Thanks - well worth it!

[trumble]

Thanks Virgil for an excellent game - just finished the story after around 12 hours or so... fantastic finish.

Some comments... (not necessarily suggestions)

I personally felt like I was fighting against water - the blue colour helped in that respect, but the way that it ebbs and flows, and fills spaces. I love the 'feeling' of the Creep.
I was very impressed with how 'tight' the game was tactically. No single unit was overpowered, and every unit has it's use. There is something to be said for minimalizm. It's nice to play a simple RTS for once.
I love the abstract unit graphics, it suits the game perfectly. It makes you feel like a tactical commander. The music also... perfect for the game.

I'm sorry if you have answered this (or if I have overlooked it) but will you be releasing a map editor/campaign editor... I am eager to play with scenarios, and the ability to create and play user scenarios and campaigns would finish off this wonder product perfectly...

Well worth the asking price in my opinion, extremely addictive.

Just so you know, I saw the review on the PC Games and Reviews site.

[knucracker]

Hey.... glad you saw the review at PCGAR.  Andy was the first to do a full review and I thought it was spot on.

I may release a map editor...  The idea of having user generated maps that anyone can play and rank is a great idea.  I just need more hours in the day :)

I've been tied up in the marketing aspect of the game since the release.  One of the disadvantages of being in the indie business is you have to do everything yourself (see game credits).  This includes all of the 'marketing' stuff.... Ugg...  Give me a stack trace any day. 
But, once I finish with the initial marketing phase of the game, I can get back to the fun stuff and get back to work.  Speaking of which.... tell everyone you know that you like the game.  Every little link or mention helps shorten my marketing phase.

As an interesting note, some of the maps were drawn by hand, some were adapted from photos, and some are generated algorithmically.  The algorithmic maps use a specially tweaked form of perlin noise to generate terrain levels.  I experimented with many map styles and techniques and it still amazes me how just a minor difference on a map can lead to very different 'optimal' tactics.  There are literally thousands of interesting maps.

Regarding the "tightness" of the game.... I'm glad you noticed this particular design element.  I originally set out to do an "anti-RTS" game because I am so sick and tired of playing RTS games with my eyeball stuck like 2 inches above the map.  Supreme Commander stands alone in helping correct this horrible trend... but I also had other interesting anti-ideas in mind. 

Creeper World is a reasonably good attempt at creating a strategy/tactical, economic/combat simulation that requires no scrolling, zooming, or group management.  It needed to be simple to play and difficult to master with a very high degree of variability (the maps).  Sounded like impossible goals... and they were till I stumbled across the Creeper/blob/goo/water/lava/slime (it has been called many things) idea.

What still shocks me about this idea is that it has been staring everyone in the face from the very beginning of RTS (dune 2)....  Dune 2 (as almost every title since) has a Fog or War that concealed the map.  But ask yourself what if the fog of war was the enemy...? what if it fought back and you couldn't let it touch your base as you cleared it?  Add some thermodynamic properties to the FOW, marry it with the anti-ideals of the "tightest RTS you can think of" and out pops Creeper World. 

Anyway, I digress....  Stay tuned as more news develops around Creeper World and thanks for playing.

Virgil

[trumble]

I have posted a link on Eurogamer.net in the Indie thread (in general gaming), I fear however that it may not get noticed as the General gaming forum gets a lot of traffic (which pushes it off screen), rather than bumping, I think I will post again in the (quieter, but more relavent) PC section.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I loved the idea of the players structure being a 'network', I guess it is no coincidence that you called the 'blobs' packets ;)

It forces you to consider building in redundant paths to failover to, a very, very nice idea.

I am guessing that the algorithm for path finding across the 'network' - considering the possibilty of paths 'going down' en-route, was a rewarding challenge :)

By the way, as a 'fan' I would be happy to test anything you have plans for in the future...... If you want to of course...

[knucracker]

Thanks for the post at eurogamer.net!  About 15 or so people have been to knucklecracker.com today because of that post (so far).

Yes, the routing algorithm was interesting.  The packets enter the network with a destination in mind and they reevaluate the shortest path at each node along the way.  They use an A* algorithm to do this.  This means that if you create a funny, crazy out of the way serpentine path to something and have a bunch of packets on this path, then you create a shortcut.... some of the packets will reverse course and take the shortcut if the shortcut is shorter than their remaining journey.  Watching the packets move through the network is one of my favorite parts of the game (sort of like watch fish swim, I know:)

As for beta testing, I expect to have something that will fall into that category in Sept.  I'll post a topic on these forums asking for anyone who has the full game and is interested in beta testing.... you are more than welcome/encouraged to participate.