ANN: Raptisoft moves to Web/Download model

[Raptisoft]

Hi Everyone,

Okay, we've done it... we've switched our whole business model from "sell download games" to "play a web game, buy the super version" like Popcap. We should have about four games up there in the next few months, depending on how things go, but for now, Web Hamsterball is released and ready to play.

If you can break our site, please let us know! :)
www.raptisoft.com

[papillon]

... well, your front page is completely blank for us "Won't Activate JS Except For Trusted Sites" people. :) Isn't there a way to configure the server to go to .shtml instead of .html? My index page does it, I just don't remember precisely what I did to make it do that. :) At the very least, there are non-js refresh/redirects...

(And yes, I do expect to have to adjust my security in order to play web games, it's not a surprise there. It's just the blank front page I'm nitpicking.)

[Raptisoft]

That was a jury rig until we could find out how to set up our server to pick shtml over html.

It's fixed up now.

[oNyx]

The top navbar is wavy. All link images are shifted down, because you mixed there images with 34px and 35px in height. Must be the "magic" of IE ;)

The index page has a doctype, but you forgot that everywere else. Oh and it doesn't validate (48 errors duh).

The choice of colors is nice and easy for the eyes. And the overall layout (minus the visible glitches) is also pretty good.

[princec]

Didn't work. No idea why. I use Opera 7.52 under XP Pro SP2.

Cas :)

[lakibuk]

Works fine and loads fast here.

[Raptisoft]

Thanks for the feedback all. All problems mentioned should be fixed now (Cas: Opera doesn't support ActiveX, does it? If your browser doesn't support ActiveX, it's supposed to put you right to the game's download page, instead of attempting to open it).

Onxy: What's validating? Where do you do that? I just build the whole bastard in Dreamweaver, which usually tells you if you have errors as you go.

[Dominique Biesmans]

Hi Everyone,

Okay, we've done it... we've switched our whole business model from "sell download games" to "play a web game, buy the super version" like Popcap. We should have about four games up there in the next few months, depending on how things go, but for now, Web Hamsterball is released and ready to play.

If you can break our site, please let us know! :)
www.raptisoft.com

Tested (xp sp2) from firefox -> redirected to the download page, from IE : seems to work just fine (that is, playing the web game, didn't test the download)

I'll be interested (and I guess I'm not alone) in how the web version influences your CR & sales.

[Raptisoft]

I'll provide updates from time to time. I don't expect the web version of Hamsterball to help much-- it's not a good 'casual web game' game in itself. We'll have some up in a few weeks that will better test this.

[oNyx]

[...]
Onxy: What's validating? Where do you do that? I just build the whole bastard in Dreamweaver, which usually tells you if you have errors as you go.

For me validating is clicking on a button and select "validate html". I just love firefox + the great web developer plugin ;)

http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.raptisoft.com/goldgames.shtml

You can change the address there manually for validating the other pages.

Oh and the top navi isn't wavy anymore. The only small glitch left is a 1px line below the link buttons (it also cuts through the raptisoft logo at the bottom).

[tolik]

Great web version, John :)
Seems a bit "lite" without all the shaders and aliasing effects, but does the great job! Too bad there are no mouse controls.

I hope the big ;) version will be awesome ;)