The Next Exclusive Game (Patreon)

Hi there team!

Last month I asked for your suggestions for games to cover as the next exclusive backer series. I gave you no rules, and as a result we have a list that looks like this:

7 Days to Die

80 Days

Astroneer

Banished

BeamNG.Drive

Cliff Empire

Equilinox

Football Manager

Foundation

Founders Fortune

From the Depths

Frostpunk

Hearts of Iron 4

LSPDFR

Motorsport Manager

Mount and Blade

New Cities

Oxygen Not Included

Planet Zoo

Project Hospital

Project Zomboid

Rimworld

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic

Stationflow

Stellaris

Subsistence

Surviving Mars

Tavern Tycoon

The Guild 3

The Sims

They Are Billions

Tropico 6

X-Plane

Now let's apply a clutch of rules:

1 - I need to be able to "complete" a series in a reasonable amount of time. Let's say 20 episodes, tops.

2 - It needs to be series-worthy, not suited to a one and done.

3 - It should be something that I'm not considering for the public channel.

4 - It needs to be something I fancy playing.

Apply the filter!

7 Days to Die - it's a survival game "now watch for 2 hours as I grind harvesting..."

Banished - I think I'm done there. Quite happy to play something similar.

BeamNG.Drive - right now it's a one and done, I am planning to play a car mogul type game (which I know this hooks into) but the two best candidates are currently too far from completion.

Football Manager - It's tempting, but would be a really long series. Not suited to backers material.

From The Depths - I've tried it a couple of times. Janky-physics sim would suit a 1 and done at the most.

LSPDFR - It's a one and done.

Motorsport Manager - I'm not ready to go back to this.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic - I played it when it came out. Games look better now.

Stationflow - It's either a puzzle game masquerading as strategy or will be running dry on commentary by part 2. (See my coverage of Overcrowd for example)

Stellaris - Multiplayer only. Single player game would soak up a huge amount of time.

Subsistence - It looks okay, but it's a survival game "now watch for 2 hours as I grind harvesting..."

X-Plane - there's a Flight Sim World video buried in the exclusives somewhere. That should suffice.

What does this leave?

80 Days

Astroneer

Cliff Empire

Equilinox

Foundation

Founders Fortune

Frostpunk

Hearts of Iron 4

Mount and Blade

New Cities

Oxygen Not Included

Planet Zoo

Project Hospital

Project Zomboid

Rimworld

Surviving Mars

Tavern Tycoon

The Guild 3

The Sims

They Are Billions

Tropico 6

A little more filtering needed after the first cut based on games I don't own, and why I don't own them.

80 Days - It looks lovely, but it's really not my thing. 

Astroneer - I have it and would love to play some more, but I'm going to give it the survival game veto.

Foundation - I've covered it on my main channel. Hard to say what I'd do differently with a second swing.

Frostpunk - I'll pass. Exceptional environment work, po-faced misery and the illusion of edgy choices. After a one and done it was already starting to annoy me.

Hearts of Iron 4 - File it with Stellaris. I've not played anywhere near enough to be competent which means non-stop backseat drivers.

Project Hospital - Maybe returning to main channel.

Surviving Mars - Did a 3 and done. It performed badly. 

The Sims - If I'm going to cover it, it'll be on the main channel.

They Are Billions - Great game. One and done.

This gets us down to a much more manageable number of games to choose from:

Cliff Empire

Equilinox

Founders Fortune

Mount and Blade

New Cities

Oxygen Not Included

Planet Zoo

Project Zomboid

Rimworld

Tavern Tycoon

The Guild 3

Tropico 6

Still too many to hold an effective vote, right then, let's pick a winner from related titles.

City builder : New Cities and Tropico 6 rejected (already covered Tropico).

Survival nonsense : Zomboid, Founders Fortune (I'd love to play more), Equilinox (might be a one and done), Rimworld (maybe next time) rejected.

Medieval nonsense: The Guild 3, Mount and Blade (love it) rejected.

That leaves the final showdown for the next series as follows:

Cliff Empire

Oxygen Not Included

Planet Zoo

Tavern Tycoon

VOTE VOTE VOTE!

-CF