Bad News :( and Good news

Bad news: Ambrosia has decided against distributing my game Legends. :frown:

Good News: Since Ambrosia has decided against distributing my game Legends, Legends will be distributed for free. ๐Ÿ™‚ Also i plan on opening up a beta test in a week or 2 open too anyone. If you would like to Help me Beta test this game please send me an email at graham@vhpublications.com.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 09-02-2003).)

I am sorry to here that Ambrosia has decided not to distribute your game. Did they specifiy why they did not wish to distribute your game? Did they give you any helpful feed back or was it form letter type response.

Pedrith :frown:

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Quote

Original email by Andrew Welch:
**Yes, unfortunately, your game isn't something we'd be interested in at this time -- but please, work on developing it, and release it to the public. You'll find it quite rewarding.

**

Nope no suggestions. I respect his decision and I will grant his request.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 09-02-2003).)

I, for one am glad to see your spirits are still up. Give it away with a note asking people to send you their honest opinion on it, a few will respond, and take that into consideration for your next venture.

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Just pimpin' my (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/iblog/dampeoples")scandalous stories(/url),(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/damcam.html")voyeur cam(/url), (url="http://"http://www.dampeoples.com")stuff(/url), (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/dampeoples/artlinks/stuff.html")art tutorial links(/url), and (url="http://"http://www.thejbfc.com")Fishing!(/url)

One such reason would be the use of stock art/sprites from a very distinctive game.
Despite the different story line,
full list of features
original world and conflict
time spent on level design
side quest event system
multiple storylines

and notable graphical additions (spell effects etc.), you still might as well have called it POG 2.0 .
Its a clear conflict of interest, original art is always best.

I am curious how did you do the multiple weapon level ups/proficiency/weapon aptitudes ?

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... bwahhaaaaahaaaaaugh fooooolish sammurai.
{ edit : typo }

(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 09-03-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by ellrx:
**

I am curious how did you do the multiple weapon level ups/proficiency/weapon aptitudes ?

**

As in how does the level up system work or how does the character improve when leveling in a specific area?

(Please note the following information may change during the Beta test to help balence the different level up areas)

The Improvement when your character levels up are:

Melee level up: +2 to Vitality, +3 to Health, +1 magic, +2 strength, +1 dexterity, and +1 to Natural Protection.

Ranged level up: +1 Vitality, +2 Health, +3 Marksmanship, +4 Dexterity, and +2 magic.

Fire magic level up: +1 Vitality, +1 Health, +4 Magic, +1 Fire Protection

Cold Magic level up: +1 Vitality, +1 Health, +4 Magic, +1 Cold Protection

Also The Higher the level you are in any of these the more advanced abilities that you will be able to use.

The Level up system consistof of gb_skill whitch determines which skill was used to defeat the oponent, a gb_(skill)exp whitch determines how much exp the player currently has in the ability, a gb_(skill)max whitch determines how much experience is required to reach the next level. if you would like more details please reply.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

Quote

One such reason would be the use of stock art/sprites from a very distinctive game.
(edit -- snip)

and notable graphical additions (spell effects etc.), you still might as well have called it POG 2.0 .
Its a clear conflict of interest, original art is always best.

Ellrx, I'm curious. Are you on the board to make the decisions concerning what game is accepted and rejected? You give reasons why Ambrosia did not accept the game. Are these the real reasons -- that is, did you help make the actual decision -- or are your reasons your opinion?

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

(This message has been edited by Debra (edited 09-04-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by Debra:
**Ellrx, I'm curious. Are you on the board to make the decisions concerning what game is accepted and rejected? You give reasons why Ambrosia did not accept the game. Are these the real reasons -- that is, did you help make the actual decision -- or are your reasons your opinion?

**

Opinion only, Debra. The decision for game development through Ambrosia is handled only by Ambrosia. None of the people who post here work in any official capacity for Ambrosia Software (except Andrew and David) and Stark and I are only unofficials. Besides that, I would assume that Andrew himself makes the final decisions over games & programs to develop, based on the company being personally owned, etc.

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

Posted Image
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... bwahhaaaaahaaaaaugh fooooolish sammurai.
{ edit : retracted }

(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 09-04-2003).)

I do not assume to posess any position of authority. It was never my intent.

Debra was being facetious. Taking wit ty tap s. Us i ng that ever clever trademark uplifting spirit, and in the face of { insert force } can-do attitude. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Let me be perfectly expl icit, I am in fav or of Graham's gam e. Th e feature's intrigue me and its a very high end Singular/magnanimous us a ge of the e ng ine. He has perservered past al l th e pitfalls that CGE can throw.

He has come with problem after problem, resolve d them all and stands ready with:

"the most c o mplete 3rd party game ever assembled with CGE, period."

It disheartens me that his game will not be going commercial siting the pure effort/time that he has poured into this game. I sincerely acknowledge this.

GRAHAM THIS IS NOT DIRECTED AT YOU :

That was my valid constructive criticism, If you can honestly and completely disregard and render it null...

