An idea for getting many new players into this game.

Post ideas & suggestions you have pertaining to the game here.
Volyren Nightsong
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I sure hope that you don't give up on this game, I only just now discovered this game, and I am going to be spreading the word as much as possible to pickup the player-base.
I am going to get some more people in here if it kills me.
I have seen too many projects fizzle out due to lack of interest. Take it from someone who has trouble finishing work on games/novels/ etc.
What makes it so much easier to keep momentum going is an active base of people, who respond with the dev as much as possible. i know it helps me.
When i have people making suggestions and offering criticism, and more importantly letting me know they are enjoying the project, then in turn, i fell as though if i don't work on the project, I would be letting down others.
But that is a double edged sword. Because when you don't get any response, or you get several negative comments (and no one says anything positive in return), or worse still, if no one really posts at all, then you feel weak and unmotivated (after the initial indignation at the fact no one seems interested).

you feel like you are not appreciated and since no one cares, why even bother with the project?

So I think it would be great to spread the word around to every gaming forum possible. (target boards about gaming, star trek/wars 4x and space trading sims in particular)

also, a lot of playerbases have migrated around half their playtime to mobile device gaming (iphone/android)

So I was curious if this game would be portable to an android platform, either through direct translation, or through a front-end of some sort (such as a windows emulator/dosbox kind of thing.)
Imagine if you could, Transcendence on a mobile device? It would be very easy to implement controls. either through an emulated joystick, as many game use, or even through a custom setup. *1 (controls at bottom)

Its just a thought. I am unsure of the difficulty involved in doing something like this, but I am trying to learn what i can about programming for the android. It is much like xbox live (another possible porting project, since Indie game dev is so open there).

I would also suggest offering a free and PAID version on android.
I know that this is a free game, and I am not suggesting that change. However, for the ported versions, i would humbly suggest a paid version which would retail for $0.99c USD. (80 MS points on XBOX Live) This is very easily paid for by most people, and would get George some well deserved money. (that would also allow for some more time working on the game, and if it gets popular enough, perhaps work on these projects full time.)

In xbox live, of course, there would be a free demo, which is time limited. There is nothing that can be done about that, and it must cost "something" and if I'm not mistaken, 80 points is the lowest allowable amount.

And for android, a full free version should be available, but have a "donation" version which will allow for mods to be used, and perhaps a few more playerships, weapons and etc.
Basically, let them enjoy the game as it was made to be, but let them know that they can get a few new goodies for a small donation.

At any rate, I am of this time unsure if any of this is possible, or even something that the dev would want.

Out of curiosity, does anyone else think this is a good idea?

All of this is pure speculation, and before I look into how this game might be ported over to any other system or console.

I was just curious to hear what everyone else thought.
For the record, I don't want any credit or money. I just want to know that this game won't die out like so many other great ones.

Notes:
*1- Tilt sensor's could be used, but the interface that I envision would preferably be a hardware keyboard, either the slide-out variety or even a bluetooth wireless one. The soft keyboard can be called as a function at any point in the game, and function just as the hardware variety, but due to the fact it is emulated, only the hardware keyboard could have its keybindings changed in options.
A final control method would need to be fleshed out to deal with phones that have no keyboard, or ability to use bluetooth or usb ones, that could have two predefined zones on the edges of the screen when held in landscape mode. These areas would function as left and right rotation thrusters. Spots below and above these could be linked to weapon and missile fire, with selection buttons next to each. other buttons around the borders of the screen could link to other functions. This would at least allow for a level of control for those without the gadgets to play with a real keyboard. [/spoiler]

So what are some thoughts on this?
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Volyren Nightsong wrote:So I think it would be great to spread the word around to every gaming forum possible. (target boards about gaming, star trek/wars 4x and space trading sims in particular)
How will this be done?
I know that it's done with good intentions, but I don't want people to first encounter Transcendence as "that one game that this one person signed up for and talked about and never contributed anything else". This means that you shouldn't just join forums just to talk about Transcendence. I know that I did encounter Transcendence the same way as well (Wurmish posted about it on BenOldingGames, I was looking at Starfighter at the time), but it's still not the right way to introduce Transcendence. Wurmish was already had hundreds of post and was well established on the forum when he posted about Transcendence.

