ALIEN FLUX 1.4c released

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

Alien Flux 1.4c has been released, which is a bugfix-and-tweaking version.

Have a go at the demo and tell me what you think using the new built in feedback form! (On “Not Interested” on the nag screen :P) I hold out hope that those of you clicking on Maybe Later really mean it too :-*

Launch the demo from here!

The Win32 exe is here.

Changes in 1.4c

  • Tuned difficulty levels
  • Added Advanced Mode
  • Fixed some initialization code; should work on more systems now
  • Shuffled around the level background sounds
  • [DEMO] Demo now ends just before the end of level 5
  • You can no longer adjust the sensitivity of autoshields and autosmarts
  • You can now override autoshields and autosmarts using the keys
  • Autoshields and autosmarts are enforced on Rookie and disabled on Extreme
  • [DEMO] New feedback form for people who don’t like Alien Flux!

Cas :slight_smile:

#2

awww… tease!

mmm might just have to fork out some dough.

pauses momentarily when new sounds are played.

#3

Hah, you’re slow :smiley: We’re already up to 1.4g. 1.4h might be out tomorrow too but without any significant changes except I’m going to detect your graphics card and drivers and tell you if they’re old and shitty.

That pause is disk IO. Can’t really be helped. I could load it all up front but then it’d take another 30 seconds to load the game. Just play it twice and everything’s smooth :slight_smile:

Cas :slight_smile:

#4

How about loading the sounds in a background thread? :wink:
/me goes back to “lurk-mode” waiting for the thread bashing to begin

#5

When a new sound’s being played that usually means a new alien’s been spawned. So not only is it loading a sound, decoding an OGG, and sending it up to OpenAL, it’s also loading the code for a new alien, loading the alien’s particle effects, loading the textures required to draw the alien, decoding them and uploading them to OpenGL, and loading the alien’s animation in. It could be done in another thread but the question is… when? The best time to load stuff is when you need it.

All in all it’s pretty quick considering the amount of stuff it’s doing!

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

I played Alien Flux it for the first time last weekend and was very impressed. Game controlles are excellent and the fluffies are cute - one of my favourite parts of the game is how fluffies can get caught and squished in the cross fire, it was funny watching my girlfriend inadvertantly blasting a few along the way when she was playing too.

might have to go register myself the full version :slight_smile:

Adding the driver detection code will enhance the installation a lot (any chance you can open source that code? ;)). Or create a seperate OpenGL driver update program, I am sure heaps of people in these forums would love to get their hands on that (myself included). How nice would it be to be able to say to someone - “having opengl problems? run this java exe…” sending them to the download page of their vender would be enough - saves on bandwidth that way.

Cheers,

Will.

#7

[quote](any chance you can open source that code? )
[/quote]
Well, knowing Cas - the chance of it getting open sourced is close to 100%. And even if he did add it to the closed portion of Alien Flux, he still plans on open sourcing the WHOLE GAME! - yes you read right. The only thing we have to do, is to purchase some 200 copies.http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=announcements;action=display;num=1063930036;

#8

Such a tool would be the dream of anyone trying to distribute OpenGL applications because I’d say that’s the one problem with it currently (users don’t have uptodate drivers therefore it breaks - certainly this is why AF broke for me the first time I used it). If you tell an end user to “go install you updated drivers” they’d probably say “huh?” but if you can say “You run an X card - go here and get the latest drivers”. They would hopefully say “ok”.

Will.

#9

i always get the performance warning. running a geforce 2 go in an inspiron it seems to be running great as it is though.

laptops are notorious for slow disk access, the pauses last for about 1-2 seconds.

#10

Yeah, I run on an Inspiron too*. I turn off the performance warning generally as I know how fast it’s meant to be running - it’s really for people who don’t know how the Options screen can be used to make the game more smooth / playable. I think it might need a bit of tuning - perhaps I’ll turn off the timer when a resource gets loaded.

I didn’t realise you’d meant to buy 2 regcodes! I emailed you asking if you wanted one refunded! :-* Cheers, that’ll go to my New Computer fund! Or, more likely, to my server host >:(

Cas :slight_smile:

  • my dev machine - which died today :frowning:
#11

The GL detector code will be open sourced and part of the SPGL soon enough. The driver detection code is now part of LWJGL and will be out in the next version, but currently it only works on XP (which is the main problem anyway - loads of 2k/9x boxes already have GL drivers installed according to my logs)

But better still… I am considering making it into an open web service. You send it the details - it opens a page and says “You need this driver” with a direct link to a driver mirrored on my site. I’m nearly finished with it!!! Just a bit more database work and php fiddling to do.

