[Pondwater]

The Jeluvian Project (v1.0) - XP [GM6] version and Vista [GM7] available


May 20th

Just to let the Vista-users know that the Vista-compatible GM7 version of the game is now available here: PondSpark Games Page.

It's been tested in Vista. Since I'm now using Vista too. And quite unlikely I'll be going to back to using GM6 since I haven't easy access to XP anymore. ~

And oh, I've got a new little forum up for PondSpark, feel free to hop on in and say anything you like or ask me anything - about my games or anything else.



Feb 25th
Well, it's been quite a while since I released something. I hope this doesn't disappoint you guys. =)



Download Links
The downloads for the Vista version (1 meg larger, runs slower, but any PC running Vista would be fast enough to handle it) and the XP version (GM6 - smaller, runs faster) are available at: > PondSpark <


Just in case - Last Resort Link


Full Screen?
It's 800x600, but you can choose Window mode.

FEATURES
- Action Game, but you control a squad. Don't expect an RTS.
- 6 different weapons. 4 secondary equipment types.
- Story with characters
- 14 uniquely-designed operations
- Engaging electronic audio tracks from talented composers


BRIEFLY
This is not an RTS, atually. You have to shoot, reload, hit, and dodge. The focus is more on the action. You take direct control of your squad, not merely the macro-strategics: More like being a Sergeant of a squad, rather than a General of an entire army.

Still, you need to implement some strategy and tactics. You will have to decide which path your squad will take, which enemies you will attack, and how to engage them.

The first 5 levels are rather straightforward to warm you up. Level 6 onwards, you'll really have to draw from what you learnt and put your tactical skills to good use.

As featured on:
TIG Source
Independent Gaming

Other Screens (640x480 cropped from in game 800x600):





. . .

LEVEL SOLUTIONS: Feel free to request if you need one.

Op6 -
Hit and Run. Get close to the big-guy, and he'll chase you. Your weapons are further than his however, so you can move away, and shoot at it at the same time. Alternatively, you can set the guys to [D] mode, and fire on the big-guy as you move your drones away before it gets too close. Easy.

Here's how to do it Video: Hit and Run

Op 7 -
There's a path through the trees to the southeast. And from there, you can "backstab" the enemy squads. If you attack them from the back, you'll actually notice that you only need to confront about, say, 2 drones at a time. If you went from the front however, that's about say, 6 hostiles at once.

And you may want to eliminate the right-most group first, because they have a repairkit/medikit there. That's very, very useful.

Op - 14
Here's a video of me playing it: Video
The hostiles are positioned slightly differently though, because it was a pre- (v1.0) version. In v1.0, the units are more spread out, making it easier actually, of course. Okay.

This post has been edited by Pondwater: 20 May 2007 - 02:45 PM

[Jeggi]

I'm downloading the game now. I'll play and probably write some comments about your game tomorrow.

[cactus]

This looks just as good as I had expected. I only had time to play through the first two missions, but I already have a feeling that even more interesting things are going to happen real soon.

I really loved that you've put a lot of focus on the story, and the tutorial was really well constructed. The presentation over all was really interesting, original and inspiring. The sounds and music fits perfectly with what I've seen so far.

I did find one thing that I didn't like, and another that made me slightly worried.

The lines that appear when you make a "route" for your units looked sloppy. I'd rather have seen it drawn in a neon colour to signify that it was just a visual aid, and maybe even as a dotted line with small segments (circles, squares, whatever) displaying the exact waypoints to make it look more slick and stylish.

The thing that worried me was the lack of humans in the first two stages. It's hard to relate to a game with nothing interactable except for machines. Humans would give the game a better illusion of being "real", in my opinion. The dialouge and stuff makes up for it quite a bit, but unless the people talking shows up on the levels, the storyline might not intertwine well with what you actually interact with. I hope that the game will prove my hunch wrong when I play the next few stages.

I'll return with more comments when I have had the time to play some more. Right now I gotta go to bed

[heatbox]

First Off Great Job!

I have played almost every game that comes through here and this is the first one that I just HAD to reply to! I really appreciate your level of polish all around on this game. The graphics all look very nice together. I felt that the control of the game was done very well, too. At this point I have almost beaten the game wich will also be a first of ANY game on the GMC! The music and sound effects were all done very well, also!