A. You are being oblivious
B. Bartering with yourself
C. May be accustomed to self-inflicted cognitive dissonance.
D. Missed the point
E. Are a miracle, and i contemplate the fibre of your being.
F. See, all of the below

I await your counterpoints, and if you like will set them for the world to see on their very own stage/webpage.

Email it, IM me, Flood the air waves... come and present your case that "i am utterly and completely asynchronous with the rythym of the world, the buying market, marketting strategy, investors, retailers, developers, industry, little children who ride to blockbuster with the nickels,quarters,pennies, wrinkled sweat stained singles who rent video games."

You are cordially invited.

Has the term POG maker ever danced to the beat slipping off the skin of your ear drum, like the dew across Tiger Lily's that iCultivate in the posterior portico of my apartment ?

IM: nohbahdii, ellrx
email: ellrx@yahoo.com, webmaster@ellrx.com
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... bwahhaaaaahaaaaaugh fooooolish sammurai.
{ edit : clarification }

(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 09-04-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by ellrx:
Us i ng that ever clever trademark uplifting spirit, ....

Cool! Thanks! ๐Ÿ™‚

Quote

Let me be perfectly expl icit, I am in fav or of Graham's gam e.

I'm in absolute agreement with you, here.

Graham, have you considered marketing your own game? What I mean by that is, placing it on the internet for sale after you beta-test it. Registering your own company isn't difficult. Taxes are a drag. Paypal works wonderfully well, at least in my experience. And you'll need to set up a system to handle the load. I do hope that you don't give up and that you continue to make games and make them available to people who want to pay and play them.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Debra:
Graham, have you considered marketing your own game? What I mean by that is, placing it on the internet for sale after you beta-test it. Registering your own company isn't difficult. Taxes are a drag. Paypal works wonderfully well, at least in my experience. And you'll need to set up a system to handle the load. I do hope that you don't give up and that you continue to make games and make them available to people who want to pay and play them.

(/B)

I have considered this but, my game contains grafics and sounds that where created by beenox. i nether have the artistic ability, nor sound ability.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

I thought the whole point in including the graphics and sounds were so people without artistic talent could make and sell their own games, with or without Ambrosia. And I distinctly remember something about Ambrosia looking to publish creator made games as "modules", which implies they all are similiar and use similiar systems and graphics. I would like to know why they would pass over a game that met (or exceeded) that description. And since they have, I'm with Debra. I think you should see about marketing it yourself. At least look into it.

myshkyn

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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."

Quote

Originally posted by myshkyn:
**I thought the whole point in including the graphics and sounds were so people without artistic talent could make and sell their own games, with or without Ambrosia. And I distinctly remember something about Ambrosia looking to publish creator made games as "modules", which implies they all are similiar and use similiar systems and graphics. I would like to know why they would pass over a game that met (or exceeded) that description. And since they have, I'm with Debra. I think you should see about marketing it yourself. At least look into it.

myshkyn

**

I will look into it.

Because of the vast number of people who signed up I am unable to host an public beta test. :frown: My server can't handle this many downloads). However I will have a beta test for Legends. People that sign up will have a chance to be a part of the beta. You may still sign up for the beta by sending an email to graham@vhpublications.com. There is no deadline and I will have the Bata available to everyone that signed up. However, since my server can not handle a great deal of people downloading it at once I will give it out not to everyone at once but to a select few every day. Please For all those who signed up please let my know your honest opinion of the game. Thanks.

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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 09-04-2003).)

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 09-05-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by ellrx:
Let me be perfectly explicit, I am in favor of Graham's game. The feature's intrigue me and its a very high end Singular/magnanimous usage of the engine. He has perservered past all the pitfalls that CGE can throw.

And here I am in complete agreement with you. I was not in any sense attempting to disparage you, I spent a fair bit of time trying to compose the statement I made, it was kinda difficult not to sound.... aristocratic? A personal failing, perhaps. ๐Ÿ˜‰

I was also aware that Debra was most likely asking in a sense of amusement, but I felt that I _should(/b) answer anyway. Doing my job kind of thing.:)

If I do take something seriously, you'll know about it. I was just tired when I posted... well, mostly tired, also slightly irritated for completely different reasons. I'll try to phrase it better next time.

I definitely hope that Graham has the best of luck in the rest of his test/dev cycle for Legends. And now, for him:

Graham, maybe you could release the game as a more donationware style than shareware style game? Perhaps just a little bit in the readme file & maybe somewhere InGame that states that Legends is free, but you would like people who enjoyed the game to donate, say, $5 towards developing a sequel or somesuch. Hey, if people like (url="http://"http://www.savekaren.com")her(/url) can do it for their personal reasons, you might be in with a chance as well. ๐Ÿ™‚

Good luck with it. Hope it turns out well... and I look forward to playing the final game (although I'm probably a tad too busy to beta.... we'll see how I feel in a few days ๐Ÿ˜‰ )

-Andiyar

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(i)"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"_

Actually, I was wondering. Some people on the board besides the moderators seem to write with authority concerning what Ambrosia's doing, and why. And sometimes what is written seems to me to be negative about Ambrosia. While I try to not buy into it, I did wonder just how much a person is actually "in the loop." From what's been written, I've gathered that there are people on the board who beta-tested Coldstone, and perhaps I assumed too much, but I thought that those people might be "in the loop" enough to really know.

