Ohh... I havn't been on the site since I was testing Necro. I didn't know about the anti-piracy thing... that's pretty awesome. How'd it work? And hoping it gets through soon... I really want to see how the final product came out.
Thanks for the info. I'd only read the most recent posts on his blog, which didn't mention the actual issue.
Hi all -) Hey guys thanks for the positive words!! I do not post on many boards due to the extreme lack of time I experiencing currently. Necro has taken so long due to 1st problems with my anti-piracy protection that broke on 1.3.1 ( I had to add it because my fishing game was pirated 97.5% of the time and it was killing me). That took 3 submissions to get past as they find one thing wrong and throw it out instead of formulating a punch list. After that I had some text in a menu stating you need a connection to the internet for one part. Even if you had one I just warned you. That gave me another rejection and 2 weeks out with a shutdown over Christmas. So I am currently around 3 months in review. I have not ever had less then a weeks review even on a quick goofy game. I once created a quick game in 4 days and it took 3 months for the FIRST review to pass back in the summer. It had a little blood in it and that was back when Apple was a bit more squeamish. I am taking Mission Europa home to dev the rest after hours as my current job that _was_ flexible in what I could do has required me to abandon app development until Necro ships at least. I do not blame them as it took over 6 months of crazy hours to create and there needs to be a return on investment. Making my own company also means it is mine! I am really happy with both Necro and Mission Europa...Necro is more of a dungeon hack/slash/item quest....Mission Europa more of a action/rpg/adventure I like to think of "THE DIG" mixed with Event Horizon while making it. There is NOTHING like either of them on the iPhone in my humble opinion. I still play Necro for fun and am lvl 17 with 3 major bosses down. In any case both are open projects and when I get good user feedback on my blog I will implement the good ideas and changes into Necro as follow up reviews by apple go in a week usually. For the fast review comment ( of which out of 10 or so apps I have NEVER had a fast review even with 0 rejections it has taken at least a week plus). This is a 50 level game with 50 bosses over 150 megs of content and thousands of possible weapon combinations. So there is a lot for them to test. Or maybe they like playing it and would rather play it then pass it =P... Anyway yall can keep up with my stuff on: RyanMitchellGames.WordPress.com Until then back to Mission Europa while I wait on Necro. O and thanks so much for the good comments and interest it really is motivational! -Ryan SouL_DragooN
Wow nice! Hope this one comes out on time when i comes out unlike necromancer ( apple approval procedure,cmon)
Hey thanks for coming on the forums Ryan. I really appreciate the hard work and time you and your company invested in creating this game. I hope everything turns out great and you get the income that you deserve. Can't wait to play these two games. They look amazing. Thanks again.
Hey, thanks for the update. I'm really looking forward to this one. How long has it been in approval since last submission?
Thanks guys for the interest again!.. By open I mean that I held back no secrets in development, asked for community input, and post release will be working so all comments will be heard and implemented into the game. For example, in beta someone did not like my default button layout so I made an entire tool so you can place all the buttons anywhere you wish. Necro is more diablo dungeon style in first person (it does open up to hellish swirling red skies lvl 40-50). Mission Europa will have vast open underground areas that appear to be a sky =). Back to work! Again thanks for the kind words I cannot wait for it to ship to see everyones reaction =) Have a great day! -Ryan SouL_DragooN
I would also like to know the answer to this question. I been waiting for this game to come out even before Ravensword was published. (They were the two rpg's that i was debating between, this lost because it was never approved)
Yeah, and I'd actually suggest this a bit more. It has ALOT more RPG elements and really does feel like a Diablo game in first person. It's awesome. And the control editing really does help, especially how you get to put any ability in whatever slot you want, including basic attack and block (which you could even get rid of in the later levels if you don't need, but I didn't do that...). And he no longer sounds constipated when he blocks, which is a huge plus lol.
Why don't you just remove the anti-piracy stuff for now so you can make some money at least? You could always add it in later as an update.
Here is my nightmare. Again The first SEVERAL rejections were me trying to work with them on my Anti-Piracy code. Of which would take a 15 minute change and a week or more wait for them to test it.. My tests were not showing a failure as I was testing it on and older OS mistakenly ( I figured that out after the 3rd submission that they changed a major item and I never saw a press release about it ). Ever since then it has been text in menus or the like. Just interface items they do not like... Good stuff huh =).. Again a PUNCH list would make this so much easier and faster then a 1 out on a very subjective call. And DIRECT phone contact with the developer. Here is the schedule: ( I just noticed there were a few quick turn arounds in there those I think were the menu items.. funny I don't ever remember a fast review there. ) So pretty much you put your hard work in a black box shake it and hope it says approved for sale. Have a great day all, (you to Apple your still the best out) -Ryan SouL_DragooN ------ January 07, 2010 14:11 Apple In Review January 07, 2010 13:56 Waiting For Review December 23, 2009 15:32 Apple Rejected December 20, 2009 17:08 Apple In Review December 18, 2009 17:58 Waiting For Review December 18, 2009 14:03 Apple Rejected December 16, 2009 10:39 Apple In Review December 14, 2009 11:15 Waiting For Review December 13, 2009 09:50 Apple Rejected November 30, 2009 08:52 Apple In Review November 23, 2009 08:45 Waiting For Review November 20, 2009 17:26 Apple Rejected November 05, 2009 19:36 Apple In Review November 05, 2009 11:47 Waiting For Review November 04, 2009 17:56 Apple Rejected P.S. As far as the anti-piracy that was not my choice sadly ..
