Snails for PC public beta
by Randall · in General Discussion · 01/30/2004 (9:28 pm) · 13 replies
I really don't know where to post this. But here goes.
PDAmill has ported their award winning PDA and Smartphone game Snails to the PC. An open beta is currently under way and further details and download can be seen at the forums
Some people may recognise my tales about this game, and its rise as one of the top selling mobile games. Well now is your opportunity to try it out (sorry, Linux and Mac versions are not currently available). Furthermore, you can watch our process as we flounder about in a new marketspace.:)
Our normal process starts with a public beta, which is a somewhat crippled demo (contains 1-2levels, half the weapons, only 2 characters and no missions). We gather data, feedback, bug reports, etc. A couple weeks later we release another public beta with fixes and enhancements, although this may not be necessary since the major gameplay bugs have been worked out over the last 2 years in the PocketPC version. Then we release the final demo and launch the game for purchase.
What really makes this game different, is the fact that although you are playing a PC version... your multiplayer opponent (via internet or LAN) might be playing the game from a PocketPC, Palm, or Smartphone.
There are substantial differences in screensize between the PC, PocketPC and Smartphone versions. However level and character graphics are exactly the same for all three, allowing cross compatibility: (These images can be seen fullsize here)
About the author
#2
01/31/2004 (1:14 am)
Just be glad Team17 never got to sue-ing anyone :) 
#3
01/31/2004 (1:59 am)
They would have lost. Though, maybe we'll get to hear Randall spew more obscenity this way. 
#5
But then, they never defended the IP so it was bound to happen.
I'm surprised that people get away with this kind of thing when you see so many litigation cases for other games.
I guess smaller devs are just more "fair game" because they cant afford to litigate every single copy like say, lucasarts or time warner.
01/31/2004 (3:49 am)
Well, I'm sure they probably would have lost. But they shouldnt have, this is far too close for comfort.But then, they never defended the IP so it was bound to happen.
I'm surprised that people get away with this kind of thing when you see so many litigation cases for other games.
I guess smaller devs are just more "fair game" because they cant afford to litigate every single copy like say, lucasarts or time warner.
#6
I got confused. Aren't you still part of Team17? So which party are you refering to when you said:
Just curious.
Alex
01/31/2004 (9:14 am)
Phil.I got confused. Aren't you still part of Team17? So which party are you refering to when you said:
Quote:
But then, they never defended the IP so it was bound to happen.
Just curious.
Alex
#7
Anyway, this looks like it could be a lot of fun, I wish I had, like, leisure time to spend playing with this stuff. ;)
01/31/2004 (9:18 am)
Nah, Phil is now freelancing it. As for "But then, they never defended the IP so it was bound to happen." I assume that's referring to Team17 never defending their worms IP...Anyway, this looks like it could be a lot of fun, I wish I had, like, leisure time to spend playing with this stuff. ;)
#8
Oct.2003, Worms World Party finally appeared on PocketPC for $24, ported by Jamdat (formerly Hexacto).
When Snails initially launched at $12, MonkeyStone and Ionside threatened us with a lawsuit for price gouging- dropping prices ridiculously low so that competition is eliminated. They never proceeded beyond an initial personal threat (the email wasn't drafted by an attorney).
Small companies are indeed easy targets, especially when they are confronted with massive attorney and court costs. So the little guy has no choice but to drop the project, and that isn't a good thing for overall industry nor the consumer. Especially a struggling industry like PocketPC.
At that time the industry was looking dismal, sales were virtually nil. Games were nothing more than GameBoy Color ports complete with crappy sound, 8-bit graphics and choppy framerates. All for just $39 per title. Snails was one of the first games to spin the industry around, make people take notice, boosted consumer confidence (which equals more sales for EVERYONE)and showed how games SHOULD be made.
So where would the industry be without games like Snails, Chopper Alley or Interstellar Flames? (these three different indie developers games really boosted the indie movement and changed the face of the industry) To tell you the truth, we have no idea. I assume it would still be stuggling, because the vast majority of developers and publishers still "don't get it".
Some of you are probably looking at this game and saying "eh? this doesn't look like anything special". Thats pretty much my point. Its not special. Its not cutting edge. Its not complex. Some will even dispute its originality.
So this is what a top-selling game looks like, and I would certainly hope alot of you could do much better. In fact I welcome the competition as it will boost the industry and make Indies that much stronger.
01/31/2004 (11:34 am)
After the release of our very first Public Beta in Dec.2001, Team17 contacted us in regard to porting Worms to PocketPC. So they were fully aware of the game, the platform, everything. We never heard back from them and we launched Snails a month later in Jan.2002.Oct.2003, Worms World Party finally appeared on PocketPC for $24, ported by Jamdat (formerly Hexacto).
When Snails initially launched at $12, MonkeyStone and Ionside threatened us with a lawsuit for price gouging- dropping prices ridiculously low so that competition is eliminated. They never proceeded beyond an initial personal threat (the email wasn't drafted by an attorney).
Small companies are indeed easy targets, especially when they are confronted with massive attorney and court costs. So the little guy has no choice but to drop the project, and that isn't a good thing for overall industry nor the consumer. Especially a struggling industry like PocketPC.
