Archive for Winter Wolves Games

3 July, 2008 | No comments

Supernova 2: custom ships!

I’m getting excited… I’m programming in these days the Custom Ship screen of Supernova 2, and it’s going to rule

I’ve changed so much in this last update (still in the works) that the game seems almost another game! or better, can still be played like before, but if you enable both Real-Time Turns in management part and the Skirmish Mode, it feels and plays like a completely different game!

Unfortunately I won’t have the time to put the Global Random Events into the next 1.0.3 release yet… but I hope you’ll understand: as it is, is already the biggest update I’ve ever done for any of my games in terms of change of gameplay, new features and enhanced playability (the only other big update I can compare with was when I added the Quest Mode for Magic Stones).

I was very motivated because I got some very bad reviews from people that compared S2 to the classic famous 4X games… the problem is that Supernova 2 is NOT, and NEVER WAS, an attempt to surpass giants like Galciv2 and such. It is a wargame, a classic wargame with good (I hope) rules and units, with a more deep simulation behind it than the usual ones.

Anyway, a pity they reviewed my game in version 1.0.2. I’m sure if they would play the new update that I’ll release probably next week, they would change their mind…yes, I’ve changed also the click sound and the main menu music!

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19 June, 2008 | No comments

What you?ll see in next Supernova 2 update

No isn’t out yet, I’m working on it. I don’t think will manage to include the Skirmish Mode in this update because if you take a look at the list below, you can see it is already a HUGE update (will change the game completely, hopefully in better way!).

What you’ll see in version 1.0.3

• added new random unique technologies like Timeshift and Psionic weapons or Cloning Centers
• added “Ship Customization” screen where you’ll be able to create custom ship blueprints modifying an existing one: each device now require a certain amount of space, but the possible custom combinations are thousands
• added the “Event Summary” screen where you can see a log of all the in-game events, from turn 0 until the end
• added a real-time turn option during the game macromanagement part, so that time advances automatically without you having to press end turn

Not bad eh? :p probably the biggest update I’ve ever done to any of my games. I was undecided if to finish first my other game Planet Stronghold but I decided to upgrade Supernova 2 since now I am still “fresh” of coding it… a few months later and would have been much more difficult to do.

Estimate release date… don’t know, I hope end of this month, at least the BETA

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16 June, 2008 | No comments

How to lose a potential customer: phone verifications

Yesterday wanted to advertise my games (old and new ones as well), so thought to try those blog advertising services. I found 2-3 really good, like ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews and Payperpost.

I had already used their services in the past, and must say that got some positive review and traffic from the posts. So yesterday wanted to buy more ads, and went to one of the 3. Unfortunately, even if I had previously bought lot of posts from them (over $500 value), they decided that I couldn’t buy anymore if I didn’t call them by phone (of course a USA number) to verify my credit card info! (big cheer sound)

Of course, being european, I am not surely going to call someone in USA to verify my CC info. Also, what they need to verify? they expect me to tell my CC number over the phone? no thanks, is much safer to use the web!

So they lost a potential good customer for a totally useless anti-fraud system (expecially in this case since I already bought several stuff from them before). No problem, I’ll go with the other 2 who aren’t so dumb to use such system (they even let me use Paypal actually!). I’m not saying which one of the 3 is, but is enough to browse their sites to find out…

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10 June, 2008 | No comments

Planet Stronghold: Isomap

The image above (click to enlarge) shows the town screen of Planet Stronghold. The fight itself won’t be in isometric, since I would need to rewrite / adapt the Supernova 2 engine, but I’ve added this town isometric map because I’ve in mind an interesting mix of town building and tower defense… more info coming soon!

27 May, 2008 | No comments

New game officially announced: Planet Stronghold

So, instead of taking 2 weeks of holidays I started working on a new game

It is basically a Tower Defense game in space, but will also contain more management stuff in it than a traditional tower defense game. Today I finished the main menu (click to enlarge):

I’m satisfied about it, I think gives a good feel of the game. For those “worried” about the other games, don’t worry. I’ll resume working on Tower of Destiny very soon

24 May, 2008 | No comments

Future titles of Winter Wolves & Tycoon Games

Today I did a plan on what to do next. Was hard since I have always so many ideas and so little time…

Anyway, here is the plan:

Winter Wolves

- working on Tower Of Destiny, a dungeon hack’n’slash RPG with first person view, character creation with party of 5 members, a general storyline, a pool of 20-25 heroes that will stay in town while you choose a party to go exploring the dungeon. The heroes that remains in town can train some of their skills meanwhile.

