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"YDreams Releases Next Generation Mobile MMOG and Location Based Game, & Inks TV Deal" Discussion | 
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 |   jhenriques
Member since: 5/19/2005 From: Ovar, Aveiro | |||
Posted - 6/28/2005 1:19:31 PM | ||||
| Muito bom! Ainda bem que existe uma companhia como a YDreams cá em terras Lusas. Acho que vou investigar um pouco... Os meus parabéns, YDreams! | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/28/2005 1:48:55 PM | ||||
| Some corrections: Sic is not the biggest TV network in Portugal, at least in share and audience. Plus the first game sucked and this one sucks even more it's the result of having engineers doing games, they focus on the technical stuff, the graphics are ugly (yeah i really wanna see a real world map, yuppi how fun), and the first version was faulty at best (not to say that it did not work, and left many players frustrated). Still it's nice they are doing something, even if it's a technical product and not a real game.Hire some real game designers. | ||||
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| bulldog232
Member since: 3/5/2003 From: Chicago, IL | |||
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Posted - 6/28/2005 5:10:00 PM | ||||
Quote: Have you actually played the game? The beta of this version was widely talked about as being exceptional at GDC this year in several sessions (by those leading the sessions and the audience). I also had a demo with me and had to keep finding an outlook to recharge my phone. Does it take a technical approach? Yes, but not at a loss for game play or story. From someone that played the beta for weeks, the missions and clan features put it well above the mobile version of Splinter Cell and other, that got great reviews last year. Who wants to see real maps? I think the question is who wants to continually play in a city that is not their own. All locations have some value, but it is nice to see a game that does not just focus on the top 10 cities in the U.S. or world. I would not even compare this version in environment size, gameplay or graphics to the first one, which at its time was still pretty good. | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/29/2005 7:38:41 AM | ||||
Quote: Yes i have played the game, if not i would have not made the comments :) If you like it fine, i don't, so let's agree to disagree. I don't like the design, the graphics or the gameplay. | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/29/2005 7:39:57 AM | ||||
Quote: Yes i have played the game, if not i would have not made the comments :) If you like it fine, i don't, so let's agree to disagree. I don't like the design, the graphics or the gameplay. But i agree that it is a technically advanced product, not a game. | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/29/2005 12:56:00 PM | ||||
| that is why this is not widely known: it clearly was not designed to be a game. this is also why these guys are so out of the market | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/30/2005 7:14:49 AM | ||||
| And as rummors says it, YDreams is like a small EA: programmers are under payed and required to work extra hours as well. I've even heard that they pick up most of the programmers as students at the university so they don't have to pay them (they kind of use students doing their final year projects)! And of course that when the times comes to renew the contract, they don't.... they just get more students.... it sucks | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 6/30/2005 1:15:26 PM | ||||
Quote: I like how people like to quote "rumors" and "whispers" for things like this - not that it matters to a gamer playing the game. At least give us a link to some forums saying it. YDreams is a fairly small studio of around 50 people from their site - not exactly the market or business powerhouse of EA. Even if that is how they treat programmers, does someone playing the game care if it is fun? Not at all, just look at EA's sales or even companies like Nike that use children in factories in other countries. Back to the original game "bashing", I have not played the game but saw a demo at GDC and just looked at their site. It looks really fun to me, just wished they had a BREW version. | ||||
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| jeremy_huang
Member since: 6/24/2005 From: San francisco, CA | |||
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Posted - 6/30/2005 1:57:58 PM | ||||
| Did check it out. It's web site claims the game is 'location based'. In reality when the game starts the app asks the player to pick a location, where as I thought some smart trick akin to the java location based api would be used. Oh yeah, it's not fun. | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 7/1/2005 12:58:18 PM | ||||
Quote: Sure.... I quoted it from someone who used to worked there!!!!! | ||||
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| blew
Member since: 3/29/2001 From: Lisboa, Portugal | ||||
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Posted - 7/1/2005 2:21:45 PM | |||||
