''Spacebase DF-9'' is a

space simulator Astronaut training describes the complex process of preparing astronauts in regions around the world for their space missions before, during and after the flight, which includes medical tests, physical training, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) tra ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by Double Fine Productions. It was prototyped during Double Fine's open

Amnesia Fortnight 2012 ''Amnesia Fortnight 2012'' is a bundle of prototypes made during a two-week public prototyping session in 2012 by Double Fine Productions, which was held in conjunction with the Humble Bundle group in 2012. Everyone that paid a minimum of $1 had ...

, directed by JP Lebreton. After being released as an

open beta A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

on October 15, 2013, it was officially released on October 27, 2014, for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. After the official end-of-life of the game in May 2015, the community took over the development based on an open-source code

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

Gameplay

The player designs, builds and maintains a space station, and must keep its inhabitants happy while fending off alien threats.

Development

''Spacebase DF-9'' was one of several ideas presented for voting for Double Fine's ''

'' project, where users would be able to vote for the game concepts they felt they would want to play the most. ''Spacebase DF-9'' was an idea presented by designer-programmer JP LeBreton. The title received the second most votes and was one of five other titles that Double Fine stated they would develop into full games. A full commercial version of the game was announced on October 15, 2013, with an alpha version being available to purchase through Steam Early Access. Double Fine announced on September 17, 2014 that the full game would be released in October 2014. In addition, they promised to release the game's

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

to allow the community to develop new content and features independently.

Release

In September 2014, Double Fine announced that they were going to bring ''Spacebase DF-9'' out of

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

status, and add features to make the game a full commercial release, due to a lack of sales for the game during the early access period. After the commercial release, Double Fine will release part of the source code and no new features will be added, but Double Fine will still be offering support of the game and making bug fix releases. The news was met with controversy, with some fans expressing anger over the fact that the game would not continue development, and some developers questioning whether a failure by a well known developer to successfully use the early access model would tarnish that model for other developers. The release of v1.0 commenced on October 27, 2014, simultaneously with release of

source code. The

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

version included a tutorial mode, goals screen and bugfixes. After the release of v1.0 on November 21, 2014, twelve employees were laid off including the programmer and project lead JP LeBreton. On December 16, 2014 Greg Rice posted on the official technical support forums stating that there were no further plans for patches and there was no team assigned to the project. Double Fine officially ended support for ''Spacebase'' and abandoned the game in May 2015. Part of the game's

was released to the public under the CPAL

open-source license An open-source license is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial compa ...

,derelictgames / Spacebase V2 Updated Code
on gitlab.com ''"This is a community maintained fork of DoubleFine's original game, which was open sourced May 12, 2015 under the Common Public Attribution License"'' and since then, fans have worked to continue the game's development and support. The game's community has provided

bug fix A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bugfixes or bug fixes. Patche ...

es and extensions to the game based on Double Fine's documented plans, and the first

community patch An unofficial patch is a patch for a piece of software, created by a third party such as a user community without the involvement of the original developer. Similar to an ordinary patch, it alleviates bugs or shortcomings. Unofficial patches do no ...

was released in October 2015. The second unofficial patch was released in February 2016.NEWS
on gitlab.com/derelictgames/spacebase-v2-updated-code ''"Patch v1.08 Unofficial - Feb 14, 2016"''

Reception

''Spacebase DF-9'' has a 46/100

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

score.

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave the game a 6.8/10 score and commented: "''Spacebase DF-9'' is charming, and its random events give you more to do and worry about than something like ''Banished''. However, it lacks the depth and polish needed to make the tasks of expansion and crisis management go smoothly."

References

External links

*
open-sourced community-fork
on gitlab.com {{Double Fine Productions 2014 video games Double Fine games Early access video games Game jam video games Linux games MacOS games Indie games Simulation video games Single-player video games Windows games Lua (programming language)-scripted video games Video game controversies Video games developed in the United States Games financed by Indie Fund Video games scored by Chris Remo Commercial video games with freely available source code