Astriarch Space Strategy Game now Gold

[masteredsoftware]

Astriarch - Ruler of the Stars version 1.0 has just been released.

Astriarch - Ruler of the Stars is a turn-based single player space strategy game implemented in Silverlight. Build planetary improvements and star ships to capture planets and defeat your enemies. Your ultimate goal is to become the master of the known universe, and earn the title of Astriarch!

In this release a stellar ambient soundtrack has been added and other game balance improvements have been made.



You can play the game now for free here: Astriarch.com

If you try out the game, I would appreciate any feedback you have.

thanks,
-Matt Palmerlee
MasteredSoftware.com

[Happy Corner]

You should consider adding a text tutorial, as videos are awkward when there's only one area of the game you wanted to look up information about. It's easier just to read and text-search. Not that this game is all that hard to figure out...

The music is really nice. Is there a site where we can download/buy it?

[masteredsoftware]

(May 05, 2011 06:17 PM)Happy Corner Wrote:  You should consider adding a text tutorial, as videos are awkward when there's only one area of the game you wanted to look up information about. It's easier just to read and text-search.

Thanks for the comment, That's a good suggestion, I actually thought about having an in-game tutorial for first time players, but a short text tutorial might do the trick instead.

(May 05, 2011 06:17 PM)Happy Corner Wrote:  The music is really nice. Is there a site where we can download/buy it?

Thanks, I appreciate that, I thought about providing either a download or a purchase option, but I wasn't sure if anyone would want it, now that I have someone asking for the music I'll look into how I want to provide the soundtrack.

Thanks again for the comments,
-Matt

[dayrinni]

I haven't tried the game yet but only looked at the picture and I do have to say, there seems to be some nice charm you have added to the game. Even though the graphics are not stellar (they aren't important in this type game), I feel that they all go together very well and make sense (style/consistency).

[masteredsoftware]

(May 07, 2011 12:00 AM)dayrinni Wrote:  I haven't tried the game yet but only looked at the picture and I do have to say, there seems to be some nice charm you have added to the game. Even though the graphics are not stellar (they aren't important in this type game), I feel that they all go together very well and make sense (style/consistency).

Thanks for that, I'm a programmer and just have enough skills with paint.net to get by, but I'm not an artist by a long shot. It works out though because I was going for a retro look and simple gameplay, I think I could make some small changes to improve the playability and visual appeal, such as it would be nice to have some sort of zoomed in planet view instead of just the planet view with numbers, or a quicker way to see how many ships or the ship strength on planets.

thanks again for the comment, let me know if you get a chance to try it out.
-Matt

[dayrinni]

(May 07, 2011 03:54 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  

(May 07, 2011 12:00 AM)dayrinni Wrote:  I haven't tried the game yet but only looked at the picture and I do have to say, there seems to be some nice charm you have added to the game. Even though the graphics are not stellar (they aren't important in this type game), I feel that they all go together very well and make sense (style/consistency).

Thanks for that, I'm a programmer and just have enough skills with paint.net to get by, but I'm not an artist by a long shot. It works out though because I was going for a retro look and simple gameplay, I think I could make some small changes to improve the playability and visual appeal, such as it would be nice to have some sort of zoomed in planet view instead of just the planet view with numbers, or a quicker way to see how many ships or the ship strength on planets.

thanks again for the comment, let me know if you get a chance to try it out.
-Matt

Welcome! I am in the same boat - my programming skills far out match my artistic ones. To me, you REALLY hit the retro look and feel!!! :cool:

Have you thought of perhaps putting outlines on some of the images? That is a very easy way to improve the "sharpeness" of an image. You could do this to the images you have on the left hand side.

If I may ask, what is the game programmed in?

[masteredsoftware]

Thanks for the suggestion on adding an outline to the images on the left, I kinda did that for the new speaker icon in the bottom left and I think it came out pretty good, so I think your right, especially for the larger icons on the left, making them a bit sharper would be nice.

