Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Revenge Of The Titans: It’s A Demo

By Jim Rossignol on May 24th, 2010 at 9:45 am.

War Of The Worlds done cute
Hooray and huzzah, a demo has been released for not-quite-ready-yet tower defence-with-RTS-bits, Revenge Of The Titans. It’s super-cute, and eminently playable. Clicking to collect resources in a Plants Vs Zombies way, and manually reloading your towers, means that you have a constant thrum of activities to attend to as the titans approach. The full game isn’t available for a few weeks, but the pre-order is up at a cheapy £10.75. If this demo doesn’t persuade the parting of some cash then I will be extremely surprised.

Go play! IMPORTANT UPDATE: Faster mirror here. Thanks, Rob!

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92 Comments »

  1. 24/05/2010 at 09:49 tomeoftom says:

    Heavy says “YYYYYYYYESH!”

    Also, alt-text! “YYYYYYYYESH!”

  2. 24/05/2010 at 11:07 Baka says:

    10 kb/sec
    Thank you, RPS!

  3. 24/05/2010 at 11:15 CloakRaider says:

    Yeah this is…quite slow.
    Very slow in fact. I shall persist however.

  4. 24/05/2010 at 11:16 dude says:

    ohhh shiney !!! ^.^ but the dl rate is retro too…:P

  5. 24/05/2010 at 11:20 Schaulustiger says:

    Yes! Been waiting for this since I saw the first video here on RPS.

    And the download speed reminds me of the old modem days. This is too much retroness *sniff*

  6. 24/05/2010 at 11:44 Vitamin Powered says:

    Well, I’m “glad” I’m not the only one having speed issues here. Hopefully some mirrors or torrents will be set up soon.

  7. 24/05/2010 at 11:57 Cas says:

    Oh noes!111!!! Our pitiful server is collapsing under the load :( Chaz is trying to get a mirror sorted.

  8. 24/05/2010 at 12:09 Markoff Chaney says:

    Not THAT retro. I’m getting MUCHmore than 2400bps here.

  9. 24/05/2010 at 12:20 Rob- says:

    2% away from putting a mirror up, seem to have stalled right down to b/s though :(

  10. 24/05/2010 at 12:27 Cas says:

    Once again Brian Kramer (Subsoap.com, Faerie Solitaire guys) is rescuing us with some spare bandwidth he paid for on simplecdn.com – as soon as the mirrors are working I’ll post again…

  12. 24/05/2010 at 12:35 dude says:

    ah fast mirror :) Tahnks will pally asap !!!

  13. 24/05/2010 at 12:42 Rob- says:

    Looks really cool. Doesn’t seem to like my G5 very much though – different dpi seems to make it have a bit of a fit :(

  14. 24/05/2010 at 12:46 Robmonster says:

    I cannot actually get the game to start at the mo, just sits at the bit where it tries to contact your servers for Registration details.

    I guess there are still smoking!

    R

  15. 24/05/2010 at 12:59 Fabian says:

    Yeah a new puppy game.
    Now we need a mac mirror … fast!

  16. 24/05/2010 at 13:11 RHAR says:

    Demo really makes me want to preorder! Too bad the main site is down atm, guess I’ll try it later.

  17. 24/05/2010 at 13:23 Tei says:

    In case you are like me, and you can’t download it now.
    Heres a youtube video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwjpyGL26T0

  18. 24/05/2010 at 13:41 Schaulustiger says:

    Back from trying the demo and I have to say: Hell, this is fast-paced! This feels more hectic than a shmup sometimes.

    Visuals are great, the dark low-fi graphics combined with the subtle soundtrack really make for a dreading atmosphere. Gameplay-wise I’m not so sure… I mean, it sure is a fresh take on the tower-defense genre with the rudimentary base-building and resource-gathering. Collecting minerals is too fast for my taste, though, you basically have to collect them every few seconds. The same goes for reloading. Especially later on I can’t imagine how to keep track of everything that’s going on. Sure, you can research automation systems, but still…

    I think I’ll be waiting for a Wot-I-Think or some other user opinions before pre-ordering.

    • 24/05/2010 at 13:50 Cas says:

      …what you need is SILOS to increase your refinery capacity! And BATTERIES to increase the magazine size in your turrets! And yes, it’s fast as hell. You’ll get into the swing of things. Until about level 18, when the moon gidrahs pwn your Earthling ass.