Iphone/Android is solely up to George, and he's busy setting up the multiverse as we speak. I'm unsure as to how he's going to grow his base, but keep in mind that Transcendence does not target the same kind of casual gamer that Iphone and Android do. Transcendence takes hours to play and fully enjoy, but other games are justpureinstantgratification (lack of spacing is intentional >.>). We need to target the demographic that loves depth and not breadth. (Also, I've heard that it would be hard to do so/ not feasible at the moment, as well as support for other kinds of controllers)

I like the idea, but really it needs:
A. George's support (otherwise we'll have to operate unofficially while spreading the game, and Transport to other platforms will be dead if George doesn't approve).
B. People to do it (aka, minions and like minded people who want to grow the community). I know that you're dedicated, but we really need more than one person to advertise/do Public Relations (PR) work.
I'd try to help, but first I need to see what (specifically) your plans are.
Some people interested in helping (possibly?)
-Starweaver
-WillyTheSquid
-Ttech
Try to poke them on IRC and see what they think as well as ideas/ support.

Also, I'm thinking about waiting until George has his multiverse set up so that new users don't have to deal with betas and other unnecessary modder-type stuff that turns off people who want to play straight away. It would also be optimal if we have a great library of awesome extensions ready for new users to hook them instead of just a base game and a dizzying array of mods on Xelerus, which may or may not all be great mods.

-One last note: many people check the Transcendence official download page for some indication of progress, which may explain why not many people come back (because they think it's still 1.01). You can't really stop that kind of thinking unless George makes note that it's still in active development/shows that 1.0whatever is up on that same page as well, although I respect his decision not to (basically he doesn't want to/doesn't want to put up a buggy beta, which happened quite recently).

-very last note: Also, the community is very bad at responding with comments at all (there was a case where a mod was uploaded broken, and nobody commented about it in the 50 downloads that ensued).
I'm also unsure if we really want tons of random people flowing into the game (seeing as how mods here are kinda lax and it's not really nice when community atmosphere changes, especially for the worse).
It might be best to retain what people we already have, since I know there's at least ~50-100 people (if not more) who have drifted in and out of the game by signing up, talking on IRC for a while/posting, and then poofing till kingdom come. If we are able to retain those users the community might grow faster. We're also losing our veteran modders (due to real life), and the only people who provide fast modding support on IRC are Starweaver and I. If both of us leave in a sudden, there won't be people to help the creation of mods and it would stifle creativity more.
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Volyren Nightsong
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I feel as though I was misunderstood.
I hop around on several game dev sites, and more forums than i would care to admit to, that deal with exactly this type of game. (ie Escape Velocity Nova, Privateer remake, etc.) I've even done some voice work and mission design for some groups at hardlight.net (the freespace 2 graphics overhauls and thousands of hours of well written campaigns, mostly voice acted, that comprise what has evolved from FreeSpace Open, or FSO)

And as someone who likes running his own forum, I COMPLETELY understand about not wanting to change the community. Twice i have had happy communities of friends, and hundreds of hours of work customizing forums and adding content and games just for members, only to watch them disintegrate due to one reason or another. (once due to me being "second in command" in a guild, yet, i did all the work, made the site, answered problems, took care of the group. This caused some things to be said about our MIA leader, which rubbed him the wrong way, even though I never wanted to be in charge, and was happy with what i was doing. long story short, he set up another site, and spread lies behind my back. he invited everyone to that site, and hid it from me. one day a few of the group told me what he was doing, and despite trying to talk to him about it, he doubled down in his efforts. half the group left for his site, and the other half let it be known that they hated the atmosphere and stress and bull going on, and they left the guild totally. The other time, sadly, I posted some of my work on a book online for a few interested members. A few days later the site was bombarded by "fans" who were trying to get snippets of my 3rd book. a site of 23 members became over 1000 in no time flat. It ruined the site. (and i will NEVER talk about my work on public forums again. I HATE having to change my screen name...)
*******I apologize for the verbose posts. I usually use the spoiler tag to hide extraneous information so my posts don't seem so discombobulated. That way each point can be expanded or closed so that the message does not lose its reader, and can go into deeper detail only for those that are interested in the subject. If anyone is interested (the site admin) I can provide you a footer code to add the function. *****

