Save The Silly Earthlings - Game ... Alpha Out Now
Community Forums/Showcase/Save The Silly Earthlings - Game ... Alpha Out Now
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| Hi there I've been working on this game for far too long and I wanted it to become this amazing game that would demonstrate to the world that we need to change our energy systems and fast... Well I've drawn a line in the sand with it and I'm releasing what I have so far as an Alpha... It's not complete but I think I need to get it out there and see what people think, also if your a millionaire or billionaire and would like to setup a think tank to create a more realisitc simulation please let me know! You can download the zipped Alpha here: http://SaveTheSillyEarthlings.com Requirements Windows DX9+ systems 32+Mb VRAM > 1200x800 resolution Go on see if you can save those silly Earthlings... Kind Regards Al __________________ |
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ScreenShots...  |
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| Video of the game in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLEcpKwDjM Let me know what you think, anyone? |
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| Im gonna try it out later , im too busy now |
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| Some impressions: - help instructions with a lot of text on a separate screen is a bad idea - the first look on the cluttered gameplay screen filled with numbers is not encouraging - too much "disaster pop up windows" - can you prevent them at all in Africa and South America? - technical problem: mouse moves sluggishly. When the "end turn" screen appeared it became uncontrolable so i quit the game. Overall the game needs simpler approach, more clarity and visual uplift to be competitive with the other titles. Not sure about the gameplay. It seems that it could be interested somewhat, but it would probably need to be refined and expanded in order to be attractive for longer period. |
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| Gave it a try, just some quick thoughts: - too many numbers, blinking and open windows at a time, i.e. interface needs to be simpler - add a window icon :) - improve the tutorial, it doesn't need to show up every time the game runs - decrease your image filesize a bit via optipng / reducing colors - transparent windows are harder to read -> make them optional |
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| Hi Jur/Grisu, thanks for trying the game! 1. Yes, Just threw the instructions screen together so I could get the alpha version out there, as opposed to just letting the user drop straight into the game. But opt-out button a good idea! 2. Good point too many numbers, I might go with a more graphical look but don't want it to end up as a powerpoint graph game ;o) 3. I think I could change the way they work, lot's of ideas, in an ideal world I would have a newsreader popup with a disaster report! Check the news Africa and Asia are always having 'Disasters' ;o) 4. The game builds up the data as it goes then generates all the data for the graphs, when you click the close end of turn graph it clears out the data, I think this is just the GC being hammered when all of the data is released, not sure what will be the best approach to prevent this? 5. Yep it definitly needs more depth, appeal, simpler graphics but I would like a sylish modern look, ideally the interface a super rich trillionare would use to simulate/plan and solve the worlds energy/climate problems before they happen! |
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| @Grisu yep there were some old and much too large jpeg images in there trimmed them and got the game zip file down from a hefty 12 Mb to a slimmer 8.375 Mb! |
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| I really like this game! |
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| @Arowx: Well done. I've optimised your images a bit further and upxed the exe. That shrinked the zip down to 7.944 Mb. You can grab the file here: (-) |
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| @Grisu, cheers but I tried using the upx build into blide and my anti-virus just quarentined it, I think as the exe unpacks itself it triggers the anti-virus heuristics. I'll stick with the simple slimmer zipped version, what's a couple of seconds downloading compared to throwing a potential players anti-virus software into QUARENTINE mode when you run a upxed file. Grisu you do realise that you are in breach of the EULA included with the game, could you please remove the file as I cannot support it? |
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| Ups, deleted. The compressed images won't do harm I guess. |
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| Cheers... Rebuilt it via a Framework Assistant 'Scan' and it's now down to 7.885 Mb ;o) |
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| That's the spirit... ;) |
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| the game is too big for my screen I have 1024x800 desktop and the graphics dont fit in the window, although the window seems to be the same size as my desktop. |
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| Sorry Slenka it requires > 1200x800 resolution to play. I will add virtual resolution for the next build! |
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| Fixed an Application Exception Bug, you should be able to play it past the second turn now... ;o) |
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| Nice graphics and music. The Earth doesn't show up for me on the title screen; just the green crosshair-thingy. Issues: - It's hard to tell what effect creating a particular type of power plant will have. Do all the types produce the same amount of power? How much total does a region need? - The blackouts don't seem to be predictable in any way. That is, the player needs to see why their previous decision failed to provide power for that region. - And why would a blackout kill 20% of the population, especially in places where many people don't have electricity anyway. - I didn't get to the end, but I'd think the game could be beatable just by filling the grids with green power plants right at the start. This would make the game preachy but not much fun. - A political dimension may be necessary. You would have to win support in some way to get a green plant approved, given it's higher cost per btu rating. The difficulty of that would depend on the wealth of the region, so poor regions would be less willing to go green. - The units of money are different in the plant selection screen than on the main window. Hard to make decisions that way. A great idea with an attractive interface. Keep it going...! |
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| Hi Axel, That could be related to your graphics card drivers what system did you run it on? Yes they all power plants provide the same proportion of power. Each region needs 100% power which relates to the population levels. When a region Loses 20% population the people actually migrate to other regions. Your right I need to add more depth and variety to it but you have the concept spot on ;o) Not sure how the political dimension would work but I was thinking of making it multiplayer, each player controlling one or more regions? Good point on the prices I should be able to amend that! Thank You Al Arowx.com |
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| Mac (Intel) version now available... http://savethesillyearthlings.com It's in a dmg file, you need at lest 1200x800 screen space to play. So go on give it a whirl! Kind Regards Al Arowx.com |
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| I think you'll find that 1024x768 is the max resolution you can Expect people to have. They say 800x600 but thats just too little real estate |
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| Yeah I should adapt it and will, but developed it on my laptop and built the graphics using that ratio/resolution. It's only an early alpha, it was starting to be sidelined by other game ideas so needed a quick alpha release. Have you checked out the steam or unity stats there are a growing percentage of higher resolutions, with lots more in the wider aspect ratio category. Odd2D could provide the solution with it's widescreen bordered version of virtualresolution!? |
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| Here's a post on keeping the user's existing resolution, whatever it happens to be: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=79769 Oh, and Arowx, my graphics is intel onboard, so no surprise. |
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| Yeah I should adapt it and will, but developed it on my laptop and built the graphics using that ratio/resolution. I would not worry about it. You have not been able to buy a monitor that could run at 1024x768 or 800x600 for a native resolution for many years. The only exception is netbooks.There is nothing worse than a game that is so far stuck in the past and refuses to support modern hardware, especially when it comes to resolutions and aspect ratios. Your game is doing it right! |
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