Thanks for the video. I was basically planning on picking this up anyway, but now I'm sold for sure. Apple better get their act in gear.
Sweet yeah, thanks for the video. This'll be an insta-purchase on my part, just waiting for release now.
Here's the video with updated sound effects and voiceovers! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__k7X2X6Fyk Enjoy!
Thanks for posting the video BeyondtheTech, really looking forward to this one. Hope it releases soon.
BeyondtheTech, in the first post of the thread you highlight some of the features of the game. In particular you mention how your crew can be micro managed to repair or bolster ship systems. Though by doing so some can be lost through battle. In the video you recently posted with the voiceovers it seems that some of you missions or duties will be the protection of outposts. Can they be used to replenish crew members? supplies? weapons? Can you outfit the ship with newer more powerful weapons? Or is the stock armaments the best you can get? Or do you have to develop, research, or steal better ones? Or is such elements for a later date? Other than the few questions that popped in my mind, ever since seeing the updated You Tube video I have been extremely excited for this game.
To hopefully answer some of your questions, If you notice the two bars per section in Engineering's Damage Control, the left bar shows the integrity or strength of that section. The right bar shows how much of the crew in percentage is stationed to repair that section. Tap on that section and Engineering will allocate more crew members to that section, equally pulling members away from the other sections. The more crew members that are in that part of the ship, the faster that section will get repaired. However, if Archangel takes a hit on that particular section of the ship, more crew members may die because they are there at the time. Your duty is to defeat all the alien warships while protecting the outposts and starbases, both of which will replenish your torpedoes, repair your ship, and provide additional crew members. Starbases perform full repairs, while outposts perform partial repairs. There are also Commonwealth ships scattered throughout the quadrant. Rescue them from alien attack and dock with them to pick up additional crew members and also increase the firepower or defenses of your ship. They are stock armaments, but they will make the phasers and torpedoes faster and more powerful, which are obviously helpful when you need to defeat the large enemy base or a continuous onslaught of aliens warping in. I have additional ideas planned for future updates of the game, such as actually going into the planets to fight along the surface to get more armaments while fighting many lesser ships or ground forces, or deal with other spatial anomalies such as wormholes or gravitational wells. My dream idea is being able to do some sort of multiplayer melee, but that is currently beyond my technical capabilities, and maybe the game engine's (iTGB from GarageGames). My original approach to this game was simply to put the player in the middle of a war. Something more than a simple shooter, but not something so convoluted like having to trade or interact with species, or have an adventure that can take away from the core of the game. Most people I know just want to jump in for a few minutes at a time to kick some alien butt or play a couple hands in a card game. You can still get engrossed in the game - I found many of my beta testers playing for a full hour before realizing how much time had passed. Of course, as with it's initial (pending, bah) release, I'm all for listening to the end-users and molding the game as they would ultimately want it. I honestly didn't realize how much of a Star Trek or sci-fi geek I was until I finished the core development of the game. I suppose it might appeal most to that core base, but I have other users who just enjoy tapping away at the screen to blow away some baddies, regardless of any sci-fi overtones.
Power to you. While more stuff will always be appreciated I'm hoping for straight strategic action in a randomly generated galaxy against ever increasing odds w/o a lot of story crap.
Thanks for the reply BeyondtheTech, it just gets better and better. And I love some of your ideas for future expansion, Multiplayer Melee would be cool. Aside from that though I really have to say this is the Space Action game I have been waiting for, ever since I picked up a 2nd Gen iPod Touch.
Any chance of being able to rename the player's starship in an update? I realise that it might defeat the whole purpose of calling the game Archangel, but nothing says "it's your ship" quite like you being able to name it yourself.
Funny you should mention that. I was digging up old footage of my original game, which was titled, "Battlestar: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth" and even "Excalibur: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth," before I scrapped the project. I didn't want to use the word "Battlestar," as it might have caused issues with the trademarked name "Battlestar" and the TV series "Battlestar Galactica." I have since posted that footage on YouTube as well, so you can get a feeling of what I tried to do on the Windows Mobile platform five years ago. The ship's designation is PX-85601, originally an Excalibur-class prototype. It was then changed to an Archangel-class prototype. Finally, I dropped the class and decided to use it as the ship's name. It would be a minor change to roll it back, since some of the voiceovers reference "Archangel" directly, as well as the ship being imprinted with the name. It's a thought I'll consider, though. Like the first line of lyrics in Star Trek: Enterprise, "It's been a long road, gettin' from there to here." It's been over five long years from initial development to completion of version 1.0 (I've had two more kids since that time!) and now, the only thing left is Apple to put the stamp of approval and put it on the App Store. The 512x512 image of Archangel: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth Lastly, if all goes well with the first release, I would really like to use the game's fans' voices and native languages in future international releases. I think it would be really cool to have the game completely in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Hindu, Italian, French, Mandarin, German, Tagalog, and other languages. Star Trek remains to be an international presence for its message and appeal, so I think it would be so much fun to make it appealing for non-English-speaking countries. After all, the iPhone and the App Store is worldwide. Anyone want to help "make it so?" I'll need 6 or 7 people for each language, 2 of them female for the communications officer and ship's computer. Each person will have about two dozen lines, and I'll gladly put their face and name in the credits. If interested, PM me.
Here's hoping it doesn't take another five years (and/or two more kids) for Apple to finally put it out there! Amen to that one. It's a dream, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that!
Ha! I hated that opening song but glad you stuck with it as I'm looking forward to some Star Trek esk type of gamin. I love the real time juggling act you'll have to do!
BeyondTheTech, I like your style. That video gives a real nice impression of gameplay. As a matter of fact the game looks a lot like the way I would have envisioned and laid it out for the iPhone screen! I have been meaning to do a futuristic themed game as a follow up to Rogue Touch once my consulting work is complete, and now I might not have to From one dev to another- you have to learn how to come in and stir the pot every once in a while... even if there is not much new to report! Gamers at TA are used to interacting directly and regularly with developers. Pour some gas on this fire, you have a great looking game here One last thought- I would e-mail Apple if I was you. If they cannot provide an updated status to you by Wednesday reject the binary and re-submit, as it may just be stuck in limbo at this point. PM me if you want to talk shop sometime!
I agree 100% with CommanderData, albeit on the adding fuel to the flame portion of his discussion. Post more screenshots, maybe even do a little 5 minute gameplay walkthrough, something to grab more attention and thus put the game more into the limelight. Yeah and email the hell out of Apple, really surprised its taken this long for them to approve it.
Noooo, don't say that. I was secretly hoping you'd do a Trek-themed game once you were done with all that Rogue Touch nonsense. I always knew that's where your heart was, Commander. Don't fight it I loved playing EGA Trek, it was awesome back in the day, and this type of game is perfect for this format. I don't beleive there could be too many apps out there that have us captain of our own starship, firing phasers and photon torpedos at all the nasty Klingons This is a really good point. When the developer is more off than on, the gamers lose interest. We're not going to care more about your project than you do. Ouch, I'd consider this a last resort, if just because I don't like the thought of Archangel going right back to the end of the queue again.
Well, I've emailed them late last night for an update. Considering their speed on their email response, I gather that the game will be accepted faster than the email will be replied to. Either way, I'll be happy for some sort of response. I hope I don't have to reject and resubmit - do you have any blogs or threads from devs that did this and gotten better results? CD, I'll PM you shortly for more deets. A walkthrough sounds like a good idea. I'll see if I can put one together. Thanks, everyone!
