Ultratron

[princec]

Ultratron beta, for your amusement.

Windows: Ultratron beta (http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/SetupUltratronDemo.exe)6mb

Mac & Linux: Ultratron beta (http://www.puppygames.net/applets/ultratron.jnlp)4mb

Special Features

Doesn't care what you think of the controls!
Specially designed to not work on PCs without proper drivers!
Phones home and tells me where you live and what your favourite porn is
...all that, and it'll be a free upgrade for Puppytron owners!


See you on the hiscore table :D

Cas :)

[soniCron]

And he emerges with gifts!

[Black Hydra]

Now that's marketing! :D

Seriously though, I'll give it a check.

[ggambett]

In Linux (yes I do have Java installed, yes I do have OpenGL running just fine), the .jnlp file was saved somewhere in my disk, but nothing was launched.

In Mac it downloaded some stuff, then asked me for "unrestricted access to my machine and network" but being a brave guy I said Start. It did load and worked, although it did weird things with the volume setting (like turning it on after I turned it off).

About the game itself, I'm not quite sure what's the point. I got used to the controls pretty quickly although I mainly moved horizontally. The graphics look terrible but I guess they may look "retro" instead to someone :)

[soniCron]

The bad: Shut down with no error first time I ran it.
Every time I get sent to a webpage instead of exiting (like clicking the "Buy" link), I get an error that it didn't shut down correctly last time.
The "More Games" link sends me to a page that doesn't exist.
The levels get super-hard after the first boss, possibly because of the mine-dropping robots, which, in combination with so many baddies, seemed like a lot more baddies.
While the power-ups were nice, they got stale very quickly. Incentive to continue playing by slowly increasing the types of power-ups is recommended.
There didn't seem to be an end of the trial? I got a few levels passed the first boss with no end in sight.
This is the type of redundant and linear gameplay that is usually found in free Flash games, and frankly the kind of thing I'd whip up to attract visitors to my site, not to sell.


The good:
Very frantic gameplay that was quite a kicker!
As usual, excellent production value and presentation!
The feel of the game was excellent!
Very responsive controls.
Polite about Internet access, though asking if we want to submit our scores to the online high-score list would be a plus. Dial-up users may get that connection dialog, which could be annoying. (I don't have a clue if that's true or not.)


Closing comments:
All in all, the game was fun, but a severe lack of forseeable mid- and long-term goals left me feeling dry and bored when wave after wave of robots attacked. A high score is definately not an incentive for me to not only continue playing, let alone pay money to do so. The presentation was refreshing, but will most likely turn of a lot of potential players because of its strong retro feel. The music (if you want to call it that) was very ambient and strong in creating the atmosphere. If there would exist more reason to continue playing, this game could possibly be a seller. Until then, it's been hashed, hashed, and rehashed again.

The run-down:
Pre-install: N/A
Presentation: spicy!
Graphics: hot
Sound: medium
Music: spicy!
Gameplay: mild
Originality: bland
Entertainment: mild
Overall: mild


My recommendation: It could work. Maybe.

[luggage]

Worked fine here - didn't uninstall itself properly though. Left a couple of dll files behind.

[ManuelFLara]

Quite good overall. Far better than Puppytron to me.

Some complaints thought:
- A "Play Now" option in the setup's last screen is appreciated
- At first I didn't get the "pick this bonus" and "shoot this bonus" thing. Maybe you should try to rewrite these sentences in the 'How to Play' screen
- The "avenge the human race another day' button didn't work. Maybe I had to wait some seconds, but I waited like 5 and nothing changed.
- The uninstall process left some files behind as well as the desktop icon (very annoying)

I like the name, but as it will be a free upgrade to puppytron users, why don't you call it Puppytron 2 or Super Puppytron or something that preserves the 'Puppytron' brand? It's a cooler name IMO :)

[lexaloffle]

Thanks Cas! Another tasty morsel.

No problems here - Win00/ TNT2/ 800MHz.

The scaled graphics works well, but the puppy games logo is a bit blurry for me. I'm quite fond of the regular crisp logo.

On first impression, it seems the difficulty seems to ramp up too slowly for the first 20 levels or so. I know that it's all about efficient preparation for the endgame - but this part doesn't feel as challenging or urgent as PuppyTron (especially the bonus levels).

Apart from that, I'm a happy player. It's just what I imagined Ultra Puppytron to be and captures the feeling of the original nicely.

[Robert Cummings]

I loved this a lot. It's a favorite, got in the top 10 as well :) On my first go, I managed a run to level 21.

[princec]

The bad:[list] Shut down with no error first time I ran it.

Can I have your logs? (Docs & Settings\you\Ultratron 1.0)


The levels get super-hard after the first boss, possibly because of the mine-dropping robots, which, in combination with so many baddies, seemed like a lot more baddies.

That's the idea :)


While the power-ups were nice, they got stale very quickly. Incentive to continue playing by slowly increasing the types of power-ups is recommended.

It's not an exploration game: the powerups are just there because they're vital to your survival! Be at peace with them. Experiment with different pickup order.


There didn't seem to be an end of the trial? I got a few levels passed the first boss with no end in sight.

It's just a beta - enjoy it while you can! I generally give stuff away to you guys when I remember to get round to it anyway.


This is the type of redundant and linear gameplay that is usually found in free Flash games, and frankly the kind of thing I'd whip up to attract visitors to my site, not to sell.

Hehe, how long have you been hanging around on these forums? Surely not you still haven't figured it all out?


All in all, the game was fun, but a severe lack of forseeable mid- and long-term goals left me feeling dry and bored when wave after wave of robots attacked. A high score is definately not an incentive for me to not only continue playing, let alone pay money to do so .... Until then, it's been hashed, hashed, and rehashed again.

