Uebergame now available on Steam
by Duion · 10/27/2015 (10:05 am) · 12 comments
Steam store page: store.steampowered.com/app/391780/
It is a free open source basic casual deathmatch shooter, based on Torque3D.
My goal is to provide a community project based on Torque3D and I chose Steam to be able to reach a wider audience.
Now I got all the work needed for the release process done and finally it is released.
This is my first release, so I did not really know what I had to expect. Shortly after release the game got overrun with players and issues starting to occur. I tried to test it before release as good as I could, but I had not that many testers and so missed a lot of bugs and issues. This lead to a lot of negative reviews. People had to host their own servers, since I could not get the dedicated to work yet and so it happened that a lot of them connected to bad ping servers and then complained about the performance.
I should have thought about this and taken the time to get servers running, but now I know better.
So I hope I can turn around the bad start a bit by fixing the issues and giving support and if someone here wants to help with finding and fixing the issues that would be cool.
I want to keep Torque alive, but I cannot do everything on my own, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
It is a free open source basic casual deathmatch shooter, based on Torque3D.
My goal is to provide a community project based on Torque3D and I chose Steam to be able to reach a wider audience.
Now I got all the work needed for the release process done and finally it is released.
This is my first release, so I did not really know what I had to expect. Shortly after release the game got overrun with players and issues starting to occur. I tried to test it before release as good as I could, but I had not that many testers and so missed a lot of bugs and issues. This lead to a lot of negative reviews. People had to host their own servers, since I could not get the dedicated to work yet and so it happened that a lot of them connected to bad ping servers and then complained about the performance.
I should have thought about this and taken the time to get servers running, but now I know better.
So I hope I can turn around the bad start a bit by fixing the issues and giving support and if someone here wants to help with finding and fixing the issues that would be cool.
I want to keep Torque alive, but I cannot do everything on my own, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
About the author
http://www.duion.com - Human Paradigm Specialist
#2
And if you are honest, Torque will not change much soon and will keep the typical Torque related problems.
Steam is fine for user base, 90% of my testers before release came from there, while user base gained from this community and other open source communities is still zero, maybe 1-2 if I'm very optimistic.
10/27/2015 (6:02 pm)
Workshop is planned, as well as other features, but I wanted to release first otherwise it will take me month or years in addition of time to get the game out.And if you are honest, Torque will not change much soon and will keep the typical Torque related problems.
Steam is fine for user base, 90% of my testers before release came from there, while user base gained from this community and other open source communities is still zero, maybe 1-2 if I'm very optimistic.
#3
10/27/2015 (6:33 pm)
Cool! 
#4
The gaming-year 2015 is already called the year of the Indie Game Apocalypse. The market is flooded with poorly made and buggy games. The gamers are fed up and it's already a daily subject for many famous gaming youtubers. We had a pretty successful Greenlight campaign in May this year but it became very obvious that the days of releasing a game that's not working properly or doesn't have enough playtime in it as an early access game, are over. The market is completely saturated and most gamers already had bad experiences. We are working on a solid alpha version, and it does take a long time if you don't have a 100+ team working on it.
My advise to you (for what's it worth) is to step in the shoes of the player and look from the player's perspective. I keep on reading from your words that your product should be used because it's open source, there's an editor, you can work on it etc., but it suppose to be a game. If you're "selling" a game engine then I think (IMHO) you should have put it in the software section of Steam instead.
I'm not criticizing b.t.w. (not my intention at least), just trying to help. In any way good luck with it!
10/27/2015 (7:30 pm)
You published your game as a finished product. No longer is it an early access game, which in fact is because: it's not finished, it contains too many bugs (according the reviews) and you didn't test it properly yet (your words). Even if a game is free you can't bring in any more the excuses you could have during the early access period. The players will just write mostly honest reviews, while seeing it as a finished product and have the expectations with that.The gaming-year 2015 is already called the year of the Indie Game Apocalypse. The market is flooded with poorly made and buggy games. The gamers are fed up and it's already a daily subject for many famous gaming youtubers. We had a pretty successful Greenlight campaign in May this year but it became very obvious that the days of releasing a game that's not working properly or doesn't have enough playtime in it as an early access game, are over. The market is completely saturated and most gamers already had bad experiences. We are working on a solid alpha version, and it does take a long time if you don't have a 100+ team working on it.
My advise to you (for what's it worth) is to step in the shoes of the player and look from the player's perspective. I keep on reading from your words that your product should be used because it's open source, there's an editor, you can work on it etc., but it suppose to be a game. If you're "selling" a game engine then I think (IMHO) you should have put it in the software section of Steam instead.
I'm not criticizing b.t.w. (not my intention at least), just trying to help. In any way good luck with it!