The game is written in C# using Silverlight, I've actaully been working on porting the code to purely client side JavaScript/HTML5 using the canvas tag, it's almost finished, just need to add some polish and add the music to that version as well.

[dayrinni]

(May 07, 2011 06:08 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  Thanks for the suggestion on adding an outline to the images on the left, I kinda did that for the new speaker icon in the bottom left and I think it came out pretty good, so I think your right, especially for the larger icons on the left, making them a bit sharper would be nice.

You can add an outline according to your accent color (looks like you are using blue as well), white can also work.

Adding outlines to text is also useful to do as it really makes the readability increase. However, that can be difficult to do. I cannot say how easy it will be for you in C#. For example, in Java, there are ways to outline the text but most of the time it does not look acceptable on any level unless the font size is very large.

(May 07, 2011 06:08 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  The game is written in C# using Silverlight, I've actaully been working on porting the code to purely client side JavaScript/HTML5 using the canvas tag, it's almost finished, just need to add some polish and add the music to that version as well.

My only experience with C# was when I took a class during my undergraduate career. It was just like Java (I'm a Java developer) but with MS's usual twist. I wrote some cool apps for my labs. One of them was a program where you could input questions and answers, and then take quizzes.

It seems you have really put the language to great use and that is GREAT! It is always real fun to take a tool and then use it to make something amazing.

[masteredsoftware]

(May 07, 2011 06:21 AM)dayrinni Wrote:  You can add an outline according to your accent color (looks like you are using blue as well), white can also work.

Adding outlines to text is also useful to do as it really makes the readability increase. However, that can be difficult to do. I cannot say how easy it will be for you in C#. For example, in Java, there are ways to outline the text but most of the time it does not look acceptable on any level unless the font size is very large.

Thanks for that, I was thinking of just using a lighter green inside maybe for a kinda reflection effect, but I'll try adding one of the other colors I've been using and see how that looks.

(May 07, 2011 06:21 AM)dayrinni Wrote:  My only experience with C# was when I took a class during my undergraduate career. It was just like Java (I'm a Java developer) but with MS's usual twist. I wrote some cool apps for my labs. One of them was a program where you could input questions and answers, and then take quizzes.

It seems you have really put the language to great use and that is GREAT! It is always real fun to take a tool and then use it to make something amazing.

Thats funny, it's been the opposite experience for me, I used Java extensively in college (at that time universities were just starting to switch from c++ to java, so lots of c++, but I liked java much better). I use c# .NET for work, so I'm very comfortable with it and the Visual Studio IDE, but your right, it's very similar to java and VS is very close to Eclipse. Anyways, the reason I decided to go with c# instead of something else like flash was that I wanted to focus on the actual game instead of being hung up on the technology (my little experience with ActionScript and the Flash IDE make me never want to develop anything in flash if I can avoid it). Anyways, my feeling is that whatever tool you choose has its advantages and disadvantages but just as long as you feel comfortable with it and the tool itself doesn't slow down your development then it's fine. Actually, its hard to say, but for me, developing in C# and then porting to javascript may have been easier than if I had started with javascirpt in the first place (just because of the strongly typed nature of c# it speeds development and makes finding bugs a bit easier).

-Matt

[Happy Corner]

(May 06, 2011 04:13 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  Thanks, I appreciate that, I thought about providing either a download or a purchase option, but I wasn't sure if anyone would want it, now that I have someone asking for the music I'll look into how I want to provide the soundtrack.

Please do! You should know that the music was nice enough that even after I was done with your game, I left the window open for a bit, just to keep listening to it. I would definitely be interested in the soundtrack.

[adamsolo]

Did a first impressions of Astriarch: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2011/05/...pressions/

You say in your website that we should “Check back soon for tablet versions of Astriarch – Ruler of the Stars“. This means you're going to release an iOS app version of the game? Or you simply are going to create a special web-page to fit better tablet PCs?

I made some suggestions on my first impressions for improving Astriarch. They are probably a bit bold and ambitious. I'll try to find the time to provide you with other more easier-to-implement suggestions

Keep us posted in this tread about Astriarch news (new versions, improvements, platforms, etc).