I didn't mean to suggest an advertising blitz. I just know a handful of people who love this type of game, are respectful, and a few of them are handy with coding, so they might become modders.

I could have just started asking around and getting the word out, but due to my own experience, I wanted to ask first. Glad i did. :)

And I am on friendly terms with a few developers that do work on android. I myself have looked into the Xbox community, and I can tell you that there are two games that I know of that are similar to this one. Nowhere near as advanced, or well designed, but they still got my dollar, despite the fact that both were pretty much the exact same game with very minor changes (a few extra weapons, a few new ship graphics). Both were too shallow, and lacked any real story, but they both had potential.
Xbox live indie games doesn't really have a good platform for updates, so a lot of games give enough of a demo to get you hooked, and then absolute crap after that. But with a no refund policy, most developers just don't care.
Android, on the other hand has a long tradition of developers posting unfinished or beta games up for free download, with a donation version. you can post updates as often as you like, and the community for each game usually stays small and helpful.

A great example of the success of such a game would be the Trese Brothers, and their games, Star Traders RPG, Cyber Knights and recently another game which i have not played that is squad based. Im sure a quick google would locate their forums. I helped out a bit, but a few bad apples in the community always wanted to start a flame war over my work. (I think I threatened them. They were working on a backstory for several characters, and each was amatuerish at best, and rarely more than a page or two long. I was told to write about "Drug Addict" character. I gave him a name, a history, and a purpose. I started flowing ideas from my brain to my fingers, and before i knew it, I had around 30 pages. And that was just over a third of what I had planned. I think I got one positive comment, and then three or four people just started slamming me for posting too much (even though i put it in a code box to reduce the space taken up) and it was obvious that they were just going to keep on being childish and when the dev had to start telling them to chill out, and sticking up for me, that just made it worse, and i felt it would be better to leave for a while until those idiots found a new toy, or possibly grew some pubies and started realizing that girls DO have cooties and that its a good thing. :roll:

I think that just about covers it. I don't know George, and I know that none of you know me, I just thought that if nothing else, the android platform would offer him a way to get some income, because I know for fact that there is a huge group of players who are begging for a game like this. And very few of them would mind having a beta version, since most games on the android store ARE just beta versions left unfinished.

as for the "spoiler" code, you can view where i introduced this custom script (yeah its a bit different from the usual spoiler command, as it allows you to customize the spoiler tag.) here.
http://rob-elementals.proboards.com/ind ... page=1#304

unlike the standard "spoiler" code, this has an extra feature as you will see in the forum above. When you click the button that this script adds, it opens a popup box with a text box. you type in the box what you want to be the spoiler tag. if you type "poop" then a bold word, "poop" will appear, and the spoiler will be revealed by clicking on "poop". Alternatively, you can simply use this tag (i can put the real tag, since this forum does not recognize it now)
[spoiler= Don't clikk here, ya silly DUM-DUM!] this is the text that you would not see until you click on the DUM-DUM "button"[/spoiler]
and of course, you can add video and pictures in the spoiler line, so it also helps keep the forum nice and tidy with quick load times until the person who wants to view the "hidden" information clicks to open it. Another click will re-hide the "Spoiler".
The code is for a proboard style forum, but I am unsure of its compatibility here. (its worth a shot, you can always just remove it if it doesnt work.)

