71 replies to this topic

[ehudros]

update: version 0.36 is out, allowing you to change difficulty settings and grid color. Hopefully this will help making the game more challenging... Xwars 0.36 mediafire.com seems to be working only half of the time, so here a link to the game on rapidshare: Rapidshare link and on hostFilez.com: hostfilez link If anyone wants to donate a permanent hosting space let me know...) ------ Update: version 0.35 is out! :) Added configuration file support to allow different resolutions and gamepad settings. Give it a try at: link ---------------------- Update: version 0.3 is out! :) enhanced gamepad support, lots of bug fixes and balance issues to make the game more challenging. readme.txt for full info... Xwars 0.3 ---------------------- Hi everyone, I've finally completed the first version of my geometry wars clone (currently titled XWars for lack of a better name). Please take a look and let me know what you think (suggestions/help would be appreciated): Xwars 0.2 screenshots: Ehud (ehudros /at/ gmail /dot/ com) [Edited by - ehudros on January 9, 2007 11:46:51 AM]

[clearz]

Dosent work here. Just keep getting an error message sound but no message.

P4 2Ghz
GeForce3 Ti500
1Gb DDR
Soundblaster Live

[ahayweh]

Awesome man!!

Love the cloth sim. Looks like some pretty involved calculations going on, yet the frames rates excels. Very nice.

( <- not my rig, just temp... )
AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ ( 2.19GHz )
896 MB RAM
MSI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series

[ehudros]

thanks ahayweh :)
clearz - I'll upload a version with logging to a text file soon.
I wonder what's causing the issue...

Also - to everyone who is giving it a try, please specify rig and FPS...

[Chad Smith]

Nice game man. I love it. The graphics look awesome and it is very addicting. It ran great also.


It ran at about 90 FPS

Specs:
Intel Pentium 4 Processor
1 gig RAM
Intel Integrated

I love it.

[Zipster]

Wow. That was excellent! The attention to graphical detail and particle effects was superb. Simple, yet fun pretty! I got a pretty stable 72 FPS, even with a lot of effects flying around. Granted I had some applications running in the background, but I didn't have the heart to close Visual Studio. You understand how it is [smile]

AMD Athlon64 3200+ 2.0 GHz
2Gb RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB
Creative SB Audigy 2

[Ezbez]

Quote:

Original post by Zipster but I didn't have the heart to close Visual Studio. You understand how it is [smile]

Yeah, makes you feel like you're working when you aren't. :)

As for the game, those are some *really* nice special effects you've got there! Frame rate was very smooth for me (didn't actually check what it was) on a GeForce 6200 256mb. I'd really have liked the .zip to all be in a folder once you extract it; it filled up my desktop.

[Red_falcon]

Really nice game. It's a right game for a coffe break, but it's addicting too.

PS: I already tried GridWars and GridAssault and was impressed, but after i found out that their developments were stopped, cause of some (not so good people, i don't want to swear,but i would like to) people...

This time i hope that this game will become final and/or maybe get a sequel.

Framerate: ca. 60-80
Specs: P4 Centrino 1.8Ghz
ATI Mobile X700 64MB
512 RAM

[Emmanuel Deloget]

Be aware of this. Clones of a games that uis currently shipping is known as IP infrigement.

I know you love the game, but a company is currently making of living from this IP, and releasing a free product tha reproduce the game is not really fair. Imagine the situation: you come with a great game which you intend to sell and someone makes a free clone right after you released it: while this is not piracy, this will probably hurt your sells, and the company you just created is likely to collapse.

Quote:

In this day and age, coming up with an original brand is extremely difficult and rare, and retaining ownership of the IP to that title, especially as an independent developer, is rarer still. As a relatively small developer, we survive by the originality, quality and reputation of our titles, and the income that they generate. No income means no funds to support our staff and overheads - and this struggle for income is why there are so few independent companies surviving today. Obviously it would be great to provide games for free, but commercial reality does not allow this, and with GW:RE we felt we were working with a nice balanced approach to this, with the generous demo and low price point. (...) If you want to play Gran Turismo, but don't have a PlayStation, you play different racing games, on different platforms. Imagine what Sony/Polyphony would do to protect their IP if a company or individual were trying to clone 'Gran Turismo' for another platform? The scale is different, but the issue is fundamentally the same. Just because Geometry Wars is 'easy' to copy, it doesn't mean that it should be copied.

That said, I won't stop you from doing such coding tests. Just be careful when you release your product to others - think to what could be the effects of such release. We certainly don't want Bizzare Creation to go down, as they are one of the few indy studio that comes with interesting games out there.

Hope you get my point,

[ehudros]

I think there are a few problems with bizzare's claims:
first, they did not invent a new concept here - far from it. games like these have existed long before they came out with geometry wars. the only thing they can claim ownership of is the unit's graphics.
Secondly, there is no PC version of the game available, so I don't believe i will affect their sales in any way (no one buys an xbox just for geometry wars).
Although I have a lot of respect to bizzare for their work, I do not believe their claim is legit and therefor believe that releasing a free game on a different platform is totally alright.

[Emmanuel Deloget]

My post was a warning, and you are in your rights if you chose to ignore it. I wanted to tell you that by releasing a GW clone, you are in danger of facing a cease and desist by Bizzare (although some other people seemed to though think that I was attacking you¹; this was not the case).

While you are still free to ignore the information I gave you, I still want to answer your posts. I hope you'll forgive me for such an offense.

Quote:

Original post by ehudros I think there are a few problems with bizzare's claims: first, they did not invent a new concept here - far from it. games like these have existed long before they came out with geometry wars. the only thing they can claim ownership of is the unit's graphics.

