Venture the Void beta 0.6.4 (used to be Vex)

[PsySal]

Hia! Okay, I'd like to get some feedback on my game, Venture the Void. I'm just interested in any feedback you want to give, from bug reports to general impressions to blank cheques.

This is a freeform space exploration/trading game, something like star control 2 but in 3D.

Screens:

Screen 1 (http://venturethevoid.com/screens/screen01.jpg)

Screen 2 (http://venturethevoid.com/screens/screen02.jpg)

Screen 3 (http://venturethevoid.com/screens/screen03.jpg)

Download is here:

Venture the Void Install 0.6.4 (38mb) (http://venturethevoid.com/beta/Venture_the_Void_Install_0.6.4.exe)

Thanks,

Calvin

[PsySal]

Heyy! Last time I got such great feedback but this time... hundsfoots! C'mon guys, this is really a big improvement over the last beta test and your suggestions were very helpful before... :o

[MingooX]

I havent had a proper free moment to play the game yet, but my first comment would be that I feel "Vex" is a much better name than "Venture the Void".

Why the change?

[PsySal]

Haha, I guess mainly because somebody posted that Vex doesn't really say anything about the game :o

Anyhow, I have actually overall gotten a lot of positive feedback on Venture the Void; Vex unfortunately all it really says is "unpleasant and confusing" which isn't really what I'm going for :D

[Christian]

I downloaded and started it with no problems, but then i wanted to connect to the beta server and it stayed there, like dead, for various minutes, then i closed it, tried to run it again and it didnt want to start.

Edit: i visited your site and it says im online on the test server with other people!.

Edit 2: i re-initiated windows and i the problem is the same, i start the application, the screen resolution sets itself to 800x600 and the application doesnt respond. AND your site says im still online on the same server than before.

Edit 3: i tried to configure it on the setup, i wanted to play it offline but that doesnt work either :/

A criqute that i think is important is that the visuals communicate something that is not very clear, is it a casual game or a hardcore game? is it a very cool full of technology hardcore game or a very fun casual space game?, right now it looks like a not very interesting hardcore and very dark-gloomy-boring casual, im talking about what the visuals here, not the actual gameplay, because what the visuals communicate is important, its also important to make them very clear what they communicate, not make strange hybrids.

[PsySal]

Heyy! Sorry, I had a ridiculous issue going on with the server. Basically it was hanging after you download the world file because of an http redirect blah blah blah it should be fixed now :) Just 1. uninstall and 2. reinstall and it should work (you don't have to re-download)

As for a casual game, it's I guess a hardcore game, or like, a "lighter" game for hardcore gamers (if that makes sense.) So it's not quite strange adventures in infinite space but it's not really EVE online either. You fly around, you buy stuff, do silly stuff, and so on. The game itself however is not at all gloomy, the emphasis is strange adventures and freedom of choice; it doesn't take itself seriously at all which I hope is refreshing.

Anyhow, if anybody tried this over the past few days and it totally didn't work, just give it another shot it should be fixed now. Really sorry, that was a stupid error on my part.

Calvin

[fezztah]

I wonder if the lack of communication might be partly related to your forum, or maybe it was just me, let me explain.

I installed and it told me I had to register, which I did. I wanted to post something on your forum and when I went to the site it said I was already registered (must have happened when I registered for the game), very good. However, I needed to put an email address in so I could see your reply. As soon as I did that it said I should wait for an authentication email which I didn't get. So then I made a new forum log in, at which point it told me I had to be invited in by you before I could post. Eek!

Sounds like it could all be fixed, but was a bit frustrating.

As for the game:

1. the cute small size planets are fantastic.

2. the procedurally created planet textures are nasty looking (sorry), they are procedurally generated right? Is there any chance you could fire some cash at an artist and get some nice pre-made ones? I know it reduces the size of the universe, but still.

3. I agree with the other poster that a lot of the game comes across as fun/casual i.e. cute planets, simple control scheme, etc. I have no problem with that, its great. However, other elements feel a bit hardcore and complex. I'd say go full on for fun/casual, get some cute alien character portraits in there and try and simplify the interface and add more tutorial style content.

4. generating planets - I know you've heard that before, but something has to be done about that, it just takes aaages. Prebuild a smaller universe perhaps?

5. I didn't play long enough to check out combat, I picked up a mission to visit another planet but then that one needed procedurally generating too! I'd already waited 5mins for the game to start and it looked like I needed another 5min wait for the new planet, just couldn't face it. If possible make the initial missions focus on the alreayd generated local area, I think that is essential.

[PsySal]

Fezz,

Aha! Okay I will look into the forum system email thing. I'm not too sure what it's doing, but I had to hack up phpbb a little bit to get the login stuff to sync properly so that might be it =) Thanks, I would never have found that out.

1. Yaay =)

2. I want to improve the planets if I can, actually my first priority is going to be to try and get some new building textures in. It's rather... annoying, actually. One thing, do you find the large-scale or small-scale textures are bad? The small-scale ones can be changed easily, the large scale ones are more difficult. Truthfully, the autogeneration for this thing is an absolute monster. Way more than it seems. One thing I can do is reduce the planet resolutions. I don't like to do this, because well I lose a lot of graphics "juice" instantly (and I need every drop I can get), but it's something I should probably think about.

3. Well, I'm shooting for a "causal MMORPG" sort of thing =) In some ways, it is how it is; I'm really pretty much at the end of my willingness to work on the project. But this is OK, I would simply rather start a new project altogether rather than reshape this one too much. However, anything I can think of that will make the game play more quickly or whatnot that isn't too difficult, I am likely to go on. I have actually made as many changes to this end as I can, the game is still pretty complicated I admit!

Okay, what I'm going to do, is reduce the planet resolutions right away and see what happens. I find a certain number of people are downloading the game and loading it up but it's not progressing much for them (since it's online I can sort of see what they are up to, but only to a limited extent since I haven't really coded that good analysis or whatever tools)

The great thing though is that I can straightaway reduce the planet resolutions and see what happens, see how people respond. All that is int he world file, which downloads from within the game so really it will just be a net result. As for you, if you want to try it out with the lower resolutions, wait until I post a message here to that effect and then delete your world.testing4/ folder completely (don't worry, you won't lose any save game data). Then just play it, it will regenerate everything fine.

Maybe I can offer a special "high resolution" version of each world file, for those hardcore players who want it.

Thanks for playing!

[PsySal]

Okay, so I've uploaded a lo-resolution version of the world file. If you delete the folder world.testing3/, it will automatically download the new version and you should be a happy camper. This was really sort of, something I've gone back and forth between before. I realize it's a huge obstacle for new players and I think in the end, it's my only option. I can probably work something out so that any really dedicated players can get the hi-resolution version, and manually install it or something.

Calvin