This would be a great tag to have here, so that you could speak freely about the game without the need to worry about spoilers messing up the game for the casual forum reader.

At any rate, just thought this info might be useful.
Talk to ya later. (right now I'm still trying to download most of the mods, and determine which are compatible with 1.08b, and with each other. maybe i can add them all to a single zip and host it for you?)

I am unsure if you have the "code" box function here, but here goes nothing.


BTW, this can be placed on a board footer, or the global footer (recommended)

Code: Select all


<style type="text/css">
<!--
.spoiler { color: black; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px; }
.spoilerbody{ color: blue; width: 70%; padding: 0px 5px 5px 55px; !important; }
.hidden { display: none; }
-->
</style>

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
/*
Spoiler tags by Todge
Copyright © 2010
Please keep this header intact
Global or Board Footer
*/

var spButton = 'http://images.proboards.com/new/shocked.gif';

// Add spoiler button to posting page..

function addspoil()
{
var bname = prompt("what would you like the spoiler to be called?","Spoiler");
add('[spoiler='+bname+']','[/spoiler]');
return;
}

if(document.postForm)
{
var spb = document.createElement('a');
spb.innerHTML = '<img src="'+spButton+'" border="0">';
spb.href = 'javascript:addspoil()';
document.postForm.color.parentNode.appendChild(spb);
}

// Find and create spoilers..

if(pb_action.match(/(display|preview|(modify)?post|search2)/) )
{
var posts = document.getElementsByTagName('font');
for(p=0; p<posts.length; p++)
{
if(posts[p].innerHTML.match(/\[spoiler=/) && (posts[p].innerHTML.match(/ google_ad_section_start/) || (document.postForm && posts[p].size=='1' && !posts[p].innerHTML.match(/<(input|select|textarea)/i))))
{
var spCell = '<div><div>';
spCell += '<span onclick="if(this.nextSibling.className==\'hidden\')';
spCell += '{this.nextSibling.className=\'spoilerbody\'}else';
spCell += '{this.nextSibling.className=\'hidden\'}"><font class="spoiler">$1</font>';
spCell += '</span><div class="hidden">';
posts[p].innerHTML = posts[p].innerHTML.replace(/\[spoiler=(([^\[\]])+)*\]/g,spCell).replace(/\[\/spoiler\]/g,'</div></div></div>');
}}}
// -->
</script>
Edit this line with the URL of the button you'd like added to posting page..

var spButton = 'http://images.proboards.com/new/shocked.gif';


You can edit this part of the CSS to give your spoilers different effects/colors..

.spoiler { color: black; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px; }
.spoilerbody{ color: blue; width: 70%; padding: 0px 5px 5px 55px; !important; }



EDIT:********One more thing. There is a windows platform called bluestacks, which run android software, and allows running it just like a phone. its not an emulator, and its not slow and clunky like the other attempts. its a professional bit of software, and you can easily check out whether or not a game or app would work before attempting to upload to the store.
and if you are interested in rpg/tactics games there is a really fun one from mobage. its called Blood Brothers. if you have an android phone (might be on iphone too) or feel like installing bluestacks (opens a whole new world of gaming if you dont have an android phone.

If you should happen to play Blood Brothers, pretty please enter my friend code, (case sensitive) tmyHy
I hate to ask, but those jerks have an upgradable unit that far outclasses even my epic units and the only manner in which to get it is through inviting 5 people. I normally hate soliciting junk like this, but i have actually invested nearly 100 bucks into the game, and this overpowered behemoth will break the balance. So here i am, begging for you to enter my referral code. (even if you dont like the game, could ya take a minute to do it? its right after the tutorial when you enter it...)