the prices that are charged on the iphone/pod i see no reason for piracy.. are they that damn cheap. shrugs. by the the game looks interesting, ill most def be looking to test drive the lite version. im not a huge rpg fan but im open to new experiences. chris.
I hope that your anti-piracy code works and apple can approve it quickly. Looks like a string of bad luck has kept you waiting.
Thanks guys! It will work out eventually =).. I don't give up obviously =P.... Thats the only way one guy could create this big of a project. Have a great night guys, -Ryan SouL_DragooN
Sityuation with Necromancer Rising looks odd, seem apple made a mistake. The only I can advice, You should contact them as soon as possible or resubmitt the game. I am following Mission Europa developement progress on Your blog and I have to admit, that it is only getting better and better. Third movie posted in this thread shows us somekind of intro, cu-scene? How many of them we can expect in the game? As more as better, it makes game more epic and adds it cinematic style. And recorded voices presented on the videos, will they lead us through the whole story?
We're getting ready to release our open world game, and while I think that piracy is a problem on the platform (to be fair--all platforms have piracy), we would much rather focus on the paying customers. Also, most people who pirate probably don't spend more than a minute or two on the game; they're probably young "collectors" more than anything. And in some ways, piracy may help spread the word of your awesome game to legit gamers who will gladly pay to get it. So color me skeptical with these claims of 90%+ piracy on the platform. I think that number is overstated. Most of those people wouldn't buy any of the games, so there's no humongous monetary loss in my opinion. I'm not excusing what pirates do in any way, I'm just being practical about the whole matter. It's doubly a shame that you missed the Christmas buying season because of what sounds like overzealous piracy protection. While I don't agree with everything Apple does, it sounds like they are prudently testing and finding showstopping problems in your piracy code. From what I've heard, the freemium game concept with in-app purchases is a good deterrent to piracy, and it's something Apple already provides, so you may want to look into that. Doubtless though, the pirates will figure out a way to get around it eventually. So why hobble yourself, legit customers, and your income stream? It just really irks me that I, a paying customer who has spent well over $500 on apps and games, can't get access to a game because the dev is wasting his time trying coding around pirates who will always win that arms race. C'est la vie.
Cut Scenes: Currently scheduled are 180+ cut scenes just for the quest intros to lead you through the game. So yes it will be VERY story driven =). I have made some very good tools to very quickly produce the cut scenes for the deep story written for Mission Europa. I have 30 done so far. I am adding new quest types currently really expanding the questing system and story driven possibilities. The next few days I am working on throwing out some more Objective C I had written and converting it back to C for speed. ( I am a total hater of objective C now. Its speed reductions are ridiculous and I have never liked its syntax. ) Piracy: Piracy is a BIG problem although now the ocean of poor quality apps is also a problem for the better apps out there imo. I tracked my game 3D Power fishing before anti-piracy and after anti-piracy by ALL sales figures and ALL registered device UIDs I collected. (Apple will not let you do this anymore or at least they reject for it now) I did have a floating number of 95%-97% UIDs as pirates. When I added a small amount of protection ( it was by no means over zealous it just stopped ********** and instantly downloading my 3 months work of day and night labor. ) So that number is very accurate in my measured results sadly. And the protection only took 0.001% of development time to toss in ( a few hours ) so if it turned even a few sales it was worth it. I agree that going overboard with a large percentage of dev time being devoted to piracy is ludicrous as you will always loose. However, if it takes a few hours out of thousands of hours invested I say go for it. The sad thing about it all is we are talking about what a coke costs in Hawaii for many months of work. All In all the development on apple devices is by far easier then the consoles I have developed on but the monetary returns are bleak for the majority of developers and I think piracy is a good percentage of it. Back to work. You all have a great day! -Ryan SouL_DragooN RyanMitchellGames.WordPress.com
Forgot to add I am sorry, I forgot to add that I cannot think of a place without voice. I value that. With modern technology there is no excuse for the lack of voice overs. So yes each of the 180+ mentioned scenes are voice driven..and add to the story from finding lost people to lost ancient tech it is all cut scene driven. Look out the alien tech is not what you think it is
