D.N.A. released on MerscomArcade

[MerscomMan]

Merscom announced today that D.N.A is available for $19.99 at Merscom Arcade.Developed by 5TH Cell Media, D.N.A is an innovative twist on the puzzle genre. Screenshots and demo at: http://www.merscom.com/arcade/dna/

Players help a biologist, Dr. Rose Thompson, in her unusual experiments to create new flowers and save others from extinction. D.N.A features a unique storyline and a stylishly detailed setting that lay the groundwork for experimental gameplay in three different modes.

In a departure from the match 3-color and grid system found in many popular online games, D.N.A uses a color combination system. Users combine different colored proteins to create entirely new cells. With each chain built, hybrid molecules grow into a variety of amazing and beautiful flowers.

"D.N.A is a great game-very enjoyable, addicting, engaging, and fun," said Lloyd Melnick, Director for Merscom. "Players should note that D.N.A is emblematic of the quality we are striving for with all our games and we hope they enjoy our products for years to come."

About Merscom
Merscom is a global publisher of computer and video games, which distributes games through multiple channels, multiple platforms and multiple revenue models. Merscom's channels include retail distribution in the US and Europe, online sale through major portals worldwide and games on Microsoft® Xbox Live® Arcade. Merscom publishes on multiple platforms including PC, console and handheld. Merscom produces entertaining products for gamers of all ages and guarantees all customers a great experience with its "Fun Guarantee." For more information visit www.merscom.com.

About 5TH Cell Media LLC
Based in Bellevue, Washington, 5TH Cell Media LLC was founded in 2003 by industry veterans Joseph M Tringali, Jeremiah Slaczka and Brett Caird. 5TH Cell is a premier developer of original and engaging game software for handhelds, PC and next generation consoles. For more information visit www.5thcell.com.

[adamw]

Downloading because I love the concept. I'll post thoughts later.

[amaranth]

This looks great! Good luck with it. :D

[MerscomMan]

Love to hear what you both think, we are really excited as this is the first game we are publishing primarily for the online casual game market. Please feel free to give your open criticism, I can take it.

[Shaz]

I can't install this - I get a "connecting" box and the connecting light just flashes - no progress. Is there something not working, or is it just incredibly slow? (I turned my firewall off just in case, but no difference. My speed is 1500).

Also not terribly thrilled about anything registering to execute at startup. Is that normal?

[MerscomMan]

I can't install this - I get a "connecting" box and the connecting light just flashes - no progress. Is there something not working, or is it just incredibly slow? (I turned my firewall off just in case, but no difference. My speed is 1500).

Also not terribly thrilled about anything registering to execute at startup. Is that normal?

Can you please try again. The game is currently being served by Trymedia and they had some outages tomorrow. Once we do a mass release, we also plan to have options so that pre-registration is not required. Thanks.:)

[Shaz]

No, my comment on registering was that on installing the game (or attempting to), it wanted to register an executable for startup - not sure why a game needs to have something in the startup group, though when trying it again it looks like it's registering the installer to run at startup. I don't have enough programs in my startup group, so maybe I should just let it do its thing.... ;-)

I just tried again - still no go. It really looks like a nice game, but my enthusiasm is waning. All the registering for startup, download a downloader and when you want to install, go download something else, and no response when you try, is just too much for my liking. Is there somewhere I can just download the exe and be done with it? I sure hope whatever the problem is, it gets sorted out soon - I imagine having servers unavailable the first few days of a new release must be right at the top of the frustration list.

Have any of you guys been able to successfully install yet?

[Yatec Games]

Installed and played fine on my first time through. Definitely an original theme in the casual space!

I personally like the character art style and the chilled retro soundtrack, although the synths might sound a little too 8-bit for a some casual players' tastes. Time will tell if the biology theme resonates with players as well -- linking proteins to create new flower species may be enough to draw in curious new players!

I like what 5th Cell has done here, and by looking at their site I see they've done some high profile work. Looks like a great studio to be working with on Merscom's first published casual. I'm not sure that everyone will immediately grasp the idea of combining different colored proteins to create hybrid colors. To be honest I'm still a bit confused about how to link two different strands while they're combining. Puzzle Mode level 3 took me a while to figure out, and I'm still not sure what I did right when I beat it!

Best of luck with everything, and I'll be contacting you guys about our new game soon. ;)

[MerscomMan]

Installed and played fine on my first time through. Definitely an original theme in the casual space!

I personally like the character art style and the chilled retro soundtrack, although the synths might sound a little too 8-bit for a some casual players' tastes. Time will tell if the biology theme resonates with players as well -- linking proteins to create new flower species may be enough to draw in curious new players!

I like what 5th Cell has done here, and by looking at their site I see they've done some high profile work. Looks like a great studio to be working with on Merscom's first published casual. I'm not sure that everyone will immediately grasp the idea of combining different colored proteins to create hybrid colors. To be honest I'm still a bit confused about how to link two different strands while they're combining. Puzzle Mode level 3 took me a while to figure out, and I'm still not sure what I did right when I beat it!

Best of luck with everything, and I'll be contacting you guys about our new game soon. ;)


Thanks, really appreciate the feedback.

[Kaos]

grabbed this last week off the csc. looked interesting, gave it a whirl and find it very.

