enzi666
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So I read through the newest newsletter and the one thing that came to my mind was, bring it to the Xbox or Steam!
Especially with XNA I guess it's no "big deal" for you guys to make a port.
Indie games are booming right now. Things like Braid, World of goo and so on are selling pretty good. Why? Because people know that they exist! Platforms like steam and xboxlive are really good advertisments for such games. And hey, we're talking about drod here. We all know that it's the best puzzle game out there.

Anyway, maybe it's just a naive idea and you have already thought about it.

Greetings
Enzi

____________________________
58th Skywatcher

DROD AE: Finished - KDD2: Mastered
JTRH: Mastered
TCB: Mastered - RPG: Finished
GatEB: Mastered - TSS: Mastered

NiroZ
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I doubt it, as explained by the latest piece of illumination.

13th Slayer
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Heck yeah, DROD on Steam will be good, but XBL, doubtable. Actually, Caravel's download system is pretty much equal to Steam, except the fact that there is no CEG, thus the game is not connected to the account and can be distributed around by someone. Also, I think that for those people who can't get Steam for any reasons, old system must stay too.

Briareos
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enzi666 wrote:
Especially with XNA I guess it's no "big deal" for you guys to make a port.

I take it you just forgot to attach your patch that ports the DROD source code from C++ to C# - it happens.

Otherwise I'd be happy to hear your idea of "no big deal"...

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

zwetschenwasser
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How about a drod-like game with a real drod advertisement in the menu? I bet we can make a cool voice-acted MMORPG and port it to an Xbox.

____________________________
Currently working on GaTEB and KDD (never finished the silly thing).

Insane
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So it's like multiplayer DROD? That'd be cool. We should call it World of DRODcraft and it should be accessible with Games for Windows Live and use DirectX 11.

And you should be able purchase special greckles and buy upgrades like rayguns and unlimited undo!

Oh oh oh and we should get Ubisoft to distribute it. Man that would be so awesome.

World© of DROD™craft® by ©aravel™ Industries® - 3D™ Online for Windows™ Vista® by Mi©rosoft™

Dischorran
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Insane wrote:
And you should be able purchase special greckles and buy upgrades like rayguns and unlimited undo!

*Unlimited* undo? What were micropayments invented for, if not to sell individual presses of the backspace key for a few cents each? A single goblin horde/gel/hot tile room would pay development costs many times over!

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NiroZ
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That is a *brilliant* idea.

enzi666
Level: Master Delver

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Briareos wrote
I take it you just forgot to attach your patch that ports the DROD source code from C++ to C# - it happens.

Otherwise I'd be happy to hear your idea of "no big deal"...

I'm glad that "no big deal" is such a relative term.
From what I know, the drod engine was built from the ground up with SDL to support Linux and Windows. The graphics engine would need a complete rewrite, sure. The rest from the game logic needs to be ported to C#. Propably could be done in 3-6 months. If it's worth the trouble, i don't know.

But there would still be the option, without much trouble, to bring it to steam.

____________________________
58th Skywatcher

DROD AE: Finished - KDD2: Mastered
JTRH: Mastered
TCB: Mastered - RPG: Finished
GatEB: Mastered - TSS: Mastered

coppro
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I wouldn't buy any .NET-tied DROD product.

DanielFishman
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Dischorran wrote:

Insane wrote:
And you should be able purchase special greckles and buy upgrades like rayguns and unlimited undo!

*Unlimited* undo? What were micropayments invented for, if not to sell individual presses of the backspace key for a few cents each? A single goblin horde/gel/hot tile room would pay development costs many times over!

Danforth will love you for that...

Banjooie
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What is this big deal about .NET? I do not understand.

There are so many applications I use that run on .NET and they are all so delicious and handy.

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

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Banjooie wrote:
What is this big deal about .NET? I do not understand.

Me neither. It's not as if (at least) .NET 2.0 wasn't shipped with the OS since Vista...

(Okay, so I do .NET development all day at work so maybe I'm biased, but still...)

np: The Notwist - Pilot (Neon Golden)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

coppro
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Banjooie wrote:
What is this big deal about .NET? I do not understand.

There are so many applications I use that run on .NET and they are all so delicious and handy.

