[ANN] Transmuting Silver to Gold: The Strategist 2.5

[jeb_]

Hello

We are very happy to announce the release of version 2.5 of our game "The Strategist"! The turn-based strategy game for Windows and Mac OS X.

Screenshots:
http://www.oxeyegames.com/gfx/strategist/ss_revolution.jpg
http://www.oxeyegames.com/gfx/strategist/ss_lostprince.jpg
http://www.oxeyegames.com/gfx/strategist/ss_mission.jpg

Trailer at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFsS9lghNDg

Download links (30 MB):
Windows version, http://www.oxeyegames.com/files/StrategistInstaller.exe
Mac OS X version, http://www.oxeyegames.com/files/strategist.dmg

What has changed? Well, a great deal actually! We have completely rebuilt the GUI, both ingame and in the menus, using a stylish "slide screen" display to catch the setting of the game. We have also created a whole new campaign with a continuous story, "bosses" and end-game credits. In addition, the game has been polished with new artwork, music and ingame effects.

So what's up with the "silver to gold" thing? What I'm trying to say is, in the September 2005 round-up (http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=294#strat) at GameTunnel, Mike Hommel snatched our chance of a gold medal because of the lack of story and mission objectives. Well, the game has main campaign and four other smaller campaigns now! :D

Also, when Mark Sheeky reviewed the game (http://www.bytten.com/gamereview.php?id=150) at Bytten he wrote about "mediocre" sound and artwork, but it "did the job". Try the game again, the new music is great (imho) and the graphics are a lot prettier. We have also received a number of reviews on Czech and Polish sites with similar comments. Complaints that are (hopefully) redeemed now!

PS. Also check out our new website: http://www.oxeyegames.com

[MrPhil]

Great work on the polish! I bought your game a year ago and it is nice to see how far is has come! I especially like the swarm of fish that come up to eat the bits of blown up armies!

[jeb_]

Thanks, Phil! I thought more people would give comments, considering how much has changed in the game.

The overall response on the update has been good, though. Our conversion rate has quadrupled from about 0.5 to somewhere around 2 %. One of the problems is that the download size has increased to 30 MB, and it seems like we have a lot of unfinished download hits (the number of hits on our download link doesn't match the amount of transferred bytes).

[Hamumu]

Damn you, Mike Hommel!!

[Reactor]

Your Youtube video looks great... I really like the music. When I have a bit of free time I'm definitely going to to check the demo. I haven't heard of it before so... let's just all pretend it's always looked and sounded this good ;)

[Cartman]

I'll try to take a look at it tonight. First impressions were not good for me on the screen shots, but then I looked at the you tube video. In my opinion the still images don't sell it as well as the video.

I liked the little animations on the units. Very nice. However the same explosion animation being played on all the bombs being dropped by the bombs seemed cheap. I would vary the animations or their timing a bit.

[jeb_]

Damn you, Mike Hommel!!
Yes! I knooow! If I could just get my bony little fingers on that guy! :mad:

;)

I'll try to take a look at it tonight. First impressions were not good for me on the screen shots, but then I looked at the you tube video. In my opinion the still images don't sell it as well as the video.

I liked the little animations on the units. Very nice. However the same explosion animation being played on all the bombs being dropped by the bombs seemed cheap. I would vary the animations or their timing a bit.

Ah, yeah you are right. I wince a little when I look at those final seconds of the clip. Problem was that I didn't think much about it until it was already uploaded to YouTube and the game was released. :/

Thanks for the comments :)

[Reactor]

One of the problems is that the download size has increased to 30 MB, and it seems like we have a lot of unfinished download hits (the number of hits on our download link doesn't match the amount of transferred bytes).

I can see why... the download got slower, and slower and... I ended it.

You might want to offer up your trial version to a few file hosting places and link to a few mirrors because your current download isn't all that good.

[jeb_]

You might want to offer up your trial version to a few file hosting places and link to a few mirrors because your current download isn't all that good.

Thanks for the info! The download link from our homepage randomly selects between three different locations, but they're all placed at the same server network (one.com). We will try to get the file hosted somewhere else as well, do you have any suggestions?

[Reactor]

I remember that Filefront were more than happy to host our demo, as was Gamershell, so you could always try them. When we first got things set up we were with Fileburst... but now we've switched to something else (no problem with Fileburst- we got the files hosted by a personal friend).

One other quick thing- make the mirror links seperate (ie: no random choosing). If a download is too slow for someone, they won't usually try twice (because they don't know it's randomly selecting the location), so you should always have visible options there for them to use.

[jeb_]

Ah, thanks. We created a mirror list here: http://www.oxeyegames.com/strategist/mirrors/

We'll try those sites you suggested also.

[Reactor]

Sweet... that's made all the difference ;)