Failure rate currently at 28%… if I can get that down to 5% I’ll be a happy, happy dude.

Cas :slight_smile:

#12

i dont remember installing any opengl drivers of any sort on my inspiron, do they come with the nvidia drivers?

inspiron screen rox. resolution is nice and big and clear.

bought a monitor last week and plugged it in. yesterday i heard a 'click' and it went black. came back on a couple of seconds later and was all green. took it to the it store who adjusted the color settings on the front and claimed there was nothing wrong with it...

exchange policy for them is “if it’s not entirely broke, you’re stuffed.” so i got a nice half-washed out monitor which i originally thought would last for a year or 2… in da shed it goes.

how did your computer die?

#13

about the loading stuff…

PSX games were always horribly bad at loading speeds, so games like ‘spyro the dragon’ had parts between the levels where all the totals were coming up and used that time to load up the level. at the end of that, the animation would seamlessly swoop into the new level, which made you feel like you werent actually waiting for loading, but for the totals to finish adding up.

maybe you could load the next level’s new baddies in the part that shows how many fluffies remain alive.

#14

Yes, I was thinking of doing that. It’s a 10 second change.

I might load in a bunch of other stuff too on New Game as well.

Still it’ll be a while yet, I’m still recovering everything from my b0rked laptop. I just came downstairs yesterday morning to find the HDD making a funny noise and it locks on disk access, hard, every few minutes :frowning:

Cas :slight_smile:

#15

btw I love what happens when you hit the end of the shareware version - lol

Will.

#16

i agree it’s certainly a much more persuasive ending where the $ are concerned, cause we get to see this cool new boss… wow what’s he gonna do? bang game over buy now plz.

#17

:stuck_out_tongue:

Well, I’ve been also considering further, even more Nazi plans for the “demo” in the future. There’s a big thread over on Dexterity at the moment which discusses this sticky point, which I’ve never really felt easy with:

99% of all the people who enter your online store are given a free game and sent home, never to return. That means 1% of everyone who visits are effectively paying for the 99% of people who get a free game out of visiting.

Imagine a supermarket where 99 out of a 100 people wandered in, ate free donuts and coffee, and then went home again. 1 in 100 customers comes in and buys a really expensive trolley’s worth of shopping. It wouldn’t stay in business very long, would it?

There are plans afoot to entirely remove the playable aspect of the demo altogether and concentrate on purely selling the game. There are probably several ways to do this but the way I think will be most successful is to make the demo just that - a demonstration. It sits there like an arcade game on “attract mode”, playing the game while you watch.

“New Game” is gone and replaced by “Buy Now”, which takes you to an in-game credit card form.

Sounds pretty sensible doesn’t it?

There are a few side-effects to this distribution method:

  1. The games are probably going to have to be cheaper to attract impulse buyers. They’ve got to feel like there really is very little to lose. I reckon $9.95 sounds like a nice easy expendable sum.

  2. Bang goes the 60-day money back guarantee. In a store they generally won’t give you your money back if you’ve opened the shrinkwrap, installed the game and then take it back a month later. 7 days is a more realistic sort of term.

  3. You’ve just downloaded an 11mb demo, and it’s even made you get an 8mb GL driver. Then it dangles its delights in front of your face but won’t let you play unless you “insert coin”. Far more compelling than playing for an hour and then deciding to go find another free game to play, eh?

  4. People who pay up front for an experience tend to be considerably more determined to enjoy it and persevere until they do enjoy it, quite often.

  5. Our next game will have all the credit card details already stashed in the registry. I can implement an Instant Buy feature with a password which does everything in one click. Nice! Impulse buying just got a whole lot easier.

Unfortunately it’s not so easy turning AF into a playback/recording thing so this will have to wait but I might try it first on Invasion of the Jellies.

And of course if profits* plummet I’ll have to just go back to the traditional crippleware model.

Cas :slight_smile:

  • such as they are :frowning:
#18

that’s a good idea, but please don’t store people’s credit card numbers in the registry. That’s not exactly a stronghold of uncrackability. :wink:

#19

It’s secure enough when it’s encrypted.

Cas :slight_smile:

#20

I think where you are going to fail is #3.

It’s going to be more like:

“I have to download this that and the other, and I can’t even play the damn thing. I’m not going to bother. Next free game.”