Super Dudester changes completely!

[princec]

Well, almost completely. I've tweaked all the levels to try to make the game more accessible. It feels much more like a normal shooter now and the controls are beyond reproach :P What do you think?

I'd also like your experiences of Webstart now I've signed the games using a very expensive Thawte certificate.

Have a bash, URLs are on my front page.

Cas :)

[Escotia]

"Java Web Start - Invalid Argument Error"

Get that for both Dudester and the game that shall not be mentioned.

oh.. XP SP2 and IE6

[princec]

I've noticed IE doing that :( Seems that it does not correctly handle the MIME type that is passed to it on some machines for some reason. What version of Java do you have installed?

Cas :)

[Escotia]

What version of Java do you have installed?

1.4.2

blah blah blah stupidtooshortmessage

[princec]

Pesky thing.
Does whacking the link directly help? http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/superdudester.jnlp

Cas :)

[svero]

I don't know about this change. To be honest it doesn't feel much more accessible than the first version.

I don't think this will have any positive effect on sales. I think I actually prefer the version I had. I don't necessarily think that the idea of shooting up always is bad. That may be ok. Might even be a good thing, but this change as implemented seems too quick and not well thought out enough to really take the game to a level where people who didn't like it before will now like it.

- S

PS: Donno if it's intentional or not but on several levels I can still shoot like I use to in the original version.

[Escotia]

Ok, clicking that link gives the same error in IE6 but it works for Avant.

Not sure about the webstart thing. It flicked my screen res about four or five times, then asked me some question about 'desktop integration' (eh?). I chose no, and nothing happened. I sat for a few seconds thinking it was probably just a delay. Eventually I looked at my taskbar (which auto-hides) and the game was there but minimised, so I then had to click it to give it focus.

Game seemed to run ok. Can only shoot up for some reason, which is different to the win32 download.

Can I suggest some kind of autosave for when you hit exit?

And I'm thinking the certification thing is next to pointless for 'unknown' companies... It still warns against running it unless I trust company 'X'. If I've never heard of them, why would I trust them?

[Raptisoft]

I tried to use that link, Cas, and it won't let my mouse move at all. In fact, it was completely unresponsive. I was able to alt-tab, but I had to close down Dudester with ctrl-alt-delete.

[Sirrus]

Webstart links don't work for me in FireFox - plug-in unknown...

[Vectrex]

hmm, I think the shooting direction lock was an important game play bit. Now it feels more... 'normal' :) I'd just have that as an option or set it in easy mode or on their first game get them to choose.

[Raptisoft]

Okay, dunno what the problem was, but it was resolved when I played again.

I think I have to take the exact opposite position as Svero. I think this is a great change. The one place (an oversight?) where it messed me up was with the eye-- I kept thinking the eye was firing TOWARD the dudester, and not in the last mouse move direction. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

Keep us posted on whether this helps sales. It's a lot more fun a game to me-- I was working too hard before just to get the dudester to fire at things.

[Scorpio]

Cas, a little off-topic but when I view your site at home or work using the latest version of IE (and XP SP2) I see gray rectangles where there's supposed to be fancy stuff (I'm assuming). I don't get any errors from the browser, so I'm not sure what's going on. There's a screen shot at:

http://www.micromanx.com/misc/puppy.jpg

-Scorpio

[Vectrex]

its weird how some people prefer being restricted to just shooting up, when you could just point up and hold the fire button if you wanted to do that in the old version :) Funny how people try and use every option availiable to them even if they have less fun doing it. Never thought taking away options would make players like a game better. Still, I prefer old school dudester (elvis ;) )

[tolik]

Sun Dec 12 20:00:45 EET 2004 Failed to create resource splash due to org.lwjgl.opengl.OpenGLException: Invalid enum (1280)
org.lwjgl.opengl.OpenGLException: Invalid enum (1280)

Sun Dec 12 20:00:37 EET 2004 Starting Super Dudester 1.0
Sun Dec 12 20:00:43 EET 2004 Failed to reserve Nvidia ram.
Submitting log... Sun Dec 12 20:00:56 EET 2004 Log submitted.

I don't have "Nvidia".

[arcadetown]

I got a demo expired message. Perhaps you can email me a reg key so can give feedback, you know the email address. Shoot loved the game before and sure will still love it.

[princec]

Them's disabled applets. You've got java disabled for some reason. Good thing you still have the download buttons to fall back on :)

Cas :)

[princec]

Sun Dec 12 20:00:45 EET 2004 Failed to create resource splash due to org.lwjgl.opengl.OpenGLException: Invalid enum (1280)
org.lwjgl.opengl.OpenGLException: Invalid enum (1280)

Sun Dec 12 20:00:37 EET 2004 Starting Super Dudester 1.0
Sun Dec 12 20:00:43 EET 2004 Failed to reserve Nvidia ram.
Submitting log... Sun Dec 12 20:00:56 EET 2004 Log submitted.

