Full Desura Attack!

4 Comments
16 Feb, 2012
admin
Fireball, Gobs of Fun, radiangames

All 5 PC/Mac games are now on Desura, and they’re all on sale for the next day or so (10% off).  Desura is a pretty awesome alternative to Steam, both for players and developers.  I can’t recommend it enough, so if you want a good way to manage and buy games (or sell them), you should check it out!

If you bought any of the games/collections from my website and want Desura keys, email me (luke@radiangames.com).  It’s a bit of work to get keys sent out, so I’m just sending them to those who ask.

Gobs of Fun

Gobs of Fun has been approved for the iOS App Store and will be available next Thursday (February 23rd).  More details next week!

Fireball SE (Special Edition)

As promised, Fireball is the first full Radiangames game that will be self-published to the iOS App Store.  Development has gone very well, and I’ve been able to make a lot of cool improvements to the game.  Graphically I figured out a slick way to do a reflection-like shader, so I was able to spend a lot more time making the game awesome instead of trying to get back to square one visually.  This also bodes well for Ballistic and Inferno+ being a lot more awesome on iOS than I originally planned.

Gameplay-wise, Fireball SE has changed a lot compared to the PC/XBLIG versions.  Aside from tweaking the gameplay speed and difficulty, I changed bombs to be non-lethal, and I switched from a speed boost ability to a slow-mo mode.  Those two changes combine to add a bit more strategy for how to use the bombs and allow for a lot more near-death experiences.  Those near-death experiences are really the thrilling part of Fireball, so making them a lot more common makes the game a lot more enjoyable.

The game will be out in March, though I’m not sure which week.  The price will be $1.99 or $2.99 (haven’t decided yet), though it’ll be on sale for the launch week for $0.99.  I’ve been so focused on making the game as good as it can be that I’ve neglected building up hype for it, and that’s something I need to start doing more of.

Website

Speaking of which, I’m really not happy with the main page of my website, so I’ll probably be changing it soon.  It needs to be simpler and prettier, and my blog needs to be better integrated.  Expect more of a focus on iOS games, though the PC/Mac games will still be prominent as well.

http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=1012

All Over The Place

2 Comments
9 Feb, 2012
admin
Ballistic, Fireball, Gobs of Fun

Games are appearing all over the place!

Fireball is available on the Mac App Store.  Except it’s not called Fireball, it’s “Fireball: Dodge and Destroy” because “Fireball” was not available.  It’s the same game you get elsewhere.

The other games will be appearing on the Mac App Store as well, but I’m not in a big hurry to get them there.  Super Crossfire is likely the next game that will appear, though that’s not directly under my control.  I’ll be spreading out the releases to give them each a chance to be featured, because Fireball is quite hard to find without searching for it or stumbling into the arcade games listing.  Fireball might still get featured, but I have no idea when/if that would happen.

On Desura, Ballistic is now available.  It’s currently very easy to find (it’s the first game shown on the front page).  The other 3 games not yet available on Desura (Fireball, Inferno+, and Slydris) should all be available on February 16th unless something goes wrong.

Why release the other 3 at the same time?  Because I’m trying to make things easier on Desura and not hog the new release slot too much.  From everything I’ve used and seen so far: Desura is a fantastic way to buy games, and it’s fantastic for developers too.  Their setup gives the developer a lot of control and information, and is just generally awesome to work with.  I can’t recommend Desura enough!

Gobs of Fun

I also recently submitted my first solo iOS app to Apple.  It’s called Gobs of Fun, and it’s sort of a version of Fun With Swarms, but tailored for iPad and iPhone.  It will be free.  The only real “price” of admission is getting a large main menu button that links directly to my latest iOS release.

Gobs of Fun has two main purposes: 1) I get experience dealing with the app store myself and everything that entails and 2) It provides a simple and fun way to promote my iOS games.  Each time I update the app with a new link, I’ll of course add a new feature or two, so everyone wins.  I don’t have high expectations for what happens with it, and I won’t be promoting it directly aside from talking about it on this blog.