I don't really care about what Ambrosia's doing or why they make the decisions they make. I realize that Ambrosia is a business, and as every business should, they make decisions based on their own needs and criteria. But I did think that perhaps those people who have been around longer than I are actually privy to decisions. I now know that they are not, but only expressing their opinions, many of which I value, some of which I don't (but recognize that perhaps others do).

And if a person expresses an opinion about me and my writing in a negative way (or attack someone else for all that matters), I try to turn it around into something sincere and positive. Or at least rational. Why not? There's enough violence in the world. And I'm committed, as a person, to deal with violence in a non-violent way. I don't always succeed, but at least I try.

I see absolutely no need whatsoever, Andiyar, for you to apologize. You are an excellent moderator. I appreciate you and what you write on the board very much. Thanks!

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

I know I'm ahead of schedule but the beta is now open. You may still sign up by sending my an email at graham@vhpublications.com.

Please note that the beta will not include Multiple storylines or the ability to make plugins for Legends. THe ability to make plugins will be in the final version. however I am uncertain as to wether I will have the other storylines in the game.
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Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

(This message has been edited by GrahamVH (edited 09-05-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by Debra:
**Actually, I was wondering. Some people on the board besides the moderators seem to write with authority concerning what Ambrosia's doing, and why. And sometimes what is written seems to me to be negative about Ambrosia. While I try to not buy into it, I did wonder just how much a person is actually "in the loop." From what's been written, I've gathered that there are people on the board who beta-tested Coldstone, and perhaps I assumed too much, but I thought that those people might be "in the loop" enough to really know.

I don't really care about what Ambrosia's doing or why they make the decisions they make. I realize that Ambrosia is a business, and as every business should, they make decisions based on their own needs and criteria. But I did think that perhaps those people who have been around longer than I are actually privy to decisions. I now know that they are not, but only expressing their opinions, many of which I value, some of which I don't (but recognize that perhaps others do).**

There are a few people around who are/have been on the beta list for Coldstone, and of course there are people who've been around for a while and can make educated(?) guesses. But as to being in the loop... in honest truth, we (yes, me the tester ๐Ÿ™‚ ) don't know much more than people who aren't on the various lists/conspiracies/boards of directors etc.

As to negativity, people are of course entitled to their own opinions, just as you and I are entitled to ours. Opinion ain't something I police here... unless it interferes. Whether or not people believe one thing or the other about Coldstone, Ambrosia or whatever is their own business. And, unless Andrew decides to declare himslef Supreme Dictator of the Universe and cracks down on all independent thought, I'll do my part in trying to keep it that way. ๐Ÿ™‚

Quote

**And if a person expresses an opinion about me and my writing in a negative way (or attack someone else for all that matters), I try to turn it around into something sincere and positive. Or at least rational. Why not? There's enough violence in the world. And I'm committed, as a person, to deal with violence in a non-violent way. I don't always succeed, but at least I try.

I see absolutely no need whatsoever, Andiyar, for you to apologize. You are an excellent moderator. I appreciate you and what you write on the board very much. Thanks!

**

Of course. There is problems enough in the 'real world' to make arguing etc. on a webboard seem a bit silly. But, mind you, although debate can be interesting (if useless ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) Stark and I (and other mods, when around) try to keep it civil. That's our job, after all.

And lastly, thank you Debra. It's always nice to hear positive feedback. ๐Ÿ™‚

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

(This message has been edited by Tarnฤ‡lion Andiyarus (edited 09-06-2003).)

Wow, its like a soap opera on these boards ๐Ÿ˜‰

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"Stiney! Get me a danish!"

Quote

Originally posted by OgreBob:
**Wow, its like a soap opera on these boards;)

**

...And The Zerowarrior walked in, pulled out his sword, as Tarnฤ‡lion Andiyarus withdrew his staff.
"You are not the father of young Zeman, and you know it!" cried the warrior.
Their battle unfolded, Andiyarus swinging his staff, attempting to dismount the sabersword. Zerowarrior deflected the blow, sending his staff back at Andiyarus himself. Andiyarus chuckled, that gleeming stare that he gave off showed that he knew a bit more than the young Zerowarrior knew.
Debra looked on not knowing what either one of them were talking about, while Ellrx stands in the back , cackling at all of them.
"Just wait, all of you," he thought to himself "the best is yet to come."
Tarnฤ‡lion Andiyarus smiled, and let loose a barrage of staff hits, each of which the Zerowarrior was able to dodge narrowly.
"Yes, but do you know about Stark?" he murmured to the warrior.
"Bledfast? What about him?" Whispered a defensive warrior.
Ellrx began to laugh hysterically. Debra got the whole picture.
"No Way!" she gasped, "Stark is the father of young Daniel?! That's impossible!"
Tarnฤ‡lion Andiyarus caught Zerowarrior offguard, sending him to the ground, pinned under the forced staff unto his chestplate. Ellrx was right. The worst was yet to come.

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-The ZeroWarrior