I don't have "Nvidia".
Don't worry about that, it's a red herring - it says that when it finds out you haven't got an Nvidia card :P What sort of card is it? That's a bad bug.

Cas :)

[Andy]

Cas was promoting that his autoadjusting invention long time before. And now are the results of it's activity - "BS means BS what ever you make" - Am I correct or what? :D

[princec]

Didn't managed to lure any green out of Brian's wallet anyway ;)

Cas :)

[DanDanger]

when i clickon the "play now" button (or the direct link you supplied) firefox just tries to download the .jnlp file thingy. Hope that helps :)

But ive played your other versions and thought it was fantastic, though what happened to super elvis?

[princec]

jnlp files are normally associated with Java Web Start. If you've not got Java installed, it won't do anything :)

Elvis had to go for fear of nasty people hassling me.

I was thinking of calling my next game Super Osama.

Cas :)

[Night Elf]

I get a "your demo has expired" message when I click Play...

[Sillysoft]

haha, Super Osama. Now that would be funny.

The cert works properly for me, although 'Shaven Puppy lmt' made me raise my eyebrows :cool:

I think that only-shooting up will make it much easier for most people. Likewise I think the new level layout thing is much better. Being able to see extra lives and stuff gives you a reason to shoot for a certain path. I like that a lot.

The 'Buy Now' button still does not work properly for me. I tried it on 2 different macs both with OSX 10.3.6 with all updates. If you ever want to sell to macusers you should make sure that this works right. (Maybe reading the runtime process till completion would solve it?)

I know that you were doing some testing with regard to how much of the game to give away in the demo. Are you still doing that? Or how are you limiting the demo?

The versions that I have played have given away almost everything. For a player like me they have given away everything. I will lose all my lives before the game shuts off. So I have seen no real difference between the demo and the full version. Perhaps I just haven't played it enough for it to shut off though.

[Sunshine]

Works fine for me, I use IE 6 on win98.

and a fun game too. :)

[svero]

I tried the before and after scenario with someone who'd never seen the game. The shooting up only went better until he reached whack-a-mole and then he got messed up by the direction again. It was a little better but overall not significant in terms of whether he'd keep playing. Partly it seemed that he finds the game just too frantic and fast. There's not so much you can do about that unless you lower the curve a little. Difficulty in this game ramps up very fast.

[Anthony Flack]

I agree - it's not much different, but I liked it better before. I don't know why you're changing it up so much, so soon. Surely letting more people know about it would lead to more sales than yanking the gameplay about?

[princec]

So far, all of the negative comments I've had concerned the controls (stop sniggering at the back). I've replaced the controls with utterly standard ones now - which don't actually affect the gameplay at all, as this is how most people learn to play the game anyway! A few of the levels still have directional firing for a bit of variation, but mostly it's to the north.

Having eliminated controls from the complaints equation I can filter out any feedback about them and concentrate on the other aspects of the game which might not be so hot. Steve's comment on the difficulty ramping up fast are a little perplexing. But then, it is supposed to be a challenging game.

It's too early to tell how it's going to do but at least I've gotten rid of the one complaint I've heard over and over again about it.

Cas :)

[Vectrex]

it would have been nice to let the old version sell a bit for a set time and then change the controls and compare the conversion rate. Generally people who complain aren't always the majority. The controls in dudester are a huge chunk of the gameplay, so I think an option would have been better.

[princec]

I have barely noticed the change in gameplay myself... I don't think the controls added anything to the experience. I'd rather try this version out for a few months rather than the previous one.

Cas :)

[Ricardo C]

Having played both versions, I have to admit the simpler controls made the game more fun for me, although it'd be nice to have the old control system back in the game as well, perhaps as a "special challenge" mode?

[patrox]

Having played both versions, I have to admit the simpler controls made the game more fun for me, although it'd be nice to have the old control system back in the game as well, perhaps as a "special challenge" mode?

Good idea, or maybe at the beginning of the game a
"choose your hero" sequence:
Elvis ( straight shooter ) or Ilves ( multidirectionnal )

That would add to the replayability of the game.

pat.

[princec]

Replayability is perhaps none of my concern. The Super Dudester demo exists to sell itself and provide 10 hours of entertainment.

Cas :)

[svero]

Id say that the directional control mixed with firing up is bad. If you're going to go with firing up then I'd use that exclusively. The whole experience needs to be fun from start to finish. Case in point was the fellow i had trying it. As soon as he go to whack a mole the game stopped being fun for him. I think "a few multidirectional levels for variability" is definitely a bad idea. If the levels dont work with firing up then I'd say replace them for levels that will work. I also find that some of the levels dont play nearly as well with the up firing as they do with multidirectional so they either need to be changed or replaced. Pumpkin lord is a good example of that. He chases you so there ends up being this kind of pointless behavior where you have to go to the top of the screen and then back down again to fire at him.

