Ithikial_AU Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Kotaku Australia has nominated games put up by their community for the 2011 awards and CMBN got through. Place your vote here: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/the-kotaku-awards-2011-vote-for-your-favourite-indiedownloadable-game/#more-476975 A bit tough competition though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Ya some of the stuff on there is really popular thanks to steam (Frozen Synapse, Bastion, Dungeon Defenders, Terraria etc) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Voted for it, since out of all of those it's probably the most technically impressive game. However, a lot of those games are exceptionally good fun. I'm really excited to see how indie games have taken off this year, they fill so many niches that the big boys are scared to venture into. I expect Torchlight 2 to be the winner next year. Who needs Diablo 3 when you can get the same gameplay but with mods, offline mode, no DRM and for 1/3 of the price. Xenonauts could be amazing as well (AAA quality X-COM clone) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkEzra Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 thanks for posting the link. I voted 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandokan Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Voted! Thanks for the link. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZPB II Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Voted, even though I'm not Australian. Ranger33, Torchlight had one massive, gaping flaw that plagues neither Diablo 2 or 3. It was a ridiculously easy game, which made playing it unbearably boring. Compare this with the Nightmare/Hell/Hardcore gameplay of Diablo, which kept you on the edge of your seat while the game rips your flesh and salts the wounds. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sawomi Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Check out Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Beats Diablo & Torchlight like Combat Mission beats Steel Panthers & Close Combat. + it's Freeware 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Jeez, I never even heard of any of the other games... Talk about feeling "out of the loop." Voted for CM, natch... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Ranger33, Torchlight had one massive, gaping flaw that plagues neither Diablo 2 or 3. It was a ridiculously easy game, which made playing it unbearably boring. Compare this with the Nightmare/Hell/Hardcore gameplay of Diablo, which kept you on the edge of your seat while the game rips your flesh and salts the wounds. I don't know, it gave me a decent challenge on the first playthrough. I'm not hardcore about these types of games though, I just want to kill things and get loot! +1 to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, it's really easy to learn and offers unlimited replayability. It's also insanely challenging if you want to actually win. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Jeez, I never even heard of any of the other games... Talk about feeling "out of the loop." Voted for CM, natch... LOL I hear ya. I feel like I am a social pariah and uninformed dweeb. So just to show em all I voted for CMBN. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Von Fauster Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Voted for it, of course. I love all the CM games (and hadn't heard of the others anyway. I don't get out much....) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ithikial_AU Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Update: Sadly CMBN didn't win. Award went to Bastion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Did they record scores so CMBN would have a rank? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJFHutch Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Seems silly to base indie game of the year on popularity, doesn't that defeat the purpose a bit? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Seems silly to base indie game of the year on popularity, doesn't that defeat the purpose a bit? They had a Reader's Choice winner (Bastion) and an Editor's Choice (From Dust). If it was up to me, the winner would be Frozen Synapse. While the game's popularity has waned a lot, it was really impressive in many ways. If you aren't familiar with it, basically it combines the tactical plan drawing of old school Rainbow Six with the WEGO of CM (with 5 second increments instead of 1 min). Frankly, BFC could take some lessons from their online setup, since it has every single thing people here have asked for (chatrooms, matchmaking, leaderboards, tournaments, tracks your games, handles the files, and tells you when it's your turn, etc) and a wonderful UI for it all. All this, from a 3-man team. Edit: In fact, after looking at their site in more detail, it seems they hire out to help with all sorts of coding projects. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I'd hate to see what BFC would have to pay for their ramp-up time. What significant piece would you cut out of CMBN to get matchmaking, chatrooms, and leaderboards? That's the question you have to ask. Unless you've got pre-built components to hand that kind of thing ain't quick 'n easy. It's a lot more doable with 2-3 times the dev time, even leaving aside the whole Torque vs. custom engine debate. Edit: that's not to say it'll never happen. But every feature takes dev time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 It said they do the initial consult for free, so it wouldn't hurt to check it out. I wouldn't expect it for CMBN, but as part of the promised UI renovation for the Bulge it could give the game a massive boost in mainstream appeal (can of worms opened). I know, I know, the classic "not enough time" but I don't really accept it for this one. We still have roughly the same menu system and features (or lack thereof at this point) that CMBO had more than a decade ago. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 It said they do the initial consult for free, so it wouldn't hurt to check it out. I wouldn't expect it for CMBN, but as part of the promised UI renovation for the Bulge it could give the game a massive boost in mainstream appeal (can of worms opened). Not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't think Frozen Synapse got its huge boost of popularity from its UI. It was an excellent, fairly cheap indie title. It got a lot of print in gaming blogs that favor such titles. I doubt that its UI had much at all to do with it. I know, I know, the classic "not enough time" but I don't really accept it for this one. We still have roughly the same menu system and features (or lack thereof) that CMBO had more than a decade ago. So what would you cut from CMSF or CMBN? Lose hunks of TacAI. Or Hunt. Or optimizations to the engine that make large battles possible (not perfect, but possible). In return you get... better menus. There's not much extraneous fat in the engine. It's not so much "not enough time" as "the time needed to be spent elsewhere". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I didn't mean for this to get heated, I love the game, just frustrated by it in some ways. Your point is valid in most regards. However, you can't tell me it would take that long to add in some "Back" buttons on screens that need them, an optional confirmation screen when ending a PBEM turn, or maybe allowing us to change the keybindings from within the game (a standard PC gaming feature for the last 20+ years). I don't mean I want those tomorrow, but over the course of the last 4-5 years I think it could have been managed. The front end of a game does matter when someone is considering the game as a whole. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I didn't mean for this to get heated, I love the game, just frustrated by it in some ways. Your point is valid in most regards. However, you can't tell me it would take that long to add in some "Back" buttons on screens that need them, an optional confirmation screen when ending a PBEM turn, or maybe allowing us to change the keybindings from within the game (a standard PC gaming feature for the last 20+ years). I don't mean I want those tomorrow, but over the course of the last 4-5 years I think it could have been managed. The front end of a game does matter when someone is considering the game as a whole. Eh, I'm not upset. I haven't even hit "exasperated" yet, frankly. If anything "tired" is probably most accurate. My kids are sick and it's been a long day... and I won't kick off for a bit longer, either (and not just sifting the forums, I've got actual work that is staring at me from behind this web browser... you wait, work!). So, yeah. Anyhow, software development, especially it seems game development, can be incredibly amorphous and "why didn't you make time to do X, a very obvious thing that would make the product better?" is almost never answered to anyone's satisfaction (least of all the developer's), so your frustration is... well, let's say I've heard it at every company I've ever worked at. It's natural. Insisting that "well, it could have been done at some point" doesn't hold water, however, because just because something *could* have been done doesn't mean it ought to have taken precedence over what *was* done with the time, which is perhaps the whole point of what I'm on about. A developer, especially a small one, has to make a lot of hard choices. It's very easy to point at the outcomes of them and insist the opposite / different would have been better. But understanding that the choice needed to be made, is key. Unless there is some magic that will squeeze extra hours out of the week, or clone Charles, in which case bring on the extra features. Heck, I'm sure BFC would love to have cool matchmaking features and UI improvements all over the place. That they don't is a testament to how much work was necessary for all the parts you do see. Now... as Steve has intimated, the winds of UI change *will* blow. Any extensive UI change would be aimed directly at improving the user experience, yes? So... we'll see what happens. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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