I highly doubt they're going to hold warpgate back, especially while the enthusiasm is still hot over the ipad version; if they hold it back, they won't be able to take advantage of the same amount of hype (not to mention the advertising they're paying for that is selling the game to a crowd that can't get our grubby fingers on yet) - it wouldn't be a very strategic move. About TA's 13th prediction, if Hippieman doesn't know anything about it, then TA really wouldn't either, since apple can't "predict" giving it the green light - otherwise they'd already have approved it. It does surprise me that they've taken THIS long, having already passed its almost identical counterpart. Please don't rail against devs, it will only decrease their involvement in our forums, and I love how active Hippieman has been. Instead of simply bashing a game you haven't played and devs who you really have no logical reason to be upset at, you could offer some update suggestions. I totally hear your frustration - we are all frustrated, but the devs are frustrated too.
Adding to my previous post, if you search for Freeverse in the store, they now have a phantom app. That is, if you scroll down it says "Show 5 more" and when you do, it only loads 4 more. Before 11, it said Show 4 more. I'm going out on a limb and wagering that Hippieman was correct and this has just been a weird sequence of events that seemed more nefarious than they were. Further I think the app store just approved the app, but this guess is based solely on the two observations which is weak at best, I admit. I for one don't blame developers for circumstances beyond their control. Everything that has been shown about this game has been really impressive! And Hippieman has been super patient; it can't be easy being stuck between the community and the people who pay you.
Ya, I'll agree with that. Thanks for answering our questions. I'm sure you're as frustrated with the wait as we are, but in the long run the game will be out and the wait won't have mattered.
OMG the banner is redirecting to the app store on my iphone now! this probs means they were being conservative with the 13th release date, i hope it comes out tonight at 12(by the way, i live in Australia)
I noticed the same thing. It would say Did you mean wargames? And I'd get all POd. So seems like it passed the review process and the name warpgate is reserved in the store, but Apple is just holding it back.
I hate to burst your bubble, but 'Pocket Legends' has been doing this for about 6-7 days now and its still not out. Just try typing in "Pocket Legend" on your phone AppStore and youll see what i mean. I think its a miss-link from the iPad store. Im pretty pissed too that this game (seems) to have started on the iphone, was reported MULTIPLE times to be only a few weeks from completion almost a quarter- 2 quarters ago... Hippieman HAS been good, but he has only been active for the fast few weeks. I dont like how this game has been handled. Im sure the game will make me forget it, but still...
I guess what would have been best, since the iPhone app had been in development so long and was held up to ensure the iPad app was finished with the idea of a world wide release -- Freeverse should have submitted the iPhone app early with the stated release date of April 3rd. Apple could have approved the iPhone version early, then held it (as they've done with many games that have had a stated release date,) and then when the rush of iPad apps came in, no problem. Apple promised they'd have all iPad apps submitted by March 27th ready for April 3rd, so if the iPhone app had been submitted early and the iPad app had been submitted by the 27th, both would have been out on the 3rd. Too late to do anything about it now, though.
