Transcendence

I'm very pleased to announce that I have decided to devote full-time to Transcendence and other games. I have formed a small company, called Kronosaur Productions, to work on Transcendence, Anacreon, and (eventually) other games. [And by small, I mean just me and my dog.]

The full announcement is on my blog:
http://neurohack.com/kronosaur/Introduc ... Produ.html

wow,

good luck george

Wooo! This is great news! Well for us players at least. Good luck with it. Hopefully it works out great.

Maybe you can spend more time on IRC now? Even if detached?

Yay, good luck George (also doggie :D) <3

Ow right! George, you're the man.

That's great! Good Luck!

wow, great news George ! This will be an awesome period for Transcendence !

Le-gasp!


Hope all goes well! Going to be doing some indie game development?

Full-time? YES!
No waiting 5 years for Part II w00t!
Oh, and if you need help from the community, we'll gladly help!
Good luck with Kronosaur Productions!

your pilots , I believe, are always behind you.

Well, this brought me out of hibernation.

First of all, good luck George. Will be happy to help in anyway I can.

Let me tell you a little about my experience with transcendence and anacreon. Maybe, you could use this as market research! I'm sure more accounts from other members, and maybe a survey of forum users will give you a fair idea of who your ideal target groups are.

How did I find the game? I can't remember, but I think it had a lot to do with google, free rpg style games, and small sizes for my dialup connection (I was using one at that time). It wasn't something that popped up as a great idea, however. I just downloaded to to take it for a spin and ended up really liking it.

I don't play either of these games anymore. The reason is that I don't have stab;e access to a computer anymore. I have an android phone (Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360) which takes care of most of my computing needs. I do everything on it, including keeping track of neurohack and other gaming needs.

But why do I still keep track of the game then? First and foremost, it's the community. It might be small, but it's of a very high quality. Second, it's direct access to the developer and having your voice heard. If there's something that put's me off, it's having to go thru layer after layer of tech support for an issue that I fully expect to not be solved by them. It's something I hope to see in the future.

Coming to the game itself, it was the transdata system that really got me interested. I have come across very few other games, short of full open source games that gave you that much control. But then, with my limited time and limited programming skills, full open source games are a bit challenging for me to understand. The transdata system is an excellent compromise. It's simple enough for newbies to get their head around and it's powerful enough for regulars to do same amazing things with. And with time, I was able to get my head around the more complex bits of transdata. I do hope something like this will be present in the future.

Here's a hypothetical situation. If I was to come across the game today, and played it till, say rigel as a demo, how much would I be willing to pay for the full game? About $2 (from a dev's perspective, consider me spoilt by android ).
Will I be willing to spend more on ingame purchases, expansion packs (say from StKs to Juno, and then to Heretic, Part 2?), yes of course, maybe 2$ for expansion pack. You know, in that range.

Hmmm, I actually have no idea what you could want from a survey. Maybe a form of some sort that could be filled by existing forum members...

Blitz wrote:Well, this brought me out of hibernation.

First of all, good luck George. Will be happy to help in anyway I can.

Let me tell you a little about my experience with transcendence and anacreon. Maybe, you could use this as market research! I'm sure more accounts from other members, and maybe a survey of forum users will give you a fair idea of who your ideal target groups are.

How did I find the game? I can't remember, but I think it had a lot to do with google, free rpg style games, and small sizes for my dialup connection (I was using one at that time). It wasn't something that popped up as a great idea, however. I just downloaded to to take it for a spin and ended up really liking it.

I don't play either of these games anymore. The reason is that I don't have stab;e access to a computer anymore. I have an android phone (Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360) which takes care of most of my computing needs. I do everything on it, including keeping track of neurohack and other gaming needs.

But why do I still keep track of the game then? First and foremost, it's the community. It might be small, but it's of a very high quality. Second, it's direct access to the developer and having your voice heard. If there's something that put's me off, it's having to go thru layer after layer of tech support for an issue that I fully expect to not be solved by them. It's something I hope to see in the future.

Coming to the game itself, it was the transdata system that really got me interested. I have come across very few other games, short of full open source games that gave you that much control. But then, with my limited time and limited programming skills, full open source games are a bit challenging for me to understand. The transdata system is an excellent compromise. It's simple enough for newbies to get their head around and it's powerful enough for regulars to do same amazing things with. And with time, I was able to get my head around the more complex bits of transdata. I do hope something like this will be present in the future.

