Ace of Spades (video game)
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''Ace of Spades'' was a 2012
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
and voxel-based sandbox video game developed and published by
Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-play ...
. Originally created by Ben Aksoy and released as a prototype in April 2011, the game was acquired by Jagex in 2012 and fully released in December that year. Following poor reception and several minor
downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
package releases, the game was shut down in March 2019.


Development


Ben Aksoy prototype

''Ace of Spades'' was originally developed by Ben Aksoy. The first of version of the game, Beta 0.1, was released on 4 April 2011, and was available for Microsoft Windows. This version of the game played as a 16-versus-16 team-based
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
with a
capture the flag Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...
game mode, in which players were to obtain the opposing team's intelligence briefcase and return it to the own team's base. Due its use of
voxel In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. I ...
-based graphics and emphasis on block-building techniques aside from gunplay, it was quickly labelled as "''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'' with rifles". The gunplay itself was compared to that of '' Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45''. ''Ace of Spades'' was received well, despite its early and unfinished state, and was listed amongst '' Kotaku'' "Best Indie Games of 2011" list and ''
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'' April 2011 "Best Free PC Games" list. As of November 2012, the beta of ''Ace of Spades'' had been installed 2.5 million times and had roughly 550,000
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.


Jagex version

Around 2012, ''Ace of Spades'' was acquired by British developer
Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-play ...
, which had previously started creating a new version of the game in mid-2011. Aksoy was reported to have agreed to the deal due to his critical financial state at the time, though was subsequently offered a position in Jagex'
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
headquarters. He continued working on the game from Jagex' offices until late 2012, when his laptop was physically damaged by one of the company's
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s. According to a former developer for ''Ace of Spades'', who held a
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on the topic, Jagex provided work-for-hire developer Blitz Games with Aksoy's code in November 2012, asking for it to be rewritten within eight weeks to meet the Christmas 2012 deadline. Jagex themselves stated that they had worked with "a handful of indie developers" to have the game finished in time. The remade ''Ace of Spades'' was announced by Jagex on 1 November 2012, with a tentative release date set for the following month. The game was to be released for Microsoft Windows via the Steam digital distribution platform. On 5 December 2012, the release date was formalised to 12 December. Pre-registrations for the game were launched alongside, and by 11 December, one day before the release, Jagex reported that 500,000 users had pre-registered for the game. ''Ace of Spades'' launch trailer, released alongside the game itself, highlighted the characteristics of the game's new characters. In reference to the game's title, the trailer also featured
Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...
's eponymous 1980 song, "
Ace of Spades The Ace of Spades (also known as the Spadille and Death Card) is traditionally the highest and most valued card in the deck of playing cards in English-speaking countries. The actual value of the card varies from game to game. Design The orn ...
". Unlike previous games released by Jagex, such as ''
RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was lar ...
'', ''Ace of Spades'' was not released in a
free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
model and was instead provided as a one-off purchase costing , described as a "small one-off fee". Mark Gerhard,
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
of Jagex at the time, explained that this was "what's right for the game". Shortly following the release, on 21 December, ''Ace of Spades'' was updated with free
downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
(DLC) containing four new maps, a new weapon and the reintroduction of the capture the flag game mode. On 24 January 2013, Jagex released, alongside other new content, the "Classic Mode" that aimed to play similarly to the 2011 prototype of the game. On
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on 14 February 2013, the game received its first paid DLC package, named ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'', which introduced a new "
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mode" wherein teams defended one randomly chosen players of their own team while trying to defeat that of the other team's. A
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
of ''Ace of Spades'' to OS X was released on 16 May 2013. As means of promotion, the game received a "free weekend", through which people could play the full game for a limited time, and overall offered at half-price. On 2 October 2013, the game received a native
map editor In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, stage, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively-increasing difficulty t ...
which could be used to produce maps shared through the
Steam Workshop Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third ...
. Alongside this update, the previously paid ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'' DLC was made available for free. Following onto the map editor integration, the game was updated with a custom, 24-player mode wherein players could build maps within a limited time. To reflect the new mode, the game was rebranded as ''Ace of Spades: Battle Builder''. A second paid DLC package, ''Hurt + Heal'', was released on 8 December 2015 and introduced two new character classes, as well as one new weapon for each of the four previous classes.


Closure

On 3 April 2018, Jagex announced that ''Ace of Spades'' would be discontinued. The game was taken off sale immediately, while dedicated game servers were to stay online through 3 July. However, on 2 July, Jagex stated that ''Ace of Spades'' shutdown would be postponed as they considered alternative futures for the game. Considering an open-source release, the company reviewed the game's codebase, but finally decided to retire the game. Jagex clarified on 1 March 2019 that an open-source release would pose "potential technical, legal and licensing implications", and that the game's servers would be shut down on 6 March.


Reception

The Jagex release of ''Ace of Spades'' received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to
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website
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.


Successor

On 20 November 2014, Jagex announced '' Block N Load'' as a free-to-play successor to ''Ace of Spades''. ''Block N Load'' developed stemmed from Alex Horton,
chief creative officer A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated wit ...
at Jagex at the time, who acknowledged that ''Ace of Spades'' was not "launched well", because of which he asked Jagex' board to create a new title in the same genre.


References

{{Jagex 2012 video games First-person shooter multiplayer online games MacOS games Multiplayer video games Video games with Steam Workshop support Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games with voxel graphics Windows games Jagex