point taken, but its a good thing this is limited to the app store....otherwise: "Dont worry these pants will be great once i get the zipper upgrade next month!" "Im sure I'll love my tv once i get the the remote upgrade when it comes out!" ok, im being too cynical, ill digress!
aleceiffel: This is interesting subject I would say that the game being 3d is the biggest reason for the lack of content, it's also the biggest reason why it sells so well. Back in March 2009 we had 2d development version that looked more like Geometry Wars. It had buildings that you could rig with explosives and then blow up (which means a mission). It also had grass that you could hide in, and a more complex enemy AI. Doing all that in 3d with the current art style requires much more work though. You need to model and texture the houses, model & texture the characters, animate all the character movements (running, firing, dying, crouching for all character types) +Green stuff is grass, your character hides in it if you don't move +Red blocks are the buildings you have to blow up +Blue characters are the guards which emerge from building once they've been alarmed Here's the prototype in action: http://www.mountainsheep.net/minigore/Beach_Compressed_20090320_01.avi Graphics are a two edged sword, they obviously sell copies and you can build a recognizable brand with it. On the negative side they require lots and lots of extra development effort - especially if you have high standards about what's acceptable. And one thing is framerate, it took around 2 months of engine optimization to get Minigore running at the current framerate with all those characters on the screen. I think the cartoony style fools a lot of people in thinking it's not a processor intensive game, in reality it's probably one of the best game engines that's been created for iPhone. 2 months is a pretty long time, wasn't Flight Control made in less than 2 months? We optimized for 2 months to get a decent framerate I've seen dozens of 3d games on iPhone with bad framerates and guess what, they obviously skipped this step. Of course framerate or the relatively fast load times won't win us much points in reviews. 2d characters are made with 2 triangles, so you can display hundreds of them without much optimization. To put that number into perspective John Gore is around 450 triangles, Giant Furry is around 800 triangles. There's small touches in Minigore that I don't think many people notice: our 3d characters take proper physical space in the world and you can't have two characters standing on the same place, it even affects gameplay in a cool way which I like to call depth: you can block firefurries with slower furries by making them run around the slower furry in front! I think that's a good example of the polish that usually goes unnoticed in reviews. Personally I would never work on a game that looks like Geometry Wars, and I don't think my programmer brother Kimmo would enjoy it much either I've said it before and I'll say it again: if Apple changes the top ten lists to be revenue based most pricing problems will be gone! One sold unit of Real Racing equals ten 0,99 games in that scenario, which is how it should be.
I whole heartedly disagree. The new microcosm of the app store is still evolving, and already amazing new demographics are being apparent. The long predicted (since 2000) micropayments is one. For games that run $30 USD for DS and PSP games, we all are getting quite a bargin. And these devs have no more responsibility to update their apps than a gum manufacturer owes you continued gumballs for life. I'm in a debate in the thread What is wrong with Hanto? That thread is now 47 posts. It all starts there. It could theoretically go to 1,000 if just the dev Rusa and I post to each other from here on out. That's not hype. Though Warpack Grunts has more replay value at 99cents, and had not nearly as much activity on the threads, I saw the ad on TA throughout every day. I played it a few times, the dev did a great update, I played that once, and I'm done. Less hype, more finished game, way less fun and engaging story. I feel compelled to play minigore, let alone Hardgore! It works. Yeah, Pocket God is crap, see the update and wait for next one. But Minigore has much more funcionality, if nothing else, because there is a story which gets you involved in the characters, just like when we here write scripts for our horror films. This is a bargin, and the market will speak. Lastly, there are two sets of games that come out: the ones that people are expecting, like Minigore, and the ones that hit us blindsided without warning, like Spider: The secret of Bryce Manor. I would of paid $3 for Minigore, and would of enjoyed the ride over the following months with the updates, as compared to $35 DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which I love, but no one is making stuff like that for iPhone.
I noticed that there can only be 30 (small) furries on the field. Is this because of some restrictions or to maintain the fps?
With all do respect to the two people who need not be named if you dont like the game go to general discussion and start a thread about how much minigore sucks! Have a ball!. Please leave this thread to the people who really enjoy the game and would like to discuss the game with the devs who are kind enough to listen. Your dislike is noted but any further nagative comments are pointelss and annoying. You are more than entittled to your opinion but the point of these threads are to further the game development and for fan discussion. I really hate to see a dev have to come in a thread and try to jestify his work to someone who only invested 99c in the project. The numbers speak for themselves. the game is popular and thats that. Please respectfully choose another venue to express your dislike and lets just agree to disagree. Thank you.
