
Show HN: My First Commercial Game Is Now Online - ido
http://www.cardinalquest.com/
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CJefferson
I find it a little strange that you say I should buy "at my own risk" the
experimental linux version. Just a little demo, so I can check it at least
works, would add some confidence.

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felixhummel
A "Send me a mail as soon as the Linux version is stable" would be nice.

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ido
The problem is that I'm not sure it's even possible to get it running properly
(e.g. with hardware acceleration) on every flavor of linux out there.

It's a real can of worms that one...

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lobo_tuerto
It is valid to target certain Linux distributions, so you can limit your scope
to the ones with most exposure to desktop users. Ubuntu comes to mind...

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ido
Hrm, might do that. It already works in wine as well, just a bit buggy.

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moconnor
Cute, I like it. My feedback:

* I love the streamlined nature - auto-sell duplicate items, auto-equip. There's a couple of little niggles that go against this when moving, such as having to let go of <left> and press it again to collect an item from a chest (wouldn't a short delay also be ok?) and moving around corners feels a little awkward; I think I expect holding <left> and <up> to walk up until the next left is free, then go left, but it doesn't seem to work quite like that.

* No save / resume? Really? I get the old-skool thing, but resuming where the last game left off (without save/load, death is still death) would be a nice courtesy.

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ido
Yeah, that's on my todo list- there is just so much stuff to do!

Thanks for the input!

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benologist
Do a version in Flash! Flash games can spread all over the internet and do
_insane_ traffic which you can use to promote the full/paid version.

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ido
Way ahead of you ;)

Currently in negotiations with a large portal.

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benologist
Awesome. You should ping me - ben at playtomic.com - cause I know _all_ the
major portals and can drop you some intros. Negotiations will be a lot better
when you can say "X offered me more.".

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ido
Pinged!

That is very generous of you, much obliged!

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jonbro
I don't know how feasible this is, but a demo would be totally awesome. I am
guilty of just having a demo video myself, and I think that it really cuts
into my sales in a ton of cases.

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ido
Yeah I will add one in the coming weeks.

Didn't think a 5 euros game needed a demo, but apparently it does.

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MortenK
Any game or app for that matter can benefit from a demo, trial or similar.
Even though 5 euro is not a lot, it's still money. As there is so much low-
quality stuff out there, customers are sceptical about buying something they
haven't tried out to some degree.

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acavailhez
I just spent one hour playing your game, love it ! (will play again) The
casual fast-paced rogue-like style is very neat ! I've never seen something
quite similar

Not having to care about picking items up and choosing the best one to equip
is very clever. It weirded me out at the begining but it really helps to build
a spirit to the game.

The magic system, while not being the most intuitive thing in the game, also
participate to the ambience. Bravo !

The major caveheat is really the absence of auto-saving and resuming a game. I
already lost 3 characters beacause the game crashed, I've read here that it's
in your TODO list, and I really think it should be your top priority, it will
very fast get on players nerves.

Superb game anyways, shall I hint you contact the people behing TIGDB (The
independant Game Database) ? I would love to leave a kind review here :)

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MicahWedemeyer
Congrats!

I don't know exactly how it works, but maybe you might want to contact the
Humble Bundle people and see if you could get in on that somehow?

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ck2
Why do I have to horizontal scroll on a 1024px wide browser window? Need some
_margin: 0 auto;_ somewhere. (webpage is based on 1300px width??)

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ido
You are right! Will fix.

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Udo
Thanks for making this, it's awesome to play! :-)

One major thing, though: it sucks that there is no way to save or at least
resume a game.

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grannyg00se
Great website. You have a one pager with all the information required
including a video and screenshots and two BUY NOW links. Nothing more is
needed, and nothing less would do. I think you nailed it there.

Oh yeah, the game looks pretty good too.

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ido
Thank you :)

I think there is still room for improvement, but you gotta release 1.0 at some
point!

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LukeFitz
Looks pretty good to me! The only thing I would say is that whatever font
you're using on the front page (Times New Roman?) looks a little tacky.

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ido
Thanks!

What do you suggest I use instead?

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ThomPete
Georgia or if you feel adventures (phun intended) you could try and use some
of the fonts at typekit.com to get a more dungeony feel.

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paulnelligan
maybe just a smaller font size would suffice ... it looks tacky because it's
the same size as the headings

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amourgh
Looks pretty.What tools you used to develop it?

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fuzzix
I like the fact that the visual and musical aesthetic forced on early game
designers by hardware limitations is now a desirable attribute in a new game.
From the video the game looks and sounds great... In fact, I just bought it!
Will report on my experience with the Linux version.

I don't know anyone under that age of 30, do the kids like the "8-bit" thing
as well? :)

 _edit_ The Linux version is an Adobe Air package. Will try it out later.

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ido
My nephews (9, 12 & 13) love it, but maybe they're just being nice :)

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bmelton
Are 9, 12 and 13 year olds capable of being nice when they aren't genuinely
feeling it?

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b14ck
I love games like this, brings back fond memories. Congratulations on your
launch! I just purchased a copy :) I'm looking forward to playing it!

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JeffL
Congrats.

On Chrome, when I click to the right in the screenshots, eventually all
screenshots get shifted over to the right by half a screen.

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moconnor
Paypal payments just aren't working, I tried twice. Might want to look into
that.

Do you deliberately hide the price on the front page?

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ido
No I'm not - kinda had to throw the website together quickly & I recently
changed the prices a bit.

The paypal bit is handled by FastSpring and is sadly beyond my control :(

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fastspring
FastSpring here. What's the problem?

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moconnor
Couldn't purchase with paypal - first time the paypal site showed a generic
"we don't know" error (didn't note it, sorry), the next time after signing in
to paypal I got further, but was told that the payment had been rejected and
the error message didn't know why either.

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3pt14159
You need a web designer asap. I actually had to read around to find out how to
buy the game, that is terrible.

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EgeBamyasi
Looks nice, looking forward to a Linux demo.

But that hideous image scroller on the bottom hurts my eyes :[