And this is presumably why it sells so well :) Puppytron is our best seller by quite a margin. Ultratron is like Puppytron but with a shallower difficulty curve and slick presentation. I fully expect it to sell even better than Puppytron, and earn us 3x the profit despite it being a tedious hiscore chasing rehash!

[princec]

Hi Gabe, don't suppose you can fish around for your logs? I'm not even sure where they'd be, possibly in ~/Ultratron 1.0 somewhere. Not the best place for them ;)

(Honestly I've got no idea about Linux or making it work on Linux, most machines just tend to work fine but developers' machines are usually imaginatively fucked in some clever way)

Cas :)

[princec]

- A "Play Now" option in the setup's last screen is appreciated

Someone gimme the NSIS2 scripty bit that puts a checkbox in and runs the game! I don't know how to do it..


- The "avenge the human race another day' button didn't work. Maybe I had to wait some seconds, but I waited like 5 and nothing changed.

Hm. Was it highlighted?


- The uninstall process left some files behind as well as the desktop icon (very annoying)

Aha - which files? I'll add 'em in to the uninstall. Thought I'd got them all.

why don't you call it Puppytron 2 or Super Puppytron or something that preserves the 'Puppytron' brand? It's a cooler name IMO :)
'Coz I'm not primarily the one going to be selling it... with any luck it's going to be released on a couple of big portals in a couple of weeks. And they need nice easy names that don't confuse customers ("where's the puppies? I want my puppies. etc")

Cas :)

[princec]

No problems here - Win00/ TNT2/ 800MHz.Wow, really? I wasn't expecting it to run OK on something that old. You say you're finding it a bit easy... are you actually getting 60fps?

Please bear in mind I've dumbed it down closer to the portal crowd's level of competence - and if you've ever played Puppytron you're already a total expert, which means level 20 should be a breeze.

However I hope you all noticed that if you just quit the game and run it again it starts of from exactly the point at which you quit :) That was a neat bit of coding, that was. Took 2 hours to completely refactor the game so it was serializable.

Cas :)

[Robert Cummings]

I'd just like to say that this reminds me of a cross between defender and robotron. Most kids won't know those games much, but I remember them.

I played right up to when it booted me out with a demo expiry :) This is the first game I have played where I truely cared enough to beat the high scores set by svero and company (I've come 4th so far)... and I think sonic's comments are to be completely disregarded because this game is addictive and frankly, perfect for what it is.

I'm just thinking five quid isn't much. I don't know what will be the push to make me buy it. I might buy this, might not. I'm trying to figure out whats stopping me at this point.

[Addictive 247]

Worked fine for me - no problems at all.
Much better than PuppyTron. Great backgrounds and I love the speech :)

[soniCron]

Can I have your logs? (Docs & Settings\you\Ultratron 1.0)No such luck. No "Ultratron 1.0" directory exists anywhere under the Documents and Settings directory or it's subdirectories.

And this is presumably why it sells so well :) Puppytron is our best seller by quite a margin. Ultratron is like Puppytron but with a shallower difficulty curve and slick presentation. I fully expect it to sell even better than Puppytron, and earn us 3x the profit despite it being a tedious hiscore chasing rehash!Well, all the best of luck to you! :) Keep us updated!

[princec]

I'm just thinking five quid isn't much. I don't know what will be the push to make me buy it. I might buy this, might not. I'm trying to figure out whats stopping me at this point.Hahaaa, probably the fact that it's not actually on sale yet, being unfinished and full of bugs and all ;) Did you buy a Puppytron? Can't remember if you did... anyway, I'll be mailing all those Puppytron customers and giving them a free upgrade to Ultratron as a gesture of goodwill. So, er, buy Puppytron for $4.95 now, coz the price of Ultratron is $9.95 :D

Cas :)

[Robert Cummings]

sweet - just ordered puppytron :)

Bring on the UltraTron.

[princec]

(See? There's another one! Ker-ching!)

Cas :)

[Jim Buck]

Wow, you really hit it out of the ballpark with this one!

Only bugs:
- I often run at 1200x1920 res (vertical setup), and going to full-screen had the left side of the game missing.
- Sometimes it seemed that as I ran my mouse over the options, it thought I clicked some of them when I didn't.
- I don't know if it was a bug, or it was supposed to happen, but after I beat the 1st boss, there was a small robot that just appeared on my screen and carried over into the next level. I couldn't shoot him at all, and he just stood in place and kept firing.
- Generally it's somewhat hard to see the bullets in the background since they look pretty similar to thing in the background.. especially the bullets with long "trails" to them.

I would love to see how this does on the portals. The graphics and sounds are awesome. I will definitely get PuppyTron so I can automatically get UltraTron. :)

[dima]

As usual, the game exited right after startup. I saw the screen for 2 seconds and before the loading bar even moves, the game just exited without saying anything.

Im on a laptop with 16meg Radeon card. Couldnt run Flux either.

[Mike Wiering]

I enjoyed the game for a while, but then I found it too repetitive. A few comments:

- I like to be able to control menus via the keyboard, and that worked for the ones below, but the options menu required the mouse (or other keys that I'm unaware of).
- The load time is really long, especially as this seems like quite a simple game (technically), even when running it the second time, it took 1 minute and 28 seconds to load (between clicking the icon and getting the title screen). Is that normal or is my P4 2.0 GHz too old?
- When I uninstalled it, the icon remained on my desktop.

Anyway, good luck with this game!