My comments with the difficulty curve have to do with the speed of the levels and letting the player get the idea of the game and get into it. Your levels only last for seconds each. So when a new player first approaches the game they barely have time to register that they can shoot stuff and make other stuff appear that they have to catch before the whole game changes on them. I think players need a little more time getting the hang of something before it changes. Variety is good but it happens so fast in this game that it leads to confusion.

[Ricardo C]

Replayability is perhaps none of my concern. The Super Dudester demo exists to sell itself and provide 10 hours of entertainment.

Cas :)

I didn't say you should include it in the demo, it could be a "perk" of the full version.

[princec]

I might tweak the few remaining levels that use directional fire still.

Cas :)

[princec]

I don't think anyone would really "get it". It's certainly a very poor feature to have as an upsell!! ("Get more controls!" I can't see it somehow ;))

Cas :)

[Ricardo C]

I don't think anyone would really "get it". It's certainly a very poor feature to have as an upsell!! ("Get more controls!" I can't see it somehow ;))

Cas :)

"Register now and unlock the secret Championship mode! A whole new game awaits you... If you dare take the challenge"

[princec]

I'm not convinced that a "whole new game you've not yet seen before" is a great upsell. The whole point of the demo is to show them what they're going to get surely? Rather than tell them they can pay up and get a completely different game?

Cas :)

[Vectrex]

well if you get to choose control methods it definately should be a big obvious option that you have to choose before you start and it should be in the demo to as if I hated the directional controls I'd know. Otherwise people might delete without knowing if it was buried in the options screen

[Ricardo C]

I'm not convinced that a "whole new game you've not yet seen before" is a great upsell. The whole point of the demo is to show them what they're going to get surely? Rather than tell them they can pay up and get a completely different game?

Cas :)

An additional gameplay mode, man. My goodness.

But your mind's obviously made up, so I'll just say "good luck, I'm buying the game anyway :p"

Edited so as to sound less prickly :o

[svero]

I'm not convinced that a "whole new game you've not yet seen before" is a great upsell. The whole point of the demo is to show them what they're going to get surely? Rather than tell them they can pay up and get a completely different game?

Cas :)


See this is the thing that I really think is quite bad in Super Dudester, and what I've been trying to get you to understand. People DO NOT pay for the demo they have. The only thing you have to sell them is what they don't already have. The difference. A new gameplay more, new levels, more levels, etc... All you're offering is more time. It's not a strong upsell. It's very very weak in that respect.

[Anthony Flack]

The first version I download was level limited. The new one seems to not be.

Is this part of the quirky sales experiment, where you give out random amounts of crippling to people? Or is it something else that's changed with the new version?

[princec]

Yes, you're all being experimented upon :)

wrt. upsell: I can't very well "hint" at something, you've got to be given an easy linear progression to understand. Like the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4... ? you know that 5 is coming next, and if you want 5, bingo!

However I can't see any way to make a completely different game mode work in Dudester that has any kind of logical progression.

So far Dudester's upsell is based around the following sequences:

1. Not being able to escape and get a hiscore -> being able to escape and get a hiscore

2. See one level -> see next level is different -> and so on -> see all the levels to see what they're all like (although this is randomly configured)

And a random configuration to time limit / use limit the demo. It is possible to get a configuration that turns the game almost into shareware, with no play or time limits and all the levels available (just no ability to escape and get a hiscore).

I'm not sure I like this myself just yet - the hiscore problem. I may add another random configuration var. that allows escape & hiscores for 50% of installs and see how that does.

Cas :)

[Martoon]

Okay, here's my input on the new build:

Showing the extra lives/time icons on the level select screen is a definite plus. Adds a little more strategy to choosing levels.

The simplified shooting in most levels definitely makes the game more approachable. I thought maybe I wouldn't like it when I read about it, but having played it, I have to say I have more fun playing.

Having the "lock-and-hold-a-firing-direction" mode on a few levels? That's really tough to say. Like some people mentioned, it will be even more frustrating for players when they reach those levels since they're used to the more simple firing. On the other hand, the central charm of this game is that it shakes up the gameplay paradigm on each level, so it does make sense to alter the controls for some levels (some of my favorites are levels where the eye fires instead of you - these levels give you the "Oh, cool! I get it!" experience the first time you play them). I think the fundamental problem with the "lock-and-fire" control is that it's just too complicated to get a handle on for this kind of action game.

Something you might want to consider instead is having a few levels where the dude always fires in the direction he's moving (and doesn't lock), and a few where he always fires the direction he's moving away from. I know that isn't as "useful" as locking a firing direction, but I think it would be much less complicated for players to get a handle on, while still providing some variety to the controls on the different levels.