Inca Quest for Mac released!

Community Forums/Showcase/Inca Quest for Mac released!

Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#1]
A long time in the making, but we've just released Inca Quest for the Mac at Rock Solid Games. If you haven't tried it before, I'd love some feedback, so head over to our site and get playing!







Cheers,
Michael


caff_(Posted 2007) [#2]
Congratulations.

I don't have a Mac but I'll certainly check out the PC version.

Beautiful artwork!

[edit]
Just had a play - cracking game too :)


Yo! Wazzup?(Posted 2007) [#3]
Addicting.


bruZard(Posted 2007) [#4]
my girlfriend loves this game ... i think i must buy it :)

sorry for my bad english.


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2007) [#5]
Is there a mac demo?


caff_(Posted 2007) [#6]
I think there is - where the button says 'Play Free - Mac'


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2007) [#7]
Looks great!


GfK(Posted 2007) [#8]
G/f quite liked this (well, PC version). She did comment that it was a bit 'tricky' at first, though.

That said, I've had her going through every indie game she can find to find the best ones. Think she's getting a bit sick of it all by now. ;)


Chugs40(Posted 2007) [#9]
I like the atrwork! I think I wil go check it out now!


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#10]
Thanks for checking it out guys! There is indeed a Mac version, but based on that feedback we've made things a bit more clear - using the Apple logo instead of the Mac logo, and changed "Play Free" to "Download".


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#11]
Nice one Michael. So you are self publishing this one right? Are you getting it put on any Apple sites?


IPete2(Posted 2007) [#12]
Michael,

Congratulations on producing a fantastic game in the first place (Inca Quest has been voted the 2nd Runner Up Game of the Year over at Big Fish Games. Check it out!)
www.bigfishgames.com/newsletters/atl_jan07_2007.html

With fabulous graphics, great game play and an interesting storyline (which continues...) and now even better on multiple platforms too. I can't wait to see Darwin (the next in a sucession of beautiful looking games), the screenies are looking fabtastic!

How long did it take to convert to the Mac btw? Just thinking it may help those who are considering it, but are not sure if they should attempt it. Good luck with sales on the game.

Well done!

IPete2.


RiK(Posted 2007) [#13]
Ahh.... Puzzle Bobble in an inca stylee. Nice!

Very impressed with the demo, great attention to detail, it feels very polished.

Is your Monkey platformer going to be cross-platform too? It looks great from the screens on your site and my girlfriend's son is gagging for a go (well ok, I admit it, so am I)

:)


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#14]
Grey - it's still being published by iWin. We are testing it a bit to make sure we give them a solid version though.

Pete - Thanks for the kind words! The Mac port didn't take longer than a PC port would - zero code changes required, but I had to figure out how to make the icon for the EXE. Most of the time was spent getting it to compile on the PC again and updating the site.

RiK - Thanks :) Darwin is written in Delphi which does have a Mac port but the software renderer would have to be rewritten, so I'm not sure if/when it will be done. It's on the cards but by no means definite!


taumel(Posted 2007) [#15]
Works, looks and plays nice. I find the puzzle levels not this well designed. Sometimes the game hangs a bit and freezes for a short time on my Mini (PPC 1.25Ghz, 1GB RAM, OSX 10.4.9) in fullscreenmode. What i really like is the music. Congrats!

A few questions:

Did you use MaxGui?
How much time did you invest to port it to osx?
Do i get both win and osx versions if i buy the game?


taumel(Posted 2007) [#16]
And i would love if there would be a possibility to turn the spear always on, so that you see where you'll shoot. For my daughter...


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2007) [#17]
Michael please resend the news entry with smaller images.


Tachyon(Posted 2007) [#18]
I just tried it (Windows). I seriously think puzzle 1.9 is screwed up. Couldn't finish it even with the hint because the order of the colored pogs was wrong.

[edit] Oh, right-clicking swaps the pogs. That tidbit of info should be part of the hint.


