I get frequent questions about the release date, what I’m working on, how much longer… so, it’s time for a little status update. Read on if you are interested…
As close followers of the game know, I had hoped to be done earlier this year. Good intentions I assure you and I could have met that earlier goal. But, the game would have been half of what it is now if I had done that. Would that have been the wiser course? Perhaps…. time will tell. But the course I chose led to numerous additions and refinements to the game that will serve it well.
Presently, I am working on story mission content. There are 15 story missions completed so far (excepting small refinements). Each has required small changes or additions to the game to support required features. How many total story missions will there be? I am likely to do another 5 or 10 core story missions. There may be more story missions overall, though, because there are likely going to be story missions that aren’t core. You see, the story in CW3 takes place on a landscape that allows some measure of choice and options, so there are more worlds and missions in the story space than are necessary to tell the core story. It will all be clear at release, but suffice it to say that I’m roughly half way through the story missions and making good progress.
The game itself underwent an engine upgrade from Unity3.5 to Unity 4.1 a couple weeks ago. Not as bad as I had planned for and not as good as I had hoped for. There were some little glitches and issues I had to address but most of those seem to be taken care of at this point. One plus, I’m now experimenting with Linux builds for the game… now I just need to find some hardware to test them on…
I should also mention that CRPL (Creeper Reverse Polish Language) is being used extensively in the story missions. I created this language to make event handling a little more flexible than in previous games. Eight months later and it is being used to do some crazy things. The beauty/horror is that this power will all be in the hands of custom map makers once the game ships.
Speaking of custom maps. The game will definitely ship with the map maker as part of the game. The map maker won’t be a separate application like with the other games. That’s all cool and will be there at release. What may not be there at release is the online system for sharing custom maps. That may require an extra month or so to bring online. I have to settle on the moderation system, and a range of things with the service. My thinking right now is that I won’t hold the game an extra month while I work on this, but will instead release the game first then bring this system online a bit later. This is how CW2 was released and it worked out fine. Note that maps can still be created in the absence of the online system, and they can even be loaded by the game. It’s just the online sharing service that I am talking about.
Let’s see… (looking at list)… oh yeah, “Is the game too easy” and “Is the game too hard“? I get asked these questions, so here’s the answer. None of the above. If you watch most of the videos that have been posted you might think the game is too easy. I can assure you there will be an unlimited supply of missions that are extremely difficult. All the Bertha’s in the world won’t help you… On the other hand, I can also assure you there will be an unlimited supply of casual missions where you can’t lose. You might have to think about how to win, but you won’t be able to lose. CW3 will have both extremely hard and extremely easy missions… and it will have lots of missions that I hope are just right. Goldilocks would be pleased.
Price? How’s $60 sound? Ha ha ha… Kidding of course. The plan right now is for CW3 to be $20 or less. CW3 will include hundreds and hundreds of hours of unique game play, but I still intend to price it in line or less than other indie titles. I think that is the right thing to do. There will of course be a free demo so you can try the game out.
Feature list? Here are some highlights:
- Over 20 unique and balanced core units.
- Play on maps of variable size, dimension, and shape.
- Billions of total missions.
- Dial up your own mission worlds using the ‘Dial Map Device’ and share the address.
- Play story missions across a range of star systems.
- Explore hundreds of star systems with thousands of worlds in Prospector missions.
- Create your own maps using the included map editor.
- Script your own enemies and effects using the built in scripting language.
- Fight the Creeper, Digitalis, Runners, and other enemies.
- Terraform the landscape during missions to take the higher ground.
- Mine ore and make Anti-Creeper.
- Discover experimental weapons that devastate the enemy.
- Includes customization of key mappings and other settings (play full screen, window, various resolutions).
- Features a unique, original, and awesome soundtrack.
Now, not to skip a video here’s a DMD (Dial Map Device) map by Lich98. This map was created using the options of the procedural map generator included in the game. He was nice enough to do a commentary on this map, so enjoy!
Perfect a status update. I hope the game wil be releshed around mid late august or september. Nice features the game wil have.
It ok that the sharing system come after the relesh. We have more than enoth gameplay to wait. Keep up your good work virgil;)
Great update.. Look forward to a possible linux port. Also wouldn’t go any less than 20 with all the work and awesomeness in the game even a kid mowing lawns can come up with 20.
I go hand in hand with Cohibas opinion. Don’t go below 20$.
I would also pay 60 but I think this might scare a lot of other potential buyers 🙂
Correct, there is a weird psychology with prices too where people actually buy less of something if they perceive it to be too cheap assuming the quality is probably pretty low thus justifying the low price.
Basically what that means is, too low of a price can actual reduce sales, not increase them.
I have heard of that, but I was always under the impression that it had to do more with similar things. Like clothing priced similarly, or jewels priced similarly.
I would say the creeper games are fairly unique, and the demo will be able to show people this.
Personally I would easily pay $20-$25. $30 would be a maybe for me.
I bet you would pay $30 on day one. The people that come to this forum are the top 1 percent of people that have played the previous games. We will pay whatever vigil charges.
Virgil have you considered a collectors edition?
I agree. Price is only an issue in the absense of value. Charge what it is worth.
I’d just like to remind you all that not every body lives in use or uk and 20$ is rather much in my cuntry. From my salary point of view I’d divide this number by 2 or 3. But that’s just the country I live in.
When it comes out on steam (if it does) you should find it for around $5 when it is on sale.
Well it’s an online game so they would need a credit card….so no they wouldnt.
Every thing is looking great i am glad you took your time making this. I would wait one more year just so it was perfect. I mean i am tired of games being rushed to make a quick buck.
PS. I am very scared of playing custom maps i can only image what i mad creeper scientist will create.
I agree, it’s much better to wait and make sure the game is perfect then to rush it and miss things. Also, I have a suggestion. What about a setting so that if you can place buildings to be built in creeper, but the command nodes would only start sending build packets to them once the creeper was gone?
There was a video demonstrating CRPL towers that showed units that would be built despite creeper being in that spot already. I don’t remember if the CN’s would send packets or not though.
Like i building blueprint so you can plan ahead of where to place things.
From the look of the videos, it looks like modules already kind of do that. There was a vid Vrigil did where he was showing us the kinds of things CRPL Towers could do, that he built a string of collector nodes through the creeper–they were transparent and wouldn’t build because they were inside creep. He explained that the nodes were queued to build and couldn’t yet because of the surrounding creep. Though, I’m no expert on the game and the current program build may be different.
As far as finding hardware to test your Linux version on, you can probably test it on the same hardware you use to test your Windows version on. There are a number of options that would let you use Linux on the same machine. You could boot off of a live CD. You could install Linux on a bootable USB stick. You could add a second hard drive to install Linux on, or repartition your Windows drive to free up some space for a Linux installation, and then dual boot your machine. There are utilities to handle all of the data reorganization required to shrink your existing NTFS filesystem and reduce the parition size, without requiring the user to do anything complicated. In regards to the Linux version, if there is anything I can do to help you out, let me know. I’ve been a Unix/Linux system administrator for more years now than I care to admit, even though I still use a Windows rig for gaming and web browsing here at home. (Not that I don’t have any Linux boxes at home. They’re just doing other things, like acting as my firewall, my fileserver, my mythtv DVR boxes, etc…)
I wouldn’t hesitate to pay $30 for this. I might even consider $60. 😉
virgil, if you just need a computer running linux, i might be able to help
Do you plan to have a preorder once you’re closer to release?
There’s no physical copies of the game, so there’s no point to it. There’s no stock of the game.
I can not wait to buy this game. Is there any chance you are going to try get this game to be reviewed on youtube on the day of release? I really want to see this game succeed.
Thanks for giving us a much needed update!
You didn’t actually touch on the rough date you are looking towards. Is it hopefully coming out before Autumn?
Thanks for the update. The game looks great and I am looking forward to it. I have a question about how do we purchase the game. Is it only direct from you or are you planning on steam or some other digital downloader?
$20 – good. Plausible September release-good. Linux support -good. Unity 4.1- good. More crpl flexibility- good.
All these put together- excellent addition to the creeper world saga. 3 cheers for Virgil!
What’s wrong with over-powered guppies?
Game became unballanced…
The custom map sharing system is not needed immediately as I’m sure that the game itself will be more than enough to play for a month or two, and only after playing trough all of story and some DMD/Prospector missions people will start creating custom maps 😀 And the game looks so awesome!!!!
Thanks for the update.. I have been, like most here, patiently waiting to play your newest vision. Nice to see fellow dev’s taking the time to update their ‘customers’… Looks great so far.
Awesome. I’m good with 20 id pay 30 but I don’t think I would go over that amount.
$20 is fine. Even $30 wouldn’t be too bad but I’d have to wait for next month.
But regardless.
Shut up and take my money.
Just don’t pull a Duke Nukem and we’ll be fine.
Keep up the good work virgil.
Thanks for the update virgil!
Hey Lich, what’s your preference for a unit on a new power zone in a creeper infested area?
Blaster/Sprayer to clear the creeper around it out, then move in a Motar.
*Comment Made before watching video*
Virgilw- What will the highest resolution possible? Also, could the next video/ screen shot use this resolution? (sorry if already asked. I beleive it was 1080?)
Also, you quote “Play on maps of variable size, dimension, and shape.” You said earlier that maps do not have to be square. They could be a circle (or something like that) then you said you would get back to it later. Is this going to be possible in CW3?
If the game is 20$ or less, you will earn 200000000000000000000 dollars or less 😉
I cannot wait for the most ambitious installment of creeper world three!
I play at 2560×1440 full screen sometimes. At other times I play in a window that is 1440×960. You can set the window to any resolution (greater than or equal to 800×600) that you want (and that you have the physical display resolution to hold). Full screen can support any existing resolution. By default the game will keep your native resolution when going full screen. But, if you prefer you can go full screen and have the game change the resolution.
Yes, you can have really tall or really thin maps. You can also make round maps, or asteroid maps, etc.
Would the map itself be round or would the terrain that you can actually use?
Terrain. The window would be square as would the border if it was enabled.
but if you go higher in resolution your pc needs to work harder right? of course my laptop can handle it but gets frequently hot like sometimes if there was too much drones or something else in cw 2
that would be 20 quintillion dollars, no way he’ll get THAT much money.
Guys stop, he will up the price to the thousands by this point XD
I was wandering- but how many songs will come in the game? Also, what program(S) do you use to make your songs?
I’d say $25-30 would be a reasonable price for the game. Considering all the work you’ve put into it and the fact that it has a custom map creator built in, along with a way to make a custom story IN the custom missions, I think that the lowest you could possibly go without ripping yourself off would be $20.
TBH I would be irked at a $60 price tag, but after 10 seconds consideration I would pay & be fairly happy about paying
Seconded.
Lichmaster, please please pretty please with sugar on top DON’T include any music with your next videos! Just release the video with just the sound effects or nothing. Commentary is of course MUCH preferred!
Also, why don’t you just keep the speed at 1x? Most players can change the playing speed for people that are in a hurry.
Virgill, why do the beta builds look at lot less pretty than the alpha builds? (see screenshots)
The difference in height was much more pronounced in the alpha builds, and the use of different colours was also much better.
Is there going to be a setting to determine those colours?
Thanks for the info.
Alpha : http://www.flickr.com/photos/27784267@N06/9299070360/
Beta : http://www.flickr.com/photos/27784267@N06/9296290943/
It’s just the theme that was chosen for the missions. In fact, the same DMD map can be played with different themes.
Yeah, in CW2, you could even make rainbow creeper(which actually made it really confusing). I wouldn’t be surprised if you can make all the creeper depths be the same colour(to make it harder to see the depth at a more global scale), or even completly transparent/invisible.
Hahaha I did all three in three seperate maps. You must be a fan ;D
In all serious, im sure anyone could manually install or develop (or something) a color into the game. If someone could change the unit size, shape, and color, im sure the same is possible for creeper!
Many of my recent videos have the game music in them, which can’t be released until closer to game release date, yet to be determined, or after.
Virgil, I too am happy to wait as your previous work speaks for itself. Waiting and being amazed is better then getting it faster and a lesser game. Bang for the buck sounds GREAT at $20. Replay and custom maps makes the game well worth it. A quick idea – can you have the game auto-update like windows, but less annoying? 🙂
Although auto-update hasn’t been implemented (so I don’t know how it will work), V will most likely go with what CW2 used – a notification to a patch download if your game is not the current release.
Making the game <= $20 is a good idea, if people want to pay $60, they can just buy 3 copies; if not, just buy one.
Why not steam greenlight?
$20? After Steam sales, I’m not sure I can justify more than $5 on a game…
Kidding, of course (but I will never buy a AAA game full price again). And is it just me, or is the video lagging like crazy?