The Future: More iOS Games

Today I started working on Fireball for iOS.  I can’t predict exactly how long that’ll take to complete.  The UI changes won’t be too difficult, but adjusting the graphics to look nice without the reflective shader or bloom will be a challenge.

Beyond Fireball, I’ll be porting Ballistic, Inferno+, and Slydris to iOS, likely in that order.  The releases will be a bit spread out (once a month or so) regardless of how long they take to do.  I’ll also be experimenting a little bit each time with how to release them (Universal vs. iPhone/iPad versions, as well as releasing Lite versions simultaneously or not).  I don’t think any of them will have IAP, though that could change.

In any case, expect Fireball iOS early next month.

http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=1008

Now What?

17 Comments
1 Feb, 2012
admin
radiangames

All 5 PC/Mac games are now available on the main site for $4.99 each.  They are also available  on GamersGate if you prefer that for your gaming library, and Desura will hopefully be adding the games soon as well.

If you already have the games: There have been some minor updates to Ballistic (mouse options), Inferno (bug fixes), and Slydris (small bug fix and visual improvements).  Just re-download the game(s) from your download page.

Charitable Amounts

As promised for the Quadtastic Launch Collection, I’ll be making donations to both Child’s Play and St. Jude’s.  Rather than giving exactly 5%, I’m just going to round up a bit and give $100 to each of them.

Obviously I’d like to be giving a lot more than that, but the Quadtastic Launch Collection wasn’t as big a success as I’d hoped.

Good Pre-Order Coverage, Bad Sales

When I announced the pre-orders for the QLC, I got coverage from just about every site I was hoping for.  Kotaku, Destructoid, and (a Radiangames first) Joystiq covered the pre-orders, as did lots of great sites like IndieGames, DIYGamer, and more.  It never really spread beyond that, and coverage of the actual launch was severely muted even though I did about the same amount of work trying to get the word out.

I think doing pre-orders was a bad idea in retrospect, particularly for such a short time, and launching 4 games at the same time didn’t generate the amount of buzz I was hoping.  I did observe some complaints about the QLC, such as:

* Ballistic and Inferno appear to be the same game (twin-stick shooters)

* Fireball is seen as another spin-off of Geometry Wars (making 3 games that are essentially the same in some people’s mind)

* Slydris is just a clone of Tetris

* “Why doesn’t he put the games on Steam?”

* The price was way too high

People complain about anything though, so none of those complaints were surprising.  Plenty of people were excited too, but there’s always some truth to the complaints in terms of people’s first impressions.

Price-wise, I’m not interested in undercutting the value of the games before they’ve even had a chance.  At some point I may have a sale on the games, but that’s likely to occur at the same time as my eventual price drop on XBLIG (probably in the spring).  And hopefully a game or two can appear in a bundle like Indie Royale again, given the success that had compared with everything else.

Steam

All 4 games have been submitted to Steam.  I can say I haven’t heard anything from them yet.  When I hear something I can talk about, I’ll be sure to say more.

Up Next?

This interview from Kill Screen makes me sound depressed, which is not true (the vast majority of the time).  The interviewer asked a lot more questions than is shown, so when I give too much information about having to cut back or things like that, it was because he kept asking for more specifics.  This interview from DIYGamer is a lot more accurate about how I’m feeling these days.  I’d describe my current status as “uncertain”.

With 7 games on XBLIG, 5 games on PC/Mac, and Super Crossfire on iOS, I’m not sure what I’ll do next.  I have no idea what will happen with the PC/Mac games in terms of sales, particularly on GamersGate and Desura, but I do know that if they don’t get on Steam, I’m probably done with PC/Mac for a while without something drastic happening.

I actually had plans set for the next couple months, but they fell through at the last minute.  So now my schedule is “open”.

The most obvious next step is to get the other 4 PC/Mac games onto iOS (and eventually Android), though I won’t be releasing them all at once again.  I also haven’t tried the Mac App Store, and all the work to put the games there has nothing to do with actually making games.  I could really use an intern… (seriously, if you live in Champaign-Urbana in Illinois and are interested, email luke@radiangames.com).

