[PC, iOS, Android] Star Nomad - Greenlit

—

I just added your game to my PC game list

—

I just added your game to my PC game list

Thanks!

I just got confirmation from IndieGameStand, they approved Star Nomad for PC & MAC: https://indiegamestand.com/store/1092/s ... s-sandbox/

> Wow that's pretty cool, well done

> Just a quick note, it would be very useful to allow skipping dialog once you've read it. I read the dialog quickly then had to wait for each sentence to change. Not everyone reads at the same speed.

> I was a massive fan of Wing Commander/Privateer so was looking forward to a first person perspective lol. Still good though

>

Thanks. Did you try any of the missions yet?

As for the top-down, it's just easier to do and fitting for mobiles with the touch controls. I really can't play mobile games with twin digital pad/stick on screen. Seems to be quite a common thing too.

I had thought about the dialog skip, but most of the dialog occur at the start, once the brief intro/tutorial is done the rest of the game is low dialog except for a few story missions.

Also just added it on Greenlight, not expecting to actually be greenlit but may as well try:

I flew around a bit and bought/sold some merchandise. I found the star map a little confusing at first. I naturally wanted to click on a system to go there - but nothing responded. So I flew around in circles for a little while not knowing how to get to the next system - until I stumbled into a black hole - which took me to the wrong one... realising what this was I quickly went back through and hunted out the correct black hole. It just wasn't very clear.

Another little quirk, you show miniature versions of landmarks so you know which direction to go - but it just looks like a miniature version of something flying around until you reach the destination. If you could perhaps add a little arrow next to the miniature pointing in the direction of the landmark, it'll make it much clear that it's actually a waypoint.

I also reached one of the biodomes - and the miniature marker sat over the top of it - instead of disappearing... so a little bug.

I hope you accept this as constructive feedback, because I was actually very impressed with your game.

Keep up the good work!

> —

>

> I just added your game to my PC game list

>

Thanks!

I just got confirmation from IndieGameStand, they approved Star Nomad for PC & MAC: https://indiegamestand.com/store/1092/s ... s-sandbox/

You're welcome. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

Do you also plan to submit the game on Desura?

revvin

All very good feedback, I always welcome it!

I had a user say similar things on google to me also, he found it difficult to get into at first because he doesn't play these types of games, but he really loved it after 15 mins or so.

I had a much longer tutorial during beta but my own bunch of testers (mostly gaming geeks, my fault for not diversifying lol) said it was too much hand holding and NOT necessary, they prefer to dive into it quickly and figure out for themselves.

All the icons remain on top of the station, I hadn't thought about making them invisible, so thanks for bringing it up.

You should definitely run some combat missions. The later ones are insane with the amount of units and particles, and I was really happy how fast it ran on even older devices. C2/HTML5 can do complex games for mobiles!

>

> > —

> >

> > I just added your game to my PC game list

> >

>

> Thanks!

>

> I just got confirmation from IndieGameStand, they approved Star Nomad for PC & MAC: https://indiegamestand.com/store/1092/s ... s-sandbox/

>

You're welcome. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

Do you also plan to submit the game on Desura?

Honestly have no idea about these other stores, is Desura worth it?

ATM I hope it makes it on Steam (wishful thinking I know!), and Humble Bundle Store..

Also, Apple is being slack, I applied for a dev account a week ago, paid, still haven't approved.. can't even TEST the game on my iPad without a dev account. >_<

[quote:orm164mn]ATM I hope it makes it on Steam (wishful thinking I know!), and Humble Bundle Store..

You've got a better game than some that have got the Greenlight and you won't be the first Construct 2 game - there are already 5 that have gone through Greenlight and been released (Epic Space, Angvik, Our Darker Purpose, 8BitBoy, Dreaming Sarah) and 4 others that have been greenlit but not released yet (Airscape, Cosmochoria, Reven, Once upon an Apocalypse) plus the Construct Classic game Tower Climb has been greenlit too.

[quote:orm164mn]Honestly have no idea about these other stores, is Desura worth it?

I worked/work on a non-Construct 2 game that was one of the first greenlit games released on Steam. We sold maybe 15,000 copies through other stores (including less than 2,000 through Desura) in the year before releasing on Steam, and then sold that many on Steam during the first week as a featured game and then 10,000 to 15,000 copies a time in 3 big sales.

When not featured on Steam store sales dropped, but they were still much higher than pre-Steam sales.

It's always worth it to go in any sale or promotion Steam offer even at a huge discount and don't be afraid to ask to go in one if not offered one.

Being featured is obviously the best. Midweek madness, Spotlight and weekend deals are pretty good but hard to get in. Weeklong sales, daily deals and flash sales are easier to get but not as good. Seasonal sales like the Steam Summer Sale are the easiest to get into and are ok for a little exposure but you don't get as many sales as the others because of all the competition.

A lot of games are vying for the best sales spots so it helps if you can offer something new. We got a Spotlight and Midweek madness sale when offered a small free expansion and additional features.

revvin

I had a much longer tutorial during beta but my own bunch of testers (mostly gaming geeks, my fault for not diversifying lol) said it was too much hand holding and NOT necessary, they prefer to dive into it quickly and figure out for themselves.

I'm an old gamer, and totally agree that long hand holding tutorials can be very dull and unnecessary. You don't need a tutorial, just a few slight tweaks to the UI to make it more intuitive for first time users. I never read manuals. Only in the old Amiga days where you had to find a code for copy protection, but instructions are not really needed anymore. A good intuitive interface makes things easy for people to hit the ground running.

Cool, seen it on greenlight today and obviously voted for yes GL

Sethmaster Thanks, good to get some support from fellow devs.

But honestly I'm not confident it will make it on Greenlight, it's stripped of some much needed complexity to be suitable for PC desktop sandboxes to optimize for mobiles and touch screen.

Hows your pixel gangster epic going?

Still suspended for now since I am resting for a while after finishing Super Nuclear Riders.

Will go back to it in a few days after I finish with Divinity: Original Sin

Update: Finally got around to making the iOS version working all nicely on all the iPads, from 2 to retina and mini. Took me very long because Apple took 2 weeks to approve my developer account and I couldn't test anything without it since Xcode won't work without provisions & certificates.

Then half way through testing, I made a choice to abandon iPhone since the screen is too small to be enjoyable so remade an iPad 4:3 ratio version only. Performance wise, really really good. ~50% CPU load on iPad mini w/ Retina & iPad Air for 60 fps capped. On older A5 models (iPad 2 & 1st gen iPad mini) the game also runs smooth. Very happy with performance.

Will submit it to the App Store in next few days, hopefully Apple won't give me more trouble than they already have.

On other good news, Star Nomad got some reviews from nice sites! (Pure dumb luck since I just spam them with such a simple & short email: "hey guys, game is released, give it a try, here's a video & screenshot").

Android version (older version before I made some changes with an update to partially address the flaws):

http://www.hardcoredroid.com/star-nomad-review/

PC version (really hilarious writing from the reviewer, fun read!):

http://indiegamemag.com/star-nomad-maki ... -frontier/

Also more good news, just now CJS updated to v2.0.2 which apparently has the fix for crashing on some devices, I've just updated Star Nomad on Google, so PKrawczynski michael suntemple try it and hopefully it will start fine now!

Wow. This game is awesome. Good work!

Android is a nightmare to support actually, I'm seeing so many other AAA games from big studios get 1 star rating from so many users due to crashes. I'm also suffering from this, partly due to CJS but also due to Android fragmentation.

I wish Google would give us an option to OPT in devices or common hardware CPU rather than OPT out over 6,400 out there.