Accually my computer stuggles with larger maps. its not the best for a gaming however, I plan to build a better one soon, hopefuly by christmas.
Turns out it’s a problem on my end. It’s sort of fixed now. How does lag compare in 3 and 2 when dealing with lots of space guns and dense (level 50-100 and 5-10 thousand thousand seem comparable) Creeper?
yeah hello lich i know my mac computer isnt a gaming pc but can it handle it because with cw1 and cw2 i had no problems
If you had no problems with cw1 (which, by the way, was way too ambitious graphically for AIR), you should be fine.
yeah but its a macbook pro not air so its processor is much better i think
Virgil, have you ever considered doing a package deal, where you buy all three games for the price of two, or something like that? That would make my day.
I was hoping for a preorder deal at around $30-$35 for all the three games, with CW1 and CW2 downloadable right now and CW3 when ready. I played only the demo of both older games (on Kongregate maybe?) and I’d be happy to finish them by the time CW3 comes out.
But I’ll wait until the final price and possible bundles are available.
Everyone,
The game will be released first on http://knucklecracker.com/
Not on steam. Steam may come later, as the spotlight, but the game will definatly come first here.
Sadly, there are not enough payment options for me here :-/.
I need Steam!
I want this game!
Really? you can pay with Credit/debit, paypal, or check. Not sure what other methods you need. Do you plan on paying with food stamps, Linden Dollars and iTunes points?
hahahaha.
That cracked me up 🙂
I plan on paying with iDeal, a Dutch system where you get redirected to your bank’s website, authorize payment and get redirected back to the shop’s website, which has received a “payment succesful” message from the bank. Very easy, very secure, almost universally used by webshops oriented at the Dutch market. Big international webshops like Steam often also have an iDeal payment option. However, internationally oriented shops which are small (KC) or stubborn (Amazon) often don’t offer it. For the small ones, I sometimes go through the hassle of loading PayPal (through iDeal), which I will do in this case if no alternative presents itself. The stubborn ones just lose me as a customer.
As a fellow Dutchman I agree. I only recently started using Steam because they added Ideal. I now have 23 games I bought, and there is currently a Steam sale going on, so that’ll probably increase quite a bit.
If there is no Ideal, I simply can’t purchase something. I only once ever made an exception for this and that was for a CW1+CW2 pack. But, to get this done I had to contact Virgill personally. (thanks again for helping me back then Virgill!)
I just checked with Fastspring (the folks I use for payment processing). They say they have iDEAL supoport in development and expect to make it available by mid August (or sooner). So good news for the Dutch!
That’s great to hear, and thank you Virgil both for checking with Fastspring and having provided payment workarounds previously (GamersGate I think?).
Oooooooooh! This is great! Hopefully in time for the release of CW3.
This is really a huge difference is ease to purchase your game(s)!
thanks virgilw im dutch you know so thats good for me love cw hopefully it comes out this year
well… I learned somthing. sorry for being snarky. it appeared to me that all major options were available. but I now see International has some other options available. a lot of small shops here in the us only use paypal for processing so you have to route your payment method of choice through them even if you don’t set up an account with paypal.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this game could be sold to anyone across the world with a computer. Lets go international!
Don’t go less than $20. We want to support the hard work that you have put into this great game. Terrible sequels on consoles go for 3 times that, this is a great sequel and the money is going to the developer directly.
Everything is looking great! Excited to get my hands on it.
If you really want to support him, buy more than one copy. Maybe as gifts for friends, then they will realize the awesome and buy the first two games as well 😀
I never get the logic behind “We want to support you, so make it cost more!”
Ok, How about:
Don’t go less than $20. You put a lot of work into this game, and, regardless of whether or not I want to support you, anyone who buys the game should have to support you by paying what the product is worth. This product is certainly worth $20, ergo do not charge less than $20.
I don’t have friends that game, buying two copies makes even less sense to me than paying a fair price for the game.
Happy?
I’d happily pay $60!
…if I had it.
But at the same time I know the incredible hours that have been invested already, and the hours yet to come, even after release and major updates. And the whole creative thing, and the “support your local developer” thing, and on and on…
So. Price appropriately. I’ll drool from the sidelines if need be.
you need linux hardware? you just need like 10 GB of free harddrive space and install your distribution of choice there.
I have to buy. I had OCD on it
Well…
What’s up with the forge’s singularity weapon or whatever it is ?