[Savant]

I don't see how you're going to sell copies of this game but, hey, I'm probably not the target market.

I really didn't like shooting with the cursor keys. If it worked like crimsonland I think it would be 100 times more fun (give me a crosshair controlled by the mouse and shoot at it).

I think it's an interesting idea but it really needs more meat...

[soniCron]

Well, cas, you made another sale! I was willing to buy Puppytron for $4.95 (after reading your post), but not for $9.95. At $4.95 it's like I'm buying a burger and fries, but I can go to WalMart and get a really great game (like Age of Empires + Rise of Rome expansion) for $9.95, so I feel like I'm getting gypped buying a little arcade game for that same price. Just a thought.

[luggage]

Under that logic what plans do you have for your game? Is it going to be better than Age Of Empires?

[codeminion]

Worked fine for me. (XP,512RAM,2.6GHz)

Even got to the 6th level :)

I think it's a precious little thing for a price of $9.99 :) Nice and polished gives a real pro look.

Although I must agree with Jim that backgrounds are a bit to similar to the "firework-like" lasers (or whatever ;))

On the other hand the backgrounds are so cool that it would be a waste to darken them out or make them less visible. In my opinion you could include even more animation on the backgrounds, I don't think it would be very distracting.

I suppose it's a bit to late but I think that a space invader's style bonus round we a really nice thing (horizontal movement only, etc.).

Anyway it was quite fun to play between things i had to do during the day.

Cheers
Konrad

[soniCron]

Under that logic what plans do you have for your game? Is it going to be better than Age Of Empires?
LOL! Touche! My point was that this game is so low on playtime that I wouldn't pay more than $4.95 as an impulse buy. It's only something I'll play sometimes when I need a break from coding. On the other hand, I used to spend some 7+ hours per week playing AoE. It's not even so much about the content or depth, so much as the time spent playing. At $9.95, it's not worth it to me. (But you have a damn good point there.)

[Raptisoft]

Man, this game would be awesome if you could fire at the mouse cursor. :)

Cas, I know you won't do that, but what about allowing the use of the mouse like a joystick? Move it left, fire left, move it right, fire right. I'm left handed, and it causes me brain problems to put both hands on the keyboard and use them... it makes me super unresponsive.

[DanDanger]

Thanks!

UltraTron is fantastic, you've improved on puppytron alot and made it that bit easier for us lot that could never get on the highscore table. Best new feature is that I now know for sure when I have charged up rapid-fire to the max, and can gamble on picking up a power-up.

I tell you this: "tedious hiscore chasing rehash" is now my favourite type of game :) You should add that as a tagline to the game. I think ill have a go at making one with my new found java skillz.

And I get a free upgrade as well!?!? Oh princey boy what have I done to deserve such gifts!

[codeminion]

Man, this game would be awesome if you could fire at the mouse cursor. :)
Man... If you could shot at the mouse cursor with this game it would be called Pteroglider and it would sell like crap ;)

But seriously we had many complaints about the steering in Pteroglider... But some people who actually bought and played it said that for them it was the USP and seem to be quite fond of it...

Cheers

[soniCron]

But seriously we had many complaints about the steering in Pteroglider...
For the record, the steering was very jerky during gameplay and made it really unpleasant to play. It was as if the mouse would stick. You may have a technical issue, and that may be the main reason it didn't sell so well.

[cliffski]

great game cas, even if I suck and only got to level 12 ;(((

[Robert Cummings]

Whats with all the analysis? it's obvious portal games for the non-hardcore crowd will be mouse only for the most part.

This game is more hardcore. It's about mindless killing, which is a GOOD THING when you want to unwind.

[soniCron]

Whats with all the analysis? it's obvious portal games for the non-hardcore crowd will be mouse only for the most part.
Because cas said...

...with any luck it's going to be released on a couple of big portals in a couple of weeks.

...and the portal crowds tend to expect mouse input. (Though I think the keyboard input is great. Maybe an option to swap the movement and fire keys would be nice for leftys.)

[Robert Cummings]

the game will break under mouse. it will not work. it is also possible to have hardcore games on *some* portals. different portals have different titles and different audiances.

[oNyx]

>Maybe an option to swap the movement and fire keys would be nice for leftys.

Press the 'T' key to swap em. (I guess that still works.)

[svero]

Some light arcade games do ok on certain portals. I don't think realarcade would want it, but I suspect it would do ok on reflexive and a few other places for people looking for a retro feel robotron game.

I have a zillion little complaints, but I think it's mostly good and fun.

[terin]

You'd better think its fun given your massive high score Svero :-P

-Joe

[svero]

Actually that was just kind of a loose test game. Not really trying. It amazes me how bad people are at arcade games on average. Im sure I could double that easy.

[ggambett]

Hi Gabe, don't suppose you can fish around for your logs? I'm not even sure where they'd be, possibly in ~/Ultratron 1.0 somewhere. Not the best place for them ;)
I found no logs (and definitely no directory under my $HOME!), I think the problem is earlier... Firefox doesn't know what to do with the .jnlp. If there is any way to try it "manually" (download the jars and run them from the command line?) let me know and I'll try.

[C.S.Brewer]

worked great for me. no problems, winxppro p4 fx5900
I really dig the sounds and music, I hope it sells like hotcakes.

[cliffski]

my site isn't exactly realarcade but I'd be interested in trying to sell copies of this on my site. I get a fair few hits.

[svero]

Let me just document the stuff I would fix...

