Hidden Gems of Game Design Volume 27

Plenty of amazing games go unnoticed and are not played widely for various reasons. Maybe it’s a diamond in the rough, or the marketing wasn’t there, or it could be a game ahead of its time. For this monthly series, I’ve asked my fellow writers on SUPERJUMP to pick a game they think is deserving of a chance in the spotlight. Let us know your favorite hidden gems in the comments.

Josh Bycer

GhostControl Inc (2014)

For this month’s pick, I’m going with a game, Ghostcontrol Inc., that had the perfect premise to make something great, but ended up as more of a tale of unrealized potential. I’m always on the lookout for tactical strategy games that break the norms set by X-COM, and Ghostcontrol immediately caught my eye. The premise was to take the X-COM formula of managing a base, researching new gear, and going on increasingly difficult missions, but apply it to ghostbusting. 

To wit, your job is to run a successful ghost “controlling” business in the UK, compete with rival companies, and maybe save London from evil. You’ll need to hire employees, manage your budget, and make sure your ghost-controlling vehicle of choice has enough fuel in it.

Once a job comes in, you only have a few minutes to get there before you are beaten to the punch by your competitors. On missions, you need to weaken ghosts before throwing a trap down to try and catch them, all the while avoiding damage to your employees and to the environment itself. Ghosts come in different varieties that affect what kind of weapons they are weakest to, and the lower their health, the easier it is to catch them.

You can improve your employees, buy and research better gear back at your home base, and the game has a good loop of growing in power while introducing new threats.

Unfortunately, the game ran out of the funds acquired in its Kickstarter campaign, and it never grew past the base concept and early to mid-game state. There have been plans for years by the team to release an enhanced version to fix the issues and officially finish it. Sadly, the creator of the game passed away in 2019, so for now the game seems to be in limbo, leaving us with a title filled with potential but not much else. If you can get it on sale and are looking for a different flavor of X-COM design, give it a try, and hopefully, there will be a happy ending for this project.

Antony Terence

Europa 1400: The Guild (2002)

If strategy games are glorified spreadsheets, The Guild is one that doesn’t pretend to cover it up. A disastrous tutorial didn’t do it any favours back when I was a kid; A few terrible starts later, I made some sense of the compelling building blocks of Europa 1400: The Guild.

You begin in a European town in the 1400s with a custom goal. These range from achieving business monopolies or securing a political role to clearing thieves' guilds and divorcing a set number of romantic partners. Before all that, you pick your parents and their occupations, altering your DNA to buff your starting attributes: negotiation, handicraft, rhetoric, stealth, and combat.

These traits influence your rise to fame as you take up one of eight professions. Your character begins their trade with a humble dwelling and a starting business based on your profession. The game largely takes place in a third-person perspective and you can switch to a bird’s-eye view of the town to meet its inhabitants. A year passes after an in-game day, which means you’ll need to get busy fast. At first, everything you do will bolster one of two pillars: finances or politics. The rival AI merchants play fair and start on an equal footing about resources.

Once you’ve got your business set up with materials, carts to transfer goods, and paid employees, you can start climbing society’s ladder of success. House and business upgrades give you access to new tools and resources, letting you earn even more money. Preachers sell indulgences to the public, thieves hire assistants to train, and blacksmiths work towards having the best apprentices. As the coins roll in, you’ll be able to influence the actions of the town’s elite. Turns out that buying your way into a governing body was common back in the 1400s too.

As you boost your standing, you’ll be able to contest for civic and honorary offices. These grant perks like the Grand Inquisitor’s ability to evade punishment for crimes and the Prefect’s control over dueling. You can rely on your traits to gain an edge here. For instance, if you have a high combat value, insult foes into duels and diminish their reputation if they refuse. Sabotage and backstabbing will let you weed out the opposition, making for a cruel but understandable path to stardom. 

As you get your bearings, the game's third pillar rears its head: family. Even if you control the town and bathe in gold, you will eventually have to die and pass your titles and wealth to one of your offspring. To do so, you’ll need to win over a potential partner with lavish gifts and ensure that a rival doesn’t woo them first.

While not all of it is historically accurate, the game does a great job of romanticizing its medieval theme. Unfortunately, most actions you perform against rivals are spreadsheet-like, with few visual effects accompanying them. This was my biggest gripe with Europe 1400: The Guild, one that games have remedied over the past two decades. But despite its flaws and complexity, few modern games promise this degree of depth. 

It’s certainly not for everyone and demands quite a bit of patience to understand. But its paths to your definition of success remain just as alluring today. Its “one more year” loop lets you dictate the pace of your sessions, letting you hop between minute details and overarching goals. If you can forgive the abundance of bugs, inconsiderate design, and surprise events that rob you blind, Europa 1400: The Guild is worth the micromanagement hassle when it goes on sale.