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#19]
Taumel - Yeah, I think doing the Puzzle mode that way was a big mistake. Sorry about that! Unfortunate about the Mac Mini performance, I might take a look and see if I can profile it a bit. I didn't use MaxGui for it, not even behind the scenes - it's a straight Graphics 640, 480. Once the code compiled on the PC, it compiled on the Mac, so there were no changes specifically for the Mac. The majority of time was spent figuring out how to change the icon of a Mac EXE and redoing the site.

jfk - Sorry, I did see the notice there, but the current post on the front page had a 640x480 image so I figured it must be OK

Tachyon - Thanks for trying it out! I double checked, 1.9 is OK, but you have to swap the pieces by right clicking (or ctrl clicking on the mac). I'm seriously considering just disabling the puzzle mode.


Tachyon(Posted 2007) [#20]
Yep, just figured that out. I enjoy the puzzle mode a lot, but the hint that you "purchase" should include the fact that pogs can be swapped with a right click. Thant wasn't clear to me.

Awesome job on the game. Way polished!!


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#21]
Good idea, I think we'll do that in the next release. Thanks for all the cool feedback!


taumel(Posted 2007) [#22]
So any chance to get something like a "always spear on" for children into the game also like that it's less time pressure?

And how about the other thing that you buy the game and get both a licence for win and osx?


taumel(Posted 2007) [#23]
The puzzle mode would be interesting if you could do your own levels there...


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#24]
Hmm, the spear is one of the powerups so we can't really do that easily. I'll put it on the todo list for the next major version.

Dual Win/OSX licensing is a good idea, just have to think about how to present it on the web site. We've split up the orders for simplicitys sake. But for now, if anyone buys the game and emails me I can send them a link to the other version.


taumel(Posted 2007) [#25]
Okay...i really consider buying it.

One last thing. What i really miss is a relaxed game mode. Something where you just keep on playing for some time without getting into trouble. For my daugther the game is too hard and sometimes i also like just to relax and play a bit around without getting into trouble. Do you know what i mean?

The do-it-yourself level editor also is very nice. I once did this for a client work so that a) the client was able to upload new levels when there was something new to promote and b) that their users where able to click and play their own levels.

By the way when trying out the demo i came to the fifth pyramide...it's pretty hard then. I wonder how many are left then and if they are even harder...


taumel(Posted 2007) [#26]
The song for the second pyramide is fantastic! It generates such a perfect mood and i hope you don't mind that i renamed the file to listen to it outside the game... ;O)


taumel(Posted 2007) [#27]
Do you use a recursive algorithm for identifying the stones and if some should fall?


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#28]
Hi taumel,

I guess the closest thing to a relaxed mode that we've got is the first level of survival. You should be able to last well past 5 minutes in it. A relaxed mode is something we're going to add in into all our future games. We considered releasing the level editor, but it's a bit too complex so we decided against it.

Yeah, the game does get harder down throughout the rest of the temples.

I do use a recursive algorithm for figuring out if the stones are clogging up the gameboard, but with the way the game is structured, it's almost never a problem.

Glad you like the music! Anthony went to a lot of effort to make some cool tunes for us.


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#29]
We at Rock Solid are also proud to announce our latest release, Darwin the Monkey! It's written in Delphi so I won't start a new thread with it, but you can grab it from the Rock Solid Games site.




Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#30]
ME FIRST!


bruZard(Posted 2007) [#31]
any chance for a german version of "Inca Quest"?


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2007) [#32]
Quote:
jfk - Sorry, I did see the notice there, but the current post on the front page had a 640x480 image so I figured it must be OK

So when somebody is jumping from a skyscraper you gonna figure it must be ok? ;)

BTW the official max is 400*300, not 400*322 :). Unbureaucratic as I am I'll close my eyes for now. ^^

EDIT: uh n/p. Great Game.


taumel(Posted 2007) [#33]
But you make it obvious like a bureaucrat... ;O)

@Michael
Why is the new one developed in Delphi and not a BlitzMax project anymore? Any chance that you'll release a Mac version too? From the screenshot i love the lianas. Reminds me of Donkey Kong Jr. :O) But it also looks a bit too much rendered style (steril).


