Enough Puzzles

[DBZ-GOKU-]

Astraware makes some very good games, like zap!2000 and bejewled. tow other games i also like are seven seas and mummy maze, but the only games they have besides zap!2000 are a bunch of puzzles. Astraware should relaly make some sort of RPG, Strategy (no puzzles), and action. people would like the games more, plus it would proably boost sales or something.

[Howard]

Hi,

We\'ve got several types of games in development - some action, 3d, arcade, and platform.
We\'ve got designs for an RTS, a simple RPG, and some sim games too.

However.... In terms of sales, I\'m sorry to say that even Zap!2000 doesn\'t bring in as many as the puzzle games do. (Despite being far superior technically, etc).

Puzzle games are popular - and lots of people like them. We\'ve now got 6 programmers, and so the chance to diverge in terms of what we produce is a little easier.

What kind of RPG is it you\'d like to see ?

[Hiroshi]

We\'ve got several types of games in development - some action, 3d, arcade, and platform.
Wow! Great. I\'m looking forward to another action game from Astraware.
However.... In terms of sales, I\'m sorry to say that even Zap!2000 doesn\'t bring in as many as the puzzle games do. (Despite being far superior technically, etc).
Puzzle games are popular - and lots of people like them. We\'ve now got 6 programmers, and so the chance to diverge in terms of what we produce is a little easier.
I agree with you. The puzzle game can enjoy everyone and it have no-limit of game waves. The other side the action game had a tendency to get tired after reached end of waves.:P
However, I think Astraware have a side of most famous action game developer with the Zap 20xx. So, I wish you will keep this position be entrusted with a mission of social in worldwide. (Maybe everyone hope it)
Therefore, I hope you create the flagship action game in a milestone. (I guess it need in order to you make a next T-shirts, mag-cup, mouse-pad or something). Is this my wrong understanding?:P

[Massman82]

I don\'t know if this would be possible on the current Palms, but once the new ARM processors are out (Which they are saying will happen probably next month or in two) then maybe a port for SidMeyors Civilzation would be possible. Civ. 3 maybe too much, but Civ. 1 is definately in the realms of a Palm device.

[hfritz]

We\'ve got several types of games in development - some action, 3d, arcade, and platform.
Great !!! Your puzzle games are realy good, but sometimes a different game type (like action, 3D,...) would be the right thing to fight against frustration (e.g. boring business literature) :) . But don\'t stop developing great puzzle games !

Holger :)

[jael]

I agree with you. The puzzle game can enjoy everyone and it have no-limit of game waves. The other side the action game had a tendency to get tired after reached end of waves.

Yeah, the action games are fun for a while, but the puzzles are the ones I stick with longterm.

[Hiroshi]

We\'ve got several types of games in development - some action, 3d, arcade, and platform.Do you working now?:P I\'m looking forward to release that for Palm OS version.:D

[Massman82]

When do you think the first Beta will be of these games? I\'m really looking forward to them!

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thats cool, i guess all of you are right about action games getting boring after a while, but it would still be cool to see another action gaem or two... so, had, thanks for replying, and everyone else that did too. when do you think all of those 3d, action and more puzzle games will be ready?

[Howard]

The next game that should be ready in Beta is likely to be Ricochet or Rebound (two names for the same game) which is a license from Reflexive games. You can find the windows version for download already at www.realarcade.com - its been one of their top ten games for quite some time now.
Its a game in the style of \'arkanoid\' or \'breakout\'. This isn\'t something particularly novel on the palm platform - there are already a number of good games in competition, but I think you\'ll be impressed to see it working.

Also currently in Alpha is a game that I\'ve co-designed with Marc Silver, (who created Round Up), called Link Letters, which is a word puzzle game. This is being written by Ray and progress is good, so you should see this very soon.

Slightly further on from that, Haemish is now working on (how to put this without giving it away...) another popular game from PopCap that has been much requested.

In addition there\'s a few more games we\'re converting for Pocket PC, because we do get a lot of requests for those. Haemish and David are finishing the conversion of Nisqually right now.

And then we\'re onto the games which haven\'t been started yet. Right now I\'m about 30 pages into the design doc for our next major technology show-off game, designed with OS5 and new device capabilities in mind. I\'ll be starting up a new board for design suggestions on that over the next week or two.

How\'s that for a look-ahead for the next month ? ;)

[Pritch]

Slightly further on from that, Haemish is now working on (how to put this without giving it away...) another popular game from PopCap that has been much requested.Well, if this is Dynomite, as you yourself mentioned in a post a few months back, then I am really looking forward to that - and it is always fun to Beta games with Haemish at the controls ;) :)

[Massman82]

I am really looking forward to all of those, especially the one that is going to test the limits of the new OS! When you are willing and ready to give out more info on it, plz do! I cant wait...

[Hiroshi]

Hi Had,
Thank you for the explanation for detail. I understand your current working status and (ofcause) I\'m looking forward to Astraware version of those game.:)

[mikewake]

I\'m very happy to hear that you\'re working on a version of Ricochet. I\'ve had a registered copy of the PC version of that game since December & I just keep coming back to it because of the of the great gameplay features. Back in March they even released a free extension set of levels that expand the original 170 levels by 40 more. I\'d suggest that folks check it out on Reflexive\'s own Web site at http://www.reflexive.net/.

Great gameplay, graphics & sound all in one package! This looks like quite a challenge for the Astraware to convert.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thanks for telling me all of the games in progress, they all sound very cool. i am looking forward to the dynamite game and the games that are expanding the limits of palms capabilities. one thing that i am asking though, since we are al beta testers, i have not yet found out where to download the betas of the games. can you pelase tell me where i can download those. another thing that i was wondering, how do i get newer versions of games, or how do i know that a newer version has come out with out cheking you website twice a day. thanx.