and i wholeheartedly apologize for asking that of anyone, but I am left with little choice as most everyone else i know has already signed up... (it really is a fun game though!)
Last edited by Volyren Nightsong on Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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For the mods, it's here ;)
For the advertising, go ahead if it's spread in a casual word of mouth fashion. After all, that's how Transcendence known in the first place.
I suggest PM'ing George with your ideas on another platform and seeing what happens.
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I don't want any sort of copyright on my Transcendence mods. Feel free to take/modify whatever you want.
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There have been several people interested in making android ports, but those attempts didn't really get beyond early idea stages (in part due to the source not being available at all, and in part due to the game never having been designed for a touchscreen platform, even though one of the guys was looking specifically at tablets, not phones, it was still a big issue). Like all those before you, I wish you luck in your endeavors, since, well, you'll need it.

As to spoiler tags, that is something george has to implement as he is the only one with ftp access to the forums (and before anyone says gambit does, he doesn't; he only has ftp access to the wiki and trac), and we pestered him a year ago for them when we first got the phpbb3 board, but he was busy at the time (and still is, but considering he's actually busy with stuff pertinent to kronosaur, I'll see about leaving a message for him about it again)

[edit: Message has been sent, and I really should go get some sleep >.<]
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Wellll one thing to keep in mind is that this game has been in progress for something like ten years and the developer has never gotten slower than a certain release speed IIRC and has never indicated anything about the community's response being too negative or lacking ....

And yeah, it is a pretty long-playing game. The succession involved 24 hours of game time, for one. Umm, I know there are some long playing flash games, like say http://www.kongregate.com/games/garin/m ... k-of-dread ... have people had success with games like this on phones? That one would be pretty well suited to a touch interface if you had a stylus or something (icons are pretty small ....).

....

And I don't think the developer is much of a phone gamer or has interest in working for them. Personally I MIGHT consider android but I don't like ios's gatekeeping and I'm not feeling very enthused by the windows metro stuff ....
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Volyren Nightsong wrote:...as for the "spoiler" code, you can view where i introduced this custom script (yeah its a bit different from the usual spoiler command, as it allows you to customize the spoiler tag.) here.
http://rob-elementals.proboards.com/ind ... page=1#304
I like that spoiler code--seems pretty simple to install. Late in the Fall I'm going to change hosting providers (I'm moving the forums to the same VM that is currently hosting the wiki and Trac). Remind me then and I'll add the code. [Or, by then, Gambit should have rights also.]

Thank you!
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Volyren Nightsong wrote:So I think it would be great to spread the word around to every gaming forum possible....also, a lot of playerbases have migrated around half their playtime to mobile device gaming (iphone/android)

So I was curious if this game would be portable to an android platform...
I think of it this way (with apologies to Frank Drake):

P = L * K * F * C * T

P is the number of Transcendence players. This is the number that we are trying to maximize.
T is the total number of people in the world who play computer games.

C is the fraction of people in the world capable of playing Transcendence (currently, those with a Windows machine).

F is the fraction of people who want to play games on the current format (currently, sitting with a laptop or PC).

K is the fraction of people who actually know about Transcendence

L is the fraction of people who like Transcendence after they've played it for more than 5 minutes.

I think you are proposing that porting Transcendence to Android will increase C (because some people only have Android devices) and F (because some people would prefer to play on Android instead of a PC). I agree with that.

But you are also implicitly suggesting that the effort involved in the port (call it E) is the best way to increase P. I disagree with that.

Let's do the math. Right now, T is in the hundreds of millions, whereas P is a few thousand. That's a factor of 100,000. C cannot be smaller than 0.5 (the number of Android devices does not exceed the number of Windows devices and most Android owners also have a Windows machine). F is also probably around 0.5, if you say that half the players have migrated to mobile.

On the other hand, L is probably between 0.1 and 0.01 (i.e., between 1 and 10 percent of people who play Transcendence like it).