I’m also considering focusing entirely on one big new game.  Dealing with so many games and so many builds (and screenshots, video, etc) is hard and not particularly fun, and indie games that are successful these days tend to be pretty big and take a while to make.

I’m glad that I’ve been using Unity because it gives me so much flexibility in what I can do, and it appears that will open some other doors that weren’t otherwise accessible.  Yet now that I have so many options, it’s difficult to choose the best path.  For now that path is the one of least resistance with low risk (Mac App Store and iOS ports), but I’m feeling like it’s nearing the time for a big risk.

http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=997

More Games, More Issues

4 Comments
25 Jan, 2012
admin
Inferno, Slydris, Super Crossfire

I’ve spent a lot of time fixing, updating, and testing games over the past few weeks, but apparently I still missed a few issues.  So far I have reports of problems in Super Crossfire, Slydris, and Inferno+ (in order of seriousness).  Below I’ll list each game, the known issues, and the status of fixes.

Super Crossfire Update

Issue #1: Your save game appears to be wiped after updating to version 1.1.

What Happened: I changed a property in Unity (changed the publisher from Chillingo to Radiangames to fix a “bug”), and this ends up changing where the game looks for the game save files.  This makes it appear the game wiped your save file.

The Work-Around: Your old save file still exists.  It’s in your user directory at “AppData\LocalLow\Chillingo\Super Crossfire” (my full user directory is C:\Users\Luke\AppData\LocalLow\Chillingo\Super Crossfire).

Copy SuperCrossfireData.txt to “AppData\LocalLow\Radiangames\Super Crossfire”.  That will restore the save data from version 1.0.

Mac Users: The directories are “~\Library\Caches\Chillingo\Super Crossfire” and “~\Library\Caches\Radiangames\Super Crossfire” (under your user name).

Issue #2: On PC, the update does not appear to work for people overwriting the old version of the game.  If you uninstall the game first, the issue does not appear.

What Happened: I changed how the installer is built slightly (to unify how it works across all games), and both versions of the game data (what really defines how the game works for Unity games).  The old data for version 1.0 is overriding the new data for version 1.1.

The Work-Around: In your installed Super Crossfire directory (C:\Program Files\Radiangames\Super Crossfire), delete the “Super Crossfire_Data” directory.  If you see “version 1.1″ under the Super Crossfire logo on the main menu, you’ll know it worked.

Mac Users: This is not an issue because Mac applications work a little differently (no directory structure was changed either).

[Obviously I need to not change things that don't need to be changed, and I need to do a much better job testing updates.]

Slydris

Issue #1: In Infinite or Zen mode, the game appears to hang.  No new blocks appear, and you cannot slide any blocks in the playfield.  You can still open the menu and quit, and if you immediately continue the game the playfield is blank.

What Happened: The game is still trying to drop blocks that have already stopped, and is waiting for them to settle.  I’m still looking into why it happens (it’s very rare).

The Work-Around: Don’t try to immediately continue.  Instead fully quit the game (close Slydris), then start it again and continue.  One of the two players who reported the issue said this fixed the issue and his game was not lost.  I haven’t been able to verify the work around since I haven’t reproduced the bug yet.

Inferno+

Issue #1: The upgrade for Reflex level 2 does not work (it doesn’t bounce) in certain upgrade setups.

What Happened: Reflex level 2 has the wrong math used for the projectile when the shot power isn’t upgraded.

The Work-Around: Either add an upgrade point to shot power, or only use reflex level 1.

[Fixed locally and will be in the first update.]

Issue #2: The player ship config doesn’t reload correctly.  So you end up with the Blade config when you had the Annihilator, for instance.

What Happened: The ship isn’t loading the correct config.  It’s just sticking with whatever is loaded.  That gets set when the game loads (random for the background demo), or when you start a new game.

The Work-Around: You can spend a little gold to switch back to your other ship config, or just live with the free switch.  Or you can start a new game (in a different slot), select the ship you want, then quit and load the slot you want that ship in.

