Puppygames New Website & Dudester for Mac OS X

General Discussions
#1

The Puppygames new website has just gone live with a new fresher look and feel. We’re now celebrating the launch of our second game, Super Dudester, which marks a turning point in our history. We’ve also got a little fun suprise on the site for those with Java installed :slight_smile:

Super Dudester is now officially on sale for Mac OS X, Windows, and even Linux.

Alien Flux is still available for those with eclectic hardcore tastes.

Firefox users please note that you might have a bit of trouble launching files right now. View the page in IE or Safari for the best results.

Cas :slight_smile:

#2

Way to go Cas! I can’t wait to grab a copy of Super Dudester!

Now for the bad news:

In OS X 10.2.6 Safari, I don’t see any of the games. There’s just a box for subscribing to your newsletter. The game on the side works (sort of) except that I can’t move and shoot at the same time. After the level is over, I can’t click “Continue” either.

Firefox appears to work, but the applet doesn’t function and the “Download” buttons are greyed out. I assume that’s what you were talking about when you said it didn’t work?

I’m not sure if I still have IE lying around. If I find it, I’ll let you know how it works.

#3

Heh, we’re not officially supporting 10.2 so that’s kinda correct :wink: I think we ought to handle it a little nicer though.

Cas :slight_smile:

#4

True, true. :slight_smile: You need to fix that Firefox support, however. That will be a problem on all platforms.

FYI, I tried IE 5.2.2 for Mac (which I believe is the same version on all Macs) and it absolutely choked. It seems to have decided that CSS layout is simply not important, and then rendered the page as one long text page. The download buttons were there, but were grayed out. I’m not sure if it’s worth worrying about, but I figured I’d let you know.

#5

Works like a charm using Opera 7.6 :slight_smile:
Nice layout…

Chman

edit: puppyinvaders doesn’t work completly… The game run correclty, you can shoot and move your ship, but your ship and ennemies are invisibles… I’m using Java1.5.0…

#6

Yep, noticed that in Opera 7.54 too… wonder what it is… it used to work fine until some other applets were put on the page…

Cas :slight_smile:

#7

On the subject of multiple applets, mind if I ask you a question? (Actually two.)

  1. Why use applets for the Webstart buttons?
  2. Why bother greying out the download buttons? Shouldn’t they always be available?
#8

Nice looking site, clean and stylish. Renders as it should with Mozilla 1.7.3 on both WinXP and Mandrake Linux 10.1.

The Puppy Invaders applet also works fine on both OS:es, running jre1.5.0

A question, how many have taken advantage of the 60 days money back gurantee? 60 days seems like a looong time, I can’t recall many games that have keept me intrested that long. But then on the other hand you’d have to be pretty cheap to bother getting your money back when you’ve played and enjoyed a game for a couple of months.

Intresting concept of not providing a buy option until the game is loaded also, should make people more eager to play the game in the first place and more likely to make a spontaneous purchase. I guess that’s your plan, lure them in and then close the trap 8)

#9

Download is not actually available for MacOS X yet coz we don’t know how to do it :slight_smile: So we grey 'em out.

The reason we use applets for launching is that we can get it to launch to an appropriate URL depending on things that Java can discover. For example the applets can detect if you’re running Java 1.3 and if you’re on windows they just download the exe instead. Etc. The applets also completely disappear on systems that can’t do Java in the browser, leaving only download buttons - if there’s an appropriate exe available.

Cas :slight_smile:

#10

Windows 2k @ internet cafe:

“Download” button does NOT work for AF even though this is very obviously a windows machine ;D, although the one for SD does

NB: no java installed, just default win2k with service packs, so 3 big grey rectangles :slight_smile:

#11

No exe for Flux just yet, got to rebuild it…
Grey rectangles instead of applets eh? Bloody useless. I suppose that’s Java 1.1 installed and it doesn’t work.

Cas :slight_smile:

#12

The page looks good so far.

Two things:
On the game page… the game icons/pictures should also link to the “more info” page.

I’ve Java disabled, therefore there is only the download button for SD clickable.

#13

@Cas:

There are two ways of creating a proper Java application for OS X. The first is to use the JAR Builder application to create a .APP file. The second is to run the Java Webstart game on the system, then tell webstart to create “shortcuts” for it. This actually causes webstart to create a complete .APP for the application that can then be deployed to other systems. The later method is usually frowned upon because you can’t pack extra plugins or data files into the .APP, but should work exceptionally well for your needs.

Once you have a .APP file, you can simply zip it up if you want. The preferred method, however, is to create a .DMG file. This is actually a filesystem in a file that can contain as many files and as much metadata as you need. Most .DMG files even place backgrounds on the finder window to make it look more professional. The result looks something like this tiff image. (Sorry, I just had that one lying around.)

While OS X technically has all the necessary tools to create DMG files, you’ll be much happier with the results if you use a program like FileStorm.

@Blah:

If you click on “More Info” for Alien Flux, you’ll see that Cas has a note stating that it’s not downloadable at the moment. :slight_smile:

#14

I really liked the new site and the game, puppy invaders. I asume its all java2d with the new ogl-pipeline on 1.5 right? It could use a little annoying tune ;D
The sites renders as it should on firefox 1.0 as far that I could see but I found one bug in the game… if you hit reload then it’ll spawn an additional set of enemies eg. you get 6 more enemies on the first stage. If you hit reload again you get another set.
Now I’m off to try Super Dudester! :slight_smile:

#15

The applet has lots of hilarious bugs! Coz I didn’t write it :slight_smile: If anyone’s got an applet they’d like to feature on our front page, please tell me! Link back to your own site too. It’s like a free ad for your l33t sk1llz.

We have a Frogger in the works.

Looking for Pac Man, Asteroids, Dig Dug, etc. C’mon, now’s your chance!

Extra special offer: if it rox0rs Chaz will do your graphics.

Cas :slight_smile:

#16

any of the GameLizard games work for that? :slight_smile:

#17

I don’t like this!

On my home machine (linux, 1.4.2_05, applet plugin disabled) I :

  • cannot play any games
  • cannot download any games

I’m guessing the play-now is disabled if you don’t have the applet plugin installed? I know it’s unusual to have it disabled but to have java perfectly happily installed, but … it’s not ultra-rare either (e.g. corporate desktops may have java/flash/etc disabled or finely controlled in the browser yet still have stuff on the desktop).

Nice idea, sorry it doesn’t work 100%…

#18

We haven’t catered for that combination of strangeness yet. Chaz’ll get on the case as soon as he’s back from wherever he’s gone.

Cas :slight_smile:

#19

[quote]I don’t like this!

On my home machine (linux, 1.4.2_05, applet plugin disabled) I :

  • cannot play any games
  • cannot download any games

I’m guessing the play-now is disabled if you don’t have the applet plugin installed? I know it’s unusual to have it disabled but to have java perfectly happily installed, but … it’s not ultra-rare either (e.g. corporate desktops may have java/flash/etc disabled or finely controlled in the browser yet still have stuff on the desktop).

Nice idea, sorry it doesn’t work 100%…
[/quote]
Well, same here. I HATE applets. I really do. I can enable em with 2 clicks+reload… but I don’t want to :slight_smile:

#20

Blame Sun for everything.

Cas :slight_smile: