PixelShips Retro

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: October 3rd, 2006

Gotta hit my quota!

Here’s an average little shmup called PixelShips Retro. You select a spaceship and fly around shooting other spaceships that don’t look like your spaceship.

Now, I was interested in this game at first. The developer was all like, “160 ships to collect! 80’s style original graphics and sound!” And the intro screen was pretty rad.

However… the game is rough around the edges. Real rough. That, and the developer decided to push it as heavily-crippled shareware. Disappointment!

So many indie developers complain about how few shareware games make real money, but look at how many are just simply unprofessional. My theory is, great games will sell. Will time prove me right?

Posted in Community, Shoot-em-ups, Windows

http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Continuing the proud tradition of pimping Aquaria _every post._
dessgeega

i’m not sure i’d call this “heavily crippled”. heavily crippled is when you allow the player only an hour to play oasis, and it’ll take a new player longer than that just to get past the tutorial.
http://www.joy90.co.uk Moschops

An hour is generous, I’ve seen some only give 30 minutes in a lame ploy to hide the fact that you could complete the game in an hour :/
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

I considered this heavily crippled, but I hadn’t experienced such horror stories. :)

And the nag screens… O, the nag screens!
Sandcrab

I like games I can complete in an hour.
Cube

I just have to say…this game sucks. The original PixelShips is awesome, even though it has no music or sound. This game just plain sucks.
http://www.moonpod.com/diary Fost

We only have 20 minutes of game time for Starscape (although you can replay – it doesn’t just disable itself :) and you can play one of the survival modes indefinitely)

I don’t know, is that stingy? or ‘heavily crippled’? To be honest, I never saw it as shareware, but a demo for a commercial game. Certainly, we have been more successful selling it with a lower demo time than a greater one. I really think it comes down to the type of game you are selling, and there shouldn’t be any hard and fast rules. I think people buy all the casual match 3 stuff because you need a good hour of play time to get into the ‘zen’ of casual play. Then they pull the rug from under you and you get upset and buy it.

For ‘meatier’ games (which sounds like Aquaria to me) I think the ideal demo is to give people a taste of the game so they know whether they will enjoy it, stop the game, and then show them some even cooler stuff they’ll get if they register it.

Of course, I’m speaking as a developer here with the intention of making money so I can carry on making games :)
For consumers, the best demo is obviously one that gives you loads of time, but then why would you buy it? I know for a fact this happens in great numbers with Starscape, as people just download it and play Survival Mode all the time!
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

Hey Fost! Thanks for the thoughtful post.

My beef with this game isn’t how crippled the shareware demo is, but that it’s a shareware demo at all. I feel like it just lacks quality and that maybe more polish could’ve been afforded if time weren’t spent on nag screens, different versions, etc.

With games like Aquaria and, oh say, Mr. Robot, the demos, however “crippled” they may be, I’m sure will be enough to show the games are worth buying. And that’s all they really need to do, IMO.
http://www.arsecast.com The Arsecast Host

I quite enjoyed it, myself. I agree that it’s got a face only it’s mother could love and limiting you to 3 level types was perhaps a little stingy. However when I completed the demo I did feel like see more of it, but only in the sense of looking forward to the completion of a freeware game rather than the purchasing of a full version. Had it been part of the original quartet of games it was planned for (I believe) then I’d have been more likely to plop down $20 for 4 such games, but $13 on a single one? Nopers. I’ve got disposable income, but it’s not quite that disposable.
http://www.arsecast.com The Arsecast Host

My grammer bad. Me wunt spell proper one day.
http://www.arsecast.com The Arsecast Host

For me Starscape was the antithesis of a good demo. It started you out in a really boring fetch-and-carry part of the game and make you work to see anything of relative interest. I’d have preferred if it gave you a sampling of the later features, even if it was a rolling demo. Screenshots won’t sell me a game, man, but movies will.
Oddbob

TAH, come on – PixelShips Retro…its ropey as heck and you know it ;)
http://www.magnulus.com Magnulus

What is THIS nonsense?! Pixelships RETRO?! What happened to Pixelships TWO, with its upgraded graphics and such and such and such. I don’t mean to sound like an eye-candy whore, but I was looking forward to pixelships in 640×480. THAT, I would have paid for.
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