ANN: Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged

[James C. Smith]

We are about to launch a new addition to the Ricochet family. The official marketing hype is:
Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged
The award-winning game play of Ricochet Lost Worlds is back! From the talented minds of designers all over the world comes the most dynamic brick-busting experience ever! This wild and warped game has you smashing your way through over 350 beautiful and exhilarating rounds that are truly the best of the best. With its gorgeous artwork and innovative “Ring Game”, you need to download it today. Rejuvenated, Reloaded…RECHARGED!

You can download the release candidate from this URL: www.reflexivearcade.com/downloadgame.aspx?AID=153&CID=0

The game is not listed on our web site yet because it hasn’t officially launched yet. But this is (hopefully) the final version. It is a 2 hours trial period and $19.99 to unlock the full version.

Please post any comments, suggestions, bug reports, or whatever is on your mind.

[ggambett]

That link sent me a 9 MB chunk which is not an EXE :(

[James C. Smith]

That’s odd. I just double checked and it works for me. Do you have an unusual browser or download manager? Or maybe something just got corrupted in the transfer. You may want to try again.

[ggambett]

Firefox. And this time the file looks like an EXE. Go figure...

[Jim Buck]

I just played it for longer than I care to admit to. :)

Awesome job! I only played through the original Ricochet/Rebound, so maybe there's stuff in the 2nd game that is in Recharged, but Recharged is like the original on CRACK. The level design is awesome. "Sure Shot" was funny as hell after all the ones before it. :)

[SunAndGames]

Alright you guys definitely own this space. When it comes to araknoid clones, theres you guys, and then everybody else way way way down there in second place. Sure glad I'm not making one. I don't think my eyes have ever had so many opti-gasms (new word . . . just made it up in honour of your new game). I'm also grateful for the fact there's a time limit on this one. I'd never get my project done otherwise. No way I'm buyin' the full version of this one. I'm sure your gonna make a ton of money with this. Congratulations.

[arcadetown]

Looks great, guess we'll have something to pitch to our users in a few weeks.

Just wondering and hope don't mind me asking James, why 2 hours instead of typical 60 minutes? Have you guys done tests and seen 2 hours converted better? Kind of felt the free trial was giving away too much as Lost Worlds started off slow here but after couple days picked up steam so my first impression could have been wrong and maybe explains conversion delay.

[BantamCityGames]

James - the game looks great! A great bonus pack to RLW. I'm saving my 2 hours and only using a little at a time, but so far it looked great. I'm currently making my own arkanoid style game and I'm always striving for the kind of quality you guys have set the bar at (Currently I'm falling a bit short, but still trying). Keep up the good work!

[oNyx]

Impressive work.

I liked the way the game told me that I totally rawk and that I should try "hard" instead haha ;)

>why 2 hours instead of typical 60 minutes?

After one round on "normal" only 45minutes left. So without that additional hour people like me won't be able try "hard". Btw that one round was limited by end of demo and not game over... guess I would be able to finish the whole game without losing all lives (on normal that is). Well, it would take a whole day, but still... not challenging enough. So it's really good that I get a chance to try hard and/or insane (or so - didn't payed attention).

---

There seems to be a small glitch with one of those scripted menu scenes...

http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/rico.jpg

The ball appears there (green arrow) after some seconds and it's stuck in the wall. Creating bazillions of collisions which get never resolved. The hit sound get played over and over again and the framerate goes down. No big problem usually, but it's extremely annoying if you look at the credits and that scene is running in the background.

One of the earlier levels (where you start with the acid ball powerup) was unsolvable after I lost the ball once and the remaining bricks were encapsulated in destroyable-only-by-acid-ball bricks. Fortunately there's an option for restarting the level, but it was still rather frustrating.

Well, it's still an awesome game and the leveldesign is really interesting (especially for that genre).

[Jim Buck]

That last post reminded me of something - I think some people will use up their two hours on the menu alone. :) There is much fun to be had before even entering into the "real" game.

[AnotherDev]

Like I said in an older thread, this is not my kind of game.. but I must admit it's really impressive and pretty much perfect in the genre.