[Howard]

Click Here for my Knowledge Base article! (http://www.astraware.com/kb/showQuestion.php?id=12) and all will be revealed :)
Howard.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thanx for the fast reply hda, and thanx for telling me what i need to know. (are you always working, because i just put htat post on like five minutes ago and you alreday replied)

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thanx again for responding had, i took all of the links on the page that you gave me, and i looked through them for a while but i could still not figure out where tyo download the betas at. i might be stupid or something but you will have to give me a more dierrect and easier explanation to find out where to get them, thanx.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

hey had,

i was just wondering why you havent responded to any of my posts latly. anyways, i still cant find where to download any betas. or, so,ething i thought about, are the betas the demos that you can download or what, anyways, please respond, thx for your time for redaing this

[DBZ-GOKU-]

had, am i bothering you, if so, i will stop posting posts for you to respond to.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

so, what kinds of games do all of oyu guys out there want to see on the palm. please respond so that we can get some ideas and good sugestions to had (i dont think ghe likes me any more :( ). anyways, tell me what games you think would be cool, cuse i know that there are a ton of you beta testers out there.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

somone pelase respond to me, i really like to here what everyone has to say, but it seems that know one likes me, theuy neveer respond to me anymore. pelase tell me what games you like and what you like astraware to make, and i know there should be lots of replies to help had becasue there are a ton of beta testers!

[Pritch]

There are a lot of Beta testers, busily testing a large number of Beta games at this very moment - some of which are close to release :)

There is a continual flow of suggestions for games that Astraware could develop - in addition to the ORIGINAL games that the company produces, such as Astro Defence. Howard has normally already discussed the best of the games suggested by people with the owners or has an opinion as to why the game should not or can not be done by Astraware.

As CEO of the company producing these games for the Palm / PPC, I am sure that he has lots to do in addition to his normally dilligent response to comments and requests through the Astraware Community. Maybe he is even on a business trip at the moment and can not answer all questions immediately ;)

[DBZ-GOKU-]

oh, ok, thx for all of the info on what he does and why he is not always helping, i probably wont post as much. anyways, how long hace been a beta tester.

[Howard]

Good guess, Pritch!

Since Wednesday I\'ve been out of the UK, in California, discussing stuff with some important companies based out there :)

I\'ve just got back, and I\'ll try to respond to some of the posts of the past few days maybe tomorrow. Right now I\'m completely brain-fried with the 8 hour jetlag and 20 hours travelling. (We came back via the arctic circle, and hence managed to \'miss\' nighttime, which has really made it weird...)

Howard

[Massman82]

Did you get that straitened out, how to make the graphics faster yet?

[Howard]

David and I spent some time talking to Scott from Red Mercury, and although we know the ultimate answer is that the MediaQ chip isn\'t going to solve the speed problems, we may be able to convince it to lend some help. Combined with some exceptionally clever stuff David is working on, I am hoping to have a hi-res Bejeweled for Sony OS4.x devices before too long. (As well as improving speed on almost all devices!)

Howard.

[Massman82]

Thats great, looking forward to updates!

[DBZ-GOKU-]

wow, high res bejewled, that would make the game even better, but will it slow it down. and i was also wondering, sorry to botther you right ater your trip (i know what its like, me and my dad went from Utah-Philidelphia-England, very boring and very tiring flight, specially cause of jet lag), but i was wondering when some f=of the new games (arg?, 3d, puzzles, and action) were coming out, like you said, and if you read my post on \'when are the new games cmoing out...,\' you will see what i think is a good suggestion. anyways, thanks for all of your time had.
~DBZ-GOKU- (conner)

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by robgentile)
Hello,
I understand why there are so many puzzle games. If more people buy them then the puzzle games will just keep on coming. I guess you got to go where the money is.

I kind of wanted a new action game too, so I took it upon myself to create graphics of a game I would like to see on the Palm in the hopes somebody will program it after they see it. You can see the screenshots here:
http://www.rganimation.com/game.html

After reading some of Howards posts maybe Hires is not the way to go with this. Maybe just Hi color 16bit, not hi resolution (320x320).

[Howard]

The answer is - yes :)

It is possible for this type of game to work under hi-res.

That\'s because:
a) The sprites used are discrete
b) The background isn\'t scrolling
c) There are (generally) not a large number of sprites active and moving at the same time.

This means that the percentage of the screen that is actually changing is likely to be under 30% of the screen per frame. This is doable :) ;)

One of the major enhancements we made over the last year was the ability to make games work on an \'incremental\' system, which means that we only update the parts of the screen where something changes. This means we can increase frame-rates considerably!

For a hi-res game, we need to be sure of only moving around about the same amount of data as a 160*160 screen would - and if we have about 25% of the screen changing per frame, then that\'s fine - its the same kind of figure :)

Any game now, I expect to do standard colour and hi-res colour (8 bit) versions for Palm, and also a Pocket PC version too. OK, so a standard version won\'t look so good, but it will run nice and fast! The Pocket PC version should shift, too.

The issue here is, how to make it a great fun game, that\'s ideal for everyone! Being a good-looker is just the start! Luckily, Astraware has just about the best beta testers free registrations can buy ;)

(I really ought to go home soon...)

Howard.

[Massman82]

Please make that game! It looks amazing...

[DBZ-GOKU-]

hey had,

i relaly think that you should make that game that that one guy that made the graphics for bang bang, it looks awsome. i also hope that you look at my submarine puzzle post and tell me wht you think. oh, yeah, and i would like you to look at my other posts, they would both help to imporve this website, at least i think so.