Should I Port To Wiz?

[trentg]

So I made a free RPG and ported it to 4 platforms including the Wiz. You may have seen it in the archives, it's called Monster 2. Well, for the post 6-8 months I've been working on a major upgrade to that game and it's now selling on the iPhone App Store. I'm curious if it's worth porting this new fancy updated touch screen controlled version of the game over to the Wiz again. I would not give away the source code, and I wouldn't really want to do it for free since I need to spend my time working on commercial projects to make some extra money. Fungp is coming up soon, do you think this game would sell well? Any other method to monetize my work? Sorry if I sound greedy but I actually make very little money each money off of a disability pension.

Here's a link to the game:
http://monster-rpg.com

 

[absolofdoom]

If you port it, I'd suggest that you make it controllable with the normal wiz gaming controls as well as the touch screen. I can't speak for anyone else, but this game strikes a chord with me. I'd definitely be willing to pay for it, but I don't know about funGP. If they ever put that up, it's supposed to only work with IE and have DRM, and both may be a problem to some people (disclaimer: this includes me). I'd think if you just made your own website for the port and sold it off that, it might be a better decision. Either that or, the store for the pandora (when it eventually goes online) might expand to allow wiz games as well, but I can't really say when or if it will happen.

So, in short, my advice: do it, consider using something besides funGP to sell it.

 

[trentg]

Well the game is a port to the iphone, not a rewrite, so all of the joystick and keyboard control code is still in there, just some of it has not been maintained. Actually, today and yesterday I spent long hours making an onscreen gamepad for the iPhone version (as an option). So using the native wiz controls would not be a problem. The biggest problem I see is OpenGL... I need it, and with all of the different library versions floating around, it's a pain. I would want to use the current newest opengl library for it, since it provides a nice speed boost in my tests (even though all the rendering is done in software, the final blit can be done by opengl to make it appear somewhat nicer with its linear interpolation: the resolution of the game is too small to just preserve the native resolution. But that final blit was heavy before, and so it wasn't the default, but with the new library it is nice and fast, and should be default because it looks a little better than my weighted average scale.

I will consider porting the game, when the time arrises. If I do, you folks will hear about it. And I will give fungp a look but I'm not committing one way or the other at the present time.

 

[kloppix]

I have been playing this game for some days on my Wiz and I can say it's really amazing. Really, I love it. I think it will sell well among wiz users. (If you have a Wiz there is a huge possibility you like old school rpg's ).

I saw some days ago you started selling CD's. That's a good idea, but maybe it would be better you do this kind of things through a wiz store as the only problem I think you will have is that the game is not well known. Just contact some stores and let them worried about the publicity. I was also thinking that for the wiz it would be better an SD card instead of a CD.

 

[trentg]

The CDs turned out to not be such a terrific idea. I paid around $300 or more to have them made including cases and insert and whatnot, and only sold about $150 worth. Right now I'm giving them away at shipping cost. Even though they're not selling, I'd hate to throw them out or something. It would be nice to find someone who would appreciate one, unfortunately I can't pay the shipping charges myself.

 

[hyper]

I think you should ^_^ Dunno where this Fungp thing is going, it was ment to be out in January(?) or something, but apparantly it is make progress and is currently beta testing in Korea. I would most likely buy this I love the old square rpgs, and this Monster 2 looks really good! Hope it all goes well man, wheter you port to wiz or not.

 

[emphyrio]

I think it would be a great to have the updated version for the wiz.
At the moment I think selling it on your own website is the best option.

Good luck!

 

[mystique]

I think it would be a great to have the updated version for the wiz.
At the moment I think selling it on your own website is the best option.

Good luck!

Don't give up your work for nothing or even a tiny shareware fee. Offering a limited Wiz demo version though would help sales. You know like being able to play one level only.
Thanks for developing RPG's for the Wiz .. my bipolar son loves those most of all.

 

[kloppix]

Im sorry to hear you weren't lucky selling of the CDs, but I insist the idea was good. I really hope Fungp will come up soon as you have a good chance to sell the game there.

In the meantime you can email some stores.