[Fixed locally and will also be in the first update.]

There are a couple other really minor bugs that will be fixed as well.

Ballistic

Issue #1: Can’t set the game to fullscreen even though it’s the default monitor resolution.

What Happened: Ballistic’s launcher defaults to Custom resolutions instead of Standard ones (unlike my other games).  The Custom resolutions do not allow you to switch to fullscreen, even if that’s a valid fullscreen resolution.

The Work-Around: Set the resolution mode to Standard if you want to use fullscreen.

[I'll change the default to Standard resolutions instead in the first update.]

Issue #2: On some Mac setups, the launcher only shows the letters for “CUSTOM” (in whatever settings they show up in).  This issue also happens in Fireball.

What Happened: The font setting for Ballistic/Fireball’s launcher was Dynamic, which apparently doesn’t work with certain Mac settings.

The Work-Around: Download the game again if you see the problem.  The issue has been fixed.

More?

Let me know if you find any more bugs/issues.  Video/screenshots help, though aren’t always necessary.

For Super Crossfire, I don’t believe issuing a 1.1.1 update with the old settings is the best idea since the damage is mostly done and I’ll be a lot less likely to break it again if I keep settings consistent across all 5 games.  However, I will listen to arguments that I should.

If you run into any other issues, feel free to comment below or email me (luke@radiangames.com).

http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=987

Quadtastic Launch Day

11 Comments
24 Jan, 2012
admin
Ballistic, Fireball, Inferno, Quadtastic Launch Collection, Slydris, Super Crossfire

The Quadtastic Launch Collection is now available.  As in, if you’ve pre-ordered check the download page and everything is now there.  If you haven’t ordered, you should do so now. If you’ve ordered but can’t find your email (from orders at bmtmicro.com), just emailluke@radiangames.com and I’ll re-send your download codes.

It also happens that the leaderboard system I’m using started working again yesterday, which is very fortunate timing.  Super Crossfire’s leaderboard’s are working (and they have plenty of good high scores, though it’s possible not all of them are there), and Ballistic, Fireball, and Slydris have working online leaderboards as well.  For those last three games, they also have local scoreboards and show those by default, so you’ll have to change the filter to see how you’re doing against the rest of the world.

Super Crossfire has been updated to version 1.1, so you’ll want to re-download that if you want the latest version.  Not any major changes, but if you were wanting V-Sync or the ability to start with some superfire ammo, those are both in.  And I cut down the leaderboards to just the main 4.  I’ll be updating the build on Desura today or tomorrow.

There was quite a bit of coverage for the QLC when I first announced it, but I’ll be sending out one more round of emails today.  In case you missed it, Mash Those Buttons previewed Ballistic and Fireball, and reviewed Inferno+ over the past week or so.

I don’t feel like I can adequately show the appreciation I have for everyone who has bought (or will buy) the collection, so I’ll just say say: Thank You!

Gamepad Issues

PC: If you’re using a gamepad and it’s not working, download GamepadTester and try it out.  If there’s a response from the buttons, but not the sticks, run SetDirectInput.reg from this zip file.  That will fix Unity-based games use of a gamepad using the wrong input system (DirectInput vs. RawInput).  The majority of people don’t have this issue, but some do (no idea why at the moment).

Mac: Only the 360 gamepad is directly supported, and you have to have the TattieBogle driver installed.  Here’s your version of GamepadTester if you want to try it out.

Technical Requirements

All the games have the same minimum requirements.  If you have a really old graphics card, you may need to turn off/down bloom (all games) or turn down particle effects (Ballistic/Super Crossfire), but I’d recommend playing with the default settings first before adjusting anything.  You can also try turning off V-Sync (it’s an in-game option) if the games don’t run as smoothly as they should.  I’ve found that sometimes helps on Mac when playing fullscreen.

PC: Windows XP or later, graphics card with 64MB or more VRAM

Mac: Mac OSX 10.4 or later, graphics card with 64MB or more VRAM

Steam/Linux/Etc

I know you want them.  I do too.  If it ever happens, I’ll let you know.

http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=934

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