Chillaxe Brosef. We had wanted an earlier release. That didn't happen as the game isn't approved. So we had to reschedule everything. So our best guess for a release is the 13th. We like to release on Tuesdays if possible (That's the industry date for new content). How the hell did TA know in advance? Because the decision that the 8th was impossible happened seconds before the review went up. We just told Eli what the new target date was. This has all been us scrambling as dates get missed by the review process. There was a time about a month ago where I thought we would have to hold the iPhone version back. That NEVER EVER HAPPENED. We ended up catching bugs and fixes right up until submission. So even if there had never been an iPad, we would of still submitted the game when we did. Now then onto game questions. Price: I don't have the final price yet. My bosses have not set it. Combat: I hated the combat in Escape Velocity. It was just a bunch of badly timed jousting maneuvers where you fly past your target uncontrollably. When ever I played the game, I would pretty much ignore combat as much as possible. Our combat is just different. It's more "realistic" (major air quotes there). I can't imagine in the future that any weapon would rely on a crosshair. Already we guide bombs with the most advanced sensors and tracking. I figure in 5000 years from now, weapon systems will be really smart. OK that's kind of just justifying my decision. Really I wanted the game to be accessible to a lot of players. We had just come off Top Gun (same dev team). And we wanted something that was simpler to play and didn't rely on the accelerometer. That made us think of RTS type games. We had also been playing a lot of Age of Booty on the Xbox. That game controls combat for you. It's very clever. The first builds of Combat in Warpgate functioned like Age of Booty. But with the small screen it wasn't fair, and you'd get blasted without knowing why. It felt like you had no control at all. Then we came up with the combat zone and drew inspiration from Final Fantasy games. The kind with a recharging action meeter. Only replace action meeter with a weapon spin up, cycle and cool down times. Is it the absolute best mechanic out there? No. But I think it works, and it does not require you to be a twitch gamer. Warpgate's prime feature is Exploration. Then the Economy, Then Combat. Now all that said, we are looking into more ways to add user control to combat, without cluttering the screen with buttons and icons. (As if you have 10 weapons on your starship, you have 10 different weapon buttons, that's a lot on an iPhone).
Hippieman: a suggestion for combat. Can we not have command buttons? For example, you have one attack button and a defend button, and when you click on one of those, it brings up further options. These will define how the ship maneuver and use it's weapons. Perhaps power management can be added too and these preset options can have influence on this. PS - no sign of the game in NZ store.
We discovered a bug today that we are putting priority on squashing. It has to do with dropping into the Tutorials and the game saving your progress at a bad time and basically making you start over. Once we have that squashed, I've got some ideas for the combat part of the game. I'll post more once I've had time to try some things out. I'm trying to gather all comments and criticism and prioritize them.
Thank you for your recommendation on Empire Ascendant. I picked it up and to my very surprise, it has the exact gameplay features that I wanted for a Star Trek type iPhone game. I won't comment on the bluntness of Lost Cipher's message but he certainly had some facts in the post. I know Hippieman has been very helpful, and thank goodness for that. However, I have personally been... belittled is a good description of it, by some other poster who claimed to work for Freeverse, on this thread, many months ago. I think it would be fair to say that some of his frustrations is understandable, if you have contributed to this thread or kept a constant eye on it since last year.
Thanks Hippieman! Just wondrin': how many mbs? what price range? (approx) playthrough time? (for a casual gamer) will there be add-ons? Thanks, I'm really hyped for this!
I wish I knew where this 13th came from. I checked a few other freeverse games (hanged, flick fishing, and two others I don't recall right now). None of them released on a Tuesday. It is kind of fun checking the store periodically if there is a chance it could be released at any moment. But if it is decided already by someone somewhere that the 13th is a hard date, then I feel I am wasting my time. Does this make sense?
Pocketgamer didn't quote their source. And they do have a history of reposting info from other sites. I still don't understand why it is going to be 13th - although I take it that TA must have insider info from Freeverse to say so.
Thank you hippieman for you post and putting up with some of the people on these forums. the only thing i would like to see is the combat changed slightly i don't care much about controlling the ship during that time but i would love an option where we can make battles last longer say 1-3 minutes would be fine it would also make the game a little harder because the weapons would have to reload or cool down. Also i doubt you can change this (you must have added it for a reason) the attack button then going into a final fantasy type thing. I would love just to be able to attack and not be taken to another screen and have the pop-up at the end of the battle (maybe have the damage taken and loot at the bottom). So far thats the only thing I'm worried about but until I get my hands on the ipod touch version ill try to post more in-depth of what I'm talking about.
Well no sign of release as of Friday NZ time. If that phantom app on app store is Warpgate, it's not being let loose. (And IF it's an phantom app, does it mean that Warpgate has been approved?) Edit - Just read the Freeverse press release from yesterday saying Warpgate will indeed be released on 13 April. Think even if it's approved before then, we won't be playing it till then.