Given these numbers, K must be much smaller, probably around 0.001 or less. If you plug in all the numbers you get:

Code: Select all

2,500 = 0.1 * 0.001 * 0.5 * 0.5 * 100,000,000
  P      L       K     F     C         T
If you're still with me, here is where I'm going: Porting Transcendence might increase C from 0.5 to ~1.0 and F from 0.5 to ~0.9. That would change P (the number of Transcendence players) from 2,500 to 9,000, an increase of 6,500 players. Considering that a port would take about 6 months or a year to complete, is that really worth it?

On the other hand, if we could increase K from 0.001 to 0.01 (with advertising, etc) we could increase the players to 25,000. And if we increase L to 0.5 (by making the game better) we could get to 125,000 active players--more than enough to support a thriving ecosystem.

Once we get there, it gets better. Once we have over 100,000 people, porting to Android might double that to 200,000. At that point the gains would be worth the cost. But not before.

So I think your instincts are right but your timing is off. First we need to build up the player base (your proposals for that make sense) and then we can port to more platforms.
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I love math! Here we go, 25,000! :)
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Volyren Nightsong
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Thanks for taking a notice. :-)

As for the port though, I wasn't really suggesting a FULL-ON port, though. As far as I understand it, (And I'm not Smart, nor Smart-assed enough to think I know it all.) If a game can be ran on linux, either through tinkering with structure or code, OR a frontend (several exist, but I don't use Linux, so I've not taken the time to look) then that game is already 95% ready to run on an android device.

I would never have suggested a port, unless I thought it would be relatively easy (a few nights, maybe a week's worth of work) to do.

I envisioned running Transcendence in a "shell" to get it to run on Android.
If even that was possible, the rest would be a cakewalk. The keyboards on Android, be it slide out, or on screen, are NOT compatible with the standard keyboard. (as I learned by porting my DOS games over to the droid.) However there is an app, called Hacker's Keyboard which gives a full keyboard onscreen, with the added benefit of making its self transparent, and in planned future versions you can set up overlays with custom keys. (like put the arrow keys in a bottom corner, and the shift and control keys in the other corner.)

But, even if that control method never became viable, and no one can count on the slide out keyboards, since most high end phones do not have them. (and if you want to use a bluetooth keyboard, you are better off just playing Transcendence on a laptop or desktop, in my opinion...)

So I envisioned a simple touchscreen interface, which would not require a single modification to the game.
Pardon me if I am wrong, but I'm relatively sure I have this correct, from my talks with game devs on the android platform.
On screen controls are fairly simple things to add, with numerous code libraries and examples out there that you can cut and paste into whatever shell program would work. I think i described a theoretical layout earlier, but forgive me, I'm actually on a phone, and its temperamental at best, so going back to check would endanger everything I have written so far.

Basically the input would be controlled by "virtual buttons" on screen. When pressed, each of them would simply tell Transcendence that the arrow keys are being pressed, or the fire key, etc. given how the phone is held, I would assume landscape would be best, with the thumbs on the edges of the screen. This could control rotation, while easy to reach buttons right above or below the "rotate" areas would give access to Thrust, Fire weapon, Fire Missile, etc.

I know that this is not a priority, and I don't even think it should be. My plan, or rather my idea, since its not yet in the "plan" phase, is to create (read; find some dev's willing to create) a generic shell which could give a method of interface between the phone's touch screen, and whatever game one would like to port into it.
As mouse driven games are practically drag and drop easy to control using a touch screen, I foresee the REAL issue to be the interface with keyboard controlled games. Not so much the input itself, as thats a piece of cake, but the layout/design of the interface; That's going to be the real challenge. I can envision the controls i have already listed. Those would probably work very well. The real challenge would be the various other controls, such as docking, activating devices, etc.

This is the point I arrived at right before I posted the original suggestion. I was about to give up before I realized that when I play the game using a gamepad, I programmed the right shoulder button as the left mouse button, and the right stick as the mouse just so I would not have to constantly switch between the controller and keyboard.
When I realized that the vast majority of the other functions could be controlled with a mouse, and therefore easily emulated with a touch screen, I felt confidant enough to suggest the idea.

