Trine

Have been playing Trine for an hour or so every day as a bit of light relief from database coding. It's a great game with sickeningly beautiful scenery and animations (I am green with envy). Gameplay-wise it blends together physics gaming and platforming in a way that works. Switching between characters on the fly makes for some nice moments, such as rope swinging onto a platform as the thief then immediately transforming into the knight to smash up some skeletons.

It reminds me of a few games I've enjoyed in the past such as Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Imogen (and old BBC puzzler with a transforming character) and Spherical. The physics puzzles are reminiscent of Half Life 2, albeit in 2.5D.

This is very different to Frozen Byte's previous games (aliens-esque shooters: ShadowGrounds and ShadowGrounds survivor) but shares an attractive approach to lighting.

I hope to be working on the game again in the next couple of weeks. Coding is complete on the latest release of my database for scale modellers. Just testing to complete - bah.

Game development on hold...

The development of Starfire phase 2 is currently on hold. I need to finish off some work on my other product for scale modellers.

Should be able to work on the next phase of Starfire in the next few weeks. Performance still needs to be improved and I want to add some bonus content for folks who join the mailing list.

When the new version is released, I'll issue some press releases and try to drive more interest. Even though I have done little in the way of promotion, the game seems to have taken on a life of its own in non-English speaking countries. A lot of Brazilian gamers seem to be downloading it at the moment largely due to it being included on a Brazilian gaming site. More than a thousand people have tried it out so far overall.

I have been surrendering money to Steam again now that they are tempting me with their cheap games. My collection now contains Metro 2033, Trine 1 + 2 and Portal 2. So far, I have played Trine a bit and really like it. Kinda Ghosts 'n' Goblins meets Imogen (an old BBC Micro game).

Starfire - Ares Assault, Version 1.01 Released

I spent some time over the last week rebalancing the difficulty of the game, following feedback. Largely this has made the bosses move more slowly sideways, allowing easier escape and reducing enemy damage and speed on Easy and Space Slug settings.

Hopefully this will make the game more accessible and remove the frustration factor when fighting the first boss.

The latest version of the game can be downloaded from here:
http://www.suisoft.co.uk/starfire/index.htm

(if it doesn't say v1.01 on the download link, you will need to refresh your browser)

You can read the full release notes in the 'Suisoft / Starfire - Ares Assault' Start menu folder (under Windows). The release notes are in the resources folder in the APP file on Mac.

The work for the next release consists of:

Screen resolution choice

Performance settings - nebula density and shrapnel density

I also need to spend some time on the website to make it more attractive and show off the game with videos and screenshots.

Mac Version and Future Plans

The Mac version of 'Starfire - Ares Assault' was released yesterday. So far, not many downloads but it has only been pushed out via a few forums. Anyone with a Mac - please let me know if it works OK and feel free to leave comments.

From initial feedback it's clear that my strategy of always using the desktop resolution isn't working. Think I was being a bit overly optimistic there!

Also, quite a few players have criticised the difficulty. This is a trap I've fallen into previously with Gravity Core.

Based on this, the development tasks for the game are:

• Difficulty level rebalancing
• Settings from 'Normal' difficulty will be moved to 'Hard'
• Slower enemies (on lower difficulties)
• Less damage from enemy bullets (ditto)
• Smaller groups of enemies (ditto)
• Longer invulnerability when respawning
• Warning message when destroyer is approaching
• Screen resolution choice
• Performance settings - nebula density and shrapnel density

Hopefully these changes will make the game more accessible in gameplay terms and variety of machines it can be played on.

Starfire - Ares Assault has been released for a few days now.

Players seem to like it generally and have complimented the visuals and music. I still seem to be falling into the trap of making games that are too hard.

The consensus seems to be that the first boss in Starfire is too tough. Not very scientific as no-one has said it ISN'T too tough!

If you're playing Starfire, please let me know whether you think the first boss is too tough... and please let me know if is ISN'T.

Any other comments are also welcome.

Thanks!

Game Released Live - Phew!

The game is now released live:
http://www.suisoft.co.uk/starfire/

Only the Windows version is available at the moment. I still need to complete final testing on the Mac build and package it up for release.

The website still needs a lot of work. It is rather cosmetically challenged at the moment.

Comments are welcome. If you like the game please 'Like' it on Facebook or follow me on Twitter:

• Suisoft Games Facebook Page
• @suisoftgames on Twitter

I have a difficult decision to make soon - which game next?

Soooo Close

Getting painfully close to release now. The installer for PC is built and the company/game logos have been added into the game. The game also has a final name, which is a bonus!

The subtitle of the game (Ares Assault) is derived from the piece of music I have used as a basis for the game (Holst's Mars). For those of you not into ancient mythology, Ares is the Greek God of War, whereas Mars is the Roman God of War. The power of the music certainly gets your pulse pounding when you're playing the game. The swooping attack of the Dreadnought near the end of the game still gives me the willies!

The task list is now down to 5, except that I'm about to add 3 minor issues that require fix before release :-(

Just Mac installation package, documentation, website and more testing after that. Releasing this game has been much easier than Gravity Core as I already have everything in place and can 'borrow' installer scripts and the like.

When this game is complete, I have some non-game work to do, then I have the difficult 'next game' decision to make. The next game will be more complex than 'Starfire: Ares Assault' and will be shareware like Gravity Core.