Greed Corp is a turn-based strategy released on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC in 2010. In this board game-like downloadable game, players are literally standing on top of their resources. They need to find the delicate balance between harvesting the land to build an army with and preserving it to have something to stand on. Whoever survives the longest within the ever shrinking environment, no matter the cost, will be victorious.
Greed Corp is the first game developed completely independently by W!Games (now Vanguard Games) and set within its Mistbound universe. In Greed Corp, players occupy hex-shaped tiles in a playing field and try to remove all their opponents from that map. Walkers are built inside an armory and ussed to claim neutral and enemy tiles. That building can also create carriers, capable of transporting walkers across the entire map. Players can build cannons, which can then be loaded with ammo to fire at tiles and walkers in the distance. But the most prominent building is the harvester, which turns layers of the playing field into credits you can spend on building your army. This eventually destroys the very land you stand on, even more and quicker if you use the harvester’s self-destruct. The unique land collapsing mechanic creates a new layer of strategy and turns every match into a dynamic race for survival in which the pressure keeps increasing.
Responsibilities
As one of the two main game designers on this project, I’ve been involved in almost every aspect of the game. Some specific tasks I’ve worked on are:
- Overall game design and its documentation
- Level design
- Campaign setup and story
- Achievements/Trophies
- Marketing, PR and community efforts
- Formal documentation for external relations, including publishers and platform holders
- Organizing, executing and documenting internal and external user tests
Media
Links and files
Features
- 3 units, 3 buildings and 1 special action create compact but deep strategy
- 24 maps and a tutorial in the single player campaign
- 36 unlockable maps in total
- 25 unlockable titles next to the 12 Achievements/Trophies
- 2-player, 3-player and 4-player online and offline multiplayer matches
- 3 computer player difficulty levels
- 4 factions to play as
- Any combination of local, online and computer players
Critical acclaim
Greed Corp won big in the 2010 Dutch Game Awards. The game both won the Control Industry Award and Best PC/Console Game. That officially makes Greed Corp the best game released in 2010 by a Dutch developer. It was also nominated in the categories Best Original Game Design and Best Audio Design. These awards were handed out during the Control Industry Dinner on November 18 2010, as part of Game in the City in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. Greed Corp was also nominated for the European Innovative Games Awards 2009.
Greed Corp also got some great reviews. Here are some highlights:
“Win or lose, though, you’re guaranteed to have a good time with the experience. Who knew that an XBLA game would ultimate prove ol’ Gordon Gekko right? Greed, at least in this case, is definitely good.”
TeamXbox: 9.2 – Editor’s Choice
“Greed Corp’s unique mechanic of balancing the need for resources with the need to keep your empire from crumbling into oblivion makes it an interesting and engrossing little strategy game.”
Gamer’s Temple: 9.0 – Award of Excellence
“Priced at $10 for consoles (PC version coming soon), Greed Corp is easily one of the best titles found on Xbox LIVE Arcade.”
NeoSeeker: 9.0 – Recommended
“Watching Greed Corp.’s tiles crumble into dust has been one of my favorite gaming moments of the year so far.”
IGN: 8.8 – Editors’ Choice
“Greed Corp. is an excellent, user-friendly turn-based strategy title.”
CheatCodeCentral: 8.6
Many more can be found on the Metacritic pages for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC version of Greed Corp.