Hello everyone. I work at YDreams and I am one the developers behind Undercover 2. I hope my post will enlight you a bit about this game and the company.Quote: Obrigado, em nome de toda a equipa. :) Quote: Not that this is important, but yes, SIC is the biggest TV network in Portugal, and by far. They actually own a lot of TV channels, not just one. About the techical product, could you elaborate a bit more? The only thing that I would call techical on the game is the fact that you can play on real world maps. Everything else is shooting enemies, blowing things up, arming and desarming devices, exploring the world, doing quests, chating with other players, buying and selling items, engaging on clan wars, well, you get the picture. I'd say it's the usual stuff on MMORPGs today. We did REAL game design on this project. If you explore the game mechanics you'll see this. Maybe your just not into mobile games? It's understandable. Not the best gaming platform indeed. But the mechianics are there, i asure you. Quote: We're a small company and we're not out of the market as someone said. We're only now entering it. If anyone here has been on that scenario, you know how the drill is. Lots of work, small pay. When we make some super selling titles then you may compare us to others. YDreams is not a game development company. A lot of diferent products are done here. Only now we have a department that concentrates on game dev, and this is our first product. So give us a break. ;) About the university thing, I am one of those poor bastards that made a final year project on YDreams :). I don't know how this stuff works on your countries, but here in Portugal students finish their studies working on some project on some company. Yes, they're generally overpaid, I have to agree, but you can't look at it as a real job, since they're still ending their studies (they have classes, exams and this project on a company). It's very likely that they stay on that company afterwards. That was my case and of some friends of mine that also made projects on YDreams. And damn, i'm glad I ended up here. Quote: Yes, the game is location based. When you start a new game you are asked to select your starting location. That's your HQ location, where you are relocated to in case you get killed. After selecting your start location, you can enable the game's live location feature. You can select either to use a GPS device connected by bluetooth or the Cell ID system from your mobile operator. With live location turned on you imediately see your character on the exact same street you are. And if you move, your character will move also. Everyone on range around you using live location will also be moving on your game, in real time. If you drop an object on that location it will stay on that (real) location until someone picks it up. But since not everyone has a GPS device or use their operator's Cell ID, the game can be played (and is, by default) without live location. Honestely, i don't understand how can someone bother to write a post bashing a game, stating that the company basically lied about some feature, when there was obviously no effort to confirm it. It's not even a hidden feature - it's on the game's main menu system. Finally, about the game's graphics, i'm not surprised that someone doesn't like them. That's a very subjective thing (like many others) and even here at the company not everyone thinks the same about them. But we did try our best, you must give us that. :) Please continue with your feedback. We have a lot to learn and you can help us. | |||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 7/1/2005 8:14:52 PM | ||||
| Look to make some things clear: 1) Sic is not the biggest TV station (in audience TVI is), it is second in nation wide (public access) and it has 3 marginal cable channels... (only if you are talking about market, but then again they are both part of bigger conglomerates Impresa (http://www.impresa.pt/) MediaCapital (http://www.mediacapital.pt/) … and the agreement from what i could read was to have a space on Sic Radical cable channel (channel 9)... but whatever... if it is to replace that lame phone game segment that they already have, yuppi... 2) I played the first game, and me and others always complained in the forums that the game did not work properly, and most of those comments were ignored, this is not the way to treat costumers... 3) How many of you have a degree in game design or worked in a game company? How many of you are engineers (probably all fresh out of college) with no real world gamming experience (that shows, because playing games and making games are two totally different things). 4) I call it a Technical game because i have played hundreds of mobile platform games 122 titles (from GBA... to Nokia J2ME, to JSR184 3D mobile games)... and i do mean hundreds. And I don't think that having a game with location based technologies (pushing real city maps) is more than a real waste of bytes (nice for the tech shows GDC, etc...) but as a real game i much more enjoy the maps of: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap GBA, Fire Emblem, and many other games RPGs). I review games for a living, i play games every day... 5) You still don't respect the clients/players... it's just small minded thinking... 6) I hope you are successful i doubt it because of your mentality... I hope you get leadership that will make you create a "listen to the players mentality". Someone who really is listening does not need to: "Please continue with your feedback. We have a lot to learn and you can help us." <--- Write this ;) But until you learn a few lessons you guys will be flooded with competition that use their heads to come up with some real games (imaginative games) that don't rely on technical tricks to make them noticeable, not another MMORPG, what does this game "Undercover 2" bring to the genre take out the technical location feature and it adds up to nothing... get it this is why i am criticizing you , for not being original and relying on the location feature as the selling point. I really like the graphics on the menus, and would have liked to see that sort of futuristic graphics in MAPs in the game... but no, once more your technical minds sprained to action and decided... "oh i know let's make the maps downloadable from some real map service... oh yeah that will be cool", there is a reason why no one else is doing this sort of technological games... not because it is hard, but because it is boring... There are hundreds of better J2ME programmers in the world... you have companies like Gameloft... Jamdat... Digital Chocolat...Sega Wow... with millions of dollars in their pockets, do you really think that can't do that sort of programming, of course you do you are engineers... Get some people with a gamming background on