- save game = great you added it but the interface is wrong. See any popcap game for how to do it right

- bonuses/spideroids = ive taken to just avoiding the spideroids completely. Not what's intended im sure. 3 way and defense bots and a number of the bonsuses are actually detrimental when you play and the few helpful bonuses that do show up like invulnerability or recharge are few enough between that its just not worth shooting the spideroids. You need to leave little icons so i know what im picking up and time those out so they dont sit on the screen forever if i dont want them.

- keyboard controls : Always stick on me. You can't fire a diagonal shot as well.. you need to fire in a straight direction and then switch to diagonal later. They keyboard is basically all broken.

- map/progress bar : could be made much clearer

- boss bots : can appear on the player killing him instantly

- shot power : full power gun can fire through things like bots or bonuses if they're close up

- bonuses : the bonus icons are unclear.. could be improved

[Savant]

This game is more hardcore. It's about mindless killing, which is a GOOD THING when you want to unwind.
Hardcore is great, as is mindless killing. However, shooting with the keyboard places a limitation on the player that doesn't need to be there. Everyone has a mouse attached to their computer. There's no reason not to let me use it, especially since it would make the game a lot more fun.

I know he's not going to add it and I'll stop arguing about it now. Just making my point clear.

[Robert Cummings]

There's no reason not to let me use it, especially since it would make the game a lot more fun. I must respectfully disagree. It would ruin this particular game.

I understand what you're saying about mouse-driven gaming, but for this particular title, it would limit a lot of the actual appeal and playability. If I wanted to make this game work for a wide audiance, I would not make it at all. There you have it.

The game works BECAUSE it isn't mouse driven. It is very much a switch and hit mentality title. With a mouse, you will quickly overcome it and become bored. That is my humble opinion.

Larger changes would have to be made than just mouse control if you wanted to make it still interesting using mouse control.



[edit]:
Here is an example: you're at the bottom left of the screen and shooting up and right diagonal, however one of the monsters you're shooting is slightly to one side. To hit him, you're forced to put yourself at risk by moving your player upwards in order to make the shot.

These situations are typical thanks to the limitations. With mouse control, none of that exists, reducing the title to a simple stand there and point game, which is hard to become better at (a bad thing for a score driven title).

[DangerCode]

Pretty cool. If there's a Robotron audience out there than this is the game.

My very humble suggestions:

The audio of the smart bomb nearly blew my speakers
The tracing on the bullets was a bit overwhelming
You might want to introduce a boss monster a bit earlier. By level 5 or 6 I thought things were getting a bit too repetetive (yeah, I know, that's Robotron for you) and I thought about shutting the game down.
I only played until level 13 or so and then got bored. I know it's easier said than done, but a series of gimmicks or something to keep the experience fresh would go a long way.


(Keep in mind that I'm not a big Robotron fan, though.)

What I really, really, liked about this game was the presentation. Cool graphics and sound effects. Very functional. The game has great style.

Good luck, Cas.

[Robert Cummings]

Sorry for yet another post, but here's my list of improvements:

- make player and drone bullets *significantly* different from the enemy bullets, not just in colour, but in animation. This is because when it gets tough, I find myself dodging my drone's bullets, putting me at risk needlessly. I can't avoid this from happening...

- more variation in backgrounds

[cliffski]

Sorry for yet another post, but here's my list of improvements:

- make player and drone bullets *significantly* different from the enemy bullets, not just in colour, but in animation. This is because when it gets tough, I find myself dodging my drone's bullets, putting me at risk needlessly. I can't avoid this from happening...

- more variation in backgrounds

agreed
agreed

[mrhollow]

Much as I would like to try puppytron games, I have never been able to get webstart to work under linux.

I play java games, so I know that it's not a problem with java in general. I've tried on multiple machines running different versions of Linux, but this just doesn't seem to work for me.

Any chance of getting a package containing the jar files without using webstart? This would also be interesting to me for puppytron and your other games.

The space invaders style java game on your web site plays very well by the way.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Jim Buck]

Actually, the mouse could be an interesting experiment. It doesn't have to be full-analog (and, of course, it shouldn't be). The slight movement of the hand could translate into the closest of the 8 firing directions. If it ends up working pretty well, it could open up a much larger audience that it would appeal to.

[dima]

It also would be a nice experiment to get this shit working on my laptop, which isn't retarded and should have zero problems running this. I have OGL support and so on. Puppytron ran before, why doesn't this or Flux?

[oNyx]

It also would be a nice experiment to get this shit working on my laptop, which isn't retarded and should have zero problems running this. I have OGL support and so on. Puppytron ran before, why doesn't this or Flux?

The first version(s) of Puppytron used AWT and thus DDraw/D3D (on Windows). AWT was dropped for it's jerkyness and it's odd (read: very slow on some machines) behaviour. Dunno if AWT was really to blame for all of that... well, java sound finished it off for sure ;)

Most likely you are using some kind of dodgy default drivers, which just can't do any OpenGL.

You can also try something like Everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en) for looking up system specs. In this case Display->OpenGL... check renderer, version and vendor there. (The program can also do other nice things like looking up the cpu, mainboard, hdd temp etc or benchmark the ram and stuff like that.)

AFAICT you need at least OpenGL 1.2 (maybe it's even 1.1).

[dima]

Most likely you are using some kind of dodgy default drivers, which just can't do any OpenGL.It runs Quake 3 and Warcraft 3, and Im pretty positive that those games are OGL based. I have DX9 installed, but I didn't install any special OGL drivers or anything, just the default Radeon drivers for this card. Technically it should all work without me having to figure out why it doesnt.

[princec]

It's OpenGL 1.1 compatible but if the drivers actually cause the game to crash (instead of returning some sort of error code) I'm a bit stuffed. Whatever happens there have got to be some logs floating around somewhere that it's managed to write.