IP != concepts. Concepts can't be © anyway.
Moreover, the Bizzare IP is not just about the graphics or about gameplay, it is about graphics+gameplay. This is what makes their game an original game. Since they did 2 versions of it, they created an original work that can be easily recognized, and thus fully qualified to become an IP.
Now, your game claims to be a GW clone. That's IP stealing, and there's no way to convince me about the rightness to do so. And you'll have hard time to convince a court too.

Quote:

Original post by ehudros Secondly, there is no PC version of the game available, so I don't believe i will affect their sales in any way (no one buys an xbox just for geometry wars).

* First, you don't know their short term plans.
* Second, I suppose that this claims work for any exclusive content, not "exclusive content that is easy to clone". So far, I have yet to see a clone of an exclusive XBox360 AAA title.
* Third, how many % of the XBox360 owner don't have a PC? True, PC gamers won't buy an XBox just to play this game - but what about PC gamers that already own a XBox?
* Fourth, read again my previous post and really imagine that same situation could happen to you. You develop an exclusive game, and someone else clone the game and release it on another platform. If your target market owns both platforms, will they buy your game or get the free one (considering that both games are equivalent)? Will you issue a "great! fantastic job!" to the guy who stole your idea and gave it to the public for free, while you are expecting to make a leaving of this idea?

Quote:

Original post by ehudros Although I have a lot of respect to bizzare for their work, I do not believe their claim is legit and therefore believe that releasing a free game on a different platform is totally alright.

It is not legal - thus it can't be alright. You unilateraly decided that it was alright, but "alright" is not a legal valid term. If it is really alright then I suggest you to contact Bizzare and to ask them for a formal agreement. Should not be difficult to do, but I'm pretty sure you won't get the answer you want - and you know it.

You have the time to make a great clone, so why don't you spend this time on the creation of an original game?

1: in fact, I don't know what people thought after reading my first post and to be fair, I don't care. I understand that defending indy studios that makes money for a game is unreasonable behavior, because no one here wants to earn money from the games they produce. Money is teh ev1L. All of us are at least very interested in game development, and we'd like to make a living of it, but we all have the same opinion: games should be free, as well as game platforms, because it costs us a lot. No matter that some other people are actually spending years to make great games, they should be released for free. In fact, they should also work for free - that's how the world should be. Everything should be free. And we shouldn't have any bindings like laws and so on. They are pure BS, they restrict our freedom, and I no longer can kill my neighbour if he steal my car. Well, since everything is free, is is allowed to steal my car because, hey, it is not even my car. In fact, he is not even my neighbour because his house is free too. So it is my house. And my house is his house. Of course, I built my house, and it took me years to do so, but that's not a problem at all! Now, there is a small question that turn in my head: why should one make a difficult work if he is not paid to do it? I guess that this is why I have these 3 tons of putrefacted garbage at the corner of the street.

(edit: the day I'll be able to spell correctly will be the Armaggedon. Sorry for the inconvenience [embarrass]).

Regards,

[Edited by - Emmanuel Deloget on October 2, 2006 1:02:02 PM]

[ehudros]

I'm sorry if my reply seemed rude, and I did not mean to diregard your claims.
However, even after reading your second post, I still do not think I should stop developing my game, as I still think no real damage is done here. a lot of time and work has been put into this, and if I get a cease and desist request from bizzare I would simply change enough gameplay /grpahics elements so it would no longer be an issue.

Meanwhile, I am simply showing this to the community to get feedback and improve my coding exprience.

[Emmanuel Deloget]

Quote:

Original post by ehudros I'm sorry if my reply seemed rude, and I did not mean to diregard your claims. However, even after reading your second post, I still do not think I should stop developing my game, as I still think no real damage is done here. a lot of time and work has been put into this, and if I get a cease and desist request from bizzare I would simply change enough gameplay /grpahics elements so it would no longer be an issue.

I'd like to see this.

Quote:

Original post by ehudros Meanwhile, I am simply showing this to the community to get feedback and improve my coding exprience.

Fair enough. While being very pedantic about the legal issues, I still want to try your game [grin]

Regards,

[zedzeek]

what a joke

Quote:

One often repeated comment is that Geometry Wars is merely itself a clone of Robotron. The only real similarity between the two games is the 'two stick' control method - and a control method alone makes neither a game nor a brand.

:)
man the simularities are far more than that, geo wars is basically a robotron ripoff plain + simple, thats not bad but denying it is.

concerning the game --
well done, it started in fullscreen mode so thats a point off
also controlling the spaceship is pretty difficult

nice beiong only ~500kb to download

[Foobar of Integers]

Very pretty. Two things though, the "Gravity well" guys are way too easy to kill, and you should add the option to change the resolution, and to enable antialiasing, if possible

FPS: 95-100

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1 GB RAM
GeForce 7800GT

[ehudros]

Anyone else?
version 0.25 is almost done, with some improvements already added and some still on the way.

I'd appreciate any suggestions you guys have...

[Fingers_]

It's pretty nice.. I found it really hard to see where I was aiming though. The thin crossing lines get lost among the grid and all the flashy stuff. Starting in fullscreen is also a bit scary.

[ehudros]

Already fixed the thin crosshair...
What does people have against full screen? ;)
almost all games are full screen - It's pretty standard :)

[Promit]

Quote:

Original post by ehudros What does people have against full screen? ;)

I have a lot against it when there's no visible way to choose a resolution.

[ehudros]

Point taken, I'll try and add an options menu soon.