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View Full Version : ANN: ThreadSpace: Hyperbol by Iocaine Studios


KungFuMonkey
08-02-2007, 12:53 PM
I forgot to announce this here since things have been a little hectic as this is the first game we have ever released. We made this game based off of a student project we had worked on a few years ago called Hyperbol (it was in the IGF in 2005). We worked on it in our spare time while working full-time jobs at various places to pay the bills. Eventually, we left our jobs and worked on our game from the money we saved up several months ago. By using my dad's dining room as a makeshift office, me and three friends finished our game and released it on July 12th.

The game is pretty different. A lot of people look at the video and think it's a Subspace clone, but it's pretty far from it. We really need to work on our video making abilities...but that's besides the point. TS Hyperbol is more like a cross between Worms and Scorched Earth in space with addictive multiplayer. The player controls a single tank-like ship that can fire weapons or deploy defenses. It's all real-time and heavily physics based, so a lot of the defenses are used to alter the course of incoming projectiles.

There's the online component of the game where you can create a character, similar to an MMO. Your character gains credits and experience as you play, so you can upgrade your ship, as well as customize the look of it. Upgrading a ship will not make it overpowered compared to other ships. Upgrades are more like stat tweakers where you can configure your ship with more armor, but will have to sacrifice something like weapon damage. With that system, you can make archetypal ships for things like repairing your teammates, sniping, being sneaky, or dishing out massive amounts of damage. The idea was to allow players to build ship configuration that catered to their play-style.

We don't have a whole lot of people playing the game since we didn't market it well, but it's really fun if you're into tactical multiplayer games with an arcade-like feel. The game requires Steam to play online, but we also have an offline demo for those without an internet connection.

Screenshots:
http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set1/screens_06_tn.jpg (http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set1/screens_06_low.jpg)

http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set2/screens_15_tn.jpg (http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set2/screens_15_low.jpg)

http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set1/screens_07_tn.jpg (http://www.hyperbol.com/images/screenshots/Aug_1st_2007_-_Set1/screens_07_low.jpg)

Game Website (http://www.Hyperbol.com) (has some videos there too)

Demo from Steam (http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=2730)

Offline Demo (http://www.hyperbol.com/downloads/TSHB_OfflineDemo.exe)

If you do check it out (which I hope you do! :) ), please go through the tutorials first. The game is pretty different and has about a 30 minute learning curve.

kay.altos
08-03-2007, 12:57 AM
I believe 300 megs is a bit too much for downloadable indie game. Screenshots are promising. Download in progress.

KungFuMonkey
08-03-2007, 03:48 AM
about 70mb of that is DirectX and .Net installers, and about 120mb are the intro videos. Sorry for the large size :-/

Spiegel
08-03-2007, 04:26 AM
about 70mb of that is DirectX and .Net installers, and about 120mb are the intro videos. Sorry for the large size :-/

If there is DirectX downloads, just keep two links one for DirectX and other for the game...:D

Also if you have 120 mb of video :eek: ... you could change to include some sort of compression (divx?)...unless you already have those.. :(

300 - 70 and compressed video = probably +- 150 megs... :eek: still to big... so its probably because of sound and textures or images... if so try and downsample the sounds/images a bit...

By the way.. seen a couple of trailers and I must say it looks great and seems fun to play.. especialy form me when theres physics involved.. Ill try it in the weekend...

kay.altos
08-03-2007, 05:38 AM
But anyway you can try to sell it on a retail market or via TryGames they are sell large downloadable games anyway.

DanMarshall
08-03-2007, 05:58 AM
Hyperbol deserves to do very well.

I think that's all I'm allowed to say till next month.

;)

mrkwang
08-03-2007, 07:10 AM
Doing d/l of the demo.

Wish to enjoy this game!

kay.altos
08-03-2007, 07:24 AM
Graphics and sound are beautiful!

But as for me this game is a bit too hard to understand, but tutorial really helps.

Controls and camera is very complex and really hard to go on. The game is like step by step fight but in a real time - too slow too complex.

Do i really need this PRODUCTION STATION and if so why don't you linked it with the ship. Actually i think there should be just ship with production abilities.

Controls and camera kills this great game.

KungFuMonkey
08-03-2007, 11:04 AM
Controls and camera is very complex and really hard to go on. The game is like step by step fight but in a real time - too slow too complex.

Do i really need this PRODUCTION STATION and if so why don't you linked it with the ship. Actually i think there should be just ship with production abilities.

Yeah, the camera has been a major issue with us. It was much worse in the past, but even still it has some major issues that we can't figure out how to fix easily. Once people use it for a bit, they get used to it and don't seem to mind. The pacing actually picks up a lot in big multiplayer games. With lots of things going on in the battlefield, quick thinking is critical.

As for the production station, it helps to give the game a more tactical feel since destroying your enemy's production station will set them back slightly, and there are a few maps where placing it in an area can grant you bonuses.

All that being said, our next game will address a lot of the issues you brought up (assuming we actually make enough from this game to work on the next game)