Cas :)

[Vorax]

Brilliant Cas!

That is one of the funnest game experiences I have had in a long time!

My only complaints:

- The drones shots should be a different colour then the enemies
- The smart bomb going off kinda smacked my speakers hard (volume)
- More diversity in the backgrounds

I am going to have to hide this from my kids, or I'll never see my computer again!

[Bad Sector]

Very good :-)

However:

The smart bomb sound is very loud (as said by others :-))
The drones' bullets must be a little different
After some time, it becomes boring. Add some new elements, a story, new enemies with fancier weapons/explosion, or something to make each level a bit different :-)


Generally is good. I like games like this one :-)

[lexaloffle]

Wow, really? I wasn't expecting it to run OK on something that old. You say you're finding it a bit easy... are you actually getting 60fps?

Cas :)

Why not? 800 *MILLEEON* instructions per second.

It looks like it's running at full speed. I did play puppytron quite a lot so I'd say you have the difficulty about right for a general audience. The automatic save feature is nifty and much appreciated, but it is still rather tedious playing through the game each time to reach a more challenging point. I'd like to see a difficulty setting if you could find a way to cram it into the interface.

[princec]

Nah, it's the TNT2 I'm surprised about, not the CPU. TNT2 has no hardware T&L so there'll be, like, 16000 matrix multiplications per frame going on in the CPU as well as the rest... not to mention it might start using a lot of fill rate.

I'm busy tweaking the difficulty tuning to try and get it to auto-adjust to how good you are. I'll still force you to sit through a few slower levels but the idea is to get it to ramp up pretty fast depending on your performance. I expect that looking at the player score:level ratio is going to be one of the best measures of experience.

Cas :)

[princec]

Wait until I put the next version up before you go trying.

Cas :)

[princec]

>Maybe an option to swap the movement and fire keys would be nice for leftys.

Press the 'T' key to swap em. (I guess that still works.)

Not any more; go to the Options screen and redefine the keys to whatever you want. Except P and ESC.

Cas :)

[andyb]

Having a crashing problem also. But found the logs under C:\Program Files\Ultratron

err.log attached in zip file.

[princec]

Ah, I think that's fixed with new drivers, that one.

Cas :)

[princec]

Updated Ultratron with a ton of tweaks, mostly all in the gameplay and a few issues here and there. Haven't been able to address any "won't run" problems without any logs or system specs :(

FWIW, Webstart under linux is apparently broken unless you get the latest one, 1.5.0_03.

Cas :)

[Fost]

Not much useful to say other than it rocks!

As soon as it's out I'll mention it on our forum, they're all into arcade games.

Fingers crossed this one pulls in some good money for you...

[Gnatinator]

That totally rules cas! Quite an experience.

Its still -in- beta? Wow, i wonder what the finished version will look like.

Good luck man!

[svero]

Well.. I can barely play it because it wont let me register it and it's timed out.. but from what I was able to see...

1) Save game still broken - popcap does a good job at this.. you might want to check one of their games.

2) Keyboard still broken - If its a game that uses only keys then I figure it would probably be a good idea if keys worked. They constantly stick etc.. There's something wrong with the way you're processing input

With regards to the other changes you made I'd say that the game is much more playable now and i like the extra wave diversity.

[princec]

Keyboard issue is a bit perplexing... it's no different to what it was 3 years ago :/ Just plain old DirectX.

I quite like the way I've implemented save games... completely transparently. Anybody else have any thoughts on the way it works?

Cas :)

[svero]

Well.. there's reasons Popcap do very well. One of the reasons is they don't do stupid things with their interfaces. The interfaces are generally very clear and they let people play and do what they want. Your save game interface is almost like there's but you're missing the option to not load the game. As a player I don't ALWAYS want to load the saved game.

[svero]

Oh and I don't have any key sticking issues in any other game. There's a bug somewhere. If it was just some directx thing I expect I'd see similar problems in other games.

[soniCron]

Oh and I don't have any key sticking issues in any other game. There's a bug somewhere. If it was just some directx thing I expect I'd see similar problems in other games.
Ironically, I downloaded Wonderland: Secret Worlds yesterday, and it has keyboard problems. Rather than sticking, it's like there's a 1-2 second delay before the key gets handled. The framerate is perfectly fine, but there's just this constant delay while doing everything. Strange.

[princec]

I mustard mitt I'm baffled by the keyboard thing, it's the same keyboard code as in Puppytron and Flux etc etc. I assume no-one else has the problem...

Cas :)

[Escapee]

The only thing i dislike about this game is that when my gameplay expires .. Grrrr :D :D

[Sillysoft]

Plays good here, lots of fun. On MacOS X the mouse cursor is still shown when a game is playing. I move it to the side, but I thought I would mention it.

[princec]

The mouse is visible on Win32 as well. I decided not to hide it to make it feel a bit more desktop friendly. I really don't like my mouse vanishing, personally.

I have an OSX build up at http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/Ultratron_MacOSX.zip but I don't think it works. Don't know why yet. No Mac, see ;)

Cas :)

[Sillysoft]

The OSX app works fine for me on 10.4.1

[gersen]

Great game, I love it :)

really it is miles ahead of your puppytron. I like the backgrounds and all the game have this retro feeling that make me happy for unknow reason :)

There are some problems with the sound, on my machine sometime the robot speech sound too high and a bit broke.

Levels are well presented and the boss levels are quite fun. I like the bonus stage where you have to shot at spiders, but maybe you can add others just to make the game a little less repetitive.