- thinking about doing a complete rewrite of UBM engine, as suggested by the feedback of some users in my forums. So creating first a generic engine that I can use to make both UBM2, but also a sort of “gladiator management game” the idea could be very fun, especially if I manage to make it multiplayer

Tycoon Games

- working on a Tower Defense game using Supernova 2 engine. Not sure yet if will be fantasy or sci-fi. Imagine a tower defense game with a storyline, upgrading towers and mobile defenses like characters using special attack. Have still to decide if to do it turn-based or real-time, even if I am more inclined to do it real-time

- working on several updates for Supernova 2, like the addition of a skirmish mode, that will let the player buy ships and jump straight into the battle, without any macromanagement part. I plan also to add more ship/weapons and (probably later, next year) a sort of ship-design screen where you can design your own custom ship configurations

I am also experimenting with other languages (like Flash) and other ideas, but officially I’m developing those 3 titles/engines right now. I’m working a bit on every one, even if the game that will probably finish first will be the Tower Defense game, since I can use good part of Supernova 2 engine.

That’s all for now

18 May, 2008 | No comments

Supernova 2: saving in middle of the battles

I’m currently working on version 1.0.2, I’ve added the feature (requested by many people) of saving in middle of the battles. Indeed is a bit insane to play the battles without any chance to save, even if this can lead to re-trying the same battle by reloading a previous savegame

I’m also adding tons of minor improvement, not bugs but new features and in general things that help playing the game in a easier way. Expect a complete update within next week. I’m also working on the manual, but I am still unsure when it will be finished. I’ll first put it online on the official webiste, so I can update it day by day, then I’ll make it as PDF to put inside the game installation folder.

I want to thank all the people that bought the game so far, showing an impressive response. The best I can do is make a BIG update to help them enjoy the game even more. And after this big update, I’ll start working on the skirmish mode

14 May, 2008 | No comments

Supernova 2: FINISHED!!!!

Woot!!!!

It has been a LONG LONG time, but in last couple of days (after some last minute bugfixes) I finally released Supernova 2:Spacewar!! I am really proud of it, since I consider it a complex game but with an accessible interface. I asked some classic “casual gamers” friends to test it, and they were all able to figure out how to play after “only” a few hours

The version now is 1.0, and if you downloaded any demo or earlier 1.0 (it had unfortunately a crashing bug on startup on some macs!) please redownload it, as now I have fixed everything (at least I hope so!!).

To download the game visit this page: http://www.tycoongames.eu/freetrials.php

People on forums are already making good suggestions in my forums, like this one:

I probably should have mentioned this much earlier, but have you considered adding a skirmish mode also. By skirmish mode, I mean fighting one mission after another without all the macromanagement parts in between. For example, it would be nice to start with some units in battle one, and as you keep winning battles you gain currency to buy more of the same units or new units for battle two and so on.

Indeed I find it a very good idea, and not even much complex to implement in the game engine, so I’m probably going to make it. I have also other minor features to add, like auto-units deployments, and so on, to make the game even more accessible.

What about future plans? I started a classic dungeon explration RPG called Tower Of Destiny last year which I plan to work on. I’ve also started another “secret” project to make an ideal sequel to Magic Stones (yes a card-battles game!) and a sort of Princess Maker game… However for now I have to take a pause , both to relax, and think my strategy…

Thanks everyone for the support! Days like this make me happy to be an indie developer

6 May, 2008 | No comments

Supernova 2: almost done!

Yes, the game is almost done! I’m currently finishing the tutorials screens, and doing some final cleanup and last-minute unit balancing. I’m also checking that the game at maximum difficulty is really… impossible, since for my past games got some users complaining about the fact that they were too easy.

Well I can say that at maximum difficulty I have hard times myself to win just 1 battle… so hopefully should be hard enough!!

The game release is scheduled for mid-May. Yeah, about 10 days - I’ll post first a beta version in my forums just to find some small bugs (never had a game crash so far) and then will go on with official release.

Meanwhile I halved the price of the first game, Supernova: Galactic Wars. If you missed it, you can buy it for very low price now, but be warned, isn’t a strategy game like the sequel, but an arcade one

20 April, 2008 | No comments

Supernova 2: the crew

I’m working like crazy to be able to finish Supernova 2 by end of this month… and today made another good change to the game rules. I wasn’t satisfied by the role the transports had. In practice, how I could determine if they actually manage to capture a planet or a ship?

Also the whole thing was a bit unrealistic. I know it’s a game so don’t need to be realistic (expecially since it’s sci-fi!), but conquering a whole planet with just a small transport ship was a bit weird

So now I changed the rules a bit: planets are conquered simply when you destroy the enemy ship(s) that are over it (maybe one day I’ll release an add-on that will deal with ground battles). Instead the transport ships can be used to assault and capture any ship in the game!

This means that in theory you can assault an enemy battleship and then use it for the rest of the battle. Pretty cool, isn’t it? of course, each ship has a CREW value. The bigger the ship is, the more crew it has. So while in theory is possible to assault a battleship, will require more than 1 transport to do that.

After an assault, the transport is eliminated from the game, and the captured ship can be used only for the rest of the battle (doesn’t remain in your military screen after battle has ended). Even with those limitations, I think the transport will add a nice strategy element to the game, different from the other ships.

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