[masteredsoftware]

(May 20, 2011 07:10 AM)adamsolo Wrote:  Did a first impressions of Astriarch: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2011/05/...pressions/

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the compliments and suggestions. It is a great review and I will take all your tips into consideration, especially about surprise elements (such as random events) and the RPG aspects. The next minor release already has some more improvements for playability and I hope to add a few more features to make the game less of a click fest and more based on strategy. You should expect to see that version released soon.

(May 20, 2011 07:10 AM)adamsolo Wrote:  You say in your website that we should “Check back soon for tablet versions of Astriarch – Ruler of the Stars“. This means you're going to release an iOS app version of the game? Or you simply are going to create a special web-page to fit better tablet PCs?

I made some suggestions on my first impressions for improving Astriarch. They are probably a bit bold and ambitious. I'll try to find the time to provide you with other more easier-to-implement suggestions

Keep us posted in this tread about Astriarch news (new versions, improvements, platforms, etc).

I've converted the entire game from Silverlight to HTML5/Javascript so that it should be able to run in most modern browsers, however I haven't decided if Astriarch will be released on the web that way or if I'll just create some iOS and android versions.

Thanks again for the review and the suggestions, and sure keep 'em coming, the goal is to keep the game as simple as possible yet still make it fun enough to keep coming back to.

I'll definitely keep you updated on any news, thanks for the great site and forums!

-Matt

[adamsolo]

(May 20, 2011 09:25 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  I've converted the entire game from Silverlight to HTML5/Javascript so that it should be able to run in most modern browsers, however I haven't decided if Astriarch will be released on the web that way or if I'll just create some iOS and android versions.

Thanks again for the review and the suggestions, and sure keep 'em coming, the goal is to keep the game as simple as possible yet still make it fun enough to keep coming back to.

I'll definitely keep you updated on any news, thanks for the great site and forums!
-Matt

So, it means that currently the game does not need Silverlight anymore right? You say that you converted it to pure HTML/Javascript.

I agree with your goal for simplicity. There's no need to overcomplicate things. You have a good concept, the simplicity and quick-to-play characteristics I mean. You're not that far to promote Astriarch to the simplest yet fun 4x space game around. However Diplomacy and Research are two musts I'm afraid.

I hope you have good feedback from the game. Oh, and my personal suggestion is not to "close" to game only for iOS and Android in the future. If that's not too much work you could keep at least a browser-based version of the game for all the PC gamers out there, that you know are the majority of the people playing these games.

More and more I see that it would be nice to buy an iPad since many space strategy games are being released for the iOS, but the god damn things are just too expensive for my taste. The minimum you spend are around $400 in eBay if you're lucky, and you get the original iPad, not iPad2.

[masteredsoftware]

(May 20, 2011 08:26 PM)adamsolo Wrote:  So, it means that currently the game does not need Silverlight anymore right? You say that you converted it to pure HTML/Javascript.

I agree with your goal for simplicity. There's no need to overcomplicate things. You have a good concept, the simplicity and quick-to-play characteristics I mean. You're not that far to promote Astriarch to the simplest yet fun 4x space game around. However Diplomacy and Research are two musts I'm afraid.

I hope you have good feedback from the game. Oh, and my personal suggestion is not to "close" to game only for iOS and Android in the future. If that's not too much work you could keep at least a browser-based version of the game for all the PC gamers out there, that you know are the majority of the people playing these games.

More and more I see that it would be nice to buy an iPad since many space strategy games are being released for the iOS, but the god damn things are just too expensive for my taste. The minimum you spend are around $400 in eBay if you're lucky, and you get the original iPad, not iPad2.

The HTML/Javascript version is almost complete (needs more testing and a small amount of polish), but the version on the website is still the silverlight version. I'll always keep the free version up on the website no matter what, I agree that for PC users it's nice to be able to just play a game whenever your bored at your desk. What I might do is put up the html/javascript version and fall back to the silverlight vesion if the visitor's browser doesn't support canvas (like IE 8 or older). As far as the tablets go, I agree, $400 - $500 seems like too much money for essentially a toy (I don't have one either), but I imagine the game could be fun if your sitting on a plane or at the doctor's office trying to kill time, so I intend on releasing iOS and Android versions as soon as I can.

