I will be gifting one copy of There Came an Echo to one lucky recipient. It will be gifted via Humble and should include both the DRM-free version and a Steam code.

TCAE is a voice-controlled squad-based RTS with a sci-fi story. I am currently playing it and loving the experience.

Trailer 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmbtkUWAQpA

Launch Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ_Kyu_1BDE

War Room Gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiSRH8qqpG4

Review by Jason Evangelho at Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2015/02/24/there-came-an-echo-review-on-my-mark/

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1. Please enter only if you are interested in the game and will redeem and play it soon (not to trade it for something else, not to put it in a backlog for years, etc).

2. You need a microphone to use the voice controls, probably an external microphone rather than one built into a laptop. The devs recommend using a headset for best results.

3. To enter, say that you want to enter and share your thoughts about voice control in games.

I'll select a winner in a few days.

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Vote for it on the GOG wishlist:

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/there_came_an_echo

Buy it on Humble:

http://www.humblebundle.com/store/therecameanecho/mbbhgureURYhJD38
http://www.humblebundle.com/store/therecameanecho_soundtrackbundle/uyerdvbBDGF83
http://www.playiridium.com/games

I'm in! Thank you for the giveaway.

Personally, i think voice control in games can be pretty innovative in certain types of games; imagine a Total War game with voice control! Loads of units, acting out your orders the minute you say "go". Pure awesomeness!

Bump.

Not in but +1 for the thoughtful giveaway and giving this interesting game more publicity!

Wow! I didn't know about this game. Guess now I HAVE to be in.

Thank you for the giveaway! And also thank you for letting me know this game exists o.o

I'm in!

Voice controls in games can go either way, really. I remember SOCOM for PS2 back in the day and having it be hit on miss on the commands, but still had a blast. TCaE looks really cool, though. Plus is has Wil Wheaton :)

Thanks for the giveaway!

Not in, looks cool though, +1 for the giveaway.

Bump.

Not in & +1! Thank you! :D

(isn't there a game shutting down soon that uses voice control and has characters reacting to what you say? Kind of irrelevant maybe :P )

The Humble widget calls it a preorder, and the game is nowhere to be found in the Humble store, yet it claims to have a release date of February 24th. Is it actually available from Humble at this time?

Anyway, I'd like to enter.

I've never seen voice control implemented well. Mostly, it seems to be a useless gimmick, used for things it is not well suited for, and implemented poorly. For instance voice control for a TV (which seems to be the latest fad) seems incredibly stupid to me.

Looking at the trailers and reviews for There Came An Echo, it seems that in this case it is used for something it is well suited for, and moreover is implemented superbly.

As I mentioned in another thread, the devs confirmed on Kickstarter that it should be listed for sale on the Humble Store, but apparently they are having some trouble coordinating with Humble.

I was able to use the preorder widget to purchase a copy of the game for this giveaway despite the release date having passed. The copy hasn't been redeemed yet of course (since this giveaway hasn't concluded), but as far as I can tell, using the linked widgets seems to be a viable workaround until Iridium and Humble straighten things out.

The mechanics are relatively simple (as mentioned in the review that I linked in the OP). I think of this game as a stepping stone to more complex uses of the technology.

But it is a good game in its own right. It's story driven, and that story is interesting. The dialogue is well-written, and the voice acting and music are fantastic. The art is somewhat basic but the style works well enough.

The truly astounding thing is how incredibly well the voice control works. I'm not much of a talker, and I'm sure my enunciation could use some work, but I can't recall a single instance of the game failing to recognize a valid command.

There's something very immersive about voice control. Calling squad members by name, having to bark out commands in the heat of battle, etc. Really sucks you into the game.

It is a short game, tho: Most estimates I've seen place it at around 3 to 4 hours. I've been playing in bits of free time before work these past few days, and I've probably completed about 3/4 of the game.

Other than longer and more complex games of the same type as TCAE, some possible future uses of this technology that interest me are:

- a first-person squad-based game where voice control is used to direct your teammates

- voice control to issue basic commands to companions in games like Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas

Bump. Maybe the last bump. Will prob random select winner later today. Odds are looking good for entrants... only 4 in so far.

I've come across the game before, but hadn't noticed it had voice controls! That is rather unique, and if they got it working right, they've done something really cool and innovative with the video game medium. It's something that really works well as an immersion technique, and if the game could recognize your words very well, this could end up being revolutionary, especially for RPGs and games in which you need to issue commands to NPCs that would go much faster via just talking rather than having to go back and forth between the target NPC and the location or object of the command.

I'm a game design student myself and this makes me hope this technology gets further developed so that I can use it in my future projects--both as a student and in the industry. It's something I'll definitely be discussing with fellow students and teachers in the coming week.

With that, please do count me in. :) I'd love to show this to the other folks in school and have them try it out as well.

I'm in!
From the steam trailer the game looks amazing. Personally I'm all in for games utilizing voice control because it's much more involving, interesting and even educational in some aspects. I only hope the game is more responsive than Tom Clancy's End War and the voice recognition part is embedded in the client, not like in Bot Colony which probably will die because of the lack of players and funds to support the only server-side speech recognition algorithms.

Congrats! Check your PMs.

Please let me know if the game redeems properly. I used a workaround (the still-available preorder links listed above) to buy this copy because Iridium seems to be having some trouble coordinating things with Humble.

I'm curious about how well the game handles Dutch accents if you want to share your experiences once you've had a chance to play around with it and have some friends try it.

TCAE doesn't require an Internet/server connection. I'm running it on an offline machine. :)