Uh oh … it already IS on java.com
http://www.java.com/en/explore/games/alien_flux.jsp
Not easy to find…
While I appreciate both java.net and java.com for what it’s trying to do. Advertising on there (as Herk mentioned) is not a great way to get the word out. Send gamespy and gamespot free copies, maybe they will review it? Send news to bluesnews, as mentioned before try Pennyarcade. There are all sorts of sites out there frequented by gamers. Many of whom are looking for something different, something that can be played in a 15 minute session.
Good luck, Cas!
Nearly every website on the internet has had about 3 press releases from us, but a surprising number of them didn’t get in touch 
I was especially disappointed the ever-sweet Shugashak (now shacknews.com) hasn’t bothered to mention us.
Cas 
Ermm… by press release, do you mean printed or emailed?
If the latter, it means your PR will probably just go straight to the slush pile. I mean, personally, I receive a shite-load of press releases every week (and I’m not all that ‘visible’) so I inevitably end up skimming (with emphasis on the skim) them for something interesting. And your typical game rag editor probably receives a bucketload more than I do… with predictable results for your chance at being heard over the rest clamouring for attention.
Actually, I’d focus on one printed magazine. How about sending a demo disk, glossy brochure, etc to EDGE magazine (for example). Follow up with a phone call to make sure they received it, and perhaps keep following up (bugging them) until you get some sort of response. If you can get a positive review from a printed mag, that goes at the top of your next Press Release (i.e. Alien Flux rated x/10 by EDGE magazine) and you’ve got a better chance of being noticed.
(PS: the EDGE would be a good choice, since not only is it the top end of the games mags, they also used to focus a bit on the indie scene… sigh… I miss my EDGE subscription… )
yeah, EDGE is good. Come to think of it, i found out about JavaGaming.org when it was mentioned in Edge some years ago.
The circle is complete.
[quote]No! Haha! Where’s my Mac port 
I’m sure it’ll pick up sooner or later - it’s early days yet.
One thing that might be interesting is that we’re hoping to get it bundled with Mandrake Linux. But this rather hinges on me getting through to them that they need to pre-install the JRE instead of just leave it in an RPM for an adventurous user to find… I wonder if it’ll lead to any sales though?
Cas
[/quote]
Small problem.
Mandrake believes in shipping a linux version with free software only, the jre is not “free”
Though if you could reach them and get them to pre install it, that would be great.
(They do deliver non free software on extra cd’s though)
I’m talking to Mandrakesoft now about the issue. They might yet install the Sun JRE. Otherwise it’s a bit of a hassle running Alien Flux.
While I’m here we picked up a few more reviews:
http://nesiapc.net/index.php?view=reviews&action=view&id=14
http://www.gaminginvasion.com/index.php?article=254
Nice!
Cas
Some one suggested penny arcade,
Is another place old school gamers frequent.
Just a thought.
GREAT job on the game BTW,
I’m bugging all my friends to try it out.
Especially the ones that tell me Java is too
slow to write a game…
Well, I hope they’re in need of some serious shooter lovin’, because we sure need some support! (As you will see if you check out this thread )
Cas
With regards to the controls being weird, I have to agree.
The first thing I did was switch the firing to mouse button 1 (fairly standard) and the thrust to mouse button 2 and the game became instantly much easier to play. After I did that I finished the first 3 levels in about 10 mins, where before I was having trouble on level 1 because it was counter-intuitive.
I’m gonna do an experiment and swap those buttons around and see how it fares.
Every 5 years a game comes out with the buttons swapped around and everyone gets used to it. Then it flips again. Weird.
Cas
I second that. l also found the controls backwards when I first played Alien Flux.
I read the link to the other forum that you posted, Cas.
(Need another beer?)
I would have to disagree that Alien Flux is for hard-core gamers. I think it’s a perfect fit for casual gamers. As a fully-licensed player of Alien Flux, and a hard-core gamer, and can tell you that my wife (a casual gamer) plays it more often than myself.
Just me, but if your game is simple to control (and it is), and it can be played in short, action-packed sessions (which it can) it is appealing to casual gamers. Think www.zone.com (sorry for the link to an M$ site).
Any exposure you can get on the Real or Shockwave fronts seems to be a good idea. I’m sure you have strong feelings about your game, and keeping the rights to it, but selling your game at this point may not be a bad idea, for the right price. If Puppy Games is to have a long future ahead of it, I think in 10 years time giving up the rights to Alien Flux will seem more sensible over time. Puppy Games will surely have bigger, and even better games in the years to come.
