206 replies to this topic

[Reaperman]

wood_jl, on Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:37 AM, said:

I don't get it.  Most of those games are just sequels of current-gen stuff.  Battlefied?   People are bored with this generation's 1080-whatever graphics, and they want to see those games on a less-powerful console?   I would have expected a different list, for this console.

Yeah, as mentioned, it's not too surprising.  The problem is that the list of games was gathered via 'popularity contest.'  (probably similar to how the big-money publishers allocate their resources)  Additionally the surveys weren't limited to backers.
Even if the majority liked games/genres that are unpopular today, they could easily be overwhelmed by people picking from a few dozen popular items.

At least it gives them a few genres to look at for targeting dev systems to.  One thing that isn't a surprise is Minecraft.  It's nice to know that unlike a lot of recent systems, this one will have a 'killer app' at launch.

I still think that I'll be happy.  Space combat, 4x strategy, and economic-based gaming are what I want, and after some searching, there are more of those already on Android than just about anywhere else (outside of PC).  Personally I don't need Ouya to do the same games that I've already got other devices for.  I've even been somewhat debating looking into making my own simple title.  I don't know how hard it is to test a game when I don't own an android device though, so it will probably have to wait.

Edited by Reaperman, Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:56 PM.

[Animan]

Reaperman, on Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:53 PM, said:

I've even been somewhat debating looking into making my own simple title.  I don't know how hard it is to test a game when I don't own an android device though, so it will probably have to wait.

I've heard of (legal) Android emulators that're used for testing, but I myself haven't delved into Android development yet (I plan to soon so the Ouya won't be too hard to develop for once I get it).

Anyone here with Android programming experience?

[SoulBlazer]

I'm curious about the system, but I'll wait till it comes out.  I just don't see a reason why I should get one, when I have consoles, smartphones, and PC's.  Show me some unique games that I can only get on it, and I'll bite.

[Arkhan]

For the funding they raised, the thing had better be damned awesome.

However,

it's just a friggin android doodad slapped into a really cool looking box/controller setup.

It doesn't really offer anything you can't do elsewhere.   plus, all the touchy pokey games will need to be reworked for the controller.

I don't fully see the point.

Also, the 700$ pricetag for a rooted one really pissed me off.

I can root the damn thing for free!  I'm a developer, not a retard.

I would have grabbed one if the developer pricing was like, 200-300$

Instead, I blew like 400$ on Magic the Gathering.

Which will probably turn out to be more fun...



Having to include free-stuff is a kick in the dick too.   There's probably going to be some big-shit developer that puts out free crap just because he can that will ruin the market for people who NEED $$ to keep things going.

"Why buy this dorks game for 2$ when I can get this one for free!"

ah well.   I hope it does better than the Xbox Live's Indie Marketplace trainwreck.

[Chuck D. Head]

A console with that name really should have a Kool-Aid Man game as a pack-in.

[Reaperman]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:37 AM, said:

It doesn't really offer anything you can't do elsewhere.   plus, all the touchy pokey games will need to be reworked for the controller.
...
Also, the 700$ pricetag for a rooted one really pissed me off.
I can root the damn thing for free!  I'm a developer, not a retard.

...

Having to include free-stuff is a kick in the dick too.   There's probably going to be some big-shit developer that puts out free crap just because he can that will ruin the market for people who NEED $$ to keep things going.

"Why buy this dorks game for 2$ when I can get this one for free!"

Actually, I see the rework of a large number of android games for controller use as a good thing.  Not just for Ouya gamers, but android gamers wanting to use bluetooth controllers.  I just hope they do a better job than Sony did allowing cell phone apps into the PSP mini format.  I suppose that depends on the developer.  For now, the specs state a touch-sensitive square in the center of the controller, but I'm not sure that's a feature I appreciate.  I want to stay as far from touch controls as possible.

