I did indeed make it a fraction easier 
However, it gets slightly harder for better players, to balance that.
Cas 
There is now a bug in the purchase screen. When you have purchased macimum shields, the price shows as $-2.
Also on higher waves, (in saturn), the guys that drop the big bombs that mushroom drop far too fast when they are the only baddie left. I understand you want to make it more difficult, but there should be an occasional pause to at least give a chance of getting him without getting hit by one of those bombs. I can provde screens if you want.
Bah! Uploading fixes…
Cas
Have played the game up to the first levels in world 2 a couple of weeks ago (don’t remember the name of the planet) and I have to say that once again this shooter is really addictive! And I love the graphics! Congrats Cas!
Space invaders are still great gameplay! That’s what I call creativity!
Amazing how space invaders,which didn’t really stand the test of time very well, could be updated to something very playable again. I really like the style of it and the gameplay additions to the original space invaders.
One point of critique though, I think it could be a little bit more challenging. It just takes too many levels until it gets difficult so sometimes it feels a bit repetitive and I finished the demo in one go.
It didn’t stop me from buying it though, because I just have to see rest of the game
I am trying Linux out on my machine. I tried to run your Linux version and got the following:
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeApplication(Launcher.java:1154)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeMainClass(Launcher.java:1101)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.continueLaunch(Launcher.java:944)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Launcher.java:515)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Launcher.java:218)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:165)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
at net.puppygames.applet.Game.exit(Game.java:999)
at net.puppygames.applet.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:70)
... 11 more
Not sure if the problem is on my end or your end. Any thoughts?
ps. I get the same error with Ultratron.
Er, looks like I need to get a new Linux native lib off of Elias…
Cas
I just love those glowy pixelated graphics!
The ingame shop really made me want to keep playing, its a waste to quit when you have a fully upgraded tank
Thijs
PS: Why don’t you offer a webstart demo, so people don’t have to download and install the game first?
there is a jws version, just click the linux link
[quote]there is a jws version, just click the linux link Smiley
[/quote]
Ah now you mention it =)
Cas: Any reason why not to make this more transparent to the user? Have you noticed users backing off when they have to deal with jws? It seems more convienent to use jws, just one click and you can play…
Ah now you mention it =)
Cas: Any reason why not to make this more transparent to the user? Have you noticed users backing off when they have to deal with jws? It seems more convienent to use jws, just one click and you can play…
[/quote]
Not for Windows users. Most Windows users are just plain users and are afraid of anything that pops up asking questions. So if they don’t have a high enough version of Java, they either don’t have JWS or they get a prompt to upgrade. Even if they upgrade, they get a security sertificate question. As soon as you mention security, they answer no, even if it is safe. So after a 15MB download, they have another 10-12MB for the game. They just up and quit and stay away from Java games in the future. Never mind if you tell them that you only have to do the first 15MB download once, to get a current JVM. An EXE installer, on the other hand, they are familiar with and gravitate to quite easily. A Windows JWS version would only be easier for us Java developers, who already have a JVM installed.
Well I disagree with you on several points:
[quote]So if they don’t have a high enough version of Java, they either don’t have JWS or they get a prompt to upgrade.
[/quote]
True, but I could argue that most java installations have JWS installed. Also since 1.4 the jvm updates itself.
[quote]So after a 15MB download, they have another 10-12MB for the game. They just up and quit and stay away from Java games in the future. Never mind if you tell them that you only have to do the first 15MB download once, to get a current JVM. An EXE installer, on the other hand, they are familiar with and gravitate to quite easily. A Windows JWS version would only be easier for us Java developers, who already have a JVM installed.
[/quote]
Installing the jvm is a bit of a pain indeed (big download, too much user interaction). Sometimes i wish the jvm installation could be a bit more like flash. But if we have to believe Sun, a fair amount of pc’s comes shipped with the JVM nowadays. The webstart demo of puppy invaders was a 5.5 MB download btw… maybe he downloads/streams more ingame, but that’s very doable for most users.
[quote]Not for Windows users. Most Windows users are just plain users and are afraid of anything that pops up asking questions. Even if they upgrade, they get a security sertificate question. As soon as you mention security, they answer no, even if it is safe.