It’s not like selling your game would mean that you “sold-out” (forgive the pun), it’s a business decision, and sometimes in order to stay in business (the boring part of life) one must give up a beautiful creative ideal. When will the security of the bottom line become more important than the dream of a great game? It’s already happened in the vast majority of commercial studios - it’s only the very healthy studios that can do otherwise. This doesn’t mean that the games aren’t creative, or of good quality, it means that in order to be profitable, the artist must always come to terms with the reality check of the accounting department.
I think I can safely say that all of us on this site want Puppy Games to succeed and make more great games. If for no other reason than to help pave the way for Java games (despite our like or dislike of anything you make). So, get out there and do what you have to do, chum. I don’t think anyone will hold it against you. Let the hobbists worry about artistic ideals, and get out there so you can tell the rest of us what it’s like on the other side of the gaming world.
Selling out does somewhat interfere with my 5-year business plan. Selling out non-exclusively doesn’t though, so any deals I’m looking at are non-exclusive agreements.
Know the 5-year plan: If you want ultra-pro Java games, Puppy Games is the place to visit.
It’s going to be a while before that becomes the reality! I need you guys to come up with some games that I can publish. Right now I’m not concerned with making money off of them; just growing the business. The only caveat is that they have to be of an equivalent quality to AF, with the same sort of attention to detail and slickness.
Get cracking!
Cas
You’re offering to be a publisher of quality games produced by this community?
We certainly are, and for a year at least, for nothing.
The catch is “quality”, which in turn requires dedication and perfectionist tendencies and a lot of time. There’s been about 18 man-months dedicated to Alien Flux all-in and we’ll be looking for the same kind of production quality in any game we publish although not necessarily the same depth. It’s one of the reasons why we open source so much of our code instead of keeping it to ourselves: we need others to pick it up and make something of it; and there’s a good chance that when it’s finished it’ll come back to us for publication.
That’s the theory, anyway.
I’m having to shield myself from the stampede of eager developers… (sarcasm) but considering the fact that we’ve toiled to get all our code out in the open and make it all possible and slugged away at the flagship to prove it’s all possible and built the company from scratch out of nothing to get stuff published and start making some money there’s a surprising lack of indie Java developers who’ve approached us seriously with any inkling of a game. I’ll advertise in here again methinks.
In fact to date only Elias & his dedicated team of gnomes have produced anything at all but I think he’s more interested in going it alone, and maybe that’d be best because his is a radically different kind of game to ours. Although I may yet convince him
Cas
It’s on the cover disc of this months PC Zone as well, so finally I’ve played it. Not really a twitcher myself, but it was as good as any game of that type I’ve played.
A couple of thoughts on that…
[]You only want to see playable games (of course!), but once a game is playable, I suspect there’s a fairly small window of time in which it doesn’t have a publisher before it either finds one, or the team gives up (exhausted) and goes back to their day job(s) (to pay the now-rather-large bills). So, during any particular week of the year, there are few around.
[]Indie games are hard to find on ANY platform. I missed ECTS this year, but at this year’s IGF the games included some real low quality stuff - and even several of the finalists that made it to the GDC showfloor were very low quality…which most likely reflects on a relatively small number of entrants, since the screening process for IGF is pretty good, AFAICS
[]I’d certainly take up your offer myself, but…all my game-coding time at the moment is going on a small browser-based MMOG that’s about to go into beta. And gold hopefully four weeks after that.
[]Finally…if you have any sense, and want to make a fast buck as a games developer, J2ME has been the way to go, historically. I’m only tangentially informed of developments in mobile games dev, but it looks like the gold-rush is over now, and it’s not worth jumping in there from scratch any more - but lots and lots of new indies who set out to code games 12-18 months ago would have jumped into mobile first (there were some great short-lived first-mover opportunities from people like O2 floating around back then)…so they’re probably largely still tied up - or may even have decided to stick with mobile. So, you may just have your timing wrong (to be a publisher) by 6-12 months (too early).
12 months too early seems to be just about right if you’re going to get to the top first.
Cas
Ok, my 2 cents on this.
While I think it’s a great idea, I see a couple potential problems. This is limited experience, so feel free to shoot down any of the points.
First, one typically goes to a publisher to find funding to complete a game. That is, they have a demo that shows promise, but it may only be a single level. Publisher says “Looks like it’s got potential, here’s a check, go finish.” Those who already have completed games must have had money to do so, so what’s keeping them from distributing it themselves? Or finding a more established publisher?
Secondly, let’s say someone does have a completed game and don’t feel like doing the leg work themselves to get it out. Why do they pick Puppgames? Alien Flux has done very poorly, you said so yourself. And it’s a good game. Which to an outsider might make it look like Puppygames failed to get the word out on it. What’s in it for the dev to take that chance that the same happens to their great game because they chose Puppygames over something else.
Trying to play devil’s advocate here. I just see these as a couple hurdles to get over.