Download and play Shelled! (open beta)

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David Stewart   (Oct 06, 2006 at 03:15 GMT)

DL'ing now. My time is limited this weekend but will try to play as much as possible.
Any particular times?

Charles B   (Oct 06, 2006 at 03:49 GMT)

linux?

Joshua Dallman   (Oct 06, 2006 at 03:54 GMT)

friday night and saturday nights should be especially active
think around 7pm-late-ish
sorry, windows only

Tom Feni   (Oct 06, 2006 at 04:06 GMT)

Awesome.. now my game will be on hold this weekend thanks josh
lol

havent tried it multiplayer yet.. maybe this weekend

Rob Sandbach   (Oct 06, 2006 at 09:50 GMT)

Great fun, really good fun to play, didnt have any issues at all :)

Can't wait to get some MP action going :)

Eric Forhan   (Oct 06, 2006 at 12:04 GMT)

Joshua, I've tried downloading this twice and both times it said the installer was corrupt.

Ahh... it's only downloading about 4MB then ending.
Edited on Oct 06, 2006 12:06 GMT

Stefan Lundmark   (Oct 06, 2006 at 12:05 GMT)

Same as Eric here.

Gary Preston   (Oct 06, 2006 at 12:33 GMT)

I'll possibly be online Saturday (maybe Friday) around 7pm GMT for a mulitplayer game if anyone else is around.

Edit: Sites back :)

If anyone wants to host a multi-player, check that your router forwards the following ports and that they're open on your firewall:

28000-28002 UDP
1031 UDP
1048 UDP

With those open/forwarded your game should appear on the master server for others to join in.
Edited on Oct 06, 2006 19:44 GMT

Eric Forhan   (Oct 06, 2006 at 13:16 GMT)

Thanks Gary!

Rob Parton   (Oct 06, 2006 at 13:29 GMT)

I finally got a chance to play it, and wow! It brings back some pretty good Tank Wars memories! I'll definately try to jump on and play MP tonight! :)

Simon Love   (Oct 06, 2006 at 16:48 GMT)

What a wondeful way to start a weekend...

Jeff Murray   (Oct 06, 2006 at 18:26 GMT)

Woohooo! Downloading now ... can't wait :)

Jeremy Alessi   (Oct 06, 2006 at 19:14 GMT)

I haven't gotten to play multiplayer yet but so far a few things. The game has been nicely streamlined however, the options screen is either too streamlined or buggy because there's no text telling me what the sliders and checkboxes do. Upon playing a few things stood out as issues for me. The power meter moves too slow ... or is just too big. The power meter in Orbz is perfect you can still get the accuracy you need out of it and it doesn't take 10 seconds (or what seems like 10 seconds) to charge.

In general the game just seems very slow moving and although it probably requires some strategy I don't think it requries enough to be this slow. I'll try multiplayer as soon as some games are up or I'll try it on the LAN with some people if I get a chance. Back to the power meter for a second .... if it's supposed to be more strategic why not let people control the power slider instead having it automated?

I know you're already taken a beating on this game in the past but to me it just doesn't seem to be tight. All of the gameplay elements seem very loosely thrown together and I think you need to tie everything up more. Give it a more purposeful logic. Even the shells just seem like they were thought up to have cool functions but it doesn't seem like much more than preference when choosing which one to attack with. Perhaps there should be more of a rock paper scissors/pokemon strategy to the game?

For example if the terrain had more elements aside from elevation differences on it that blocked certain shells etc... and players could see what shells other players had then they could try to maneauver themselves to a safe location according to their enemies powers ... meanwhile the attacking player would be rushed a bit to get them. As it is right now there is very little of this tension. Of course as I said I haven't played multiplayer yet so I'm going to put in a bit more time. Initially at least this is my impression.

Jeremy Alessi   (Oct 06, 2006 at 19:46 GMT)

OK, just had a go in multiplayer a bit with my girlfriend. Ran into a few more bugs. The player ranking at the end of the game was different on each of our machines. On hers she came in 8th meanwhile it showed 7th on my list. I'm also not seeing any text on either of our machines as far as the options screens go or when we enter our names. Text in game works as far as the list of game updates goes (who shelled who etc...)

