Hello, I've nearly finished my first shareware game (I saw the light at the end of the tunnel about two weeks ago). I've been doing alot of research lately about marketing and different distribution web sites ect... But I'm pretty nervous about taking this step. I'd really appreciate some feedback especially to do with sales stratergies and so forth. When I started this project I was planning on just making a small freeware game to get my name out there, then I was going to make a really nice shareware game to try and make some money. I did make a pretty neat little freeware game and put it up on some of the big download sites, got lots of positive feedback. Then I decided for my next game I'd need a good game engine (user interface, sound ect...) It took me a few months to do this and I used my freeware game as a testbed. Now it's looking very professional and I'm getting very low on personal funding so I decided to try and make a new version to sell as shareware. My current marketing plan is to re-release my old freeware version as version 2 basically with the new User Interface and Sound engine but also with better AI and game balance and at the same time to release a Version 3 with lots of cool new features. Version 2 would still be freeware but version 3 I was thinking of charging about $5 for. I supose it's sort of like an expansion pack. I have a beta version of Version 2 on my website: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jais/ds/ds.htm It includes alot of plugs for the new Version 3 including feature lists ect... I will also include ording information though that isn't there yet (obviously) It looks like I should be able to release the full version in about 2-4 weeks (just a few more features to add) and I'm waiting on some artists that I just got on board to do some artwork for me. If you've read this far then thanks for baring with me Jai [edited by - Jai Shaw on July 3, 2002 4:50:19 AM]

Don't forget to submit it to downloadpal.com.

[edited by - jester101 on July 3, 2002 5:16:44 AM]

I just tried the game.
My thoughts:

1)Its a lot more proffesional than most peoples first games. you have done a good job overall
2)The Midi music is pretty grim
3)I couldnt understand the menu screen where I select componnets. Sure I could read the help, but who does? your menu has to be intuitive without any help documents at first glance.
4)Why does the first level have no enemies? I dont understand, I drifted about a bit but it lacked any action. Its decsribed as asteroids, so give me something to shoot right away or Ill get bored!
5)Is this coded in VB? or is it a debug build, coz your .exe file seems pretty big otherwise.
6)There is a BIG delay when you select new game, long enough that I though it was a crash . Im running on Win2000, GeForce 2.

Dont take this criticism the wrong way, you have done good work here. You have HTML help which is more than I do!
I think this is a very competent demo if you want to get a job as a junior coder, if you want to stay solo (the best way!) then you need to keep working at this game until it blows
everyone away. Download Debris32, thats a very good asteroids clone. Dont give up until your game is as good or better.
I hope you dont think I''m too critical, just trying to offer constructive criticism.
Your website was pretty good though, consistent with the game itself, and good enough that I invested the time to download it.


http://www.positech.co.uk

2)The Midi music is pretty grim

*got someone working on this

4)Why does the first level have no enemies? I dont understand, I drifted about a bit but it lacked any action. Its decsribed as asteroids, so give me something to shoot right away or Ill get bored!

* The idea here is that it slowly introduces the user to my ship design system(which as you states is a little complex) by only giving them the three movement components on the first level it keeps it simple. Also the first level only goes for 30 seconds compared to the other levels which go for 120(100 in newest builds)

5)Is this coded in VB? or is it a debug build, coz your .exe file seems pretty big otherwise.

*No in VC++ I have the MVC libraries linked in statically. But I also have alot of code and text, it's gotten to that stage where I can make a cup of tea while waiting for a full build.

6)There is a BIG delay when you select new game, long enough that I though it was a crash . Im running on Win2000, GeForce 2.

*Hmm... I am unloading all my windows structures to free up additional memory for game play. I supose I need to put up a waiting message or else not unload the ui... Thanks for that, it gives me almost no delay at all... I think it's a win2k specific behaviour.

I hope you are talking about the Beta version 2! The other version is very very outdated, the new version doesn't come with a htm help file!

Thanks for the feedback!

