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Show HN: My First Commercial Game Is Now Online

cardinalquest.com

97 pointsido52 comments

I find it a little strange that you say I should buy "at my own risk" the experimental linux version. Just a little demo, so I can check it at least works, would add some confidence.

You are right - will be adding a demo in the next few weeks.

Still so much to do!

A "Send me a mail as soon as the Linux version is stable" would be nice.

The problem is that I'm not sure it's even possible to get it running properly (e.g. with hardware acceleration) on every flavor of linux out there.

It's a real can of worms that one...

If you need certain drivers for it to work, just say that.

It is valid to target certain Linux distributions, so you can limit your scope to the ones with most exposure to desktop users. Ubuntu comes to mind...

Hrm, might do that. It already works in wine as well, just a bit buggy.

Cute, I like it. My feedback:

* I love the streamlined nature - auto-sell duplicate items, auto-equip. There's a couple of little niggles that go against this when moving, such as having to let go of <left> and press it again to collect an item from a chest (wouldn't a short delay also be ok?) and moving around corners feels a little awkward; I think I expect holding <left> and <up> to walk up until the next left is free, then go left, but it doesn't seem to work quite like that.

* No save / resume? Really? I get the old-skool thing, but resuming where the last game left off (without save/load, death is still death) would be a nice courtesy.

Yeah, that's on my todo list- there is just so much stuff to do!

Thanks for the input!

Do a version in Flash! Flash games can spread all over the internet and do insane traffic which you can use to promote the full/paid version.

Way ahead of you ;)

Currently in negotiations with a large portal.

Awesome. You should ping me - ben at playtomic.com - cause I know all the major portals and can drop you some intros. Negotiations will be a lot better when you can say "X offered me more.".

Pinged!

That is very generous of you, much obliged!

I don't know how feasible this is, but a demo would be totally awesome. I am guilty of just having a demo video myself, and I think that it really cuts into my sales in a ton of cases.

Yeah I will add one in the coming weeks.

Didn't think a 5 euros game needed a demo, but apparently it does.

Any game or app for that matter can benefit from a demo, trial or similar. Even though 5 euro is not a lot, it's still money. As there is so much low-quality stuff out there, customers are sceptical about buying something they haven't tried out to some degree.

I just spent one hour playing your game, love it ! (will play again) The casual fast-paced rogue-like style is very neat ! I've never seen something quite similar

Not having to care about picking items up and choosing the best one to equip is very clever. It weirded me out at the begining but it really helps to build a spirit to the game.

The magic system, while not being the most intuitive thing in the game, also participate to the ambience. Bravo !

The major caveheat is really the absence of auto-saving and resuming a game. I already lost 3 characters beacause the game crashed, I've read here that it's in your TODO list, and I really think it should be your top priority, it will very fast get on players nerves.

Superb game anyways, shall I hint you contact the people behing TIGDB (The independant Game Database) ? I would love to leave a kind review here :)

Congrats!

I don't know exactly how it works, but maybe you might want to contact the Humble Bundle people and see if you could get in on that somehow?

Why do I have to horizontal scroll on a 1024px wide browser window? Need some margin: 0 auto; somewhere. (webpage is based on 1300px width??)

You are right! Will fix.

Thanks for making this, it's awesome to play! :-)

One major thing, though: it sucks that there is no way to save or at least resume a game.

Great website. You have a one pager with all the information required including a video and screenshots and two BUY NOW links. Nothing more is needed, and nothing less would do. I think you nailed it there.

Oh yeah, the game looks pretty good too.

Thank you :)

I think there is still room for improvement, but you gotta release 1.0 at some point!

Looks pretty good to me! The only thing I would say is that whatever font you're using on the front page (Times New Roman?) looks a little tacky.

Thanks!

What do you suggest I use instead?

Georgia or if you feel adventures (phun intended) you could try and use some of the fonts at typekit.com to get a more dungeony feel.

maybe just a smaller font size would suffice ... it looks tacky because it's the same size as the headings

How about now?

No no, canvas yo!

Looks pretty.What tools you used to develop it?

HaXe mostly.

Wait, so can you now generate JS, Flash and C++ versiond of the game automatically (or, at least, easily?).

Kinda easily...It requires some extra code.

Still, very nice! How did you like the language?

Pretty good! It's like AS3 but with a bunch of stuff added and some of the rough edges polished.

Could you go into a bit more details? I'd find it very interesting to hear about a fresh real-world experience with converting a HaXe game to another platform.

Are there many places where the same code should work but, for some reason, doesn't? Or have you knowingly made some parts of the code platform dependent, and simply need to port/independentize them?

For example some of the flash API is still missing from NME (a lib for the c++ target) & the performance (and more importantly bottlenecks) is quite different on different targets.

Not to mention all the browser limitations you have to work around if you use JS...

HaXe seems to be a fine idea indeed. What is your experience working with it in practice?

Really, really good.

I've made the prototype in js and it was a ton easier and worked better with haxe.

I like the fact that the visual and musical aesthetic forced on early game designers by hardware limitations is now a desirable attribute in a new game. From the video the game looks and sounds great... In fact, I just bought it! Will report on my experience with the Linux version.

I don't know anyone under that age of 30, do the kids like the "8-bit" thing as well? :)

edit The Linux version is an Adobe Air package. Will try it out later.

17 years old and I can confirm this is indeed 'the business'[1], the retro aesthetic appeals to a lot of the younger demographic simply as a stylistic choice rather than a throwback to our youths. Limitation breeds innovation and as a result many games utilising 8-bit inspired graphics tend to have really unique art direction.

[1]: A phrase I may have just invented but plan to use frequently from this point on.

My nephews (9, 12 & 13) love it, but maybe they're just being nice :)

Are 9, 12 and 13 year olds capable of being nice when they aren't genuinely feeling it?

I love games like this, brings back fond memories. Congratulations on your launch! I just purchased a copy :) I'm looking forward to playing it!

Congrats.

On Chrome, when I click to the right in the screenshots, eventually all screenshots get shifted over to the right by half a screen.

Paypal payments just aren't working, I tried twice. Might want to look into that.

Do you deliberately hide the price on the front page?

No I'm not - kinda had to throw the website together quickly & I recently changed the prices a bit.

The paypal bit is handled by FastSpring and is sadly beyond my control :(

FastSpring here. What's the problem?

I guess you should ask moconnor for that: apparently paypal payments didn't work for him.

Couldn't purchase with paypal - first time the paypal site showed a generic "we don't know" error (didn't note it, sorry), the next time after signing in to paypal I got further, but was told that the payment had been rejected and the error message didn't know why either.

You need a web designer asap. I actually had to read around to find out how to buy the game, that is terrible.

Looks nice, looking forward to a Linux demo.

But that hideous image scroller on the bottom hurts my eyes :[

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