[EDIT!]

EDIT! Further down this tread you will see that we are currently running the second beta test! Get the game from http://www.oxeyegames.com/harvest/download-now/

EDIT 2! A release trailer is now available:



Hello!

It would be great to hear what the TIGSource crowd thinks about our real-time strategy game "Harvest: Massive Encounter". We have just recently released an open beta version of the game, which can be downloaded from here:

(Open beta has expired. New release will come "when it's done".)

The game borrows concepts from the tower defense genre, but adds a unique touch with its resource management system. All your buildings will require energy that is produced from solar plants, and the energy needs to be transported through an energy link network. The energy links can be redirected to make the system more effective, if a part of your base is "going dark".

Here's a screenshot of the game:



The objective of the game is to survive for as long as possible, and the plan is that the full version will have a detailed high-score system. The beta contains one game mode on one planet (map), but the full version will have several modes and maps. The purpose of the beta is mainly to receive feedback on the balance of this game mode, since it is the "normal" game mode on the "normal" map.

Anyway, read more about the game and its background story here: http://www.oxeyegames.com/harvest/

PS. The game will be released as shareware when it is finished.

Hehe nice vid I liked how the protagonist had character

Heh yes, I have read the rules. My post was written with a bit of sarcasm and only related to the names of the categories, not the rules themselves.

That's actually a good idea.

What is?

Yeah, the forum categories are a tad confusing for me (who is a relative new user here). For example, this is the "general" section in "the independent games source" forums, how does it differ from the "indie games" section? I've assumed that "general" means "offtopic", and "indie games" is about indie games that you haven't made yourself (because then you'll get banned), but I may be wrong

They have changed the front page image back to the original, with the comment "Mistakes were made." 

EDIT: Like Derek said, this is funny in a weird kind of way. Found some people making more fun out of the "accident":





("Urtier" is the nick of the guy who was edited out.)

Just recently heard about this story...

On the QuakeCon front page you can see (at the time I'm writing this) pictures from last year's event, here:

http://www.quakecon.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8988

Obviously the picture of the winners is edited (you can see a white halo around the girl on the right). I've copied the images to another location in case QuakeCon takes them offline. Can you spot the difference?

Frontpage image: http://www.oxeyegames.com/offsite/quakecon/aaf2.jpg
Original image: http://www.oxeyegames.com/offsite/quakecon/aaf.jpg

I wonder who ordered the edit, and who performed it?

We have been using ShareIt so far. http://www.shareit.com

They have two price models:
Model A: €2.95 + 5%
Model B: 14.9%, €2.50 minimum

...so they're on the more expensive side. Another downside is that they charge another 1% if you want to allow people to buy using free email accounts (such as hotmail, gmail, etc). However, they have very good features and the control panel is easy to use. Also, they act as the seller of the software so any complaints on the actual transaction will be targetted on them instead of the software vendor. Not sure how the other e-commerce companies handles this.

There was a discussion about ShareIt and Plimus over at IG, check it out here: http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=10974 (note: the thread got weird after a Plimus representative revealed private account details, but you can still find some good information there).

I don't want to be a party pooper here, but you ARE aware that you are testing a commercial product for free? I would never do that, out of principle. At least the developer could promise a free FULL version to all the people who gave constructive feedback. He did not do that. How nice.

And you know Musenik, ALL OF US are trying to make a living, not just you.

Hehe! So you're a professional beta tester, eh? Making a living out of testing 20-dollar shareware games?

I've received free copies of games when I've shared my thoughts about it. It's surely a nice thing to get, but not something I'd expect. Also, in all those cases the developers have emailed me or sent me a PM, how do you know Rinkuhero hasn't got his copy already?

It's fine if you think that it's unfair to ask for feedback for a commercial product, but you need to place yourself in the other seat. If you are going to offer a free copy of the game for "constructive feedback", you need to define what "constructive feedback" is. Suddenly you are no longer just asking for feedback - you are trying to make a deal.

I think the Cacodemon from Doom is my favourite. I always enjoyed fighting them and made sure that my homemade maps where filled with them!

Nah, that's not what I meant. Like I said, it's easy to get constructive critisism that will improve the game. I didn't mean that people/friends are cowards, I mean it's difficult to imagine how good the game really is. Would they have played it if I didn't ask them to? That sort of question.

However, as ChrisFranklin said, it's a lot more interesting to see people that you don't know playing the game. It's a very good way of checking the game's useability and learning curve... you just have to try to keep your mouth shut when they get stuck, hehe. It's so easy to be "too helpful" and explain game rules etc.

[again]

Have you ever sent a beta version of your game to a friend and asking her to play it? Have she said, "fun game, here's some constructive critisism, keep up the good work"? What does she mean with "fun game"? Well, what I have learned is that your friends will be friends, so they can't be trusted

What you should look for, in my experience, are the magic words, "hey, I played your game again last night". If your friend has double-clicked your game's icon without you asking for it, then you have a winner! If your friend never does that, but only plays the game every time you increase the version number, then you should probably re-think your game design (assuming that your friend is a part of the potential target audience).

Of course, in linear or story-based games, it's more important to see if your friends play it all the way to the end than if they play it many times. My point is that you should pay more attention to what your friends do rather than what they say.

Your thoughts?

Whispers in Akarra

http://apedia.talonz.com/monsters.htm

 

There aren't a lot of people that would put so much work into upgrading an existing product!

Heh, yeah. Well, the thing was that we thought that we received fairly good reviews (about 7/10), but the game was selling very poorly, so we wanted to do something that would "push it over the top". It both succeeded and failed at the same time. The game became a lot better, it's selling a lot better (not enough, though), but the reviews have become worse (now we're down to about 6/10). Weird world, huh? Anyhow, now we feel that we can speak about The Strategist without thinking that it's a mediocre game, and it finally feels finished, which is a relief.

We have higher hopes for "Harvest" because it has received VERY good feedback from the people who has beta-tested it, and we've even won a game award for it already (check http://www.sga.to )

Ohh, I liked the Strategist. Simple, fun, well designed.

Make more scenarios!  :D

[Edit: BLOODY HELL that game's changed a lot since I last played it - it's like a, I dunno, a remake or something.]

Haha thanks! Feels good to read a NICE comment about The Strategist once in a while Yeah, I dunno when you last played it, but the recent update (from version 2.4 to 2.5) was quite major

Hehe thanks

No, the characters will be animated, we just haven't figured out exactly HOW though. Our current plan is to make some kind of "marionette" system, but we have only made a couple of tests so far. However, it will have to wait since we are pushing Harvest at the moment. I'll keep you updated on its progres! 

Hello, my real name is Jens and I'm a programmer at Oxeye Game Studio. I found this site through a comment at the Indiegamer forums and thought it looked interesting... Also noticed the big red warnings about posting about games without contributing to the community, so I'd better start contributing!