Ogre is a tabletop wargame, designed by Steve Jackson and originally released in 1977, in which one player takes control of a massive supertank—the Ogre—while the other tries to destroy it using conventional forces. It's been updated several times since then, and in 2012 Jackson took to Kickstarter to seek $20,000 in supplemental funding for a Sixth Edition release. One of the reasons for the campaign, he said in the pitch video, was that it enabled stretch goals, for things like more maps, or maybe an option to design your own Ogre.
For whatever reason, the money started pouring in, and the campaign ended with more than $923,000—46 times its original goal. At the $300,000 mark, Jackson committed to an "Ogre computer game," which I think is an entirely adorable way to describe it, that would be released for "some platform or platforms" by the end of 2014. "It might very well be a lot sooner," the Kickstarter said.
As it turns out, it's actually a lot later, but a PC game being developed by Auroch Digital was announced last year, and now it's on Steam with a release date of October 5.
"We here at Steve Jackson Games are very proud to announce that the Ogre videogame has its own page on Steam as well as on our site, in advance of the release of the full game October 5th by Auroch Digital. Now, interested players may tag Ogre on their wishlists," Drew Metzger of Steve Jackson Games wrote in a Kickstarter update.
"Additionally, Jake, the Auroch Digital community manager is live right now on our forum set up specifically for the computer game at forums.sjgames.com to answer questions about the forthcoming game. Seriously. Go there now. I’m done here."
(I guess board game guys aren't real big on community relations.)
The screens and trailer are about what you'd expect from a turn-based tactical game rooted in the '70s, but I don't think that's going to work against it. I suspect that gamers with a real interest in Ogre are going to be more interested in the gameplay than on what it looks like—so hopefully those four decades of polishing the mechanics are going to pay off.
