IGC Game Impressions. Post them here

#21 @Justin- I think the press release got lost in Benjamin's inbox :) I announced before the show that we signed a worldwide retail publishing deal with MumboJumbo, publishers of Bejeweled, Luxor, etc. The press release is HERE.

Thanks for your kind words by the way. I don't think that many people actually played it, but I think the general reaction was very positive, which gave me the warm and fuzzies. But like you said, it's a bit slower of a game so I'm not sure IGC was the ideal venue to show it off.

By the way there's a long interview with you on IGameRadio HERE. The IGC coverage starts about halfway through the broadcast.

@L Foster- I completely agree. Given that there were a limited number of machines, it doesn't harm anyone to do a little marketing of your game. It would be really kick ass if they could set up a projector or two though with timeslots that you could sign up for to have your game on a big screen. I think that would be a great way to show off individual games.

I would occassionally go start up Venture Africa on a free computer myself, simply because I never saw anyone playing it, and I'm not sure people knew what it was. It certainly would be nice to have a more even distribution of games, but it seems like the show off center was more about the PLAYERS than it was about the DEVS, meaning people played what they wanted to play. 21-6 and the Facade guy did a great job at showing their stuff off and there's nothing wrong with that.

#22 @Andy

That's awesome to hear about the distribution deal, congratulations! When can we expect to see the game out on the market?

#23 We will be soft-launching at the end of this month from my website (www.wildlifetycoon.com). We launch on major portals a short time after that for PC. Mac launch is mid November. Retail PC/Mac will be in stores in February.

#24 Andy, that's so awesome - we are jealous! A box deal has eluded us for years and it's something we look forward to in the future. Your launch strategy is also very strong and it looks like we will be taking the ride together as TubeTwist (hopefully) has some similar release dates - minus the retail channel.

#25 Congrats Andy... you definately deserve it, looking forward to playing Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa on my laptop :)

#26 I thought I would make a quick note about marketing games at IGC since we were so blatant about it.

Over the years of attending IGC, we have learned the value in making sure our games get shown off during the conference. The attendees of the conference are not only other game players / developers but also publishers and other major players in the game industry.

Many of the business opportunities we have been fortunate enough to be offered have come from exposure at conferences like IGC, E3, GDC, and MacWorld. This year was an exceptional year for business opportunities at IGC - more so than any other conference I have attended in years. It's not often that there are so many major players in the game industry all under one roof focused on playing your games.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, consider these two stories.

I'm in line to talk with Greg Canessa from Microsoft after his big presentation on Friday. In front of me is someone asking whether Orbz would be available on Xbox 360 - how coincidental! Greg said that Orbz was one of their favorite games on the current generation XBLA and that it belongs on the 360. You can imagine where that conversation lead.

Another story that was equally exciting has Dave watching someone play TubeTwist over their shoulder. This person needed some help (which Dave provided) and also had some good feedback on ways to improve the newbie experience of the game. This person also wanted a copy of the game to review back at the office. When business cards were exchanged, Dave noticed the gentlemen was a key player at Nintendo. I mean seriously.

I could actually go on and on about how much exposure at IGC can do for your company but hopefully the point has been made. Pimping your company and games at IGC is about more than just making sure everyone plays your game and gives good feedback.

Business aside, it's also hard not to promote a game we are so proud of. Getting the player's choice award for TubeTwist is very special because it's our peers giving us props. There is no better feeling. We also learned A LOT about how to improve the newbie experience and have already started making corrections.

Thanks everyone for your votes of confidence and your feedback. We are fueled for another year of game development.

#27 There was a nintendo guy there? DAMN! Missed my opportunity.

#28 One game I haven't seen mentioned here is Diner Dash. I noticed a lot of people playing it and everyone I talked to enjoyed it. What a concept... you get to play as a waiter and sit people down and bring them coffee and food... then clear their tables?? Oh boy! It's actually really fun and took a lot of my IGC game time.

I probably only played Marble Blast on the 360 more (what Justin said... looking great, guys!). I played the demo on the PC a while ago but didn't get into it. I think it feels more right on a console.

#29 @Matt

With regards to the RW Display "bug". As far as I can tell theres some sort of issue with a particular brand of cards where they seem to unload/flush needed textures from video memory thinking that they aren't in use.

I had talked to John Kabus and Matt Fairfax at IGC about this and it is something that they have seen but also not something that was/is particularily easy to replicate and track down either. I am betting other people have seen this though in their games (it basicly looks like your display driver has puked with the default OpenGL green and purple shading appearing on your textured surfaces and terrains). If anyone has seen this and/or tracked down the issue please post as it would greatly help out your peers a lot.

#30 L Foster,

Yeah. I saw a similar thing in the 3DGPAIO book demos as well, but so far not in my games. Very interesting though.

#31 Nintendo was there? Holy ... how'd I miss that!