Just too bad that my demo expired, I want to play more and now so, if I buy puppytron, can I have a code for ultratron? :)

[princec]

If you're very quick ;)

Cas :)

[gersen]

So, was I quick enough? :)
I'm waaaaiting for the code, pleaaase, the one for puppytron doesn't work :(

[princec]

Patience! Can't do everything at once... busy doing site submission and press release... new keycodes coming soon! Get some practice on Puppytron first ;)

Cas :)

[Robert Cummings]

I tried to register using my leet haxxor warez puppycode code and nothing happened! It was exciting though.

[Jim Buck]

Argh, I ended up not getting around to buying PuppyTron earlier in the week - is it too late to get in? :)

[Kai Backman]

Heh, I'm a little late to the party, but I just downloaded Ultratron today and tried it out. Wow, do I love the graphics and athmosphere. I really like the visual and audio feel to the game. But I'm simply too physically challenged to be able to play it. Somehow 8 directions is a bit too much for my fingers to grasp. I know Svero will beat any score I get by simple ambidextrous magic, but I would have loved a mode where the little thing would shoot in the direction he's walking. If short taps made him turn, and he would remember his direction when you let go of the keys it would be very enjoyable. Just the cursor keys or something. On 1-10 in it's current state the game is a 5 because it humiliates me by mocking my clumsiness. With the simple control scheme I would have enjoyed it for 8 or maybe even a 9. Name it beginner mode or whatever, but that's the feature I would have loved.

Thanks Cas! :D

[oNyx]

Robotron-ish controls are way easier (more intuitive actually) with a gamepad, because you only need to pick a direction, which is physically 1:1 mapped. With keyboard controls you need to decide if you want to move the middle finger to the upper or lower position (left+right) and then you need to decide which of those 6 fingers you need to press down.

Well, you get used to keyboard controls after a while, but the biggest problem with that is that it's rather tiresome.

Maybe we'll see an update with gamepad support ;)

[Jim Buck]

With a Playstation 2 dual analog controller hooked up to a pc (with this cool USB adaptor sold on the market), the dual sticks would be perfect for this game. :)

[soniCron]

With a Playstation 2 dual analog controller hooked up to a pc (with this cool USB adaptor sold on the market), the dual sticks would be perfect for this game. :)
There's a PS2-esque dual-analog controller at WalMart for $15 by Game Elements (or something). USB, recoil cord, force feedback, the whole bit. Real nice. I would recommend it to anyone.

[Pyabo]

With a Playstation 2 dual analog controller hooked up to a pc (with this cool USB adaptor sold on the market), the dual sticks would be perfect for this game. :)

I have this setup and I'm actually not a big fan of it. The analog sticks just aren't as good as real 8-way joysticks. Or gamepads for that matter.

[princec]

Changing the controls eh? Hehehe. Over my dead body :) If you can't play Ultratron what you need is Invaders (WIP: http://www.puppygames.net/applets/invaders.jnlp - and we've only just started work on this so don't expect it to be good)

The deal's still on right up until I get my arse into gear and mail everyone the new codes.

"Special offer" in action eh?

Cas :)

[Jim Buck]

Ka-ching, sale made. :)

[Kai Backman]

Changing the controls eh? Hehehe. Over my dead body :)

I just wanted to give you a data point. I used to play arcade games back in the eighties but I'm getting too calcified for your stuff .. I think a gamecontroller might make it more intuitive.. ;)

[Olivier]

-Excellent graphics, very stylish & smooth pixelized.:)
-Enjoyable overall atmosphere. I played in the dark to fully enjoy.
-Nice controls, easy to 'prendre en main' (sorry don't know the english word for that). Moving and simulteanously firing in any other direction is needed here, otherwise the game would be much harder.
-I like the way the levels chain up. The difficulty increases well, and the 'electronic bugs' are more and more interesting as well as the weapons.

-The smartbomb sounds is a bit scratchy, but maybe it's just my audio devices.
-I'd really like joypad support, I felt frustrated not being able to use mine.
-A 2 players cooperative mode would be a nice addition. (I like multiplayer games)

[princec]

Thanks for the feedback :) The phrase you're looking for is "the controls fall easily to hand" but I think nearly everyone understands enough French to understand you!

Joypad support is forthcoming... just as soon as I get an API to code to...

Cas :)

[dxgame]

I love this retro game play, keep it up! :)

[Derek Yu]

Uh, Cas? How exactly do you register this game? I bought the damn serial # and there's no where to enter it! :mad:

But the game's very good. Congratulations!

[svero]

Thats another of princec's special new progressive user interface decisions. :-)

[digriz]

I've been trying to download the windows version from the puppy games site and it gives me a zero byte file. :( It the link broken cas?

[svero]

That's princec's special new progressive java somehting or other download idea.

[princec]

Ehhh, I can't get over this whole "people buying the game BEFORE it nags" thing! Won't be long though before it times out. I'm going to tweak that a bit.

Download should be fine... worked here for me just now.

Cas :)

[Derek Yu]

Wait, are you saying that I already purchased the game, and now I have to wait for it to nag me to buy the game before I can play?

[princec]

Nah, it lets you play anyway. It'll nag, don't you worry. That's the time to put the code in.

Cas :)

[svero]

You really should have a "enter your code" button somewhere. You're such a slacker when it comes to these little details. You've got it almost perfect this time.

Also there's another significant bug. The volume settings.. they done allow you to totally mute out music or sound.. only reduce it to some fairly loud level. I'd make the first dot on the options screen mean "off"

[princec]

That's exactly how the sound controls are supposed to work and everywhere I've used them thats exactly what they do... not sure why yours is different.

Enter Code button will be available soon.