AND I think you really need a “partner” helping you with developing games. Because you alone …. I think you realize that you made the game in 6 months, you could “hire” someone to help you with the future games you will make.
Have a nice day !
Virgil is currently a One man show due to the fact that he runs a family on the money mad from CW sales.
Come now Lich, this game is f-ing awesome, but he’s got to have a side job or something, making this game in his free time. But I’d say he does make some odd bits of money on the side, the game being on Kong and a few other websites, they come here, purchase, so at least 10-20k a year. (nice money if you have a first 10-15$ an hour job.) But I agree that Virgil would need a helper, a friend maybe, that doesn’t care to get payed. Though I think Virgil has already stated why he doesn’t have more, if I remember correctly he said something about purity of the game, others would change it from the idea he already has (Don’t know if this is correct, please correct me if I am wrong)
… wrong).
This is his job. Not his side job. His job. He doesn’t have someone helping hin or anything, I’m not sure how he does it. 😛 The only help he has is from the beta group, like me and Lich. Frankly, I’m not to sure he’d want help.
I’m not sure he would either, I wouldn’t, other programming help may ruin it.
I noticed that pulse cannons don’t fire across void, wouldn’t it make sense if they did? Shooting across void would be essentially the same as targeting across a ravine, no line of sight issues.
They do… there range just wasn’t far enough to do so.
If you think about it, you would think that their range would be extended (If the physics are the same as space) because it is moving through nothingness.
If you wish, you can go back to a previous post titled “The Slice”
This topic as already been covered in the comment section.
Wow, I should learn to use ctrl+f more often.
as said in the future of tomorrow:
“shut up and take my money”
without the shut up part offcourse
Hey…will you have the option of allowing us to gift these to other people? As in if they need to get the download address and such you can have it sent to someone else as owning the game? Because I can think of about 5 other people I would like to give this too. 🙂
This is awesome: My brother checks the website twice a day for updates. Hopefully this will make him slow down. 🙂
Take as long as you need to, quality is MILES better than a fast release, and the game, from what I’ve seen, will definitely be worth the wait.
I’m looking forward to obliterating the Creeper with the arsenal of weapons you’ve set up!
Woooooooooow…. I am gone for a week and I miss one of the BEST updates!!!
Also, Quality over speed! It’s like the turtle and the hair proverb. (sorta) Take it to heart!
2 words; CAN’T. WAIT. I never bought CW1 or 2, but I played CW1 training sim, US, and Evermore, and I also played CW2 Training Academy. With how awesome CW3 is looking, it’s going to be my first Creeper World buy, and if you release a good bundle deal with CW1, 2 and 3 in it, I’ll probably buy that too. If not, you can’t keep me from buying CW3 the moment it’s released! HA! 🙂
I just totally completed CW1 ( Including Loki mission finished 6 times, 1 time without Thor, all Conquer missions, all Spec Ops missions).
I finished CW2 and a half of the Special Missions (finished also the Credits mission 🙂 )
I’m still playing CW1…
I CANNOT WAIT !!! 🙂
Support Sparebank1 payments? It is used in Norway.
I kind of hate that your removing the good parts of the game and saying that they are overpowered. This is supposed to be a surviving city with extremely advanced technology, why wouldn’t they have things that can really kill the creeper?
a major question to virgilw or lich creeper world 3 is it going to be out on mac too like the first and second one?
I can’t say for sure, but considering the (seemingly) large amount of people that use Mac, I think he’ll probably add Mac support. Not doing so could result in a major sales loss, not that he’s trying to milk us for money. 🙂
thanks for reply on my comment and yeah i dont care hom much it cost if it comes out this year im good
Oh I found this status update to answer quite alot of questions i had sometime ago. I honestly hope you take the time you need to Virgil, but my inner gamer doesn’t care, he jsut wants to aply the next Creeper World, because both the first two games, and even the online demo and the two others were amazing.
The above sounds pretty ambitious, but i think it’ll all be above extraordinary. Honestly I jsut hope my crappy computer will be able to play it, hahaha.
And like anyone above, I wish i could do some play testing for ya xD
Good luck with the development, and thanks for the status update!
Has there been any consideration of a release for a mobile format for ios and or android? I spend a lot more time on tablets than pcs these days and miss playing cw except on rare occasions
If there will be a native linux version available to play without any wine, crossover, vm or other emulators then I’m ready to pre order it even now.