      “ZBork’wid! Fetch the anal probe!”

      Cas :)

    • 24/05/2010 at 13:55 Schaulustiger says:

      Thanks for the quick response, Cas. I figured I should do some research but a quick glance at the prices prevented me from doing so. But it sure seems to pay off, so I’ll give it another try tonight.

      Ah, you know what? I just pre-ordered. I’ll figure it out how to play properly and I want to support you guys, anyway. Great job!

    • 24/05/2010 at 17:09 Robert says:

      Using Purcell, that’s cheating! That’s forcing people to buy the game! I just feared the difficulty, but on lvl 16 and I already have to think. Pre-ordering as we speak!

  19. 24/05/2010 at 13:45 Cas says:

    Mac link’s up!

    http://subsoapcdn.lg1x1.simplecdn.net/puppygames/RevengeOfTheTitans_MacOSX.zip

    and if you fancy helping us starving devs out, here’s a direct link to the shop thingy:
    https://secure.bmtmicro.com/servlets/Orders.ShoppingCart?CID=1899&PRODUCTID=18990024

    (works for all OSes)

    Just in case you didn’t know, our licenses are super-lenient. One purchase gets you updates forever, on all our supported OSes (Windows, Mac both Intel and PPC, and Linux x86 and x64), and we encourage you to let your close friends and use your registrations. It auto-stops working after 3 registrations and sends us an email – just drop us a line and we reset the count, no questions asked. ‘Twas ever thus.

    This release is so stressful I think I’m going to have a heart attack.

    Cas :)

  20. 24/05/2010 at 13:59 Caiman says:

    Good lord, this is awesome. How many levels are there in the full game, Cas? Will definitely be pre-ordering this one, as long as you don’t make us wait too long that is.

    Incidentally, the menu music. I’ve heard it very recently. Wendy Carlos? Tron? Something like that. Is it an electronified classical piece? It’s driving me nuts.

    • 24/05/2010 at 15:01 Robert says:

      Making us wait. Heh. Ever since the RPS report on it, I’ve been following it and the 23th of april update with the notice “demo soon” has been killing me ever since.

    • 24/05/2010 at 15:08 Cas says:

      Henry Purcell’s Death of Mary Queen of Scots, brilliantly arranged by Dave Sunerton-Burl.

      We have Hello Earth from Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Holst’s Mars, Pink Floyd’s One of These Days I’m Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces, and … er… I’ve forgotten the Titan music that’s in the video. A fugue of some sort. Maybe Bach.

      The plan is: release 1 world a month or so for the next 3 months. Next month: Mars. Total 50 levels. Mars will be a fair challenge. Saturn will be quite nasty. Titan will be eeeeeevil.

      Cas :)

  21. 24/05/2010 at 14:24 Simon says:

    For those who don’t speak Brit, this costs $13.37 in real monies ;)

  22. 24/05/2010 at 14:31 Simon says:

    And thats my order completed!

  23. 24/05/2010 at 14:54 Sagan says:

    I really don’t like the game mechanics. I feel like this is the opposite of what I want from tower defence games.

    • 24/05/2010 at 15:17 Cas says:

      ah, but it’s an RTS…

    • 24/05/2010 at 20:46 Sagan says:

      @ Cas:
      This is also the opposite of what I want from an RTS. In an RTS, I also want to tell my units what to do and then watch them do it.
      If I send a worker to mine minerals in Starcraft, I don’t want to have to click on him again every couple seconds just so he continues working. And if I send my marines to destroy a building, I don’t want to have to click on them again every couple of seconds just so that they continue shooting.
      An RTS or a tower defence game should only keep me busy because I make a decision and then I want to make something happen because of that decision. Just having to click on stuff regularly is not something I want to do.

      From the comments here I can see that a lot of people seem to like what you are doing, though.

  24. 24/05/2010 at 15:00 Robert says:

    I’ve been waiting for this!

  25. 24/05/2010 at 15:01 Yves says:

    Care to explain a bit more about ” I feel like this is the opposite of what I want from tower defence games”? I’m sure your constructive criticism could help the dev to make the game that much better.

    Personally I’m glad to have a more original take than the same old.

