Trademarks are all about the context: if it weren't a WW1 era-themed game it'd probably be fine to release a game called 'Trenched'. Unfortunately it is, and so it falls foul.

It sucks but I don't think those who own the trademark have really done anything particularly wrong here. Don't forget that trademark owners have to vigilantly protect their trademarks or they lose them, so they're not necessarily just being asses.

[Nachimir]

I don't think those who own the trademark have really done anything particularly wrong here.

True, but they're still utter twats.

Don't forget that trademark owners have to vigilantly protect their trademarks or they lose them, so they're not necessarily just being asses.

Actually, that's the case in the U.S. but not necessarily elsewhere. It gets stealthily exported and repeated a lot though.

[Thompson]

Interestingly, This American Life just did a show called When Patents Attack!. It might prove interesting to those of you who want to know more about patents/trademarks/copywright/etc.

[syntheticgerbil]

That episode was depressing as hell. Even more depressing and confusing when you google it and find out Intellectual Ventures is funded by all the major tech companies as well as the shadier ones. Even more depressing upon seeing random internet people's comments totally missing the point of the episode where patents are fodder for companies to sit on and sue and instead arguing for the notion that to change the way patents work would ruin intellectual property in the United States.

It's ridiculous there's just no clause that in order to patent something you must come up with a product, an invention, or something demonstrating it working before you can patent it. I never understood how you could just patent vague ideas and then sit around for a decade and wait for someone else to do it.

Edited July 29, 2011 by syntheticgerbil

[MrHoatzin]

It is amazing how well we're doing, considering how fucked up everything is when you look closer. Personally, I am for radical agrarian reform.

[Garple]

Personally, I am for radical agrarian reform.

Jeffersonians unite!

[subbes]

Oh, y'all are Catanists?

[FluxW]

By the way, Double Fine is now working on some secret project developed by Ron Gilbert himself. The only info about it is that it's going to be very different from DeathSpank (Gilbert's previous game), and "fans of those old adventure games will like it". Ron posted some mysterious sketches of it in his Twitter and GooglePlus gallery:

[toblix]

Base on the following two data points:

• It's a game made after 1998
  
• "fans of those old adventure games will like it"
  

... I conclude it is an action adventure game. And by adventure I mean abstract puzzles.

[miffy495]

...and by action you mean solving abstract puzzles.