Revenge of the Titans

[cylab]

btw the trailers is really cool & nicely done. You should get on to gametrailers, just email it to "trailers at gametrailers dot com"

Didn't find it there. Wasn't it accepted or didn't you submit the trailer? Wouldn't pass this one, because everyone and my mother watches gametrailers.com. The 1.5 release could be a nice opportunity to show off with a brand new trailer...

[princec]

Ah no we haven't gotten on to gametrailers yet. Maybe it's time. Or maybe we'll wait until the Sell button is in as that'll affect the screenshots rather a lot.

Cas

[princec]

Well, I sent a link to the old trailer, let's see if it appears... sales are seriously flagging again unfortunately (about 10x less than we need to just survive - which is an embuggerance)

Cas

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Eli Delventhal]

Well, I sent a link to the old trailer, let's see if it appears... sales are seriously flagging again unfortunately (about 10x less than we need to just survive - which is an embuggerance)

Cas

sales.setFlag(sales | 0x11111111111111);

[Riven]

sales.setFlag(sales | 0x11111111111111);

<PITA>

'sales' is an instance and an int!

You realize that that would be "10001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001" in bits?

</PITA>

[Eli Delventhal]

<PITA>

'sales' is an instance and an int!

You realize that that would be "10001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001" in bits?

</PITA>

Yes.

Don't you know about magic object / integer / funny or-ing? Clearly not. Lamer.

'twas a joke - the word "flagging" for the sales made me think of flag setting, and I didn't want to spend longer than 8 seconds typing .

[princec]

Sadly it's more like sales = new Integer(2);
C'mon everyone! Spread the werd!

Cas

[cylab]

Sadly it's more like sales = new Integer(2);

Oh my god, so I own a rare collectors item

Edit: do I know the other one???

[princec]

That's daily sales Still not actually enough to live on between 2 people. Or even eat daily. Rubbish.

Cas

[Eli Delventhal]

Sadly it's more like sales = new Integer(2);
C'mon everyone! Spread the werd!

Cas

http://twitter.com/daemonpants/status/21339921857

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Riven]

Cas, would you mind me being overly verbose?

I think you really really really really should bring back the puppygames forums.

People must have confidence in your company and your game (I know this sounds lame), and often a look at the forums gives the 'warm and cozy feeling' that, if they were to get in trouble, they'll be heard, random people can jump in and answer, stuff like that.

I vaguely recall you got hacked through your previous forum, and you took it down, but really... I think you might get a few more sales. Maybe a lot, time will tell.

Anyway, at least for me it's a major turnoff not to find a community on a casual game. Then again, I never bought a game online.

[princec]

Haha Should I really listen to you then?

Yes, our forums did get hacked, but as they were so low traffic, we decided not to put them back at the time. We will probably reinstate them at some point, but as we don't have a community game yet*, it's probably a little too soon. Right now though the blog has a rather thriving post count and it's nicely threaded. Like a sort of mini forum.

Cas

* Guess what the next game's going to be

[cylab]

* Guess what the next game's going to be

Multiplayer version of RotT called Titans Forever

[kappa]

* Guess what the next game's going to be

A Soldat clone?

[princec]

Actually, we've got a whole load of ideas. I'm in favour of a giant hands-off robot battle game, akin to Gratuitous Space Battles, but involving the droids from Droid Assault. You'd spend hours customising droids and armies, and then challenge people to a fight, and watch the battle. It'd have user-definable maps, and a challenge winnings system where you both put up $x to fight and winner takes all. And also possibly exotic parts, and salvage.

Cas

[CaptainJester]

Actually, we've got a whole load of ideas. I'm in favour of a giant hands-off robot battle game, akin to Gratuitous Space Battles, but involving the droids from Droid Assault. You'd spend hours customising droids and armies, and then challenge people to a fight, and watch the battle. It'd have user-definable maps, and a challenge winnings system where you both put up $x to fight and winner takes all. And also possibly exotic parts, and salvage.

Cas

Would you also be putting in a place a way for people to pay real money to get better items faster?  That seems to be the popular thing to do now.  I personally don't mind that type of system as long as it doesn't turn into you must pay to advance farther than other people.

