Nieuwe Aarde 0.1.1
2011, March 7th 1:22 PMWindows (.zip version available)
Mac OSX
Linux (32-bit only)
"Wait, Nieuwe Aarde? What's going on? Didn't we already see this game?"
Well, yeah. You did. And you'll be seeing more of it, too!
I've decided to turn Nieuwe Aarde, along with one other game yet to be announced, into a longer-term project. I've got ideas on how to improve it considerably. This isn't really an improved version – this is just a re-release of the version you've played before – but it does have a few improvements.
First off, and most noticably, it has music! I've been collaborating with Robert Seaton with music for a few of my games (and I'll be posting them with music as well, though they won't be getting a long-term treatment.) We did a really neat thing with the music in this game. I'm not going to spoil it, but you should go play it to find out. Seriously it's pretty dang cool.
Second, a common complaint was that increasing your metal and magic in the lategame took far too long. I've added +1000/-1000 buttons as a small hack fix for that.
Third, the rendering engine is far more efficient – the original renderer was quite shockingly bad. Sometimes that's just what happens when you have 48 hours to write a game in. I regret nothing.
Overall, this is the same game . . . but keep an eye on this journal, because I'm going to be making some major changes to it.
Mlog - An amateur composer's music blog
2011, March 7th 3:41 PM[…] Update!!! (3/7/11) You can now download Nieuwe Aarde v0.1.1, which includes the song above! […]
Mlog - An amateur composer's music blog
2011, March 7th 3:52 PM[…] Games has released Nieuwe Aarde v0.1.1! This new version includes the song Dark Oppression + Valiant Defense the way it was meant to be […]
Milgwyn
2011, March 8th 1:31 PMQuick comment on the metal/magic expense thing… Why not make it a sliding scale and an accept/reject button? Let the player slide the scale between paying fully in metal and fully in magic. Second, I played it twice, closely losing the first and winning the second by a giant margin… From these two playthroughs, a couple things seemed evident. First, the game has a power-reward mechanism; playing well is rewarded by an easier game experience. I honesly had the most fun when I was just barely losing. Making the monsters hate magic (thus allowing stronger ones to appear as you stockpile more magic) might help. Also, variation in the monster mechanism in some way would help longevity a lot; having beaten it, I have no further desire to play… Some variation would help (e.g. Roguelikes?). Finally, it seems that manpower as a resource has little use; I did, eventually, succumb to a lack of it in m lost game, but that was the consequence (and not the cause) of other bad gameplay decisions. In other words, if you run out of manpower, I think you're already doing it wrong (i.e. Out Of wood/food/metal). I'd either eliminate manpower as superfluous or differentiate between housing and mining. Anyways, thanks for the lovely couple playthroughs, and I'll be certain to play any revisions! (P.S. Pardon any typos or autocorrect fails, on a mobile device.)
Zorba
2011, March 8th 1:36 PMOne thing that isn't made adequately clear in the current design is that metal and magic are synergistic – if you try to pay all in one, or all in the other, you'll need ruinous amounts in order to win. You need to approximately balance the two. I'm having trouble coming up with a sliding scale mechanism that demonstrates this well (not that the current design does either, admittedly.)
I fully agree with the rest of your criticisms and plan to tackle them in future versions. :) There's a bunch of ideas I have and, with luck, some of them will be good.