In 1988, this man – Chris Crawford (here looking for meteorites) – wrote a game called...
…Balance
of Power
I had this game and I also read the book he wrote about developing it. Chris remains one of the foremost thinkers about interactive design and his website has a lot of useful material and you can find copies of his book on game design on the web.
This
is the game running on my PC. The
player controls either the USSR or the USA and the object is to maximise your
influence while avoiding global thermonuclear war. Sounds like fun! In actual
fact, it is – and thought provoking. It
sold about 250,000 units.
However,
I think that the game shows that sheer originality of subject, however
well-executed, doesn’t make for a great game on its own. I think the big hook
in the game was gambling – how close to the edge could you go without blowing
everything up but the game lacked pizzazz and spontaneity and its successors:
Guns and Butter and Balance of the Planet were dire and didn’t even have
nuclear bombs.
In
my idle moments, I still dream of doing a new version of this game but I get
laughed at whenever I suggest it.
Which brings us to another game that got laughed at by every publisher who saw it…
*
Chris has Mac versions on his website and I found the PC version (which is also freeware) on a French site: