ANN: Monster Ball out for Mac & PC (via Direct2Drive) and iPhone

[ThomasLund]

I hope this is OK to post - as I'm the indie developer of the game and didnt notice any "no advertising" in the forum rules. If thats a problem, simply poke me and I'll delete it again. And we think the Mac platform is very important to support, so where better to post than here. So here we go :-D

Super happy to announce that we got our first PC/Mac title out - and our 4th iPhone game.

Monster Ball is a turn based strategy game that builds on the simplicity of checker without getting as complex (*ehm* and boring) as chess. Chinese checkers on steroids!

Various videos by us and others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZYPABUS1M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZeS61O3bvc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDn2Lj7fqzo

Mini-site:
http://www.monsterball.net

It is available here:
iPhone Full: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=335569823&mt=8
iPhone Lite: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=335948773&mt=8

PC: http://www.direct2drive.com/8701/product/Buy-Monster-Ball-Download

Mac: http://www.direct2drive.com/8705/product/Buy-Monster-Ball-MAC-Download

The rules are simple!

Big guys eat smaller guys and grow bigger. But watch out! Once greed takes over and you grow too large, you will explode into 1000 pieces scattering the neighbors with green goo.

Find the right balance, take tactical advantage of the myriad of special tiles like splitters, clone machines and bazookas and you will be victorious with a big, sarcastic smile on your lips.

Monster Ball plays across platforms, so you can sit at school on your PC or Mac and battle your friend on his iPhone on the bus. Tired of the 10+ maps that ship with the game? Simply download some new ones!

Welcome to the world of nasty green monster balls!

Monster Ball Features
* Fight to dominate the bedroom floor in the most intense and humorous turn based game of the year.

* The game has two game modes - annihilation and capture the base.

* Battle on more than 10 different maps in full 3d glory, and download additional maps free of charge.

* Tons of special tiles to help you (or not!) to achieve victory in the most humorous way possible.

* Single player, Head-to-head or competitive online multiplayer action!

* Unlockable trophies for obliterating your foes in amusing ways.

* Online multiplayer is compatible between iPhone, PC and Mac version!

/Thomas

 

[ThomasLund]

:-(

So no one has tried our original game and wants to comment on it?

We do love Macs ourselves, and hope still for any kind of feedback from the Mac crowd on the game, and in particular to see if it even makes sense to make Mac games.

Bottom line will be that if you guys buy them, we will make more Mac games!!

So let me phrase a question - and please be candid - what is it that keeps you from investing your interest in the title? What can we do better?

Thanks for any ideas and insights

/Thomas

 

[colocolo]

Since you asked...

I guess there are a few things that may help to pitch your product:

1. Post at American hours to make sure you get maximum exposure. Your original post was at 4 AM EST... Might be better to post around 4PM EST, to make sure both coasts get to see the thread while slacking at work
2. Fix your links. While it is possible to reach 2 of the broken links with just an extra click, the iPhone apps would have to be manually searched. Make the game eaier to find, motivate the masses to check it out.
3. Build a demo? At least I don't spend US$10 on a game from a developer I don't know if I can't check the game out, or don't even know the victory conditions! A demo where you can play only one map would certainly make people download it and hopefully would leave them wanting more.
4. I don't know about everybody else, but a developer who threatens me to either buy and comment or feel the wrath of the developer community and be left in the dark, "no games for you!" style, doesn't strike me as my favorite developer ... I would suggest another marketing strategy.

 

[ThomasLund]

Ahhh - thanks a lot for the candid feedback.

And I certainly didnt mean to threaten anyone to anything. Maybe more a matter of - as a small indie developer - try to figure out why no one is showing interest. Sorry if that came over as a threat. We've put a lot of time and risk into making this happen, and hadnt really expected "silence".

But broken links!!!! Now that is totally dumb of me, and will fix ASAP. No wonder why no one has taken a look...... :-(

And demo is on its way up within days. Already build, but not put up anywhere yet. I'll make sure to post when they get online so you can check out the game before buying.

Best
Thomas

 

[colocolo]

No worries, I din't feel exactly threatened, but found your word choice... interesting.

As for the demo, I'll be sure to download it once it is out, and if I like the game I will surely buy it. I buy 5-10 games a year, but only after I've tried them! (Unless we talk about Blizzard, of course, in which case I will buy just about anything... they have yet to disappoint me).