My nitpicks are;
I wish the levels had more animation and intricacy.
It would also be nice to have enemies occationally following patrol paths.

But that is about it.

8.5/10

Play this game everybody!

[Potnop]

Nice. It has very good presentation and stuff.

I can imagine having a lot of fun with this.

Only problem is that maybe right click should be move and left click should be fire, cuz in RTS's right click is what tells units where to move and I keep confusing the two actions in this game. I got killed badly in mission 2 by the four enemy guys cuz of this. I kept left clicking into their territory and right clicking away from them, which is the total opposite of what I should've done.

[Pondwater]

Cact
Thankies. Route lines: Okay. Um... Whoops. Humans on the map - Does the "game-completion concluding scene" count? Because, well, you won't see a living breathing thing until then. But please, at least do hear the story out, it'll be a nice one, I promise. =)

Heatbox:
Glad you're liking it. =) You're playing really fast. Where're you now? Hope you're enjoying the story too.

Potnop
Thanks. Must've been all those Blizzard RTS's eh? For me though, I grew up with all those Left-Click to move stuff and Right-click to deselect. Hm... But I never had trouble switching between games though. =) No worries. You'll get used to it. ~

This post has been edited by Pondwater: 19 February 2007 - 04:11 PM

[Mrpete]

Very impressive for this type of game. I like the layout and everything.
The only suggestion(and it's not a grip) is make the total level layout at least 24.

Oh, --weather elements that effect the missions. However, not having weather conditions, has no effect on the game play thus far. It's just a suggestion.


-Mrpete

[Potnop]

Yea, I'm used to Starcraft and WC3. Then again I also played Diablo 2 a lot. But since you control a lot of units at once it feels more like an RTS than a Diablo type game.

Now that I'm farther into the game it's kinda hard to tell apart the characters in the cut scenes. They kinda look the same. But I also noticed they have different facial expressions, which is cool.

It's also cool how you can tell em to move real quick while they shoot. That's just fun and adds a bit to the gameplay than if it was a normal RTS or whatever where the guys shoot automatically and only attack while standing. I'm comparing this more to those custom starcraft maps where you control just one guy or a couple of guys and have to be tactical.

Maybe you should add a hotkey thing to select a specific unit or if I click on the HUD on a unit's info it should select him. Cuz for example if a guy has low health I wanna select him easily in the heat of battle.

Also formation movement would be nice since scouts tend to move ahead of the tougher units if they are all selected in one group. Also some kind of fire at will command would be nice so they guys would fire autmatically in the heat of battle if I want to select a different group and tell them to move somewhere.

If you ever make a sequel you should add online play. This would be jsut like those custom tactical starcraft maps that I love where you play online, like those MILES laser tag maps.

You could have some kind of CTF thing or soemthing where you switch off between 1 team defending a base and the other assaulting a base. They switch off and stuff.

This post has been edited by Potnop: 20 February 2007 - 04:05 AM

[Carnivac]

Damn Pondo, I felt I had to log in and reply here (was linked to this topic from the Eo website). Now I don't normally like these RTS type things, in fact Warcraft 2 is probably the only game of it's type I enjoy and one of the few commercial PC games I still enjoy playing. But this game you've made here is extremely impressive. I found myself getting quite absorbed into the lil story ya got going on in there and the amount of polish in it is superb. As I ain't keen using the mouse I'm gonna set up a Dual Shock configuration in JoyToKey later on and assign everything to the pad and I think I'll play it a lot more afterwards. Music is good. Graphics are great if a bit bland and sterile in places (but then this kind of game doesn't need big flashy bold brash in-your-face graphics). Real nice work overall. I don't remember even seeing a demo of this (ya probably put that on the Eo forum right? Which me being a non-member can't see)

Anyways this is gonna be the first non-WC2 RTS type game I'm keeping on my PC.


Oh yeah by the way, I downloaded it from the Eo games page but I can't recall seeing any Eo logo in the game. Maybe I missed it.

[retrogamer]

Can't DL it! I get redirected to http://www.sitesled.com/!

[edmunn]

retrogamer, on Feb 20 2007, 10:25 PM, said:

Can't DL it! I get redirected to http://www.sitesled.com/!
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[mysour]

This looks fantastic Pondwater and I'm looking forward to playing it.
Anyway back to playing it...