One reason that I think I can get enough people on-board to work this project, is that it does not require an advanced knowledge of coding. It should be possible with a few dabblers and some with intermediate experience. A lot of the code needed to make the controls has already been done and is open source. And while the original idea was simply to find a way to run Transcendence on a 'Droid phone, if a shell program can be made in this manner, it would have the ability to work for many games and applications. (as with most things, I doubt that I can even imagine what some will end up doing with it, should this endeavor be fruitful.)

Really, I was just interested in what you might think of such an idea. I did not expect you to do any work (save for maybe some tweaking if and when the shell is ready to test). I know what its like to have a project you are passionate about. Sometimes you need a break for a couple of weeks, or even a month, or you run the risk of getting burned out on it. Though I'm a writer and not a programmer, the two share some of the same processes and require the same creativity and determination, never mind the motivation needed. (as the numerous unfinished manuscripts and novels-turned-short story I have lying around are a testament to.)

I have always enjoyed 2D space trading sims. (3D I love more, but those are much harder to come by these days) So the last thing I wanted to do was distract you from your work. More or less, I guess I just needed some motivation to get off my ass and begin the work needed to get the project started. At present, I don't really have any other games which I am playing that ;
A. Would be a good match for "porting" to android.
B. Are Indie enough that I would have any hope of speaking to the developer.
C. I like enough to bother with.

So, in truth, if you aren't that interested, it's perfectly fine with me (no hurt feelings or anything), but I doubt I would bother with the project. Please don't feel obligated, as I fully intend on posing the idea to some people who may be able to get it going, but I doubt I would stay involved with it outside of the original idea and perhaps the design of it. (thats what I get for taking game design courses and no programming classes....)

Again, it really boils down to whether you would like to make your game available to phone users. You will get no judgement from me, even if you decide you don't want your game offered that way. I'm happy simply to be able to play it. Besides, if I REALLY wanted to, I could play it on my phone in a couple of hours. It would just require linking the phone to the computer as a controller, and using the Hacker's Keyboard app. Then get the computer to output video to the phone, and blam! I'm viewing the action, and controlling the action, all from my phone. Technically, its still just running on my computer, but... eh, you get the point.

Anyway, I have a bad habit of making mile long, rambling posts that tax the nerves of even the most patient of people, so I will wrap this up.

Basically I am just curious if you would care to have the option to offer your game to the android market (in general, not necessarily THE android market... there's plenty of other markets, like amazon and the like...).
I don't expect you to do any of the work, as the program I am envisioning is for lack of better terms simply a bridge for PC games to work and be controlled on, an android device.

No rush on getting back to me, as I still have some research and designing to do, as well as determine the difficulty of getting this project going. I will promise you this, though; The program I envision would probably be desirable to many indie developers looking to increase their customer base, and as such there would be a market for that program simply as it exists (or hopefully WILL exist) without any game at all. I usually try to find amateur coder's who don't require any payment outside of their name in the credits, and a program to add to their future resume's. Even if I have to agree to make this a paid program with %'s profits going to the coders, I will make sure it is known that you, and possibly a few others will have free access to the program and any future updates or improvements as part of whatever contracts I have to have written up to get the right people working on it.

So keep in mind that you won't have to do any of the coding, and will only have to set up the control bindings (though I could always do that for you, I just figured you would rather see the innards of this program for yourself) when you are ready to release it to the droid platform. And it will be at no cost to you.

Really it boils down to having a desire to expand your game onto new platforms, and possibly write a comment or two on occasion in the market. The vast majority of tech support issues and game questions can be directed to your forums, as they are now, and should the issue pertain to the "shell" interface, they can be directed to our forum for troubleshooting info.

