Just tried the demo...

[Saxon]

Howdy,

I downloaded the demo onto a USB memory stick and carried it home. Trying to install from there was very slow, I eventually control-alt-deleted out. It said it was verifying the install program or some such. I then copied the file to the desktop and ran it from there. It then was very slow again and seemed to hang when I said it was ok to install some Direct X components. I started again and got involved in a discussion with my girlfriend. Eventually it installed. I am using Win XP and, like PhilD, have no problems with the more graphics intensive games. It might be my machine or my memory stick, but as a long time Shrapnel user, I thought I should bring it up.

Sorry, no comments on the game, the girlfriend noted my frustration and convinced me to spend the evening “with real people.”

Just curious, but given the graphics, how come the demo is so much bigger than something like the Popgun games? My network admin agreed let me install “small games” on the network, presuming I would not meet his 10mb standard. Similarly, what happens to give the computer such a work out? The game appears technically simple and has low demands graphically, so I thought I would be faster on the kinds of machines people are talking about.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Well, the demo installer size is large because it includes the .NET and Managed DirectX installers. Those two components inflate the installer by about 55MB.

I too have noticed that the installer is slow to respond at first. We're not entirely sure why this is, but it's the behavior of the Nullsoft Installer, which is otherwise a very nice and usable installer.

As to why the game may run slow, the most honest answer is that this is our first game and highly efficient graphics programming isn't our forte (yet). Even though all art in the game is 2d, we use Direct3D, so we have access to alpha-blending, dynamic coloring, fluid scaling/rotation, etc. But with the sheer number of sprites we draw on the screen on every frame, that becomes enough to bog down slower machines or machines with slower 3D cards.

The other developer for the game has been looking into some graphics improvements for the last week or so, and our hope is that we can introduce some performance improvements in a patch. We cannot garauntee this, however.

For what it's worth, we're rebuilding our graphics engine from the ground up for our next game. In fact, we've learned a lot of tricks from the PopCap Framework (which is now open source), and we hope to be able to leverage some of the performance-enhancing tricks ourselves in our next game.

-Hiro_Antagonist

[Saxon]

Hiro,

Thanks for your reply. I got a chance to play over the weekend and thought I would pass along my thoughts.

First, the game itself runs at a decent speed, it seems the installer was my main problem.

Balancing, at least for the demo races I could play, seems very good.

Small scale, quick gaming it is, largely, so you have hit your target.

Concerns (and I do pity the game designers of the world, as every user out there has 1000 ways to make the game better, but no idea how hard it is to do. That said, I am still going to list my 1000 ways…)

It would be great to have an option to turn of the fight scenes. Yes, I know I can click to make it go away, but I don’t want to.

Saves. Sure, it is supposed to be a fast game, but when your girlfriend calls you for dinner, you want to save that single player game. I recognize this could be a time consuming feature to implement, but maybe if sales are good, you could consider it.

The next points are small, but they are about time. The game is supposed to be super fast, yet a couple of features are slow.

Why do I have to see each unit getting “unspent” each turn? It adds nothing and takes time. You might want to consider hiding this.

Showing me the money. With such small maps, people likely know exactly where their money is coming from. Maybe I am too PC based, but the slow pop up of 1000 over each city reminded me of Mario Brothers, didn’t tell me anything I did not know and slowed the turn down again. You might want to consider making this an option.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. The game is fun and interesting, these are not huge problems.

Thanks again,

Dave

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Saxon said:
It would be great to have an option to turn of the fight scenes.

This will probably be added into the first or second patch.

Saxon said:
Saves.

Save game functionality will be included in the first patch, due out by the time the game is released. We've already got this feature almost done.

As for your other suggestions, I'm definitely considering them, and there's a very good possibility they will be addressed in the first or second patch.

-Hiro_Antagonist

[Josquire]

I have also enjoyed playing the demo. I like the idea of playing a short and sweet turn based game that is not hideously complicated.

I agree with Saxon's comments about improving the flow of the game.

It would also be nice if there was an option for making the AI tougher in skirmish mode.

I look forward to playing the full game.