    • 24/05/2010 at 15:08 Schaulustiger says:

      I’m not Sagan, but it’s easy to explain: Tower Defense is mostly a genre with passive gameplay. Build towers and watch them destroy the enemy. RotT has a more RTS-like approach with lots of active gameplay elements such as resource gathering, manual reloading and stuff. I’d say it closely resembles the base building experience of a traditional RTS, mixed with certain elements of TD.

    • 24/05/2010 at 20:33 Sagan says:

      @ Yves:

      Yes, Schaulustiger said it exactly right. When I play a tower defence game it’s about building up your towers and then sitting back and enjoying seeing them shoot down the enemies.

      The first thing I wanted to do in this was research the auto-reloader thingy. And I also wanted an auto-collector.

  26. 24/05/2010 at 15:08 Jajusha says:

    Pre-ordered already. But, can’t find it anywhere, when’s the release date? Or is it “when its done”?

  27. 24/05/2010 at 15:08 Cross says:

    I dislike it. Mosty due to the camera. If it would allow me to zoom out or at least behave itself while I’m trying to scroll, this would’ve been an entertaining little aside. As it stand, utter shite in a bucket.

  28. 24/05/2010 at 15:19 Wilson says:

    I’m not sure whether I like this or not. How much can you automate proceedings? I fear the game might be slightly too hands on for me. I think I want a slower paced TD game. But I really like the research, general concept and art style, so I’m torn.

  29. 24/05/2010 at 15:21 Gurrah says:

    I’m loving it, even though I think the ressource collection is a bit too tedious. But maybe that’s just me making poor research choices, because once I got the silo I had a lot more time on my hands to take care of the towers. And I love the small explanatory segments between maps with the general and Dr. egghead.

  30. 24/05/2010 at 15:30 Cas says:

    just nestling beyond the reaches of the demo version are the AUTOLOADER and COLLECTOR buildings…. which you’ll be needing on Mars on account of it becoming increasingly hectic.

    • 24/05/2010 at 15:43 Schaulustiger says:

      The more I think about it, the more I like this concept. It keeps gameplay fresh if you gradually shift from micro management to macro management. Great idea!

    • 24/05/2010 at 16:02 Philip L says:

      I highly agree with Schaulustiger. It is a tower-defence game that is more active than most. None of this sitting around waiting for money to build up, or for a wave to pass. Constant action and need to be focused! Loving it.

  31. 24/05/2010 at 16:11 Diji says:

    I had a problem with the mouse too, using a Razer Deathadder here. Force vertical sync off in the nvidia control panel or ati catalyst control dealio, makes it a helluva lot better. :)

  32. 24/05/2010 at 16:11 Thomas says:

    Ah, ingame registration worked after i chanceld the process xD Damm YOU RPS !!!! this game is highly addictive. and NOES !!! my wife is actually better than me on this game :(

    I started again after making the “mistake” of researching something i dident need..silos are a good start, so is batterys..aweeee BACK TO DEFENDING THE MOON !!!!

  33. 24/05/2010 at 16:58 Orange Required says:

    I’m a pixel junkie, so I love this artstyle so much. SO MUCH. It’s not really retro – it takes the abstraction of pixel art and modernises it. It’s gorgeous.

    I am so, so broke, but considering grabbing this regardless.

  34. 24/05/2010 at 17:01 John Peat says:

    2 things

    Won’t install in the default location on W7-64bit. I suspect the ‘space’ or “()” in the default path is the problem? e.g. c:\ program files(x86)\rev…

    Works fine if you change the directory tho.

    On OSX 10.5.8 it crashes when you build your first refinery (2nd mission) – this COULD be because I’m a Hackintosh and not a Macintosh but other games work OK so…

    • 24/05/2010 at 18:45 John Peat says:

      By way of a quick update – the error is a java.lang.RunTimeException in org.lwjgl.openal.OpenAlException – Invalid Value (40963) – Stack Trace follows

      So a sound problem then?

      Latest JRTs installed and all that…

    • 24/05/2010 at 22:41 JellyfishGreen says:

      I also found the Mac demo has a bug on placing the first refinery. Noted by two people on the puppyblog as well. Console logs available if needed!

  35. 24/05/2010 at 17:44 Thomas says:

    Arrggg….now i got ino trying those guys other games..NOOOESSS!!!!!

    Is there any package with previous titels for a discount planned ?

  36. 24/05/2010 at 17:53 Danny says:

    Just curious, but am I the only one that is disappointed in the world because Pixeljunk Monsters was never ported to the PC? That was one awesome TD game.

