[casual_games] languages... (that's an 's' at the end!)
Lennard Feddersen
lennard at RustyAxe.com
Thu Oct 6 12:02:43 EDT 2005
I have been hanging in the weeds on this one because I didn't think my
caveman programmer, "you can do it all in C", sentiments would be
appreciated.
Hal is dead on. If you go to the Wild Tangent site (as somebody here
suggested a week or two ago) and look at the faces of our real audience,
the people who are paying for these games, you will hopefully realize
how truly important it is that these games just work with no hassle.
Once those people have a bad experience and get frightened then they are
just as likely to find a new pass time as to hire somebody to solve
things for them. In that case we all lose.
One of the reasons that Nintendo made hay for so many years is that they
delivered great games in a near indestructible format that you just had
"to push into the little thingy" and it would start up.
One question I would like answered is how to readily move my C or C++
demos into browser capable programs. I suspect the effective answer,
for my small shop, is to hire an offshore firm to write a Flash version
and just be done. I would love to hear about low cost, simple to use
alternatives. I know Active X may bear some investigation here but I
was told that would exclude non M$oft browsers.
My 2 cents,
Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com
Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7
Hal Barwood wrote:
> I think you .NET guys underestimate the suspicious nature of computer
> users who are not themselves hip coders. An install Wizard doesn't
> necessarily allay fear and loathing, just cover it over. Most users
> have had terrible experiences now and then installing perfectly
> innocent software that winds up crashing their machines. Most users
> are willing to take the risk when the benefits are clear, but no one
> who doesn't use it to develop can figure out .NET's value
> proposition. Are you writing installers for casual games? Are people
> willing to download 25 megs to play three-in-a-rows or
> mini-adventures? In what numbers, and would they be substantially
> bigger without the barrier?
>
> Chris Williams wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure how "obscure" .NET is, and I'm not going to argue that
>> point since it's obviously based on whatever you've been exposed to.
>> However, I don't see anything "forbidding" about it at all. I write
>> installs all the time that bundle the .NET Framework into them and
>> install it on demand (if the installer detects that it is missing)
>> without any need for user intervention. Even if you have a user
>> install it manually, it's a typical Next-Next-Finished wizard. Hardly
>> anything to get worked up over, and definitely not a huge barrier.
>>
>> The only real issue is the size, and that's not even an issue for the
>> majority. Regardless, I do agree that casual games need to be as
>> painless as possible. I don't think .NET is quite there yet for the
>> casual game space. Definitely by Vista, since it will be an inherent
>> part of the OS, but hopefully sooner... maybe next year.
>>
>> Chris Williams, MCSD .NET, MCT
>> Developer - www.HeroicAdventure.com <http://www.HeroicAdventure.com>
>>
>>
>> On 10/6/05, *Hal Barwood* <hal at finitearts.com
>> <mailto:hal at finitearts.com>> wrote:
>>
>> dot-NET? What person, sitting alone at home, has the slightest
>> reason
>> to install this Windows component? Corporate environments are
>> different, but requiring customers to install this obscure,
>> forbidding
>> piece of software is a huge barrier when it doesn't provide any
>> obvious
>> benefits (unlike, say, DirectX). For downloads, what I want is a
>> small
>> standalone package that just works no matter what. That's what
>> casual
>> gaming is all about -- everything must be easy and reliable. --Hal
>>
>> Lionel barret De Nazaris wrote:
>> > Jonas Beckeman wrote:
>> >
>> >> Seems I'm the only one who's gonna stand up for .NET here, so
>> I'd
>> >> better do
>> >> it tall...
>> >>
>> >> Before I get off on how great it is, let me state some
>> problems that
>> >> may be
>> >> enough to make you look in other directions:
>> >> * .NET games need the .NET framework. The 2.0 beta is 25 MB.
>> >> * You'll probably want to use Managed DirectX. The distribution
>> model is
>> >> still very unclear to me, I don't know myself how large the
>> add-on is, or
>> >> even how to obtain it without downloading the DirectX SDK
>> >
>> > A friend told me that the .Net Framework is included in the XP
>> Service
>> > Pack 2, if so, the problem of the huge download could be avoided.
>> > Does anybody could confirm this ? And do we have numbers about
>> the % of
>> > penetration of XP Service Pack 2 on the machine of the potential
>> players
>> > ? Well, a percentage of machine with XP Service Pack 2 on the
>> global
>> > number of windows anyway.
>> >
>> > Lionel
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > Casual_Games at igda.org <mailto:Casual_Games at igda.org>
>> > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/casual_games
>> >
>> >
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Chris Williams, Microsoft Partner,
>> MCT, MCSD.NET <http://MCSD.NET>, MCAD, MCP, A+,
>> GC.NUG President, RV.NUG Founder
>>
>> Blog: http://blogusmaximus.com
>> HA! : http://www.heroicadventure.com
>> .nug: http://www.gcnug.org
>> .nug: http://www.rvnug.org
>>
>>
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