Here's a hypothetical situation. If I was to come across the game today, and played it till, say rigel as a demo, how much would I be willing to pay for the full game? About $2 (from a dev's perspective, consider me spoilt by android ).
Will I be willing to spend more on ingame purchases, expansion packs (say from StKs to Juno, and then to Heretic, Part 2?), yes of course, maybe 2$ for expansion pack. You know, in that range.

Hmmm, I actually have no idea what you could want from a survey. Maybe a form of some sort that could be filled by existing forum members...

Oh the sign of the times the "app" model has made most games lower then $10 and in game expansions provide features are all downloadable content. Its an interesting system, seen it all over the place.
My favorite is the Gun Bros system where its free playable but some extra worlds and weapons are pay only.

Blitz wrote:Well, this brought me out of hibernation.

First of all, good luck George. Will be happy to help in anyway I can.

Let me tell you a little about my experience with transcendence and anacreon. Maybe, you could use this as market research! I'm sure more accounts from other members, and maybe a survey of forum users will give you a fair idea of who your ideal target groups are.

How did I find the game? I can't remember, but I think it had a lot to do with google, free rpg style games, and small sizes for my dialup connection (I was using one at that time). It wasn't something that popped up as a great idea, however. I just downloaded to to take it for a spin and ended up really liking it.

I don't play either of these games anymore. The reason is that I don't have stab;e access to a computer anymore. I have an android phone (Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5360) which takes care of most of my computing needs. I do everything on it, including keeping track of neurohack and other gaming needs.

But why do I still keep track of the game then? First and foremost, it's the community. It might be small, but it's of a very high quality. Second, it's direct access to the developer and having your voice heard. If there's something that put's me off, it's having to go thru layer after layer of tech support for an issue that I fully expect to not be solved by them. It's something I hope to see in the future.

Coming to the game itself, it was the transdata system that really got me interested. I have come across very few other games, short of full open source games that gave you that much control. But then, with my limited time and limited programming skills, full open source games are a bit challenging for me to understand. The transdata system is an excellent compromise. It's simple enough for newbies to get their head around and it's powerful enough for regulars to do same amazing things with. And with time, I was able to get my head around the more complex bits of transdata. I do hope something like this will be present in the future.

Here's a hypothetical situation. If I was to come across the game today, and played it till, say rigel as a demo, how much would I be willing to pay for the full game? About $2 (from a dev's perspective, consider me spoilt by android ).
Will I be willing to spend more on ingame purchases, expansion packs (say from StKs to Juno, and then to Heretic, Part 2?), yes of course, maybe 2$ for expansion pack. You know, in that range.

Hmmm, I actually have no idea what you could want from a survey. Maybe a form of some sort that could be filled by existing forum members...

Thanks for writing this--very helpful!

And it's definitely along the lines that I'm thinking. In particular, I like how you described TransData and the modding capabilities--I think there is great potential in that middle ground: simpler to program than full C++ code, but more powerful than basic level-editors. That is at the heart of what I want Kronosaur Productions to be about.

On the business side, I agree. The gaming world is moving toward free-to-play and in-game purchases.

Finally, while Transcendence is very much tied to a PC, I supect that other games (Anacreon, perhaps) could one day show up on phones and tablets.

About Anacreon.

I first found Anacreon through Abandonia Reloaded. Same place I later found Transcendence.

I couldn't get into Anacreon and I tried. It's turn based strategy -- In Space -- and based on my prior gaming habits it's the game that I should have gotten hundreds of hours of play from.

The worst problem for me was resource management. It was cumbersome and low level and not something an emperor or prime minister should have to handle directly. If you ever redo Anacreon I think it needs some sort of automation, either price difference based diffusion or automatic shipping triggered by construction orders or both or just something.

Putting it in a setting with lore and updating the graphics wouldn't go amiss either, but I've played uglier games with even less of a setting.

Atarlost wrote:About Anacreon.

I first found Anacreon through Abandonia Reloaded. Same place I later found Transcendence.

I couldn't get into Anacreon and I tried. It's turn based strategy -- In Space -- and based on my prior gaming habits it's the game that I should have gotten hundreds of hours of play from.

The worst problem for me was resource management. It was cumbersome and low level and not something an emperor or prime minister should have to handle directly. If you ever redo Anacreon I think it needs some sort of automation, either price difference based diffusion or automatic shipping triggered by construction orders or both or just something.

Putting it in a setting with lore and updating the graphics wouldn't go amiss either, but I've played uglier games with even less of a setting.

I completely agree with this. I haven't thought that hard yet about how I want to improve Anacreon, but I agree that fixing this is a priority. Thank you!