  37. 24/05/2010 at 19:05 PleasingFungus says:

    Oh, hurray! I’ve been looking forward to this since it was first previewed on RPS!

    downloaaad

  38. 24/05/2010 at 21:21 Tei says:

    Can I say Best RPS of 2010?

  39. 24/05/2010 at 21:40 Lim-Dul says:

    I’m a big fan of everything Puppy Games does – their graphics style is just amazing and their fresh take on classics or established genres is cool.

    I bought the game straight away without even playing the demo and I’m satisfied. ^^

    It’s strange, since at heart it’s a tower defense game with resource collecting mechanics similar-ish to Plants vs Zombies and gameplay comparable to say Harvest: Massive Encounter.

    However, in reality it plays nothing like that – most tower defense games are very “optimization oriented”, with setting up, duh, the perfect defense and then reaping the benefits. Revenge of the Titans is much, much quicker than that – very arcade-y. You much less set up perfectly planned defenses and react more to how the situation develops, especially since the enemies can’t truly be guided along preset paths and are not entirely predictable either.

    Good job, Cas!

    P.S. Remember the guy who set out to compile a Droid Assault guide and ultimately failed due to loss of motivation and time constraints, Caspian? That was me. :-(

    http://www.indiefaqs.com/index.php/Droid_Assault_Guide

  40. 24/05/2010 at 22:41 Mathmin says:

    I preordered. Some of the features are clearly not yet ready -like the laser, but it seems solid enough.
    The system’s a bit harsh in the sense that all your mistakes from previous levels will keep on accumulating as you play. Also it’s hard to know what to research as you don’t know exactly what you will unlock with a given tech. I spent huge amounts of income on research that ended up being useless.

    There seems to be a balance issue with the basic tower as against everything else except for shielded enemies they are definetly the most cost effective towers, although you will have to be quite a whiz to keep them all charged up. Other than that it’s fun although gets repetitive after a while. Would’ve wanted a bit more special effect from the later enemies and towers so the game would have escalated to a nice light show. While spamming basic towers is effective it’s a bit dull ^^’

    It’s a good game, not excellent, but good. Go support indie-game makers now ^^

  41. 24/05/2010 at 23:16 RHAR says:

    Anybody else having difficulties activating the game? It seems like the servers keep denying my email saying I haven’t bought the game while clearly it should all be okay, hmm.

  42. 24/05/2010 at 23:30 Th says:

    A further explanation of the research trees is a must for future releases. Also maybe reduce the cost of the upgrades so early “wrongdoings” dont hurt you too much later on. Iam stuck on level 4 on the moon and cant beat it…AS OF YET!!!! PREPARE TITANS !!! *builds more steelwalls*

  43. 24/05/2010 at 23:37 Alex May says:

    I know this is a little rich coming from me but there is too much clicking here for me, it actually makes my wrist hurt to play :(

    Great game otherwise though. I want to play it by touching the screen, not with a stupid pointer.

  44. 25/05/2010 at 01:48 geldonyetich says:

    I rather enjoyed the demo. It’s basically a really solid, well balanced, and stylized kind of tower defense game with some fairly cool meta-game properties. I might just shell out the $13.37 dosh required to pick up the full game.

  45. 25/05/2010 at 01:57 JD says:

    Anyone know if you’re locked into your OS once you buy it? Or can you download both the linux and windows versions?

  46. 25/05/2010 at 01:58 MadMatty says:

    haha this looks funky as hell

  47. 25/05/2010 at 02:26 Bean says:

    On Mac 10.5 here, game crashes after placing a refinery. I am dying to play this game and will pay in rubies to get this little crash bug fixed. I loved all of their previous games and this is looking like another excellent one.

  48. 25/05/2010 at 04:45 MadMatty says:

    Allright so i´m a big fan of Harvest: Massive Encounter and other tower defense games, so this was right up my alley from the onset. What i found was a cute high-speed version of that game basically.