Oh and can you please tell me where Debris32 is! I did a search on Alta Vista and on Download.com with now luck

Jai



[edited by - Jai Shaw on July 3, 2002 8:47:06 PM]

Give the first level just one very very easy enemy. That will keep it easy but give the user the feeling they did something.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

Got a strange bug with the midi-music. It doesn''t play right,always tries to start the midi-piece again soon after it''s started. This slows down the game so it gets unplayable. Got the same bug in my game too,only occurs on my new soundcard.

I think the makers of debris (mvpsoft) got sued over it by some big publisher (hasbro?)
maybe they pulled it, as i cant see it anywhere either. pity as it was miles better than the crap hasbro make

http://www.positech.co.uk

quote: Original post by cliffski
maybe they pulled it, as i cant see it anywhere either.

Now lets all repeat after me:
"When I dont know where something is, I will use google to find it"

I found it in under 5 seconds using google. Try this site:
http://www.programfiles.com/index.asp?ID=2588

When you go to download it, it will ask you to fill out a little survey form. Dont bother. Just scroll past the form to the bottom and click the button that says "Download Debris 32". Or just skip their page entirely and get the file directly:
http://www.programfiles.com/downloadfile.asp?ID=2588&file=1



Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Coming July 2002

quote: Original post by cliffski
I think this is a very competent demo if you want to get a job as a junior coder, if you want to stay solo (the best way!) then you need to keep working at this game until it blows
everyone away. Download Debris32, thats a very good asteroids clone.

Get a job as a junior coder *yuck*. I''ve been there done that...

Ok I had a look at Debris32 thanks to LordKronus and I really wasn''t all that impressed.

Well the AI is certainly advanced since it worked out that I was creating a rival product and crashed my computer when I first tried it causing me to loose a few lines of code

Worked ok the second time though.

Here are some comparissons and thoughts.

For a start I''m planning on selling this game for only $5, compare this to Debris $20 + $4-6 postage and handling and you can already see that my game will be 1/5th of the price

Also my game isn''t an Asteroids clone, I''m just calling it that as part of my speal to help people understand the style of game. And it does have asteroids that you need to destroy to get powerups. My game''s focus and indead origianl artistic flair is based on the ship design aspect which might be hard to understand straight away. That''s because it''s not simple to implement an intuitive interface for building a ship from randomly generated components

My component system is similar to systems used in diablo for creating items, as the game progresses the items generated become more effieicent and powerful. For instance the lasers become multi fire. Also new components become available at the higher levels.

In the newest builds I''ve implemented a quick design button for people that are too lazy to learn how it all works, but there are some people, like me, that enjoy the challange of learning how to best use the system to create the perfect ship. And enjoy having to make the trades offs, for instance if you put lots of armour on your ship it will be much less manouverable.

The other main idea behind my game is the computer AI which is also dynamic. No two computer controlled objects should act the same and they also get better as the game progresses... It works too, I find myself often getting caught off guard by some unpredicted behaviour

Anyway back to the comparisson
Debris32 uses a little window that I found quite annoying. I let the user choose thier display mode and my game uses the extra space that a higher display mode gives you.

Debris32 is the same old game... Asteroids, a good asteroids clone I agree but it''s still asteroids.

Good points for Debris32.

It gives the user lots of options - I still haven''t fininshed implementing all my options yet but even when I do dreamstars won''t have that many options.

Bells and whistles - Debris32 has really nice sound and graphics where my sound and graphics are still development sound and graphics.

That''s because I only realised about two weeks ago that I wanted to make Dreamstars into a really awesome game and so I''m having to now try and line up some artists to do some nice artwork for me (and music).

Debris32 has multiplayer support! Well I just finished implementing 2 player co-operative mode for my game. I''ll likely add a head to head version too but probably not in this first commercial version.

*whine on*
It''s not fair, I can''t test my new two player mode by myself
*whine off*

So...

Personally, and I know I''m biased , I think my game engine/game play and orginality make my game better than Debris32 at only 1/5th of the cost!

Maybe I should charge more??? Which was the original point of this post, I''m not sure exactly how my game fits into the world of shareware because it''s my first

So just imagine for a second that my game has nice graphics and cool music as well as all the features mentioned in the help file (those that will be in version 3). Then tell me if you think these features will be enough to sell the game and if $5 is a good price for it...

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my game and comment on it,

Jai Shaw