Defining Awesome — Prelude to Soldat clones
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  • Prelude to Soldat clones

    Written by . Posted at 5:56 pm on July 24th, 2007

    Why isn’t there any (decent) Soldat clone out there?

    I have been waiting for a long time now. Soldat  is 5 years old. During this time no game has come to take place of the number 1 side-view multiplayer action game. To be honest I am very dissapointed. There are similar games and some that might be considered direct Soldat clones. I want to list all of them in a future article, this is just a prelude to what I want to write about. I’m asking for a little help. If you know any game that you might consider a Soldat clone please post the link in the comments.

    I don’t know why Soldat doesn’t spawn clones. It surely isn’t because a side-view game is harder to make than others? The map rendering is laughably easy to do, I think I programmed it in one day. The physics aren’t much harder than any other game (I also did it in one day after reading Advanced Character Physics). The animations and skeletal system are just clever ideas, they don’t need much brain power to do. And all of it is open source, I’ve sent many times the code to my physics to people that wanted it. Nothing came out of it.
    Liero has countless clones. Maybe it is because Soldat doesn’t lack anything, Liero lacked multiplayer that’s why many people wanted to make it better. I don’t know.
    I remember Grand Theft Auto didn’t have any clone until… they made Grand Theft Auto 2. Nobody did a clone of GTA, one of the most succesful and innovative games in history!

    “But Michal aren’t you afraid that a clone will destroy Soldat and take all of it’s players away from you?”. Well no, that would be a good thing overall…

    I want a good Soldat clone because nothing improves products as competion. It would motivate me to increase expectations and quality. I want to see what the limit is and then cross it. I want to make better games. But because there is nothing to compare Soldat to, the only thing I can compare it to is… Soldat. That is what I am doing with my new game, I’m making every aspect of it better than Soldat.

    If there would be a decent clone there would be something else to compare with. There would be a competition and we’d steal each others ideas. There would be an arms race in features! Guess who would benefit from this most? You, as the player!

    I don’t know what the future will bring and if any dev team is actually working on something right now. I know that Anna of the famed Polyworks is working on something that is beginning to look cool, check it out.

    If you know of any other news related to Soldat clones please post in the comments, thanks.

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    46 comments.

    1. make soldar open-source, my clone will be out after ~ 2 months 😀


    2. This is the sort of motivation I need to actually lay down some code instead of just writing down ideas and then forgetting about them :>


    3. If you need competition you would need to wait for me ;D but you would have to wait… lol

      But I think that competition would be good exept not exactly a soldat clone but a good 2d online game maybe because if it’s to much similar to soldat it would not be a creative game.


    4. I think the only way your gonna get completion is if your gonna go commercial

      The only game I could think that would come close at “soldats clone” is Gunster

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunster:_Rain_of_Bullets


    5. I think there are countless 2D shooters, but noone has made them online.
      why? People are focusing on 3D now.
      If you ask a game developing team if they would concider making a 2D multiplayer shooter next I dont think they would be too keen on it.

      Soldat have indeed pulled it off greatly. Although not as popular as it should be, it is indeed the ace of 2D multiplayer shooters.

      Another reason may be that they look at soldat and dont think they can top it. Maybe afraid everyone just will call them a copycat and stick to soldat.
      it is what people did with that game gunster.


    6. SpiltCoffee

      “Why isn’t there any (decent) Soldat clone out there?”

      How could anything be decent when compared to Soldat? lol.

      Nah, you have a point. Competition brings out the best of things.

      I guess the closest game that could rival Soldat, and even though it’s game play isn’t similar on many points, is Worms.


    7. Heh, I just recently wondered whether the Soldat-physics might be an implementation of that Jakobsen paper…

      Personally I think there’s really not much that could be done better (except for stuff that’d change the concept quite a bit, like vehicals ;))

      What about Cortex Command?
      It’s in development since many years and not finished yet (though there are test builds available) – I’d say it’s somewhat of a mix between Soldat and Liero.
      http://datarealms.com/devlog/index.php


    8. This isn’t really a Soldat clone but it has some interesting graphical effects, check out the video for a nice demonstration:

      http://frictionalgames.com/energeticmedia/


    9. NFK 0.75 (Need For Kill) russian 2d game.. its like Quake 3 in 2D
      http://nfk.pqr.ru/get_file.php?fn=2 – 5 MB


    10. Cortex Command might be a Soldat clone.

      http://www.datarealms.com/devlog/index.php


    11. Oops, someone above me already suggested that.

      Facewound by the creator of Garry’s Mod might also fit the bill, although it’s been in development forever.

      http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/showthread.php?t=17528

      Gibbage might also be a Soldat clone:

      http://gibbage.co.uk


    12. none of the above “clones” are near of what soldat is.