[princec]

Yep we'll have that. I wouldn't say "better" items necessarily.. more "exotic". And the items will be valued in game balance terms appropriately.

The idea is, you design an army of droids worth 10,000 points, and likewise your opponent. Then you place a bet on winning, like $1. To challenge you, the challenger must match that bet. The winner takes all. We'll be making the game free to play, and free to challenge, and challenges can be for no money (ie. friendly).

<edit> Also you can pit an army of half the value against the enemy by only challenging for half the money. So a 5,000 point army could meet a $10 challenge from a 10,000 point army with only $5.

Cas

[Riven]

Just make sure you actually never call it 'money' or 'dollars' ingame, just 'points' or some made up currency, otherwise you might get caught up in gambling laws and whatnot.

[princec]

No chance of that - the game will be absolutely deterministic, in that for a given pair of armies in given starting positions on a given map, the outcome will always be identical.

Cas

[Swattkidd7]

Would you also be able bet points that could help you upgrade? that seems like a cool idea. Or maybe have the two teams put up an item as the bet, and if they both agree, let them fight for it.

[princec]

The gist of it's here: http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=574

I'd be especially thankful to any of you community member types who care to Digg the story, or vote it up a bit on Slashdot! I think we've cracked the DRM nut in the most awesome possible way. And made a completely cool game which I hope you enjoy So much so, that you can have a free registration as a bribe for Digging or Slashdotting the post. Crafty eh.

Cas

[CyanPrime]

The best DRM is no DRM.  DRM only hurts costumers.

[princec]

That's the line that pirates trot out. Read about our DRM! It's your rights we're protecting, more than ours.

Cas

[elias4444]

I think what you're implementing works very well. I actually did close to the same thing for Martians Vs. Robots and it saved both myself and the users a LOT of potential headaches. The only difference was that I didn't cap it at ten, I just kept a running total to see if any registration codes "got out of control" somehow... which never happened btw, due to the e-mail-back system, and the fact that I never sold all that much.  

[princec]

In all these years actually only about 4 or 5 people abused our system. I simply disabled their registrations until they complained, then they registered once more and I never heard from them again. The 10 limit is really just a safety measure in case someone's email link escapes into the wild on some warez site - it'll just automatically limit the damage.

Cas

[CyanPrime]

Reading.

Am offended here: "Find inferior open source / Flash alternatives"

Open Source is not inferior in any way to closed source. Personally I think it's better, as it gives the people more trust in your product.


Done reading. your DRM sounds nice, but I still think donation/donation items is the way to go to make money, and that no DRM is a better marketing tool, but don't compare open source to flash! X_X

edit: BTW, good job on all the fixes and such. And congrats on getting a game out and finished.

[princec]

You misread it It does not state that open source is inferior (as if! LWJGL cough cough). It states that the alternative games are inferior, and that they may be written in Flash or may be open source, as examples.

Finished! Hah! Not for another 2 months I'm afraid. As as for no DRM and donations.... well... watch this space 

Cas

[CyanPrime]

You misread it It does not state that open source is inferior (as if! LWJGL cough cough). It states that the alternative games are inferior, and that they may be written in Flash or may be open source, as examples.

Finished! Hah! Not for another 2 months I'm afraid. As as for no DRM and donations.... well... watch this space 

Cas

Alright, I'll digg ya than (If I can get back to my old account).

[zammbi]

Sounds good to me. You are getting some free advertising from my way, hope it helps.
Btw you really need to get Paypal as a payment option. I never do credit card stuff on the net, I'm sure  a lot of people are the same.

but I still think donation/donation items is the way to go to make money

That really depends on the game.

[ShannonSmith]

I would suggest you drop the 10 time limit, people are super freaked out by number limits regardless of how loose they are. Just count registrations and monitor it for clear abuse.

Personally I would love to see someone try a ransom system, the problem is you need an established reputation. Imagine if Markus for his next game after finishing it and posting screenshots and a demo decided it was worth $10 million dollars and required that much in donations before releasing the game free to all.