Cas :)

[gersen]

After some plays puppytron show the nag screen, when I was trying to insert my code I lost my soul to figure it out :)

Anyway, are ultratron's serial code coming for our poor puppytron registered users? ;)

[princec]

Yesyesyes, patience, patience...
...mail me directly and you'll get priority treatment ;)

Cas :)

[jmcginley]

I downloaded, installed and ran Ultratron without any problems
(I had played earlier Puppytron demo).
I use Windows XP sp2 with ATI RADEON 9800 PRO (and latest drivers).
I played Ultratron once with the default skill settings
and got to Level 15. It won't allow me to play again (the demo expired)

Unfortunately, while I am a huge fan of Robotron
(and hence I'm your target market) I would never buy this game.
I'm all for improving Robotron, but your game has not done that.
In my opinion, the Bad in Ultratron currently outweighs the Good.
Having said that, with some major tweaking to the gameplay,
I think you would have a stellar game.

THE GOOD:

Good Graphics - lots of style, futuristic retro, almost cute
Boss Fights - first boss was fun (never got to second)
Variety of Robots - liked the different looks and especially the different sizes
Robot Placement - robots never materialize on top of me, I like that
Occasional Intensity - Liked the levels that immediately started with lots of robots
Sound - didn't stand out as much as the graphics, but I liked it


THE BAD:

TWO MAJOR PROBLEMS

Game is NOT intense / exciting / thrilling.
Play 10 minutes of Robotron. Play 10 minutes of Ultratron.
Ultratron is not nearly as intense / exciting. You never feel you're overpowered and going to die at any minute.
Level 3 of Robotron is more intense than anything I experienced during the 15 levels of Ultratron I played. I never was afraid of dying.
Robots never really swarmed me. Robots kind of ignore me (while I kill them).
Bullets were so slow they never posed a threat.
I could always easily run away from the robots.
Biggest fear / threat was accidentally running INTO robots / bullets.
I never had to run away while desperately shooting behind me.
I was never overpowered. My speed was enough to run circles around most robots.
My firepower was so good that I never really had to move (except to line up shots).
Also worth noting that the robots appear at such a slow rate that
usually I'm fighting robots one-on-one. Aside from a few challenge levels,
the robots never get a chance to come at me en masse because I kill them as they appear.

You can finish Robotron levels MUCH more quickly than Ultratron levels.
Hence, the better you are at Robotron the faster you can get to harder / funner levels.
Unfortunately, Ultratron sets the pace for you.
The better you at UltrTron the more you end up waiting for robots to appear (SmashTV also had this problem).
I never found myself bored/waiting on a Robotron level.
In Ultratron, I found myself waiting for more robots to kill (or something to finally pose a threat).
Additionally, if a Robotron level began taking a long time, the intensity was cranked up
(regular robots sped up, shooting robots began to run to the corners and make alarm sounds)


OTHE PROBLEMS:

Force player to move by overwhelming his firepower with robots.
If I only need to move to aim shots, then I have to much firepower
or not enough robots to fight.

Need more robots onscreen at the same time (like the challenge levels).
i.e. Make 15 appear at the same time. Always start a level with 100 robots.
Whatever you can think of. Avoid the current shoot them while they appear, 1-on-1 approach.
Additionally, if you start making robots appear faster,
you'll need to remove the shrinking rectangle introduction each robot materializes with.
It would be way too distracting if lots of robots were appearing.
Alternatively, if you can't display more robots, decrease the player firepower - it's super overkill.

Bullets need to move faster. They are so slow they are almost like mines.
Since you have mine layers already, it makes them redundant.
Biggest fear is running into the bullets (not the bullets hitting me).
Bullets are also indistinguishable from the background. They need to be completely different
(i.e. bright white/red). Since they're not a threat now, no-one cares.
When you make the bullets faster, this will suddenly be a problem.
Additionally. if bullets are made faster, take a page from robotron:
the farther away a robot, the faster it shoots
the closer a robot, the slower it shoots (still faster than what you've got)

Player moves too fast / robots move to slow.
The player needs to move a little slower and the robots need to move a little faster..
A balance must be found. Being able to outrun the robots so easily takes away a lot of challenge.
If robots moving at the same speed as you makes the game to hard,
perhaps the robot types need to be reexamined.
Additionally, grunt robots (hopefully attacking en masse) could start slower than the player
and then get faster.

Cannot make single diagonol shots consistently (unless I hold the diagonol direction).
Try shooting just 1 diagonol bullet. It's hard to do consistently.
When I'm sorrounded on all sides by robots, and shooting single bullets in all directions,
it's absolutley imperative the bullets shoot where I want.
Firing a single diagonol bullet in Ultratron usually results in a vertical or horizontal shot.
Again, holding diagonol is not an issue, it's the first diagonol shot that's a problem.
On Shockwave's Robotron, I can fire a single diagonol bullet at will.

Use the ENTIRE screen. Playing a full screen 1024 x 768 version of this game
- WITH THE CURRENT SPRITES - would be amazing.
While everything would be smaller, there would be lots more room to fit lots more robots on screen.
If you make the game full screen but increase the size of the sprites to match (like a 2X zoom),
don't bother. Currently, the size of your sprites and the size of your window
mean there is less room to move around and shoot in than the original Robotron.

Eliminate Irritating Robot that stays just out of the 8 firing directions.
It simply draws attention to the fact you can fire in only 8 directions.
This is a limitation of the controls / game, not of the player.
A robot should avoid taking too much advantage of that fact.

The Website needs to list either Puppytron or Ultratron.
I don't understand why both are listed since they are essentially the same game.
If I'm confused (and I visit Puppygame regularily), the regular customer will be baffled.