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#34]
bruZard - there might be one on www.zylom.com

taumel - I didn't write Darwin the Monkey, that was Neil from Screaming Duck. Mac port might happen in the future, I'm not sure, but it's kind of tricky because it's an x86 software renderer.


taumel(Posted 2007) [#35]
Really? So there are still 3d modells running around...
How cpu intensive is this and which resolution you do normally play this on?
Is this a hombrew software renderer or something free available?


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#36]
Btw, is the Mac version of Inca Quest a Universal Binary or Intel only?


taumel(Posted 2007) [#37]
I suspect you downlaod the version according to your system. I got ppc.


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#38]
I've pimped it here Michael: http://www.binaryjoy.co.uk/games/games-news/woo-i-found-a-mac-game-inca-quest/


taumel(Posted 2007) [#39]
By the way the USB issue you're talking about isn't such a big deal for other dev tools. It's more a BlitzMax issue. USB's are pretty common these days.


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#40]
Ah OK thanks.


taumel(Posted 2007) [#41]
I wonder how this will end up when the 64Bit version of Vista spreads more due to better driver support and Leopard shows up...


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#42]
Really? So there are still 3d modells running around...
How cpu intensive is this and which resolution you do normally play this on?
Is this a hombrew software renderer or something free available

Nah, it's 2D only, but it supports things like blur, scaling, different blend modes etc. I'm not sure whether it's available - I think it is (I didn't write Darwin).

Grey - Inca right now is PPC only, apparently it doesnt run very well on a Core Solo Mac Mini but the rest is fine. How about a post about Darwin? :)


mrtricks(Posted 2007) [#43]
Hey, very nice! Slick and lots of fun...


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#44]
Thanks!


Grey Alien(Posted 2007) [#45]
Darwin is on my to do list. I wanted to play it first with the boys and I did last night.


GrahamK(Posted 2007) [#46]
@taumel
Nah, it's 2D only, but it supports things like blur, scaling, different blend modes etc. I'm not sure whether it's available - I think it is (I didn't write Darwin).


It's GR32, a rather nice chunk of 2d graphics code, also used as part of a certain product mentioned at the bottom of this message...

@Michael/Rocksolid games - Two extremely polished games you have there... I love the look/style of Darwin :D


taumel(Posted 2007) [#47]
Okay thanks...


eni(Posted 2007) [#48]
Inca Quest is a beautifully presented game that I haven't seen before. It works well on my Powerbook (1.5GHz 15.2") which is about three years old to the day now. Admittedly a fair few frames are dropped during the particle effects but it didn't detract from the overall experience very much.

Although not necessarily a priority, you might want to consider moving the media folder and generated errorlog.txt file inside the application package itself. Only one file to deal with, arguably more mac like, more accessible from the Applications folder as it wouldn't be hidden in a subfolder, etc.

As a side note, I don't know if it's deliberate or not but thank you for large bubbles with distinguishable character shapes within them. I love puzzle games but like a considerable number of people I am (partially) colour blind, and regularly am disappointed that a large number of them are completely inaccessible to me. From a purely business standpoint, I cannot understand why developers are so quick to alienate a potential target market that so easily could be included as you have demonstrated here.


Michael Reitzenstein(Posted 2007) [#49]
Graham - Thanks!

eni -

Good idea! I'll put it on the todo list for the next build. This is our first Mac port so we're kind of new to the whole thing.

We did indeed think about colour blindness when we made those pieces - basically we wanted to make them as distinguishable as possible for everyone. Our next game does a similar thing, with colored swirls that could still be played in greyscale.

Thanks for playing!


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2007) [#50]
Just played the mac demo, it's pretty nice. Your graphics are very polished and I didn't see anything that I thought was poorly done or needed to be done differently. The menus and hiscores are impressive and the game itself looks and plays very nicely. Good job!