#32 The Nintendo rep there wasn't being too forthcoming. We actually chatted for a good while before I even had the slightest clue of where he was from, which is another excellent reason to be friendly, chat, and have a huge bucket of business cards handy at events like this! =)

#33 Wow great impressions, keep them coming :)

Determinance sounds cool, any website for it ?

#34 Ian: Determinance webby is http://www.mode7games.com/

#35 I had a blast with Determinance... The two guys that showed up to IGC behind it were a blast to talk with as well.

#36 @Logan:

Quote:it basicly looks like your display driver has puked with the default OpenGL green and purple shading appearing on your textured surfaces and terrains

Yes, I've seen it in Realm Wars (1) a number of times, and I know other players have had it too. We had the impression it had something to do with alt+tabbing back and forth between the game at full-screen and the Windows desktop. Because of this I started playing in windowed mode and I haven't seen it since. Hope that helps.

#37 Hack-It
I didn't get to play this one but I watched a couple people play it for a bit. Very nice, very polished. I *hate* the little sliding puzzle toys so I am definitely not the target audience but I was impressed by the quality.

Facade
I didn't spend much time with this one but I saw people do some fun things and heard it discussed a lot. The interface felt very clunky. It wasn't readily obvious to me that I needed to type to the people and I had a hard time determining what clicking on something was going to accomplish. For instance, I still don't know if it was a left-click or a right-click that allowed me to pick up the statue and I never did figure out how to put it down. Very cool concept though.

Determinance
This one was a lot of fun. I never got a chance to play it multiplayer but had fun slashing up some bots. I got my sword stuck in a bot once and had to restart to get it out (bug?). The movement felt fairly natural but I struggled with swapping between left-clicks (control the sword) and right-clicks (control the player). I also like I was fighting the sword a bit on the backswings and wanted to up my mouse sensitivity a *lot*. I think this game has a ton a promise. I like to see them nail down the control scheme a little more so it is approachable to new players (it currently has a 15-20 min learning curve on it).

Tube Twist
I got to play this the week before IGC and have been totally hooked on it (which is rare for me). I couldn't wait to tell Justin about a few interface issues that would make the game totally sweet for me and cornered him at the first chance I got. A little bit of tweaking and this game will be a big seller and I can't wait for it =) It definitely deserved the awards it got. The music is fantastic and I loved the voice acting.

Twin Distress
I didn't get the LOS matching until I was told about it. I was confused on why some of the LOS matches didn't work (distance?). The timer needs to be *way* more obvious. It did have a sweet look though =)

Oust
I think I missed out on not getting to play this multiplayer. The bot just ran away from me a lot and when I did manage to hit him he went sprawling and got back up after a while so I wandered over to the shiny blue column of light. Shwoop! I'm dead and I lost a point! WTF? Hmm...I'll try to knock the bot into the light...he won't hold still...wait, I can hit him when he is on the ground....there he goes! Adrian did a really nice job on the art and it was cool to see the tech at work.

Gish, Golf?
Surreal. *Really* didn't like the cart though.

Robot Smack Down
Simple, slick, and fun. The box guy sure gets around doesn't he =)

E.R.V
It was like flying a helicopter but less fun and I never did figure out how to "win". Could be interesting with some work though.

Wild Life Tycoon
One of the cooler games there but it doesn't feel done to me. The interactions between the animals needs to be more obvious. It took me too long to figure out that the crocodiles couldn't catch the zebras for example. There is a bit a of paper, rock, scissors going on but I worry that it is a bit too simplistic and that in the later levels once you've learned all of the interactions you are going to get bored just babysitting the animals. The discovery of how the animals interact is the "fun factor" and it doesn't feel like it was emphasized nearly enough. The "story" has so little to do with the actual gameplay it almost detracts from it. Why am I god of this watering hole again? The demo mission is *way* too long. I played for 25 mins and still had half of my goals to go. That is 20 mins too long for a demo...the player needs to feel like he is accomplishing something much sooner.

#38 Illumina
This was at IGC?!? Seriously though...it is really important to make sure you get your game installed on all of the machines if you want to show it off. It wasn't on any of the four machines I played on and I hate that I missed it.

Dimension
I was very impressed! Slick presentation and I was "learning" without realizing it (it took me a while to figure out that "let's make sure we are synced up" was it actually asking me a math question b/c it flowed so well in the game). Awesome job guys!

Realm Wars 2
I only managed to play this once early on and there wasn't any multiplayer going. The art looks really sweet and the "feel" is getting there. Adrian is a huge Rune player (I hold Rune up as the most fun multiplayer melee game to date) so I have confidence that it is going to be tuned into some really sweet. I did *not* like the horse riding at all. I like the concept of riding a horse around but the actual interface for doing it in the game felt horrible.