[DGuy]

Why the need to enter an email address to download the demo?!?

First, I think it just make people think twice about downloading the demo: "Do I want to potentially get MORE junk mail!?" Secondly, if they do enter an email, chances are it will be bogus (As I always do in these types of cases).

I'll give a valid email when/if I buy it, but to just try it ... no way.

BTW, all the above is IMHO. :)

I'll give the game a play, and let you know what I think: The concept does seem interesting ...

[Kaos]

you can grab it here: http://d.trymedia.com/dd/merscom/1h_pkg542/csc_merscom/DNAsetup.exe

if that helps anyone.

[Shaz]

I got it now
:sigh: darn firewall pretending it's not running and not asking if I want to allow the connection - given me no end of troubles today (and obviously for a few days....)
I'll give you feedback when I've played a while.

[Shaz]

ok - back after my hour ran out....

On the downside -

Some of the text was a little hard to read - particularly the number of cells of each colour needed at the start of each round (was a little blurry against the text background), and the "Congratulations! You have created the ....." text after each round (text was very small and I had to squint to read it).
I found myself ignoring the infected cells and the tri-colour cells - maybe a visual tutorial on their correct use might help (clicking the tri-colour cells, then clicking again and again to get a particular colour was more time than I wanted to spend and I ended up just working around them).
I've no idea what "Growth" entailed - did cells generate faster? I didn't notice anything different when I heard it, so don't know if I should have been looking for something
I wasn't at all interested in my accumulating score and I don't know if I did anything that gave me extra bonuses. The screen at the end of each round, where you see points gained, didn't hold much interest for me - I didn't see anything I did during the game particularly highlighted on that screen, so I was more "yeah, add up the points and give me the continue prompt so I can keep going".
On the upside -

Soundtrack was excellent - very relaxing.
Graphics were beautiful.
Liked the notification of what colour was needed - verbal and visual 'cause I didn't pay much attention to the "buckets" at the bottom of the screen.
Loved the voiceover - always nice to get a little encouragement during play, and whoever you got to do it suited it very well
I got through about 4-5 groups in Action mode before my time expired (just past the intro to the bombs), and didn't get to try the other 2 modes. The game was easy to learn and fun to play, but I didn't seem to have much of a goal apart from completing a different genus every 5-6 levels, which I don't think would keep me going long. Maybe the other modes would keep my interest.
Overall, the gameplay seemed to have all the things I enjoy when playing Bejeweled 2 (graphics, music, instant gratification), so I guess my initial thoughts are that it will do well.

Glad I finally got it installed!

[DGuy]

I agree with several things Shaz said above, but would add ...

On game-play ...
It would be helpful if there was an on-screen key that showed which cell combos gave which colors (The combo-chart displayed when this feature is first introduced is nice).

I found myself selecting cell combos, and if they did not produce the color I needed, un-selecting and trying another combo. This may have been intentional to increase the challenge, but I found it a little frustrating.

On graphics ...
They are a bit too grainy for me (looks like 32bit artwork reduced to 8bit.)

Also, the game pieces and combination effects are too coarse and jagged, especially with all the rotation going on. It would be nice if some alpha blending were added. I noticed the PopCapFramework was used; maybe it's support of an alpha channel could be used to smooth the graphics.

Nice job overall and best of luck! :)

[AnthemAudio]

Took me about an hour to realize I liked the game and wanted to play more...so good job on that one. Nice everything really. I would probably place a more menacing and/or louder sound when a virus attacks your cells...or at the very least make them shake a bit more. I just put them out of mind because...well I just did. They're kinda forgettable.

I think this one will do rather well, I'd be surprised if it didn't. Not only is the polish there, but addictive gameplay as well!

[Teeth]

Avast! Antivirus flags this download as adware. Says it contains Win32:Adware-gen. HTH

It looked nice but I'm not installing it now, sorry.

Plus, an email just to get the download is totally beyond necessary

[MerscomMan]

[QUOTE=DGuy;113117]Why the need to enter an email address to download the demo?!?

First, I think it just make people think twice about downloading the demo: "Do I want to potentially get MORE junk mail!?" Secondly, if they do enter an email, chances are it will be bogus (As I always do in these types of cases).

I'll give a valid email when/if I buy it, but to just try it ... no way.

QUOTE]

You are completely right about the email. This is a Trymedia thing, and since they are hosting the game we don't have much of a choice. But you should see some of the entries.

[Kaos]

Avast! Antivirus flags this download as adware. Says it contains Win32:Adware-gen. HTH

It looked nice but I'm not installing it now, sorry.

Plus, an email just to get the download is totally beyond necessary

of course it does. you tried downloading the dm_.exe link.

trymedia "dm" links ARE adware.they change your msconfig, etc.

best bet, open the dm link in a hexeditor and grab the http link from it.

download from here: http://d.trymedia.com/dd/merscom/1h_pkg542/csc_merscom/DNAsetup.exe

[Teeth]

of course it does. you tried downloading the dm_.exe link.

trymedia "dm" links ARE adware.they change your msconfig, etc.

best bet, open the dm link in a hexeditor and grab the http link from it.

download from here: http://d.trymedia.com/dd/merscom/1h_pkg542/csc_merscom/DNAsetup.exe

Sweet. Thanks!