your ranks, don't focus on the technology, just think how long did it take to make the game, one year... more... you are competing against companies that release games an a weekly basis. You don't understand the market, and proceed in this road continue to fail you will (a little Yoda moment). All the best, and change for your own good... Do me a favor and send (forward) this message to your coworkers... spend 5 minutes on it (discussing, does this guy have a point? Do others like him think the same way? Or is he just full of S*hit lamer?), and then i will consider that you are truly listening, i will believe that you are truly listening wend i See the next game... From your friendly client (I actually bought the game). P.S.: If i was to review your game in a formal manner i would be much nicer so don't worry... I would probably compliment you for the technical effort, but in the end would remark it as an OK game. -Dan | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 7/2/2005 11:00:50 AM | ||||
| To Mister Anonimo... That is typical Portuguese Behaviour, bashing other portuguese working to do better... I fell that all the type on the place i work, everytime we do some IT web page everybody crushs us...I hate Cell phone games so i will not even look at that game, plus my phone is not compatible. Stop Being Anonimous and show yourself. YDreams developers already apeared and replied... | ||||
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| Wireframe
Member since: 8/4/2004 From: Portugal | |||
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Posted - 7/2/2005 2:08:48 PM | ||||
| Hi all, I’m Tiago Carita (nick Wireframe), lead designer of Undercover 2: Merc Wars. These posts sound weird and not at all what we expected, mainly because in Undercover 2 we really listened to players: we had over two months of open beta testing and playtesting sessions, and this made very clear what players wanted and liked or didn´t like. Lots of cool features were requested and we´ve included most major ones, which helped us feel pretty secure about the overall gameplay. I won´t try to justify anything - just going to point out features that show that the game was indeed Designed and not Engineered, and that we do care a lot about gameplay. Undercover 2: Merc Wars is a Massive Action/RPG with location-based features, but it is not dependent on real location. That was the first lesson we got from the first Undercover: people that liked the game – and we had some really hard-core players for a long time - didn’t want to go around running after everything in the real world all the time. One of the main concerns with Undercover 2 was to keep real location as a feature, but try to make the game more fun for RPG fans and casual gamers that want more story and context, character building, clan action, some shooting around, variety of items, in-game communication, etc. It’s a broad game full of accessible and also hidden features. It´s fully dynamic even at the core of gameplay – there´s a very elaborate game system connecting and balancing everything and ruling the entire world, from a single walk in the streets of your hometown to the use of a lock pick on a closed box. Characters are fully configurable and have several different skills with different applications and combinations in the game world. Players can also choose professions that give them concentration skills (discounts when increasing certain skill sets). We can add skills or professions in real-time without damaging the game balance, and players can go on playing normally. As in any good MMOG, we´ll release new features once the game is live. We´re currently working on a Support Class so players will be able to change toward support professions (engineers, doctors, etc) and next maybe a crafter class, or fixer. We´re doing this based on player input. Another big advancement in UCII is the mission system. I can tell you that the mission generator in the Undercover 2 is more powerful than the EVE Online, for example (if they don’t improve in the next patch, which I hope they do) and we are still improving it. Our missions are generated for each player and can have multiple steps with different encounters, in different places. We can even launch different types of visualization modes (check soon in the game) like top view or isometric building complexes so the player does missions in it with different objectives. About the real world map choice: we thought it would be cool for players to be able to travel to real cities all over the world (which costs game credits according to distance traveled) and do missions on street level (eliminating a target in a famous building, looking for a valuable item on a real street corner, meeting someone in a real square to get information, protect someone as he/she gets from one place to another, and a lot more). So, again, as lead designer I obviously respect any comments or criticism, and I´m 100% aware of how important it is to listen to players. I hope this post enlightens our view on these issues, and also makes is clear how much effort we put into making Undercover 2: Merc Wars as fun as possible. The game will be available in all Portuguese carriers in the next days, and we´re looking forward to have a community started and see the game take off. We´ll be open and ready to take any constructive criticism and use it to improve the game once it goes live. Thanks, Tiago Carita Lead Designer YDreams Entertainment | ||||
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| Anonymous Poster | |||
Posted - 7/4/2005 6:56:34 AM | ||||
| Hope I am wrong... Good Luck -Dan P.S: I can't put my name on because I have a reputation to maintain, officially I can't make these comments I would be reprehended by my boss and probably fired if I did it again… official cordial relationship with all developers and publishing houses, is a rule of the house, these are my personal gut feelings. | ||||
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