While I'm no fan of the way these devs treated the iPhone version of Orions, my relationship with them and their game goes way back before the iPhone existed in the days of Pocket PC and Palm Pilot. Back then, Orions was a Microsoft Pocket PC game that I was lucky enough to get to beta test before it's initial public release (for $19.99!). This type of game had never been done before and it was fantastic and met with great success (relatively speaking - the user-base for the platform was much smaller than it is for iDevices). The developers were a small bunch of Russian guys with limited English but they were incredibly supportive of their user community in their forums and via email, at least in my personal experience. I, in fact, strongly encouraged them to develop the game for the iPhone back when the SDK was first announced. And in fact, long after I got my first iPod touch, I still carried my old PocketPC around simply because of Orions (that version had expansion packs and multiplayer support and it was a beautiful thing indeed). Eventually, they found the means to port Orions to the iPhone and I was finally able to retire that old PocketPC. Unfortunately, it seems the developers fell on hard times shortly after the release of Orions, which didn't find widespread sales in the App Store despite apparent demand for such a title. Their next release (Knights Onrush) DID find some success and they, being a small outfit, had to focus their efforts in areas that were turning a profit. Their site forums started getting spammed and attacked with malicious software and were eventually abandoned and taken offline. They started ignoring the Orions for iPhone project altogether, I suspect because it was a distraction from things that had the potential to support them and their families. Being an indie game developer and knowing the tribulations of trying to develop a game as complex as Orions while trying to earn a living and support my family, I can understand their reaction. More so because English is much more difficult for them, and so it is much harder to explain themselves and be understood. I don't want to defend their lack of support, nor do I condone it, but I do understand it. Orions and it's expansions and add-ons for the PocketPC were really great and while Orions on the iPhone has some bugs and lacks important features, it is still one of the best and only customizable card battle strategy games on the entire platform at the moment. (There are a couple others as well as a few in development, our own Duels of the Runemasters is still heavily in development and will be released next year, and the eagerly anticipated Shadow Era by Kyle Poole is in heavy beta testing with a fan-base salivating for it's release.) I, for one, am willing, in the spirit of support for other indie developers, to say I fully intend to pick up Orions 2 when it's released. And $4.99 for a game like this is cheap guys. I know the App Store leans on the side of less costly games, but in the scheme of things, you'd easily pay $30 or more for an Orions type game on a PC or a Mac or a console and $20 or more for it on past and present mobile gaming platforms outside of the iDevices. $4.99 is the cost of a large coffee at Starbucks! I paid $20 for it on Pocket PC for the initial release as well purchasing each expansion pack and update that came out and was HAPPY to do so. I'm perfectly content to give them $5 and one more shot at doing Orions right on this platform.
Shouldn't the game have been released by now? If the dev is around here I would highly appreciate some words about the current state of the game.
Well, noone forces you to purchase Deckmasters... I will surely buy it. Would do it even at $50. (Of course, it'll be far cheaper.) On Windows Mobile, I think it's by far the best game I've spent countless hours with - and will be MUCH better than any current(!), existing iOS card game.
BTW, my guide to the new Deckmaster cards is at http://forum.brighthand.com/games-windows-mobile/258844-review-strategy-guide-best-game-add-year-so-far-orions-deckmasters.html ; the article also links to the guide to the first and the second episode. The first even has a huge chart of all cards.
Thanks, Menneisyys. I read the previous guide and it was very helpful. Meanwhile, I am not holding my breath. The developers - as usual - have not been very forthcoming or communicative about the "impending" release of Orions 2. I'd love to see a target date of some kind so I can stop hanging by my thumbs. Too painful. As is, we have no idea if the game is still in development, or if loose ends are being tied up, or if it is about to be submitted for approval. I'd like to know a little more! Developers????
One of the original posts said due end of November. I thought that meant 2010, but now I wonder if they mean 2011 considering it's December 5.
As much as I'd love to get this, they never came through with their promised updates on the first one, including severe AI cheating bugs. I guess they have an excuse, since they were making a sequel and would obviously be busy with that, but I'm still iffy.
I notice that Orions 1 is no longer listed on Chillingo's site. That makes me really curious. My guess is that means Chillingo won't be handling publishing for O2? Anyone (devs?) have any more info? Been quite curious about this one.
If you belive what the devs says it may come out yesterday or never.. I somehow doubt o2 will have retina support and highres art because at the end its just a port of an old win mobile game.
Chances are the only reason they are doing #2 was they hit a slow patch and figured it was already in the pipeline, so why not? It has been in the pipeline for two years. As they intimated earlier, there just wasn't a huge enough demand for them to follow up on #1 with fixes or with #2. For my part, I will be thankful when #2 finally arrives. Not all companies are great marketers of product. They clearly could have done a better job and acquired far more fans of this game. C'est la vie.
Jan 2009 This was the post I made back then after emailing the developer. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=4254
from the developer Hello folks, thank you for your interest and attention. We have decided to delay the release to polish the game a bit more, and also in order not to get lost in this Christmas rush. So we're targeting at the beginning of January now.
I'm okay with this. A bit more wait is not going to change my interest and if it is more polished, good.
I think it's safe to say, for Orions fans at least, that just hearing from the development team with some type of progress update is great. Keep us posted as you move toward your January release. Looking forward to O2!
