Missing In Action

As an ancient history nut, I was looking forward to Strength and Honour from Magitech games. They're the guys behind Takeda and now Takeda II. If you aren't familiar with their games, think of Rome: Total War with cheaper graphics and more complicated strategy. At least this was what Strength and Honour was looking like. The demo looked pretty promising, even though I could never quite figure out what was going on in the strategy end. Greg Micek, the editor in chief of DIYGames, played a more complete build for the 2004 IGF jury selection and was pretty pleased with it. They said that they were having some trouble finding a publisher last March and to date don't have an English language publisher.

And so another promising independent game is in limbo. Clearly Magitech is still in operation. Takeda II was an entry in this year's IGF, and they are searching for a publisher for that, too.

You have to wonder what the problem is. Their games are not AAA titles by any means and don't have a lot of the polish that would draw big publishers. Their games are ten times better than Pax Romana or Superpower 2 though and those games found publishers. It could be that the energy devoted to Takeda 2 is getting in the way of finding a deal for Strength and Honour.

Of course, I could put on my journalist hat and drop them a line, but if I did that I would have to write it up for DIY. Which means getting Greg's permission first. Besides, that's not really my point.

My point is that so many games never get finished or see the light of day and most people never know why. If the studio closes, it's pretty obvious why the games don't get done. I still mourn the loss of Pantheon, a game that could have been the first Age of Mythology. When a big title doesn't get released, there is usually a press release that blames the market or the loss of capital, or like the ill-fated Dinosaurs from Firaxis, the game itself.

But in this case, the game is done and even being distributed in Italy. This is a prime candidate for digital download, but if the strategy game isn't made more obvious, this means another 200 page PDF manual for me to read (see my most recent DIY editorial for my all-too predictable feelings on this). I'm not about to join their forum and be yet another voice that is curious about where my new sword and sandals game is, but I'm getting a little tired of waiting.