Ouya specifically states that rooting your own is supported (doesn't void warranty), so I expect that most of the value $700 for a pre-rooted one comes in the form of getting it a few months earlier than everybody else.  It's still $100 for one that can be rooted at launch date.  Not that I know what rooting is, but I expect that it has to do with unsigned code.

Personally I'm not counting on a large selection of quality free games.  It's a nice problem for me to have, but I suspect that there will be times when I'll have to wade through a mountain of crap to get to the good stuff.  Assuming that there is good stuff.

Edited by Reaperman, Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:09 PM.

[Arkhan]

Wading through crap is a problem.


That's part of the XBLA problem.

Tons of shit games piled on there.   You never know if it's worth your dollar to play a game.



This Ouya is so open, its bound to be chock full of crap.    Its going to be like one of those 300 in 1 freeware CDROMs for Windows 95.

[RevEng]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:13 PM, said:

Wading through crap is a problem.

The crap problem can be mitigated by a market with a good ranking and filtering system. Don't want to wade through crap? Sort the games by ranking. Or filter by "well-ranked by friends". Have the device make TiVo-like recommendations from your gaming history, based on a combination of genre, developer, and ranking.

The main trick is to make it hard for developers to cook the system and easy for people to rank games, but its not an insurmountable problem.

It remains to be seen whether Ouya will actually take this sort of direction or not.

[Arkhan]

RevEng, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:03 PM, said:

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:13 PM, said:

Wading through crap is a problem.

The crap problem can be mitigated by a market with a good ranking and filtering system. Don't want to wade through crap? Sort the games by ranking. Or filter by "well-ranked by friends". Have the device make TiVo-like recommendations from your gaming history, based on a combination of genre, developer, and ranking.

The main trick is to make it hard for developers to cook the system and easy for people to rank games, but its not an insurmountable problem.

It remains to be seen whether Ouya will actually take this sort of direction or not.

What do you do when you put a brand new game up that is unranked, and noone downloads it because it has no rank... or the players who get it simply don't rank it, so it just sits there, rankless.

Or you get griefers and assclowns that just rate stuff down because they can.

Edited by Arkhan, Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:33 PM.

[Reaperman]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:33 PM, said:

What do you do when you put a brand new game up that is unranked, and noone downloads it because it has no rank... or the players who get it simply don't rank it, so it just sits there, rankless.

Or you get griefers and assclowns that just rate stuff down because they can.

I've seen a lot of that in 'tons of stuff free-for-all' situations.  It's hard to get noticed when you're new, and the only free solution is to spend some time advertising for yourself.  I did notice mention that Ouya would be 'promoting' certain games--which is probably a service that's paid for as well as a free 'editor's choice' selection system (totally guessing on both counts, but most online markets seem to have these).

I had a heck of a time getting my Modnation racer designs noticed, and while not at all the same thing, it somewhat applies.  Me driving around in my fancy skins was helping, but not much--not until the right person noticed, and I mine made it into a few 'featured designs' selections.  Somebody must have put in some pretty specific search terms, and liked what they saw (all of my designs were in a specific, and unpopular, genre).

[Arkhan]

I put a goony Berzerk clone on Xbox Live, and its doing horribly.

Its sold better on the PC Engine Super CD than on the XBox.

That's kinda dumb.

its because M$ doesn't advertise anything really, and makes it a real pain in the ass to even find games in the first place.

I imagine this will be another one of those kind of deals, where you only really get noticed if some big-name place, or some hipster blog mentions you.

[RevEng]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:33 PM, said:

What do you do when you put a brand new game up that is unranked, and noone downloads it because it has no rank... or the players who get it simply don't rank it, so it just sits there, rankless.

All of these problems have been solved before, to one degree or another, by news aggregator sites. Compare what's been done to filter out garbage posts/submissions at sites like Slashdot, Digg, and other aggregators, to the basic approach taken in app stores by Apple, Google, MS, etc.