EDIT: Guess it does download, but corrupted... sorry...

This post has been edited by mysour: 20 February 2007 - 11:18 PM

[retrogamer]

That doesn't help.

[Jabberwock]

I'd love to play it, as your past games have been excellent, but I too am getting redirected.

[Pondwater]

Ah... I'm sorry. My bandwidth limited has exceeded for the day...
Unless anyone is able to provide me with a mirror? That would be great...

EDIT Okay, it's up again guys!

This post has been edited by Pondwater: 21 February 2007 - 01:35 AM

[Qwertyman]

One of the best games I've played in a loooong time. Everything was done right, from the dialogue and story to the music and sound effects. The only gripe I have is that it the resolution changed messed up Firefox. But otherwise, great job!

[ChevyRay]

Right on! Nice to see this all finished up you cleaned it up very well. I'm still stuck on level 8, but with your advice and some persistence, I'll finish this one day

Congratulations on another Pondwater project well done!

[Pondwater]

Potnop:

Quote

Also some kind of fire at will command would be nice so they guys would fire autmatically in the heat of battle if I want to select a different group and tell them to move somewhere.

It's there. Operation 5. The [D]efense Mode.

Wolv:
Heeeey! It's awesome to hear from you. Thanks a million. You brightened up my day. I know you're very particular about your games and hard to please, and hence I'm really really glad you're enjoying it. =)

You don't have to make any exceptions with your art critique: any art advice you give is all too valuable to be treated lightly. I'll keep learning. You can actually play this on a joypad...? About the demo, ya, I didn't show it to too many people. But if you recall the other time, Shaltif and I were talking a little about it on IRC.

K, see you around. Thanks a lot.

[Deadheat]

Ah excellent it's finally here. Paintakingly hard in some missions, I found myself setting up way points so I could just pop around the corner to shoot the enemies most of the time. I keep getting a little bit further each time I play it.

Well good job job! I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have in store

[Carnivac]

Pondwater, on Feb 21 2007, 02:56 AM, said:

Wolv:
Heeeey! It's awesome to hear from you. Thanks a million. You brightened up my day. I know you're very particular about your games and hard to please, and hence I'm really really glad you're enjoying it. =)

Ain't so much about being hard to please, more that theres just not been all that many games of recent times been appealing to me is all but then thats one of the reasons I got this Game Maker thing, so I can try to make games I wanna play... though even halfway through making anything I get so sick of the sight of it I don't wanna play it...

Quote

You don't have to make any exceptions with your art critique: any art advice you give is all too valuable to be treated lightly. I'll keep learning.

That's cool. I actually really like the lil tanks. Good choice of colors on them that make them easy to spot against the background, and brighten things up. You have your own style going on which I noticed even in your earlier games (though looks more refined and advanced here). It's a sort of real tidy and clean hi res look. Sorta delicateness about it all if that makes any sense.

Quote

You can actually play this on a joypad...?

Yeah by using an analogue stick as the mouse and assigning all the keys to buttons. i had to start doing that not just cos I don't like the feel of playing games with a mouse but also because of the stress problems I had which would cause my wrist to shake making it hard to move the pointer precisely (which also made pixelling darn hard and time consuming to do), nowadays I just prefer it. I'm still trying to decide on a good layout. Which reminds me... I got killed on an early mission (one where you move yer tank to get two lil drone things and then you use them to have your first battle), because I totally forgot you had to arm the weapon with W first and I was hammering the fire button wondering why it wasn't working.

Quote

About the demo, ya, I didn't show it to too many people. But if you recall the other time, Shaltif and I were talking a little about it on IRC.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe I saw something mentioned but I flick between IRC and everything else a million times a minute and usually don't have a clue what people discuss in the chat room at all anyway.

Just been telling my friends of mine who have the Eo site bookmarked to take a look at your game there. One of them loves RTS games (has allll the Command & Conquers and Warcrafts and Starcrafts and all that) and he's really impressed with your game and he actually respects Game Maker more cos of it. Before that he thought it was only really good for simple arcade games or rip off platformers, and he's waiting for GM7 so he can make a start and register and whatever.

This post has been edited by Wolverine: 21 February 2007 - 11:23 AM