As far as the gameplay goes neither of us could become engaged both agreeing again that the power meter takes up waaaaaaay too much time. It pretty much disconnects you from the game, perhaps even get rid of it. As far as I can tell using 100% all the time serves up the best results anyway. I can nail someone close or far by using full power with the correct angle (this would also allow you to fire as you fly). Another idea ... perhaps you can allow people to charge their jets quicker? I'm not sure if this is just a relativity thing ... i.e. its so much more fun to fly than to shoot because the power meter is ridiculous but allowing more movement more often would be better. Also I could see this playing into the game strategy because you would purposely attempt to aim for someone who you know is going to run out of boost soon and have to predict where they are going to land. I know that at the moment you do this already but there's not much urgency because once someone is grounded they are there for a long time. As I said though this is a sort of side thought because I want to fly more ... probably because the actually aiming and shooting isn't fun ... although it is fun to hit someone.

A few more things that would better the experience have to do with the aesthetics. I know you're trying to keep a small download size and so you don't want to use high res images of the levels for level selection. Perhaps what you could do is make them smaller and use a tiled background behind them. Right now one of the first things my gf noticed was how fuzzy those shots were. I explained why ... but that doesn't really matter it portrayed the game as low quality to her. Either increase the res and download or shrink the GUI images so the pixels are tighter. One other thing about level selection that would be nice is if the levels would wrap back around as you select so once you get to the last level you don't have to scroll back through all of them to get to the first again. I think that's pretty standard practice.
Edited on Oct 06, 2006 21:29 GMT

Canon   (Oct 06, 2006 at 23:20 GMT)

Very nice particles effects!!!!!!!!!

Ian Roach   (Oct 06, 2006 at 23:54 GMT)

I too see the no text in options. just checkboxes e.t.c but no way to know what each one does :)

Jeremy Alessi   (Oct 07, 2006 at 08:11 GMT)

I put some more time into single player tonight. After getting passed the training I began having some fun. There were a few times the tension was right and there were close calls where my shell would just miss a fly away tank. I can see a bit of strategy now with the power meter as well by adjusting my angle more wildly. Still, it took me too long to work around the aiming system I think and I'm a fan of these sort of games. I still say the power meter should move quicker. I think there just seems to be too much precision (like do I really need to be able to choose 50 or 51%) in the power meter ... but who knows perhaps in really long range battles you might need all 100%.

This go round I switched my strategy though to lower power more angle adjustments but still it's a bit tedious as compared to Orbz which somehow manages to flow. I think the power meter is just too big (as a span of precision gameplay wise and as a GUI element) and even if the later levels are so huge you need all 100% then perhaps a ramp up system could be used where you open up larger power meters to compensate (do it automatically). In the early levels where battles are close you don't need all that power and so it can be confusing for a new comer. Now if the power meter moved quicker and maybe 100% on the first level wasn't the same as 100% on a later level it'd be easier to jump in.

Anyway, it is fun but it takes a bit of time to realize what you were thinking. It's funny but as designers we are essentially communicating to people via a new language. Not unlike crying babies, we initially have a hard time communicating what we want the player to do. Slowly, we begin to really understand the language of design. Eventually, we are able to express elegantly what the player should do. This game has definitely progressed a long way from IGC last year. However, you still aren't communicating your vision to the player efficiently enough for them to catch on and then remain with the game to discover its depths.
Edited on Oct 07, 2006 08:16 GMT

Ajari Wilson   (Oct 08, 2006 at 08:37 GMT)

Not bad at all. I have to be honest and tell you that I wasn't expecting much. This is actually a really simple and fun game. Being a turtle with the need to stand still and slowly wait to charge your shot makes sense and adds some strategy to the game. It's a nice change of pace from the run and gun FPS out there. I just wish the graphics were a little more professional looking. I understand that you've been working on this one for a while, so maybe Shelled 2? Anyway, great job.
-Ajari-

Mincetro   (Oct 08, 2006 at 12:43 GMT)

That was very fun! Thanks for that, once I got the hang of it I was getting direct hits every time!
The only problem I have, I too see no text on the options screen. Also, I felt the power bar moved a tad too slowly.

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