At that time the industry was looking dismal, sales were virtually nil. Games were nothing more than GameBoy Color ports complete with crappy sound, 8-bit graphics and choppy framerates. All for just $39 per title. Snails was one of the first games to spin the industry around, make people take notice, boosted consumer confidence (which equals more sales for EVERYONE)and showed how games SHOULD be made.
So where would the industry be without games like Snails, Chopper Alley or Interstellar Flames? (these three different indie developers games really boosted the indie movement and changed the face of the industry) To tell you the truth, we have no idea. I assume it would still be stuggling, because the vast majority of developers and publishers still "don't get it".
Some of you are probably looking at this game and saying "eh? this doesn't look like anything special". Thats pretty much my point. Its not special. Its not cutting edge. Its not complex. Some will even dispute its originality.
So this is what a top-selling game looks like, and I would certainly hope alot of you could do much better. In fact I welcome the competition as it will boost the industry and make Indies that much stronger.
#9
Besides hacking at Torque, and lately Reaction Engine, my other hobby was playing a "ClickTech" game called MechWarrior: Dark Age. Of course, the game has its own community forum called MWRealms.
Since, my day job forces me to move around a lot, I kept missing tourneys and I kept loosing out in polishing my skills. So what I did was spent the better part of my freetime last year to build a MechWarrior Dark Age simulator for my PocketPC using GapiDraw. Late last year, I posted in the MWRealms forum offering my game as an open source community project.
Although I didn't get any emails from WizKids itself ... my post didn't last 4 hours and was taken off the site.
I still have the game and is improving it but I don't think that it will ever see the light of day. :)
Alex
01/31/2004 (12:03 pm)
Hmmm. Not similar but related.Besides hacking at Torque, and lately Reaction Engine, my other hobby was playing a "ClickTech" game called MechWarrior: Dark Age. Of course, the game has its own community forum called MWRealms.
Since, my day job forces me to move around a lot, I kept missing tourneys and I kept loosing out in polishing my skills. So what I did was spent the better part of my freetime last year to build a MechWarrior Dark Age simulator for my PocketPC using GapiDraw. Late last year, I posted in the MWRealms forum offering my game as an open source community project.
Although I didn't get any emails from WizKids itself ... my post didn't last 4 hours and was taken off the site.
I still have the game and is improving it but I don't think that it will ever see the light of day. :)
Alex
#10
01/31/2004 (1:46 pm)
Considering you were using GapiDraw, you would have gotten a much better reception at sites like PocketMatrix.com, especially considering the massive developer support there. I can't imagine there are many people at MWRealms that would even know what GapiDRAW is, or what it does. (how many people HERE know what it is without looking it up?)
#11
02/03/2004 (12:00 am)
Team17 did not create worms though did they, some guy won a competion to make a AMOS game in AmigaFormat years ago. I wonder who he was and if he got a good deal? Could be an intresting story. 
#12
http://www.antheliongame.com/
They are located here at Budapest/Hungary, Randall, are you a pdamill member anyway ? Hmm...Maybe we know each other by personally ?
02/19/2004 (10:37 am)
I know personally the guys behind Pdamill, ive worked with them on their space game Anthelion, im just designed most of the space bases and some spaceships.http://www.antheliongame.com/
They are located here at Budapest/Hungary, Randall, are you a pdamill member anyway ? Hmm...Maybe we know each other by personally ?
#13
I honestly can't keep track of all the people that have worked with PDAmill- I only know of Laszlo, because he requested Snails art for the PC and Palm version. Both are much higher resolution than the original PocketPC version, but all the levels and characters are identical regardless of platform.
It should be mentioned that Snails for Palm launched about 5 days ago, and has had about 900 demo downloads on HANDANGO ALONE without much marketing and hype (it can be downloaded at various other sites). Its quickly heading toward the top-10 Palm games, which surprised me really- Snails supports ONLY OS5 and OS6. So obviously OS4 support isn't a huge factor any more.
http://www.antheliongame.com/
Anthelion is a HUGE success, its been #1 and #2 for the last couple months, and even broke the barrier. Some games sell so well, they break the previous mark of maximum sales.
02/19/2004 (11:56 am)
I'm not part of PDAmill, I was contracted to do the work for Snails. PDAmill has had exponential GROWTH in the last 2 years, considering it all started out with "Peters Gamebox" and a ONE PERSON team. Now PDAmill is a serious force in the mobile gaming world, and nearly all 6 of its games are placed in the top-ten.I honestly can't keep track of all the people that have worked with PDAmill- I only know of Laszlo, because he requested Snails art for the PC and Palm version. Both are much higher resolution than the original PocketPC version, but all the levels and characters are identical regardless of platform.
It should be mentioned that Snails for Palm launched about 5 days ago, and has had about 900 demo downloads on HANDANGO ALONE without much marketing and hype (it can be downloaded at various other sites). Its quickly heading toward the top-10 Palm games, which surprised me really- Snails supports ONLY OS5 and OS6. So obviously OS4 support isn't a huge factor any more.
http://www.antheliongame.com/
Anthelion is a HUGE success, its been #1 and #2 for the last couple months, and even broke the barrier. Some games sell so well, they break the previous mark of maximum sales.
Torque Owner James Yong