You can not be serious with that horrible analogy. 1. People buy pants with HOLES and RIPS in them for style and gladly pay premium prices for them. 2. TV's did not always come with remotes back in the day. Episodic content is an avenue for potential sales, yes. Have I personally been burned by purchasing a game that promised content? No. Could it happen? Sure. Do I do my research before buying? Absolutely. I don't understand how you saw the 3D graphics here and expected so much content when the devs have been saying all along it will initially have one map and more content to follow. A simple search could have given you that information. To me it sounds like you were ill informed as to what this game was going to consist of at release. That falls on you in the end, not the developers who have made the information available since the beginning.
i think you didnt get the analogy, what hes saying is thank god that waiting for for a long period of time updates are limited to appstore (for him) and not everything in life.
Your bad. Click on my name and you'll see all of my posts. My posts on the upcoming thread were telling people they were overhyping this. As a matter of fact, I posted the lyrics to "Don't Believe The Hype" by Public Enemy.
With all "due" respect thepoisonivy, there's no need to create an "I hate Minigore" thread, because that is not the purpose of my posts. If I'm correct, you don't have the power to choose where or what people post. I am simply saying that the trend of underpricing games by promising future content is something that is a slippery slope. I'm sure that at some point this game will make good on what they promised. However, I would have rather paid 10 dollars for a finished product. That's my point...that and hype is a double edged sword. I appreciate that the dev is active on these threads, it shows that he is passionate about his creation, and well he should be. The fact that a developer is active however does nothing to detract from the fact that this is a twin stick shooter...that's it. And in its current iteration, it's not even the best twin shooter in the app store. I would have rather paid more for what may well become the best shooter in a complete version. I'm sorry that my "negative" comments are "pointless" and annoying, but this is a forum if I am correct, and I am not simply blasting the game, I have a legitimate (I think) concern about the direction the app store is heading, and the popularity of this (IMO unfinished) game is a perfect example of that. My last point, popularity is no indicator of quality...do you realize how many weeks "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" was the number one film in America?
I wholeheartedly agree with what your saying. This is a forum and if you believe that your point is valid then, by all means tell us about it. There is a little thing called freedom of speech and why should we create a new thread dubbed "I hate Minigore" because those who dont hate this game are going to post their beliefs on that thread, and vice versa. All im tryin to get at is that with these clashing of ideas (prevelant in this thread) someone who is a noob to the appstore or skeptical about this game can get opinions from both sides, and eventually make a well informed desicion.
which is why i stopped looking for the MINOR update every day and just went back to isotope, and started playing inkvaders. i like this game, but you're right. you can only play it so much before you see how much content isotope has. i'll be back when updates start hitting.
No one is trying to censor your comments. i am merely stating that your point has been made and noted. Although it did begin with a comment using minigore as an example it is obviously a larger complaint about the app store as a whole. you are correct that creating a forum against minigore is pointless and it was an exaggeration on my part. still your complaint about the trend of underpricing games is not directly related to this one game and thus the debate should be discussed in a forum that better suits your concerns. Many who post in this thread who are obviously big fans of this game may consider your initial post of "minibore" and others as flaming. You are indeed entitled to your opinions and freedom of speech i just ask you to reconsider where you post them. Cheers
+1 to say that is censorship is silly. You're welcome to post anything and even start a thread called "Minigore sucks". But when you make a point, a few times, it gets old and tedious. You know there are fans here... are you just a crisis junkie causing a disturbance? I can walk the streets here in Pittsburgh during the upcoming G-20 (mess) with signs bc of free speach, but if the signs have something like "Steelers Suck!" on them, the police will stop me bc they know my life will be in danger from causing a disturbance of the peace
Roffle at "crisis junkie". No, I am not trying to cause a disturbance, merely trying to provoke critical thinking. This is something that is often met with resistance...I understand that. While my "Minibore" comment was flippant and meant as a soft jab at the fanboys, I confess, the bigger issue is the one I posted earlier. Apparently many here don't see this as an issue, and that's fine, as someone said, we'll agree to disagree. I just think that Minigore is the most prominent example (evidenced by massive threads and solid sales) of putting out what I consider to be a VERY basic and honestly incomplete game for $.99, when I would rather have some of the promised content right away at a higher price. This is why I posted here. I have the game obviously, and I haven't even deleted it yet (although it's on the precipice) so I'm willing to hang in a while longer, but hype will only get games so far, after a while, you need some meat on the bones (or leaves on the vines for you vegans ).
Well, while you guys are typing 7000 characters, I'm just gonna say Minigore is amazing. On topic lol