    The upgrade system leaves something to be desired in this demo, almost forcing you to pick certain upgrades, mainly the armour piercing turrets lvl 2 and 3, to stand a chance against some of the latter aliens. How much research you get done, relies on how much cash you have at the end of the level, meaning that players who finish the previous maps comfortably, will get the advantage later on- making it a severely uphill battle, for less fortunate players. It also means you can “lose” the game several maps before the actual loss comes, because you hadnt been upgrading the stuff the game wants you to- in my case the lvl 3 armour piercing gun was too expensive, leaving me hopelessly stranded on some of the latter maps, where an alien species is invulnerable, to all, but It :(

    The alien attack patterns, and the maps kindof lack variation, as most of the aliens always walk in a direct line to your base- i dunno its not much of a problem- you just pile your fortifications on the spot where they get close to your base, with some walls upfront. I just thought a bit more could´ve been done with the map layouts and AI movement to make it more interesting.
    A maybe a little more range for the turrets perhaps?

    Scrolling back and forth to reload your turrets and emptying refineries can be a bit hectical, and im not really sure it qualifies as my kind of fun. I keep wishing there was a zoom out function, like in Supreme Commander and AI War. Theres seemingly the option to let the computer manage this, but it costs research monies, which i felt pressured to use for upgrading firepower- but it guess it could be worthwhile, if it saved you a bit of time.

    The game could be sweet, but needs balancing :) Enjoyed the demo.

  50. 25/05/2010 at 08:29 Fabian says:

    ingame activation doesnt seem to work for me ,-(

    • 25/05/2010 at 11:04 RHAR says:

      Neither for me and it’s 24 hours ago that I send a email to support, still no answer. Anybody has the same experience?

    • 25/05/2010 at 11:33 Alex May says:

      Took a while for mine to come through but it worked ok once I got the registration email from BMT.

    • 25/05/2010 at 12:19 RHAR says:

      I received the registration email from BTM instantly after making the purchase, so I’m really baffled why it isn’t working. Checked my bank account and the transfer has been made and I have received all the confirmations that it went OK. Still waiting for a reply from the folks at Puppygames. Guess I’ll wait it out a bit then.

  51. 25/05/2010 at 12:18 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:

    Curses! Naughty, naughty RPS! Pointing me to games to love and spend money on that’s NOT nice :(

    It’s a big time eater, I’ve spent hours (got to bed at 2am and at 10am I was playing again) with the demo and even thou it gets pretty hard at times, I keep playing (which is quite an achievement, because I don’t usually have the nerve to play difficult shmup-like games). I even restarted the game 3 times to get the best of the crystals and research!
    I’m defo getting it, I just have to maintain some control over the indie games I buy and play – need to finish rather splendid Puzzle Bots and Lugaru at least (not speaking about the rest of the Humble pack like Aquaria…d’uh!)

  52. 25/05/2010 at 12:49 Robert Cummings says:

    I think people are afraid of crossing genres. My new game mixed two genres and publishers didn’t like it although players freaking loved it.

    We’ll prolly just ignore what people say and finish it…

    I love titans, its really a great fusion of RTS and TD. Just play it and stop expecting every game to conform to your previous game.

  53. 25/05/2010 at 13:40 Cas says:

    Hey guys n gals, I think our registration server got killed by, er, unexpected success. Unfortunately I’m at work and can’t fix it :( (Yet another reason to support Puppygames – haha – get me out of this hell hole, I want to develop games full time!!) As soon as I get home I’ll get on the case.

  54. 25/05/2010 at 15:07 Lim-Dul says:

    Cas – I wanna buy the soundtrack so badly! :-P
    Also, a potential extended mix of the trailer music. Do it for even more ale and pie!

  55. 25/05/2010 at 17:09 Thomas says:

    Eh..i was thinking about the same Lim-Dul after listeing to the “Clockwork Orange” homage music on the main menue ( at least it sounds familiar…maybe even if its not thought of as homage..i still love it )

  56. 25/05/2010 at 20:33 juv3nal says:

    Huh. Will have to give it another try after reading here that your research funds are based on what you have left over at the end of a stage. I had no idea and was always overbuilding at the end so I wouldn’t have to worry about reloading thus leaving me with basically no funds for upgrading. If there was tutorial text somewhere that explains this, I must have skipped it.

  57. 25/05/2010 at 20:48 Lorc says:

    Is there any chance of increasing the maximum mouse sensitivity? I’m finding it really unresponsive even maxed out.

  58. 25/05/2010 at 22:29 Cas says:

    Hey everyone who’s having registration troubles: all is explained here:

    http://www.puppygames.net/blog/?p=332

    Must… have… valium…

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