It's worth noting that I can only get to level 20 in Robotron (using keyboard)
so I'm by no means an expert at it. Having said that, I would buy another copy
of Robotron in a second.

While I realize this post may seem harsh,
it's simpy my honest opinion. Additionally,
since most of my concerns can be solved by gameplay tweaking
(as opposed to recoding), PrinceC can actually implement them.
The only question is whether he agrees with me.

Jim

[princec]

Nope, not on a single count :)

Cas :)

[soniCron]

On a related topic: cas, I don't know if you're still having lots of visitors but few downloads. If you haven't resolved this issue, it may be due to the fact that nowhere on your page does it actually direct someone to "Download" something. Your only links for downloads are marked "Windows" "Mac" "Linux", which may be confusing to unfamiliar users. Also, clicking on the images with the "More info" pages may be handy. ;)

[princec]

According to the click-path logs people aren't really having any trouble with it. I just don't get too many visitors really.

Cas :)

[Pyabo]

What about removing Puppytron now that Ultratron is available?

On an unrelated note... been awhile since I visited your site. Puppy Invaders is pretty sweet now. Maybe your next game?

[princec]

tum te tum :) http://www.puppygames.net/applets/invaders.jnlp

I think we'll leave Puppytron on there, just because there's no real reason to get rid of it.

Cas :)

[Jim Buck]

tum te tum :) http://www.puppygames.net/applets/invaders.jnlp

VERY good stuff. You may be on your way to another winner. :)

Couple bugs:
- when I got a forcefield right before a level ended, it carried on over to all future levels (but not on my ship - just positioned in the last place my ship was before that level ended)
- when I bought an "add-on", nothing happened (but I blew $4k :) )
- game slowed down big time as the levels went on (may be related to the stuck forcefield)

[princec]

It's just a WIP demo, haven't touched it for 2 months. All the bugs are well-known and it's really just us chucking things together to see how it hangs.

Cas :)

[Robert Cummings]

SWEET love puppyinvaders. Btw I clocked the online version a while ago.

This version's great - obviously work in progress and there's a bug after it wraps around a few times and thats I had one of those hyper shield things, and then I went to the shop, but after the shop, the shield hung around stationary instead of following the player and I could not shoot.

I ended the round with a smart bomb, but the next round was the same. I was unable to shoot.

Good stuff though, right up my street. The shop is genius.

[Sillysoft]

FYI: Ultratron is featured on the Apple games download site:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/

:)

[impossible]

This game is slick, definitely your best. It's to Robotron what Breakquest is to Breakout. I hope it does well.

[SpikeSpiegel]

cas, good work its really well done.

its intense, i had a good laugh about the "prepare to die" and the colors are fantastic. reminds me of smashTV for the SNES.. "goood luck.. you'lllll need it!"

I assume this is a J2EE smart client? Is the loading bar at the start checking your server for new versions?

[princec]

Ehh, nothing fancy like that.. the loading bar is actually, well, loading stuff!
I might put in an up-to-date checker in though.

Cas :)

[SpikeSpiegel]

Ehh, nothing fancy like that.. the loading bar is actually, well, loading stuff!
I might put in an up-to-date checker in though.

Cas :)

whoops, I remember about a year ago you were talking about using java webstart.. I'm using the .Net equiv these days.

Heh, I played super dudester too:D thats quite the bombardment of color:D I have to say that all of your games are very crisp looking!

Keep it up:D

[Robert Cummings]

DUDES

I'm on 9th position on the scoreboard. Beat me or butt out :)

[TimS]

currently 7th (shazbot)... Robert you go by angelfrog? :p

-T

[svero]

I should have the first position on the scoreboard but wouldnt you know it.. it crashes if you reach level 50! grr...

[Robert Cummings]

looks like I'm getting edged out :)

[TimS]

Svero -

I should have the first position on the scoreboard but wouldnt you know it.. it crashes if you reach level 50! grr...

Coming from just about anyone else I might not believe that... but from you, I don't doubt it. :)

[svero]

It really does crash on level 50.. I assume it will be fixed soon. Something to do with getting the name of boss #5.. except there is no boss #5.

- S

[princec]

Crash fixed! Redownload, everyone!

Cas :)

[svero]

I actually suspect the code in question was something like...


if(registereduser=="svero" && currscore>princec.bestcurrscore)
{
crash();
}

[princec]

Heh, there are indeed bits of code like that in there:

if (registeredSprite != null) {
registeredSprite.setVisible((Game.DEBUG && score.getName().equals("cas")) || score.isRegistered());
registeredSprite.setLocation(registeredX, registeredY + rowYPos, 0);
registeredSprite.setAppearance(registeredAppearanc eResource);
registeredSprite.setLayer(4);
}

<--- sticks a star next to my name when I'm debugging :) Strokes the ego.

Cas :)

[iopred]

I love it, it really is a killer game. The demo expired JUST as I was having a blast, midway through level 13 or so, perhaps it would be nicer to end the game after the current level?

That said, dont change it to mouse, thats the worst idea ever, it would turn it into another crimsonland. The powerups were fantastic, especially the little robot man that helped me, I thought he was cute! Overall you have the feel down, was racey once the first few levels were over, and as everyone has said, the graphics are fantastic, especially the particle effects.

All in all, a winner!

[ekagauranga]

Cas:

how have you done the glowing effects?

regards


eka

[princec]

Just a bit of photoshop glow on the sprites. And additive blending for the particles.

Cas :)

[ekagauranga]

Sorry what do you mean with additive blending? how?

Thanks a lot!

[princec]

glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE);

Cas :)