Congrats !

[James C. Smith]

Understandably, there is some confusion about all the different version of Ricochet/Rebound. Let me attempt to clarify. To date there are 3 different Ricochet games but they all go by more than one name.

In October of 2001 we create “Ricochet Xtreme”. In some distribution networks, the free trial version was simply called “Ricochet” and when you paid $19.99 to register the game it became “Ricochet Xtreme”. In other distribution networks it was always referred to as Ricochet Xtreme whether it was the demo or the full game. But many people stilled knew of it simply as Ricochet. About 3 months after the release of “Ricochet Xtreme” we made a specially branded version for Real Networks which we called “Rebound”. Rebound is exactly the same game as Ricochet Xtreme.

In April of 2004 we created a new Ricochet game called “Ricochet Lost Words”. This game featured new environments (backgrounds), new types of special bricks, new power-ups, the new “ring challenge”, and a much more sophisticated scripting system. Ricochet Lost Worlds levels have very dynamic bricks movements sometimes reacting to triggered events and other times just morphing between shapes or moving along complex paths. Ricochet Lost Words also included the level editor with links to a community web site where level designers could share their creations. One month later, the Real Networks branded version of Lost Worlds was released. “Rebound Lost Worlds” is the exact same game is “Ricochet Lost Worlds” except that all links to the community we removed due to Real’s strict no-linking policy.

It wasn’t until after the release of Ricochet Lost Worlds that level designers began to tap the full power of the scripting abilities of the Lost Worlds engine. Today we are releasing the third Ricochet game. “Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged” uses the same engine as Ricochet Lost Worlds but has many more level, most of which are more complex or more entertaining that the levels from the original Lost Worlds. Recharged features the same brick types, backgrounds, and power-ups that you find in the original Lost Worlds. But the levels are all new. None of the original Lost Worlds levels are included in Recharged. Recharged is a stand alone product feature 350 zany levels. So far there isn’t a “Rebound Lost Worlds: Recharged” or “Rebound Recharged” but I would assume there will be soon.

[James C. Smith]

Just wondering and hope don't mind me asking James, why 2 hours instead of typical 60 minutes? Have you guys done tests and seen 2 hours converted better?

To be honest we have not. 2 hours just felt like the right number to me for Ricochet. We tried it and sold a boat load. Who knows if we would sell more or less with a 60 minute limit. I am somewhat amazed that some many people think all games should have the same time limit. It all depends on the game. Then again, I would understand if you said you were amazed that I never tested a different limit for Ricochet.

[Midnight Synergy]

Understandably, there is some confusion about all the different version of Ricochet/Rebound.

It reminds me a bit of the Dark Forces games: "Star Wars Dark Forces 3: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy". :)

Game looks great! I too though will force myself not to buy it in fear of lost productivity! Wishing you continued success!

Patrick
(who's a fan of expansion packs with the word "ReCharge"! ;))

[arcadetown]

2 hours just felt like the right number to me for Ricochet. We tried it and sold a boat load.
Upon Lost Worlds launch here it was slow going at first which really surprised me so thought a lot about it. Between the online demo and the offline demo with 2 hours of play it almost seemed like the user got his fill and moved on. But heck... sales started kicking in couple days later plus can't argue with "boat loads".

[James C. Smith]

As usual, the readers of the forum are some of the best game testers in the world! Thanks for pointing out the problems. We made a new version which fixed the ball stuck on main menu and makes sure the acid ball round is reasonable to finish even without an acid ball.

I also appreciate all the positive comments!

[oNyx]

Found a small thing... on that "You've used up all your free time!" dialog. (Damn wasted all my playing time ;D)

http://people.freenet.de/ki_onyx/rico_dot.png

There is a small blue dot, which doesn't really belong there. Sure... just 4 pixels, but you won't want anyone wondering about that (because wondering about something = losing the track, change of mood etc which is kinda bad at this stage).

Sorry for beeing sucha pain ;)

Well, the game rocks. Looks like an insane amount of playing hours per buck.