#5
I just did not expect such a rush on it from users, I thought it will slowly build up, but lesson learned ;)
Now I have more respect even from badly made games (except made with unity), since I know now how much work it actually is, people using Torque will have a tough time.
10/28/2015 (3:39 am)
Steam is not really made for such a project, since it is not early access also, so does not matter how you turn it, maybe marking it as early access would have helped a bit, but now it's too late.I just did not expect such a rush on it from users, I thought it will slowly build up, but lesson learned ;)
Now I have more respect even from badly made games (except made with unity), since I know now how much work it actually is, people using Torque will have a tough time.
#6
10/28/2015 (10:24 am)
Quote:Now I have more respect even from badly made gamesYou can also throw some empathy toward the developers of the game engines themselves. There's not much difference between releasing a game vs a game engine. You don't know the pain until you do it for yourself, then perspective drops like a bag of hammers.
#7
@Duion
This keeps Torque 3D alive:
A real good Strategy/RPG
http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/
Other good games
http://www.beamng.com/
http://www.frozencortex.com/
http://www.yorkshirerifles.com/
http://www.towerwarsgame.com/
http://www.metaldrift.com/
Online and MMO
http://www.playmech.com/
http://lifeisfeudal.com/mmorpgsandLiF/
Damn good MMO
http://www.villagersandheroes.com/play-game/?continue=%2F
Nasty well done RGP like game
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/
Torque 3D is alive and many really good developers use T3D. This year has seen several good releases.
10/28/2015 (6:12 pm)
Quote:I want to keep Torque alive, but I cannot do everything on my own, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
@Duion
This keeps Torque 3D alive:
A real good Strategy/RPG
http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/
Other good games
http://www.beamng.com/
http://www.frozencortex.com/
http://www.yorkshirerifles.com/
http://www.towerwarsgame.com/
http://www.metaldrift.com/
Online and MMO
http://www.playmech.com/
http://lifeisfeudal.com/mmorpgsandLiF/
Damn good MMO
http://www.villagersandheroes.com/play-game/?continue=%2F
Nasty well done RGP like game
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/
Torque 3D is alive and many really good developers use T3D. This year has seen several good releases.
#8
But I don't want to discuss that here or blame anyone, it is just that I depend on the engine development, since I cannot do that myself.
10/28/2015 (7:26 pm)
I meant the open source part of it, on the main repo it looks to me Azaezel and JeffR are keeping it going almost alone at the moment. Things are really slowing down. Yes all those other games may be successful with Torque, but they are not giving much back. They don't have to, of course, but I would at least wish some more compatibility fixes would go back into the main repository, like linux support and update to the newest graphics drivers.But I don't want to discuss that here or blame anyone, it is just that I depend on the engine development, since I cannot do that myself.
#9
I must say that I disagree with that point of view.
Edit:
Those games are awesome showcases and many developers have made pull requests over the years.
10/29/2015 (6:30 am)
Quote:Yes all those other games may be successful with Torque, but they are not giving much back.
I must say that I disagree with that point of view.
Edit:
Those games are awesome showcases and many developers have made pull requests over the years.
#10
10/29/2015 (7:23 pm)
removed, changed my mind ;-)
#11
I think that you should take notes and improve on the game. It is free after all.
10/31/2015 (11:33 am)
I skimmed through a few of the negative and positive comments, and I must say that the negative comments don't seem to be that bad. They look more like constructive criticism to me. Some of the harsher comments seem to come from more hard core gamers who likely expected more. I liked how one of the users went through the trouble to even host their own server just so that he could play online with people. I agree that this should not happen, but that shows commitment and care.I think that you should take notes and improve on the game. It is free after all.
#12
Now I'm debugging and testing for days now to find out, if I can get them to run. Some people from this community are helping with it, but it seems they are broken for quite a while now and nobody really knows why.
10/31/2015 (12:14 pm)
I already summed it down to the problem that I did not setup dedicated servers first, this is what caused most of the negative reviews.Now I'm debugging and testing for days now to find out, if I can get them to run. Some people from this community are helping with it, but it seems they are broken for quite a while now and nobody really knows why.
Associate Simon Love
I think that the amount of negative feedback will simply bury your game, even if it is free. A new user looking for something free to play will not usually try products with "Mostly negative" reviews.
When I played it, it was laggy and lacking any depth to the gameplay (which is covered by your updates). Users who have this type of experience will never come back to play the game in the small chance that fixes were made.
- You include the editor but how can users share their maps without the Steam Workshop?
If they are intended to trade them via dropbox and the like, again, why Steam?
I do not understand why this is not just an add-on to T3D. A bit of marketing with Torque3d.org should get you a more stable user base than Steam imho.