To solve the problem of new apps not getting traction, skew the ranking system to factor in a few other things, like the newness of the app (like Digg) and previous ratings by the same publisher. Yes, a brand new publisher with a brand new app will need to get the word out, but it will take a lot effort to get the ball rolling on a genuinely good app.

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:33 PM, said:

Or you get griefers and assclowns that just rate stuff down because they can.

Incorporate meta-moderation (like Slashdot) where temporary reviewers for reviewers are selected based on their participation in the community, and assign hidden weights to each reviewer. The griefers and assclowns will be powerless very soon. More importantly, those that give insightful and honest reviews will be powerful.

[HammR25]

Yeah the search function in XBox Live Indie Games is terrible.  They need a few more searchs like popular in the past week and popular in the last month instead of just showing the ones that are most poplar and most downloaded of all time.

[JamesD]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:00 PM, said:

I put a goony Berzerk clone on Xbox Live, and its doing horribly.

Its sold better on the PC Engine Super CD than on the XBox.

That's kinda dumb.

its because M$ doesn't advertise anything really, and makes it a real pain in the ass to even find games in the first place.

I imagine this will be another one of those kind of deals, where you only really get noticed if some big-name place, or some hipster blog mentions you.

Is that the Berzerk clone that had the messed up mazes that were so tight you couldn't get around?

[Rex Dart]

A New, $99 Console Called Ouya Is Real

Every time I see this title pop up, I can't help but think "No, it's not."  Is it just me?

[SoulBlazer]

Rex Dart, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:29 PM, said:

A New, $99 Console Called Ouya Is Real

Every time I see this title pop up, I can't help but think "No, it's not."  Is it just me?

Well, it's more real then the Phantom and that other console ever got.

Look at it this way -- they have 4 million in development money now, a promise to deliver X number of units by Y date, a hell of a lot of media attention and supporters, and a sound console with a good business model.  I'd be willing to wager they make their deadline and deliver something.  How good will it be?  That's a whole another issue.  And that's why I'm waiting to buy one.

[Arkhan]

JamesD, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 7:34 PM, said:

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:00 PM, said:

I put a goony Berzerk clone on Xbox Live, and its doing horribly.

Its sold better on the PC Engine Super CD than on the XBox.

That's kinda dumb.

its because M$ doesn't advertise anything really, and makes it a real pain in the ass to even find games in the first place.

I imagine this will be another one of those kind of deals, where you only really get noticed if some big-name place, or some hipster blog mentions you.

Is that the Berzerk clone that had the messed up mazes that were so tight you couldn't get around?

Yeah.  That one.  Though, I think you're the only person who's really expressed this (twice now).

[onlysublime]

Arkhan, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:00 PM, said:

I put a goony Berzerk clone on Xbox Live, and its doing horribly.

Its sold better on the PC Engine Super CD than on the XBox.

That's kinda dumb.

its because M$ doesn't advertise anything really, and makes it a real pain in the ass to even find games in the first place.

I imagine this will be another one of those kind of deals, where you only really get noticed if some big-name place, or some hipster blog mentions you.

honestly, there was a lot kind of wrong with the Berzerk clone.  maybe if you were a little more faithful to the source?  Berzerk looked more modern and high tech than this rendition.  The maze design wasn't too hot here either.  And compared to other indie titles out there, it was really hard for this game to do well.  Yeah, it's cheap but you see some of the amazing indie titles out there and it's hard to justify spending for this one.

You see $1 games like this on XBLIG:











okay, to be fair, this last one was $3...  

Edited by onlysublime, Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:39 PM.

[Rex Dart]

SoulBlazer, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:31 PM, said:

Rex Dart, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:29 PM, said:

A New, $99 Console Called Ouya Is Real

Every time I see this title pop up, I can't help but think "No, it's not."  Is it just me?

Well, it's more real then the Phantom and that other console ever got.

Is it?  The Phantom managed to lose $20M.  That's more than the Ouya has.