Flash Bios
It is nice to see this game in the home stretch! The first real level kicked my ass three times before I beat it. The second level felt just right...I stayed busy without ever feeling stressed (in the past the game has gone between frantic and babysitting bits so it is nice to see it find its balance). The third level was stressful but interesting. The controls and interface are all spot on (aside from a few sound bugs that I mentioned to Paul) and it looks like it is just a matter of them doing a few more passes on the missions and it will be ready to go!

Golden Fairway
Missed this one too =(

Noopie Adventure
I couldn't get the wells(?) to recharge my energy so I never made it past the really long jump. A good example of what you can do with little effort in TGE though. It would need a *lot* of work before it could even be offered as a free game, much less sold. The childish art style clashes with the hardcore controls a bit.

#39 Shelled
I was very curious to play this one since one of my first games was a 3D Scorched Earth clone. The menus were pretty rough and I kept trying to buy stock missles/shells because they were in the buy menu and it wasn't obvious that the number below them was how many were in my inventory as opposed to how many I was buying. Once I figured that out I also bought some Shockwave shells and jumped into the game. The three stage firing felt clunky to me. If you want a full range of movement then you could combine the horizontal and vertical line ups into a single stage. Having this bound to the mouse was kinda scary since just bumping the mouse would throw off my aim. Given that the shells have pretty large splash damage it doesn't really makes sense have such twitchy control. Could possibly get away with having discreet degrees that the turret would notch between while you control it with a gui element (like how you could not get a 30.5 degrees in Scorched Earth). The bouncing power bar was a little frustrating if you are used to the locked in power meter in games like SE but I can see how it could add to the gameplay in a similar way like it does in golf games. Once I took my first shot it took a *long* time before the AI ended its shots (a minute and a half) meanwhile I am madly clicking around the screen trying to figure out how to keep playing. Having the little camera on the side of the screen didn't really tell me much. I was hit in my first shot so when my camera came back all I could see was the blackened side of a pit (all I got to see for the rest of the game essentially). I then was forced to use the radar alone to line up my shots so the game went from a pretty 3D game to squinting at a tiny 2D green and red texture in the corner. I fired a couple more shots (being very careful to not touch the mouse very much since it would make me lose my "lock" on one of the AI tanks. Then I decided to try out my big expensive Shockwave shell and it knock the enemy tank out of its position and I have totally lost my "lock"! So now I am being punished for using one of the most expensive shells in the game and I have had enough (~quit();).

Nutcrakers Revenge
I am the first to recommend putting your rough prototype games on the machines in the ShowOff Center but this wasn't even a game. It felt like a 30 minute foray into learning T2D and when my ballerina went off the edge of the screen I had to quit.

Snappy
No gamepad and no way to play without one so all I have is a pair of eyeballs staring at me from the center of the screen. In order for an indie game to make it onto a console it is going to have to sell well on the PC which rarely has a gamepad attached so this project seems doomed from the start.

Shell Stacks(?)
A slight variation on tetris. The multicolored/wildcard shells seem to have a bug. I could stack 2 of a color and one wildcard and all three would disappear but if I stacked 1 color and 2 wildcard or 3 wildcards they would never go away. The difficulty never ramped up so I had no reason to keep playing after a while and when I got an endgame screen I had no idea why (I didn't fill up any of the stacks). The interface for this game was nice and smooth and the art shows some polish. This is by far the best game RTG brought to IGC but it will never sell (the market for tetris and tertris variants is *way* too crowded). I could see it as a good free promotional game though.

Steel Sentinels
Very cool prototype. It took way too long to kill the enemy ships. You need to be able to sink something within a couple of minutes of being in the game or you are going to lose people. I had a hard time telling when I was being shot and by who. I can't see it selling as a capital ship combat game in its present form (deathmatch with destroyers) but it is good to see someone focusing on getting the core game mechanic solid before layering any additional gameplay on top of it.

#40 Capture the Frag
Nice, simple, and polished. I mentioned to the developer I wanted a little more speed in the air and recommended having an in-air equivalent to the ground sprint which he seemed to like the idea of. I can easily see this doing well as a really light/newbie/young deathmatch game. It'll also draw in some of the ex-doomer crowd but not as much. The guys dragon burning village "game" was a fun little prototype.

Age of Time?
I think that was the name of the game. It was a persistent RPG with a female character model. It was cool to see someone playing around with hosting a persistent TGE server and just adding new content and playing around with it. I managed to get lost in the woods, fall into a maze of tunnels, steal a horse, find a swamp, and cast a fire spell after seeing a dev tell someone else the command in chat (needs some kind of interface for that and for your inventory).

I know some of these "reviews" may be a little critical but I have tried to offer some constructive feedback. It takes a lot of work and guts to bring a game to IGC and I totally respect each and everyone that did. I love getting to play all of the games each year and I hope that the developers of the respective games won't take anything I've said personally but will listen with an open mind and continue to work to improve their game. I can't wait for next year!