Well, thats about it. I would preview this message, but my battery is about to die, and I'm nowhere near an outlet, so i have to close here. (with apologies for bad grammar and the occasional misspelling. its hard enough to type on this tiny keyboard with stubby fingers, nevermind the constant battle with the autospell suggestions.)
So in closing, Regardless whether you like the idea or not, thanks for making a fun, and interesting game to help alleviate boredom and give those of us who long for a life among the stars, be it for the adventure, the sheer experience, or even those of us who just wanna get freaky with a tri-boobed hottie in zero G... [okay, so thats MOST of us... hehe, Say HOOORAY for "BLOOBIES"!], but regardless, thanks for a fun game.

If you ever need help with anything that doesnt involve coding, feel free to ask. I'm decent enough at writing (5 published books, two under pseudonym) and poetry (helps for prophecies of the ancient alien variety as well, lol) or just want to outsource some descriptive tags, like non-story related planet and weapon/item/ship descriptions. I've done more work like that than I can even remember.

Thanks again,

I'll "Long-post" at ya later. (had to delete a bit, was running into the text cap limit, i think!)

Volyren Nightsong
Think you can beat me? You've got as much chance as a paper dog catching an asbestos cat in Hell!
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Aury
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Spoiler: Click me to change the text
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Volyren Nightsong
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Nice Job!
Think you can beat me? You've got as much chance as a paper dog catching an asbestos cat in Hell!
sdw195
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Wolfy wrote:
Spoiler: Click me to change the text

nice wolfy!
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Volyren Nightsong
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Just a quick test of the spoiler code. if a spoiler can be placed inside a spoiler, you can create collapsible menus in your posts.
I've used one like that before to write walkthroughs for games. one guy on the board took enough time to make a create-your-own ascii art. you could click to open and close segments to change parts of the character's face.
(i would just stick with the collapsible menus, even if i could harness the feeling you get when pain meds kick in, and keep that going indefinitely, I still wouldn't have enough patience for what he did...)


Test Begin.
Spoiler: test
Test Subject: Poop for Dummies v.04b
[spoiler=test]
Poop for Dummies
Because even the ignorant need to poo.
______________________
Introduction
-----------------------------------
Foreword
Introduction
______________________
Chapter 1: The Basics
-----------------------------------
What is poop?
Why does poop stink?
Why do I have to poop?
________________________________________
Chapter 2: Wiping Etiquette From Around the World
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Middle East: Why They Hate Left-Handed People
The Deep South: Corncobs Can Be Rough
The Rest of Us: Two-Ply or Single?


[/spoiler]


DRATS.......

It appears that the spoiler tag is not as robust as I had hoped...
See, the Book title and chapter titles should have been visible, and only the sub sections within each chapter would be hidden, until the chapter heading is clicked. (removed extra tags, since they didnt work anyway...)

I felt we could all get a chuckle at some British styled humor, with a little good ol' American potty humor mixed in to give it that meaty consistency that you look for in your comedy, while still retaining that air of superiority which gives it that special bouquet that helps mask the stench.

But the impact of the joke is lost, due to the spoiler tag not working as I had hoped.
So, just for appearances sake, allow me to properly use the spoiler tag.

I said
Spoiler: THIS
when I saw that the tag lacked the functionality I needed...
Think you can beat me? You've got as much chance as a paper dog catching an asbestos cat in Hell!
shanejfilomena
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Just a math Spoiler :

every platform costs George Money to get into even if Our Collection of Greatest Minds in Domina's Universe did all the work :
And I for ONE ( of many ) am GRATEFUL that you are all there and doing your various parts that keep moving this Universe forward.

Contributions are Important, let us not forget that part.

Those who can : please do.
Those who can't : Blog, Post about the games and give the links to the game on Twitter, Tumblr, etc ( and do not forget the facebook page needs visitors and posters too.) : Love and appreciation is Just as powerful as money, spread the word, Hear the callings of Domina and build Our Fleet Strong.

If Ye build it they will come. Armor up and Strap In, it's time to Fly.
Flying Irresponsibly In Eridani......

I don't like to kill pirates in cold blood ..I do it.. but I don't like it..
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