[/quote]
Didn’t get a security popup here, only a question if i’d like to add a shortcut to the desktop. Also, most windows users don’t seem to bother about any security popup at all… look at miniclip; millions of users play activex games that throw security warnings upon installation…
I’m personally hardly experiencing any lack of acceptance of JWS (in fact many people mailed me that they really liked JWS’ ease of use) and for me JWS works just great, but then again, I’m currently not selling anything distributed through JWS. I’m quite sure this makes a big difference.
I mean, I can understand that people might be less willing to pay for anything if they don’t get an .exe file for it in return, but instead a game somewhere on the hard drive, God knows where, maybe even on a harddrive they didn’t want to install it on in the first place.
You can explain all you like about that you just buy a code for unlocking the game, blabla, you can install it anywhere, blabla automatic update yadda yadda, but the fact is, if you have to explain things like that, the customer is already gone.
I believe this is probably much more important than any technical concerns about JWS or security warnings.
Actually “selling” something makes a big difference to us. Webstart has less than half the conversion rate of a downloadable executable. So I just leave Webstart to the experts.
There are lots and lots of disadvantages to Webstart from the customer’s point of view. If they just want to nip in and play a quick game and I’ve just done a patch it won’t let them play until they’ve downloaded 4mb of new version. They don’t know how to copy the game from one computer to another. They don’t know what they actually “own” - I have enough trouble as it is with people just unlocking a demo rather than downloading some separate “full” version after they’ve bought it. Etc. As for downloading the correct JVM etc, the experience is uncannily the same on the Mac which has JWS built-in.
Bottom line is - Webstarted games don’t sell.
Cas
[quote]I mean, I can understand that people might be less willing to pay for anything if they don’t get an .exe file for it in return, but instead a game somewhere on the hard drive, God knows where, maybe even on a harddrive they didn’t want to install it on in the first place.
[/quote]
Good point, hadn’t looked at it that way…
[quote]Actually “selling” something makes a big difference to us. Webstart has less than half the conversion rate of a downloadable executable. So I just leave Webstart to the experts.
There are lots and lots of disadvantages to Webstart from the customer’s point of view. If they just want to nip in and play a quick game and I’ve just done a patch it won’t let them play until they’ve downloaded 4mb of new version. They don’t know how to copy the game from one computer to another. They don’t know what they actually “own” - I have enough trouble as it is with people just unlocking a demo rather than downloading some separate “full” version after they’ve bought it. Etc. As for downloading the correct JVM etc, the experience is uncannily the same on the Mac which has JWS built-in.
Bottom line is - Webstarted games don’t sell.
[/quote]
Thx for that info! I was considering to offer buyable webstart games on my site sooner or later. Too bad, as now I have to offer 3 different downloadable versions (for each platform) that would otherwise be supported transparently 
Well, I still think JWS can be very usable for commercial games but probably not for the kind of games PuppyGames is offering.
Especially for online gaming I think JWS can be really useful as an up to date version is essential then. For those kind of games, a mandatory download of tens of megabytes (sometimes even 100s!) if there’s a patch is quite common.
For that an easy to use installshied in an exe which downloads and installs a JRE if needed with minimum user interaction, after which it will install the game in JWS might be cool. It will save duplicating efforts to write an auto updater yourself.
Having played it (and allowed my eight year old son to do so too), I’d have to say that the version you are offering free is too good. Why pay money for something you can get for free? (This is not a criticism of the game: it is fantastic.)
As a person who only plays games occasionally (so what am I doing on this site? I was curious) I can say that I wouldn’t buy it because I can play as far as I can get (moon level at the moment) without having to pay. I have bought two games online – Dweep and Snood – because I was still interested when I got to the end of the evaluation section. Anyway, this is something for you to think about.
My son discovered that you can use the mouse, and I think it is much easier to use and allows getting to a much higher level. I think this should be made clear in the options. In fact, I think you might restrict it to just the keyboard to make it a bit more difficult.
I hope my comments are useful.
…won’t be able to play it for free for long
Cas
doh, now why did you have to tell Cas that it was freely playable! ;D
On http://www.puppygames.net/applets/titanattacks.jnlp using windows xp on jre 5.0.8 I got
java.lang.NullPointerException
at net.puppygames.applet.Game.exit(Game.java:932)
at net.puppygames.applet.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:70)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeMainClass(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.continueLaunch(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)