 

[torpor]

I'm not really an RPG fan (more into shooters myself) but I want to commend you on this effort - its really nice to see someone trying hard to bring a professional product to the Wiz. I've just spent the day trying out a lot of different games for the Wiz, and nothing has really "hit" me as being exceptionally good, per se .. but if there were more guys like you in the scene that might really change.

Anyway, I'd say definitely keep the Wiz a target for your products - but if you want to make money, the more platforms the better. Get your app ported to N900, Zii Egg, Pandora, Wiz, GP2X, Dingoo, and so on .. that way you have as much of a chance as possible to reap some rewards!

 

[Exophase]

So you use OpenGL to blit a texture which changes every frame; how fast is this on iPhone? And what method do you use? I don't think Wiz has pixel buffers, and a lot of CPU time has to be spent swizzling the textures.

Wiz does have hardware scaling with bilinear interpolation on its video layer, but that must be YUV 4:2:0 format.

 

[TitanUranus]

Will you be declaring the money you make from this to the appropriate authorities who monitor your entitlement to a disability pension? If so I'd be very careful as you wouldn't want to get your income cut just for the sake of earning a little money off your game.

 

[trentg]

So you use OpenGL to blit a texture which changes every frame; how fast is this on iPhone? And what method do you use? I don't think Wiz has pixel buffers, and a lot of CPU time has to be spent swizzling the textures.

That's what I do on Wiz, optionally. I also have my own scalar on Wiz. iPhone has FBOs so it's much easier and faster.

Will you be declaring the money you make from this to the appropriate authorities who monitor your entitlement to a disability pension? If so I'd be very careful as you wouldn't want to get your income cut just for the sake of earning a little money off your game.

Thanks, I'm fully aware of the situation. I contacted my case worker before registering my business and she said they were thrilled that I was doing it. They want you to make money so you don't have to keep taking the gov'ment cheese. Anyway, they will not stop my benefits, but if I make a lot they will cut them back. If I stop making money, they start again, so it's a no loss situation.

 

[originalz]

I'd buy it. If anything, you can offer the game both on your site and FunGP. FunGP would probably get more traffic, but for people who don't want to use it, they can just buy it from you directly (as long as there isn't some rule against doing this).

 

[crow_riot]

So you use OpenGL to blit a texture which changes every frame; how fast is this on iPhone? And what method do you use? I don't think Wiz has pixel buffers, and a lot of CPU time has to be spent swizzling the textures.

That's what I do on Wiz, optionally. I also have my own scalar on Wiz. iPhone has FBOs so it's much easier and faster.

how exactly do you do it? the same way as i did in the 'tissueGL' virtual framebuffer test? how's it performing?

 

[TitanUranus]

I nearly got into a lot of trouble because I sorted out a self employed friends computer network and I was threatened with having my benefit taken off me (though I never charged for it, 70% of the time I was bedridden and even in the 30% I was able to get up and do stuff I was in a lot of pain). They can be such a bunch of arseholes at times, so you really have to make sure they can't hold anything against you - sounds like you have it all sorted out. Good on you - port it and all the best.

 

[trentg]

how exactly do you do it? the same way as i did in the 'tissueGL' virtual framebuffer test? how's it performing?

I use Allegro where we have software equivalents for every drawing call. I set up opengl, draw my memory
bitmaps in software, then upload the texture and draw it to the screen. Before the latest opengl update, it
was performing "OK", usable but not as fast as my own custom scaling. After the update in my very very
brief test it "seemed" to be performing just as fast as my scalar, and looking slightly better.

 

[fettouhi]

Monster 2 is a really nice game. I would gladly pay a little cash for this. The game is hard though or is it just me. I can't get out of the cage below the prison in the beginning. If you do decide to update the wiz version and charge for it, please fix the tearing .

 

[crow_riot]

how exactly do you do it? the same way as i did in the 'tissueGL' virtual framebuffer test? how's it performing?

I use Allegro where we have software equivalents for every drawing call. I set up opengl, draw my memory
bitmaps in software, then upload the texture and draw it to the screen. Before the latest opengl update, it
was performing "OK", usable but not as fast as my own custom scaling. After the update in my very very
brief test it "seemed" to be performing just as fast as my scalar, and looking slightly better.

oh ok. never used allegro, so i cant say much about that. thx for letting me know.

... *edit*
and yes, port your game to the wiz. every game helps