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Spinnortality, a 'cyberpunk management sim' is out with Linux support

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Need even more cyberpunk? Fancy heading a megacorp and manipulate the world for your own gain? Spinnortality will let you do that.

Note: Copy provided by the developer to our Steam Curator.

Funded on Kickstarter back in 2017, you're tasked with taking control of some evil corporation whose shadowy backers wish to become immortal. The one thing we can't escape is death but they're determined to live on forever.

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The previous build I tested did have a few issues, but thankfully the release build is using a more up to date version of Unity so it's been working well on Linux. Considering it was made by one developer, James Patton, it's quite an impressive experience.

There's a decent amount of depth to Spinnortality, with a lot of decision making and this only increases as your company grows and you research more. You need to turn a sweet profit, which can be done by launching products in different countries. Each country is vastly different, so naturally a product that works in one can utterly fail in another. To help with this, you can run a focus test to reveal what marketing angle would work against the type of culture it is. Pretty clever stuff, with lots of ways to expand.

As you progress, you also need to deal with nuisances like corruption and inefficiency inside your company, both of which can be dealt with using connections you build up as you expand across the world. You will also deal with random events each turn, like your workforce becoming unhappy which can affect public opinion of your company and make it harder.

Naturally, there's plenty of politics to deal with. There will be elections, ruling dictatorships will be overthrown when they become unpopular enough and this will all affect your products and so your bottom line. There's even countries controlled by a corporation, which you can buy shares in to earn some money and eventually take control to influence them even more towards your own goals.

You also need to deal with public opinion, tasks set to you from your board of directors, rival companies may spring up and try to take you over and so on. There's so much to the game, it can feel a little overwhelming at the start. Thankfully, the clear UI does wonders to help with this.

Works well on Linux and the gameplay is really engaging. It was fun to be the bad guy, pushing into AI and letting them evolve while taking down as many countries as possible by inciting riots and taking them over.

You can find it on itch.io and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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5 comments

stretch611 Feb 6, 2019
I'm beginning to see a trend in the genre of the games mentioned today...
Purple Library Guy Feb 6, 2019
For a while it seemed like cyberpunk went away, but it really seems to be making a comeback lately--particularly today though.
This looks pretty interesting.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 6 February 2019 at 8:09 pm UTC
skinnyraf Feb 7, 2019
Quoting: Purple Library GuyFor a while it seemed like cyberpunk went away, but it really seems to be making a comeback lately--particularly today though.
This looks pretty interesting.

Yes, it is interesting. Consider recent advances of gene splicing, bionics/prosthetics, VR, robotics and AI. Consider corporations becoming more and more powerful, all-knowing about our life and filtering how we perceive the world. Consider ever increasing inequality between the rich (who become more and more like Tessier-Ashpools) and the poor - especially the working poor, trying to survive from one gig to another in the emerging "gig economy". Finally, almost everyone has always-on access to the internet and we can follow lives of celebrities 24/7.

Functionally, cyberpunk today would be just a realistic genre, think GTA with more accents on technology. Instead, cyberpunk is all about aesthetics: neon lights, chrome, bright colours, over-sized guns, body modifications, whining antique prosthetics and music. And it's this aesthetics that sees a revival, more than the underlying social themes of cyberpunk.
Purple Library Guy Feb 7, 2019
Quoting: skinnyraf
Quoting: Purple Library GuyFor a while it seemed like cyberpunk went away, but it really seems to be making a comeback lately--particularly today though.
This looks pretty interesting.

Yes, it is interesting. Consider recent advances of gene splicing, bionics/prosthetics, VR, robotics and AI. Consider corporations becoming more and more powerful, all-knowing about our life and filtering how we perceive the world. Consider ever increasing inequality between the rich (who become more and more like Tessier-Ashpools) and the poor - especially the working poor, trying to survive from one gig to another in the emerging "gig economy". Finally, almost everyone has always-on access to the internet and we can follow lives of celebrities 24/7.

Functionally, cyberpunk today would be just a realistic genre, think GTA with more accents on technology. Instead, cyberpunk is all about aesthetics: neon lights, chrome, bright colours, over-sized guns, body modifications, whining antique prosthetics and music. And it's this aesthetics that sees a revival, more than the underlying social themes of cyberpunk.
Well, I do think that the underlying social themes are being referred to more as well. And the aesthetics are less irrelevant than one might think. I think they often operate as a sort of shorthand for attitudes associated with them. For instance, for a while it seemed like every bloody game had a military theme, and it went with a time where there was a distinct "Rah Rah!" attitude. So now, even if someone makes a game that has no social content as such, the choice of cyberpunk aesthetics invokes the whole cyberpunk schtick in people's minds, like a certain cynicism about corporate rule and the establishment, and I think that attitude has become more common. And from the developers' side, I expect that the choice of that aesthetic reflects a feeling that those themes are somehow relevant.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 7 February 2019 at 5:53 pm UTC
LungDrago Feb 7, 2019
Aww shucks, it's a single-player only game. :( A multi-player version of this is my secret cyberpunk wet dream.
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