I agree that Diplomacy would be a nice addition, however, I'm not sure if to make it a 'true' 4x game it is needed, but it would be nice. I would just need to implement the feature in a way that wouldn't be over-complicated.

As far as Research goes, I plan on adding it, I would like to get the tablet versions out first, but I'm not set on that. I also need to figure out how the tree would work, and what kinds of improvements you could research. I figure that a global tax rate vs. research slider would be enough control (similar to civ). Some people have asked to build space scanners on planets (that would detect incoming fleets), so that could be one research area, and maybe different levels so the basic scanner could see 3 turns out, and then the next level 5 turns out and so on. Another area of research could be warp speed improvements, or ship attack/defense research and different levels, again I wouldn't want to make it too complicated but enough to keep it interesting. Obviously, I'm open to suggestions.

-Matt

[adamsolo]

(May 21, 2011 04:58 AM)masteredsoftware Wrote:  I agree that Diplomacy would be a nice addition, however, I'm not sure if to make it a 'true' 4x game it is needed, but it would be nice. I would just need to implement the feature in a way that wouldn't be over-complicated.

The definition for 4x games is not consensual (as you can see in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4X). In my opinion diplomacy is a key aspect of a 4x game. If you have the time and curiosity you can look at my definition of 4x games here: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2009/08/...sive-list/

Regarding your point about iOS being "fun if you're sitting on a plane or at the doctor's office trying to kill time", of course it would be nice, but ... how many of us can afford to buy an iPad ($400 to $500) and how useful it is in the end? It is still a luxury item in my opinion, at current prices.

But I'm curious to try, definitely. I would love to try a 4x game on an iPad. I have doubts though if it would be fun to play 4x games on the iPhone or iPod Touch devices (the less expensive alternatives). Do you think these games work on these smaller devices? It would be very nice to have feedback from people who have already tried it.

[masteredsoftware]

(May 21, 2011 07:24 AM)adamsolo Wrote:  ...
But I'm curious to try, definitely. I would love to try a 4x game on an iPad. I have doubts though if it would be fun to play 4x games on the iPhone or iPod Touch devices (the less expensive alternatives). Do you think these games work on these smaller devices? It would be very nice to have feedback from people who have already tried it.

There are some good, yet very simplistic space strategy games for the iPhone and iPod Touch I've seen, but as you realize, the small screens don't lend themselves well to very complex interfaces. I looked at doing a windows phone 7 version of Astriarch (as it is written in silverlight the conversion to wp7 should have been relatively straightforward), however because of the limited screen real-estate, the entire game would have to be re-designed since it was built for 800x600. I tried simply scaling the whole game down, but it didn't look good and it would have been a modest effort for a not-so-great user experience.
Since most tablets are able to support the 800x600 resolution that Astriarch requires I'll start there and if I get enough demand for a smaller version on smaller phones then I'll look at building a mini version. I agree with what you are saying though on the tablets being a luxury item at $500, it seems like lots of money for a fancy toy. That being said you and I aren't the demographic that tablets are targeted at, I think the people who buy tablets have more disposable income, probably travel often and are gadget addicts. Which might be a problem trying to market a space strategy game to this demographic as most of them would probably prefer to just read ebooks and play angry birds. Anyways, I never really intended Astriarch to be for the masses, I built it because I wanted to make the type of game I liked to play, and if others enjoy it as well, then great.

[masteredsoftware]

Astriarch: Ruler of the Stars version 1.0.1 has just been released.
Version 1.0.1 includes new features to improve playability. There are now planet strength indicators shown above each planet as well as a new feature to keep building the last ship built on each planet. The easy computer AI is now slightly less aggressive and a bug related to the AI build logic has been fixed.



Let me know if you have a chance to play the new version and if you like the new features!