Happy 3rd Birthday, GSB!

It’s hard to imagine (and thus very slightly belated, lol) that three years ago yesterday – Monday, August 31, 2009 – GSB finally went public with first-day sales of its pre-release beta version. I’m privileged to have been one of those hopeful players who not only was primed and ready to make the purchase on Day One, but who had previously crossed his fingers for good luck and then registered a forum account even in advance of that fateful day.

As the last “surviving” (forum-active) veteran from before that intoxicating early date, I thought it appropriate to make a public observance of this milestone.

Hats off to cliffski for daring to press on, regardless, with this interesting, unusual, graphically awesome and moddable game! That seed of an idea grew into a mighty oak whose trunk eventually also branched out into five DLC expansions as well as a campaign, too. The wonderful GSB adventure has indeed come a long way since the summer of 2009.

This game was – and still is – very fortunate to have sparked the creation of a major modding community devoted to it. Even after cliffski eventually progressed to developing Positech’s next game, Gratuitous Tank Battles, GSB was – and still is :wink: – highly regarded by the fiendishly clever player-technicians, talented idealists & space-warfare enthusiasts who refused to stop creating mass amounts of new & exciting content for it.

While the modders (myself among them) have made great efforts to keep the GSB flame alive, we haven’t done so only for the sake of having our own playable creations see the light of day. We also have some hopes that, all trends to the contrary, there may yet be some further official development added to this game. Only time will tell. But until then, we who remain modding are united in our refusal to let this game slide into the dark.

Congratulations to GSB as it enters its fourth year of life! :smiley:

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Hopefully cliffski’s next game will be GSB 2! I really wish more people had found out about it and bought it, we might have a far more active community.

When GSB was new, this place was super-busy every single day. There was no shortage of activity in our community, I assure you. Of course the signal-to-noise ratio which we enjoy these days is noticeably better, though. :wink:

I’m pretty sure that we all would love a second edition of this wonderful game.

Sorry if i have some writing errors, some of you already know that i’m not a native english speaker since i’m from the far, little Argentina! Yep, (old) GSB players can be found even here…
Since i’ve been dead around more than half year, and i didn’t had many english conversations i’ve lost a bit of practice :stuck_out_tongue:

Back in topic… Gratuitous Space Battles, i will always keep that game alive in a place of my mind, why? Not only because it was (and still is) awesome at its own way, not only because thanks to it i’ve enjoyed with persons of so many different places of the world, and even worked with them to make my first mod, but because it marked a new phase of my life…

Two years ago, i started to play the game, and then started to make my own mod. One year later released “Praetorian Industries Mod”, a literally Community Made mod, cuz almost every active user (of that time) left his own mark on the mod.
In the way, i found that i really like to write program codes.
At the same time, i finished the High School and had to decide what career i was going to study in the university, and thanks to the very little coding experience that GSB gave to me in those great months, i just decided that I want to study, work and be an “engineer in information systems” (basically a programmer, but a bit more advanced) the rest of my life. Yes, GSB went that far in my personal life, and right now, i’m about to complete my first year (of 5) studying this career, and i like it ^^

That is why i’m really really thankful to every great person that i’ve know in this forum, and mainly to cliff for making such a great game. Thanks to everyone!!

[size=50](i was about to release a second mod called The Plague, but university and personal life does not leave me enough free time to deal with it, sad, but i might release it in my vacations) :)[/size]

I hadn’t realized how quickly I jumped on the GSB bandwagon, but I wasn’t that far behind the first group of adherents. And I haven’t regretted a single thing about my GSB purchases. Of all the various games I’ve bought in the last ten years, this one is probably the one where I feel I got more than my money’s worth of entertainment. And I’m nowhere near done yet. :slight_smile:

No arguments there, although even one or two of the major sources of “noise” [size=50]cough Randy cough[/size] were sometimes minor contributors to the community’s benefit from time to time. And though it is quieter in here these days, there is still life remaining in these forums.

There’s ample evidence around here that we few diehards are patient sorts, my friend. Modding takes time, and unfortunately must take a back seat to more prosaic matters of what I believe folks call “real life”.

At the start of July 2009, an article I was reading directed my attention to a YouTube video of a “Space Battle Simulator” which hooked me instantly. From there, I avidly watched for news and developments leading up to the pre-release beta. Ever since the release of GSB, I have experienced countless hours of entertainment generated by the core game itself, the official DLCs and the mods provided by the community.

Speaking of the Modding Community - as a personal rule, I tend not get involved in game discussion forums or gaming communities in general (a long story). However during the 6 months of watching and wondering, I realised that this was indeed a fantastic community and still to this day, I am glad I joined. As Cliff mentioned in a previous blog post, GSB has generated a true Modding Juggernaut which I am glad to be a part of.

However, as with all great stories there has to be an end - but just like the Archduke does, I also hope that cliffski can find the time to provide the GSB community with one final epic chapter for the conclusion. Which will keep us going until we are hit with the sequel. :slight_smile:

Speaking of stories, for any that are interested, you can read all about the making of GSB on the GSB website.

You tease. You know full well what I’ve been coding :smiley:

Indeed - but its best to hear the news from the source !

For those who are wondering what we are talking about, between Cliff various projects, he found the time to create and release an awesome update for GSB which enables Gratuitous Controllable Battles (yes really)