    13. Anonymous

      i know some other 2d games:

      Counter-Strike 2D
      egi_Quakell.exe
      crimsonland


    14. omh.. i forget about ZP2K5 , after Soldat zpk is my favorite 2D game.!!! Its really pwn game :)
      ZP2K5 (ZOMBIES AND PTERODACTYLS 2005) http://www.totallyscrewed.net

      also i know Alien Shooter 1 & 2

      >i know some other 2d games:
      >
      >Counter-Strike 2D
      >egi_Quakell.exe
      >crimsonland


    15. Lol someone mad e a thread on this. Check it out.
      http://www.soldatforums.com/index.php?topic=15610.0


    16. tell sum1 to make 50% of the server rpg servers, inf and tdm, and more


    17. Here in Finland some idiot made a Soldat mod and integrated it with original Soldat files and published it under the name “Total Commando”. What a lame ass bitch


    18. Open source client = ruined Soldat.


    19. Naughty Dog

      Well Gusanos is quite funny and you clan play it online:
      http://gusanos.sourceforge.net/ it’s not a soldat clone but comes near to it


    20. Gusanos is a Liero clone. I don’t like Liero clones cause non of them captured the spriit of the first one. I think Liero was simply not intended to be multiplayer, it’s intended to be played with a friend next to you.


    21. THE 2D GAMES WERE BOING FOR ME … SUDDENLY I DISCOVER SOLDAT …
      I CONTINUE HATE THE 2D GAMES … BUT SOLDAT ITS THE EXCEPTION


    22. Cortex Command has been in development since 2000-2001, so it can’t really be considered a Soldat clone. Soldat and CC are going to end up being very different games.

      Soldat is already an awesome network multiplayer action shooter which needs fast reflexes and aiming, while CC is going to be a more slow paced, tactical game where you control a whole team with resource management.

      I think it’s fair to say that Liero (among several other games) inspired both Soldat and CC, in different ways and amounts.


    23. Master Chief43

      Stick Soldiers


    24. In my opinion… I think Data Realms is more organized and put together than MM. They have a goal and Soldat just keeps adding updates like it’s just getting stuff from atop of its head. (no offense or anything) Most of it is just bug fixes and maps… Not really going anywhere… I say you quit the crap and make the sequel already or at least give the source code and and let people work on different stuff and you work on a new project. Or you can just take a rest… If I had the source code, I would work on it alot. Imagine all those new games from your source code. Lets hope you don’t change your mind about releasing the source code. But like Data says… CC and Soldat are much different games… Only thing I can think of is Stick Soldiers… (BTW I would love to fix your physics and new animations and you need to make Soldat more mod-able. Like the particles and gravity.)


    25. Recently I got introduced to a pretty cool game. You may wanna check it out, http://www.teewars.com

      Still pretty early on but its got some potential. :)


    26. Well, there’s a Facewound. 2D action game from the creator of garry’s mod
      http://www.facewound.com/

      Unfortunely there are no updates of the project since loooong time 😐


    27. well its pretty bad but i based alot of it off soldat, a game I made a long time ago

      http://coyote.sitesled.com/war/war3.zip

      play instant action instead of the campaign :]


    28. Great work on Soldat.

      Hope you don’t quit soon.


    29. Don’t forget about Abuse! and N, and BaboViolent2… erm, SmashTV?
      All similar-ish


    30. …And we can’t forget Super Smash Bros


    31. Bonanza Bros on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis … I recommend that game to anybody!


    32. Did i mention Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project?


    33. http://www.seekanddread.de it’s an online 2d top down tactical shooter, used to be quite popular, until it was ruined by hackers and lack of updates


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    36. Where is your clone, KeYDoN ? 😀


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    42. maliken101

      This is definitely a soldat clone: http://www.johnnytwoshoes.com/game/thermostorm


    43. antique_12

      Here’s an interesting one : http://code.google.com/p/cruelhessian/, but right now it’s running only under my ubuntu …


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