Comments on: Pteroglider For Free (aka 32 people get right narked)

By: alex dante

alex dante — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:33:57 +0000

Also, there’s also “innovative mouse targeting” where you use your mouse to target, innovatively. I suspect this may not be as innovative as Codeminion think, but it’s good to see they were trying. Off the top of my head, Crimsonland (2003) used an identical system. It's wikipedia entry mentions Abuse (1996) which did the same.

By: Maciej

Maciej — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:24:39 +0000

Thanks for the comments ;)

> I can’t work out much of what’s going on. Especially what it means when my health or energy are blinking and making beeping sounds

Beeping means that you are coming out of const/god mode, with health in case red is blinking and ammo in case blue one is.

> And those “homing” missiles really are pretty useless most of the time, aren’t they?

The homing missiles have to lock on target to really be homing. In other words you must be sure to have your mouse over the enemy while shooting, otherwise the missile will just go near the point you clicked.

> Perhaps they only sold it from a stand in their backyard.

No, the game had everything done like our other games, Press Releases, download site submissions, review sites. We were even picked up by a small publisher for a while..

BTW, I have also released the music from Pteroglider on my blog in the music section for download in case anyone is interested.

By: Muzman

Muzman — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:59:23 +0000

Dont’ Codemasters just have to publish them with a name like that?

By: roBurky

roBurky — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:38:47 +0000

Doesn’t seem that bad to me. It’s a nice bit of casual point and click explosionising.
Main problem is the lack of feedback on getting hit. Even if I start to die lots, I don’t feel in danger.

By: Theory

Theory — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:13:43 +0000

32 people get right naked, eh?

By: Matu

Matu — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:23:18 +0000

Thirty-two sales? So if every astronaut who visited the Moon bought just three copies, it would surpass that amount. Perhaps they only sold it from a stand in their backyard.

By: BaronWR

BaronWR — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:52:51 +0000

Well, I’ve given it a go and agree with most of the stuff above. Unless I’ve failed dismally to grasp the structure of the game, the biggest problem seems to be that it only has four levels, which can be played through in about 30 min. After that it seems to repeat at higher difficulty. It’s pretty but if you can get through the bulk of the content in half an hour it might be a bit much to expect people to pay.
I think the beeping sounds are when your unlimited ammo/health/missiles are wearing off, but then there’s a fairly significant lack of feedback from that kind of thing: it’s really hard to tell when you’re being damaged.

Still, 32 sales is pretty damn depressing. Does anyone know how they originally released it (shareware/demo, that kind of thing)? It could just be lack of publicity…

By: Lorc

Lorc — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:24:13 +0000

Hmm – I can’t work out much of what’s going on. Especially what it means when my health or energy are blinking and making beeping sounds. Nice pretty enemies though.

And those “homing” missiles really are pretty useless most of the time, aren’t they? They sort of mill around in a circle then jet offscreen – I like to pretend that they’re saying “Bugger this – I’m going to go off for a pint”.

Fun enough though. Certainly releasing it for free brings more joy to the world than carrying it to the grave with them. Not that they’re dead yet but CRITICAL METAPHOR FAILURE ABORT ABORT.

By: John Walker

John Walker — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:00:36 +0000

I HATE it when that happens. But Kieron’s was best, so he wins.

By: Down Rodeo

Down Rodeo — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:28:33 +0000

(See John Walker RPS)

Just kidding – these are both good pieces.