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Space Pirates from Tomorrow - removal from martketplace |
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Written by DrMistry
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Sunday, 17 January 2010 13:35 |
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It's with a heavy heart that we've taken the decision to remove Space Pirates from Tomorrow from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace due to an unacceptably large number of crash reports we've recieved. This is actually quite an easy decision to make, even though we've only been on the marketplace for a few days. We've said all along that our number one priority is to make games which are of a high quality and we've clearly failed in this regard. The only thing we can do at this point is say a very, very big sorry to everyone who's tried the game and been disappointed.
We started working on a "polish" update on Friday which implements a fix to the "hang on startup when your xbox is connected to a 3rd party media share" issue, along with increased motion cues in free space and adding a Y-Axis invert to the game options, and we've had other requests to add a colourblind option to the game. We're going to implement these changes, along with fixing the reported crashes, before we even approach release testing for the next build of the game.
Again, we want to offer our sincere appologies to everyone who's disappointed with the game - we're very disappointed too although we know that's little consolation to those who took an interest and were let down by the performance of the game. We take complete responsibility for the problems which people are seeing and the only thing we can do as an indie lable who want to be taken seriously is to remove the game from the marketplace, fix the problems and try again.
Thank you to everyone who's taken an interest in our game. We hope to be back on the marketplace within 3 weeks, but we're not going to rush unnessecarily back to the marketplace until we're 100% confident that the game is completely working.
With regards,
DrMistry
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Last Updated on Sunday, 17 January 2010 13:46 |
Space Pirates 
@frederictessier thanks for the RT sir!
Comments
But at least, like you say, if you can change a few things and get it more accessible for everyone and bug-free then that is great.
A colour-blind option would be fantastic, as my husband is currently stuggling to see the difference between the items on the map. Maybe use symbols as well as colours?
Also, for me, being able to select from a few button configurations would be handy, as I think I would prefer the RB and LB movement to be on the right analogue? I'd also change the L3 clicking to another button as I keep accidentally pressing (as you know!) :)
But even with all the above, I thought it was a fantastic game - definitely raising the bar for Indie games, and was a credit to your small development team.
Lots of other developers wouldn't have taken it off the marketplace, so well done to you for making that decision.
Looking forward to the updated version :)
We're thinking carefully about control model changes and we'll keep the site updated with more info. Frankly at the moment we're just trying to keep our spirits up and find what the problems are :(
Custom controls is something we're already designing, and Y-invert has already been put in the update code.
Cargo jettison - this is a bit harder because we need to work out a way players can to it quickly. The other option we have is that, if you lock on an enemy info is shown next to a floating, tracking box around the enemy telling the player if they're carrying contraband.
Would a load/save confirmation box do the job rather than changing the buttons?
Changing the target lock behaviour is good too - with a pop-up if you try and launch a missile when the enemy is out or range. This would marry nicely with the idea above about a cargo type indicator.
The system and alien names are engine-generated. There are 9,000 star systems and potentially an infinite number of alien characters so making "real" sounding names would be pretty tough while avoiding possible bad language in the name - but I know what you mean.
We did think about having other ships available to buy. TBH it would probably take about 3 hours to put in the code, but we'd also have to think about alternate heads-up displays as well as ship handling characteristics so there's a clear differentiation between flying the different models. We're planning this for the next game in the Space Pirates series so for the moment this is on the back-burner.
We've had loads of other feedback about tweaks, additions and alterations. We're going to sit down tomorrow and prioritise the workload, work out what we can and can't fit in, and begin designing the new code and revisions. I'll be posting tomorrow with the decisions we make, but I think your ideas are all very good ones which marry up well with our ideas and those that others have suggested.
Thanks again for taking time out to give us your ideas. You're exactly the kind of gamer we want to make games for, along with all the other great folk who've given us so much support over the last few days!
Best regards,
Mike
We wanted to have as little on the screen in terms of HUD as possible - I always remember wishing I could run Elite on 4 TVs so I could be surrounded be all the spacey goodness, so I wanted as much to be visible as possible. It's kind of a programming challenge to show as much as possible while keeping a high framerate too :)
There are lots and lots of improvements in the new version. The feedback we've got has been fantastic and it's always our aim to give people games they want to play and games they have real fun playing. We're almost there with this version, I know there are millions of things people would love to have in the game and we're keeping track of ALL the feedback in preparation for the next Space Pirates game :)
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