Quick Look: The Castle Doctrine

Umm. What? I've come away feeling confused. I get it but don't. Robbing seems very hard like a giant trap. All about taking just the right precise path. If not, you're screwed.

having to recreate your house when you die is crushing. Makes me want to never play again every time it happens

seems way too brutal.

You're describing a situation that will never happen and adding to the ill-informed rhetoric built around people's unfounded concerns about the Castle Doctrine.

I lived in Colorado and loved that the Castle Doctrine existed whereas in other states, people have been sued (and some have lost!) against robbers when injured by people defending their homes. Fuck that shit.

It's interesting to think that design-wise, this game is as much a robbery simulator as it is a home defense simulator. (I'm not saying it's a sim but you get my point). In a weird ironic twist, those who are best at the game are effectively thief lords who also shore up their own homes. Maybe I misinterpreted the mechanics amidst all this talk about the game but I think I'm right.

I got the game kinda free (thank you dota items) and I have been liking it but I do have a few issues.

1. The simple lack of description of what everything does is annoying, you can look at a wiki but really it should be in the game.

2. Death from your own house. The system makes sense, if you can't get through your own house then nobody else would be able too either. But the part where you can actually die while testing your house is kinda stupid. Either add a save last plan or just have it kick you back to the building stuff with a money penalty or something. I think the perma death stuff is fine except for this.

3. Fix the screen size for building mode. Look, I understand the scrolling aspect of when you are trying to rob a place and that's fine but when your building it would be better to see the whole map rather than a piece of it.

It's a tough game, what I have been doing so far is not even building a house, Im simply trying to rob people and check out the layouts of what people have and find the tricks they use. From there Im hoping to get some ideas of my house and on top of that help me break into other houses.

They should troll and release a high resolution texture pack.

Yeah this feels like the deal breaker. Fascinating concept, though. I think I "get" why you can't like have a blueprint and instantly jump back in, but I think this is like Papers Please - something I can admire from afar but not something I'd jump into myself.

Seems like an awful lot of step up to get to a point where you die real easy. I mean its a neat idea, design houses and people try to break in. But from what it looks, it doesn't seem very well implemented.

This is one of those quick looks that saves me money. Cus the concept sounds awesome, the game, not so much.

Nice to see the GB Crew doing quick looks of games on Kongregate.

@npfeifer: Losing a law suit isn't as bad as losing a life. Them's "the brakes." It would be nice if there was a comfortable "in-between," but there isn't. Shooting someone who has broken into your house is one thing, but shooting someone for stepping foot on your property line is different, and no part of that "will never happen," nor can you reasonably pretend it's such an unlikely scenario.

That was probably meant to be some kind of sick burn, but I disagree with the intent and also that's a great idea.

This game is on sale. Developer confirmed for hypocritical as all hell. Not getting my money.

He said: "When the game is released later this month, the current price, $8, will have a temporary launch price of $12. After a week, however, the price will become $16--forever."

So technically his integrity is still intact.

Still not getting my money, but that's more because the game does not look appealing to me - especially in light of all the other things I could buy for 16 bucks.

I think would rather play Evil Genius or some other Dungeon Keeper like game over this.

I think this game is a roguelike disguised as a clever polemic on capitalism, US laws and consumerism.

In summary: The only winning move is not to play.

So you're telling me not to do the thing you opened with, and continue to do. Got it.

I don't see any links to reports of a murdered mail carrier and the guy who didn't go to trial for it.

I don't know what Comedy Central has told you about those goofy flyover states, but people aren't shoveling bodies off their porches nearly as often as you seem to think. Though, if by "getting away with it," you mean there's a better chance that people won't land in court/prison for honestly defending themselves, then I suppose that's true.

What? If you're referring to me saying I'd have loved to empty a shotgun into the burglars, that's irrelevant; I said that with the intent of knowing I'd be in legal trouble for it. Those burglars don't deserve to die for just trying to steal stuff from me, even if in the moment I felt like they did.

Dude, don't do that. What's a greater way to show people you aren't interested in actually discussing an issue than to insult them? It's also pretty ridiculous to assume someone who opposes your heretofore unfounded views can only possibly get their information from The Daily Show. I don't even have cable.

Well, 2 or 3 people is still twice or three times the number that worked on this game. I agree, I love great looking games, but if it is between looking bad or not existing at all, give me ugly games.

2D pixelated art or not, I think this game looks just fine, and in some cases, better than games that use 3D graphics.

Neither of those games are anything like this game.

@seroth said:

Yeah, that seems to be the major problem. A well-designed house would just be near impossible to reach the safe in without advance knowledge, so it seems like the game is just "buy tools, circumvent entire point of game".

This looks tedious as fuck. Attempting to rob somebody looks like it'd be nearly impossible unless you just use tools to get through all their shit or are an extremely lucky guesser. And then having to rebuild your house from the ground up when you die? Why would that even be a design decision?

The basic idea is interesting. Like a dungeon keeper game where players are trying to get your shit instead of AI. Not even sure if it's ever been done before, the only thing I've played remotely similar is Evil Genius.

The point isn't whether they deserve to die for stealing from you. In general, no, death is not a suitable punishment for thievery. The point is that if I find someone in my home, I should not have to wait and see what they are going to do. It's like if someone approaches me in a menacing manner. I grew up knowing it's better to throw the first punch than take the last one. I'm not going to start a fight, but if you make a move on me I'm going to put you down as fast as possible with as little risk to myself as possible. I'm not going to wait for you to start wailing on me. Same thought process in my home, only now I have a weapon and will damned sure take you out before I verify if you do.

Your example before about shooting someone for knocking on your door (i. e. the mail man) is kinda silly. Castle Doctrine laws are not so loosely defined, and they vary state by state. In most cases you don't have to come up with concrete evidence of self defense (e. g. video surveillance) but you do have to show how you had a reasonable fear for your life or safety or that of others. The same goes for "stand your ground" laws.

No system is perfect, and the law WILL get it wrong sometimes. This will put innocent people in jail and let criminals go free, but I'd rather have these laws than not. Without them, you rely too much on the government to protect you and keep you safe. And anyone who believes they can or will is a fool.

I'll put this in a spoiler block to save other people the headache:

Cool idea, terrible design choices.

Interesting premise, lazy execution wrapped with a slapped on contrived metagame.

I played this for a couple days before release but I got burnt out quickly. Spending an hour designing my house really killed the incentive to go break into others. After a few times getting killed I just couldn't bring myself to keep building. Alternatively not trying to solve the puzzles other people made and just sitting at home waiting for victims got boring.