There are so many platforms I don't use that .NET runs on and they are all evil.

And Mono is, sadly, not as feature-complete as .NET, and that isn't likely to change.

Briareos
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coppro wrote:
]There are so many platforms I don't use that .NET runs on and they are all evil.

The same evil platforms that DROD runs on, so why are you still playing DROD?

np: Tosca - Oysters In May (No Hassle (Disc 2))

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Banjooie
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coppro wrote:
There are so many platforms I don't use that .NET runs on and they are all evil.HURF DURF MICROSOFT IS EVIL

oh ok

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[Last edited by Banjooie at 06-02-2009 06:38 AM]

NiroZ
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It's micro$oft, silly. Because it is the pinnacle of wit.

coppro
Level: Smitemaster
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Briareos wrote:

coppro wrote:
]There are so many platforms I don't use that .NET runs on and they are all evil.

The same evil platforms that DROD runs on, so why are you still playing DROD?

np: Tosca - Oysters In May (No Hassle (Disc 2))

To the best of my knowledge, platforms on which .NET runs ⊂ platforms on which DROD runs.

Banjooie
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I maintain that your argument consists of 'hurf durf microsoft is evil' rather than an actual complaint about .NET.

coppro
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Banjooie wrote:
I maintain that your argument consists of 'hurf durf microsoft is evil' rather than an actual complaint about .NET.

My complaint is about the fact that .NET is tied to Windows and I don't use Windows. I'm not a big MicroSoft fan, but I wouldn't have nearly as much of a problem with .NET if it were tied to a specific platform. I'd probably still have a problem with it because it was MicroSoft's, especially if it remained closed-source, but I would be far more partial to using it than I am now.

zex20913
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...Seems to me that coppro is proving Banj's point here. Am I misreading?

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Banjooie
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No I'm pretty sure he's basically just saying I'm right in a roundabout manner.

What with 'windows is evil' and '.net is only on windows' and failing to give me anything wrong with the framework itself.

So, yeah, hurf durf micro$oft yes.

NiroZ
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Bringing the discussion back on topic...
I've changed my mind, about steam at least. Given the amount of free advertising they give new games (popup, plus you sit on the front page under new releases for ages), I think it wouldn't be a bad idea. The fact that it's in 2D thus doesn't work with steam UI hasn't seemed to have been a problem for popcap (although they probably have enough clout to get a special loophole) or stigma studios. Plus they have a huge range of buying options, including paypal, thus offering an easy way to use that, finally. They have a much prettier gift function as well, which doesn't feel like a hack (plus, you can write a note). Also, if you discount a game for under $10, especially under $5, you get a huge amount of impulse buying going on

slimm tom
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Yes, this might be a good time investment for Mike to work on. If you don't want Steamworks (Shift-Tab in-game and achievements) there's little to no extra programming involved.

Sillyman
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About Popcap: I'm pretty sure Popcap games support Steamworks. It's not the 2d-ness that breaks it. In any case, I doubt Steam would sell a game that didn't work with their system. Wait... can someone test whether or not the Steam UI works with this game?

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Banjooie
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Um, speaking as someone completely ignorant: When I play a game through Steam that isn't a steam game, I can shift + tab, why is this somehow untrue of other games?

NiroZ
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Having played the plants and zombies demo, and alien shooter 2, I can assure you that steamworks works with them. Having played DROD through steam, I can assure you that steamworks does not work with it. Having played wow through steam (and steamworks working), I know it's not just because it's a 3rd party game.

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[Last edited by NiroZ at 06-03-2009 09:02 PM]

Banjooie
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This is why I'm perplexed: I don't think Blizzard went out of their way to put something in to sate Steam users, since you can't buy WoW on Steam.

slimm tom
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Hmm, weird. I can remember playing a Steam game and not being able to Shift-Tab and get the grey fade-out thingy. I thought it had something to do with the developer implementing it or not.

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[Last edited by slimm tom at 06-03-2009 09:18 PM]

NiroZ
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Banjooie wrote:
This is why I'm perplexed: I don't think Blizzard went out of their way to put something in to sate Steam users, since you can't buy WoW on Steam.

I know. It angers and confuses me that games that were released before steam even existed can still have steamworks. HOW DID THEY KNOW THE FUTURE!