[Arkhan]

onlysublime, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:39 PM, said:

honestly, there was a lot kind of wrong with the Berzerk clone.  maybe if you were a little more faithful to the source?  Berzerk looked more modern and high tech than this rendition.  The maze design wasn't too hot here either.  And compared to other indie titles out there, it was really hard for this game to do well.  Yeah, it's cheap but you see some of the amazing indie titles out there and it's hard to justify spending for this one.

You see $1 games like this on XBLIG:

*clipped these out*

okay, to be fair, this last one was $3...  

Fair enough, however, it's a port of the one I did for the Turbo Grafx-16, and it is also the first thing I've ever done.

Though, It's not THAT bad. I really think saying 'alot was wrong' is a bit of a stretch.  Its biggest downfall is the chunkiness of the maps.   I shouldn't have gone with 16x16 stuff.  8x8 would have been better, to give more room on screen to move around and crap.  Ah well.   My next game will be better! :3

I've watched people play it all day at conventions for 3 years now.  The niche group seems to like it, lol.

I am sure if I did a bunch of particle effects and glowy stuff, it would have done better on Xbox Live.

and uh, I really don't think the original looked more hightech, seeing as it was stickmen and blue lines for the walls...


anyway, even the amazing, holy crap, better than my goony game, games barely sell either.   Nothing really sells well on there, unless Kotaku mentions you.


It would suck if thats how Ouya turned out.

Edited by Arkhan, Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:01 PM.

[onlysublime]

well, I didn't say a lot wrong.  I said a lot of kind of wrong.  as in, it's just kind of off.  like almost there but not quite.  not meant as a slam.  

did you try posting to the XBLIG sites?  you kind of have to get the word out yourself about your titles.  I try to post XBLIG games to my Youtube channel but I play games for fun, not professionally, so I'm not lucky like official sites that get free review copies.

[Arkhan]

onlysublime, on Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:36 AM, said:

well, I didn't say a lot wrong.  I said a lot of kind of wrong.  as in, it's just kind of off.  like almost there but not quite.  not meant as a slam.  

Oh.  I read that wrong, lol.   I thought you meant "theres kind of a lot of things wrong"

Yeah, it's definitely not perfect and I made a handful of rookie mistakes.  I should have color shifted the walls every so often, and I should have made the tiles out of 8x8 pieces, not 16x16.

Quote

did you try posting to the XBLIG sites?  you kind of have to get the word out yourself about your titles.  I try to post XBLIG games to my Youtube channel but I play games for fun, not professionally, so I'm not lucky like official sites that get free review copies.

Yeah, I whored myself out to a bunch of places and even gave out free download tokens to review places.   Didn't go so good.

A few people said they would do reviews and ended up never doing it... but they took my free download tokens! -_-

I made flyers and stuff too.

[godslabrat]

SoulBlazer, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:31 PM, said:

Well, it's more real then the Phantom and that other console ever got.

nDeed.

[jhd]

SoulBlazer, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:31 PM, said:

I'd be willing to wager they make their deadline and deliver something.  How good will it be?  That's a whole another issue.  And that's why I'm waiting to buy one.

Is there any word yet on how these will (eventually) be sold at retail? Will it be an online purchase only, or will I actually be able to purchase one at my favourite (independent) video game store?

[SoulBlazer]

Rex Dart, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:42 PM, said:

SoulBlazer, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:31 PM, said:

Rex Dart, on Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:29 PM, said:

A New, $99 Console Called Ouya Is Real

Every time I see this title pop up, I can't help but think "No, it's not."  Is it just me?

Well, it's more real then the Phantom and that other console ever got.

Is it?  The Phantom managed to lose $20M.  That's more than the Ouya has.

I honestly didn't know that the Phantom people managed to blow through $20M.  What the hell did they spend it on, hookers and blow?

Would you be at least agree that this company seems to be better organized and spending their planned $4M better then the Phantom people spent their $20M?