Is this still being worked on?

[Bruno Beaudoin]

I loved the original game on PC and would LOVE to pay for an Android version, but it seems that the game isn't completed?

Is it still being worked on?

What status is it in?

[Dan Samuel]

WarPath for android is pretty complete... what in particular do you feel is missing?

The problems with WarPath for Android are:

* The original game has a heavy dependence on a two button mouse, with left and right click handling important functions
(nav and shoot). There is no real equivalent to this on a touch device, so the fundamental control of the game is 'off'
I have tried various UI flavors to get around this, and really I think what it needs is "auto targeting" (so a tap is
always a navigation event, unless it is on a specific weappn trigger, and then that weapon 'aims itself'. That is a
more touch-friendly metaphor, but then you lose the whole aspect of the game which is about 'leading the target' and such.

* The game is a 'everyone starts at once' model, (as opposed to 'drop in when you feel like it') and it gives you
nothing really to do while you're waiting for other players, so you don't wait. As a result, people usually "just miss
each other" and few multiplayer sessions are successful.

I did my best to work around those flaws and retain the original game design, but I think it really has to change the
design to be truly touch friendly.

----

Right now I am working on an android port of my Arcadia game "synSpace" since its original design was more
touch-friendly. Plus I am making game design changes where appropriate, with the goal of having the multiplayer
experience work smoothly.

For example, when you launch SynSpace (for android, not yet released), in less than 5 seconds, the game is fully running
and you are connected to a game server session, with no 'taps' required at all. I skip the whole "tell me what you want
to do" part of the experience, and just deliver you immediately to what *I* think you should want to do (you can then
correct me, if I get it wrong).

Also, if the server IS empty, there are tons of ways to kill time until someone shows up. I think this should result in
a much more active online community, which then gets you to a critical mass of players more easily, at which point you
get to 'server is never empty' and you no longer have the problem.

SynSpace for Android has all the features of the original, but in addition I am moving it in a "well of Souls"
direction, where the players will be able to add 'starmaps' (and share them). I guess I had that in the original as
well, but the new starMaps can be script-driven and do more stuff.

I made a wos-like, but 3D, game a couple years ago (for android) called "Well of Souls: Rune Runner" which is currently
just single player and offers no player-editing of maps. My goal is for Rune Runner to become a full 3D WoS experience
with player-provided worlds. To get there, I am developing all the various bits and pieces inside of synSpace, from
which I will (I claim) port them to the multiplayer version of Rune Runner.

This means that synSpace is picking up some odd features that arguably don't belong in 'a space game' but I figure if
they are at all fun to do, then why not?

So, world-generation in general requires APIs and Editos for each of the asset types. Hopefully it is all contained in
the game, but probably some assets will be better edited outside of the game. For example, you might prefer to use a
real desktop with nice keyboard when writing scripts, so I would like to do that sort of thing in HTML5 and magically
move the data to and frmo the game. But that's yet to be worried about.

So far, in addition to the space game, I have:

* personalization of ship design (little stick figure/vector art editor)
* perfonalization of pilot 'face' (little bitmap editor with limited colors)
* personalization of 'music' (both to be used by the starMap, and also a bit of my synJam game)

I have been mostly working on the music lately. It's been fun. Basically I did it the hardest possible way. Rather
than just make a MIDI player (which would actually meet my needs and probably be more powerful for the map editor), I
decided to make my own synthesizer and let the player create PATCH files to create synthetic instruments.

Then you use my GROOVE editor to craft rhythmic LOOPs and free-play JAMs

These are all 'collectibles' in the sense that players share the assets with each other (each asset is marked as to its
creator, but you can also modify and clone anything you collect, to make new things)

I have some starting blog-ish pages on my site

http://www.synthetic-reality.com/drone/synspaceAndroid.htm

The full game name is "SynSpace: Drone Runners"

The back story is that I have discovered (via my research in radio astronomy) this secret communications network that
gives you access to these drone spaceships that are all over the galaxy. The game is just a remote control allowing you
to pilot a drone. When the drone is destroyed, no one is killed. In fact, the drones get rebuilt by some sort of alien
cloning factory (we don't know who made the drones, but they are self-replicating out of control, consuming the mass of
the galaxy, so you are helping the galaxy by blowing them up)

Anyway, so this is all 'free time' programming, so it is going very slowly, but I would like to release a test version
fairly soon just to start getting some feedback on it.

Thanks for writing,

- Dan

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[Bruno Beaudoin]

I haven't played the game, but reviews claim that the game isn't feature complete.  I didn't want to play a game that wasn't "finished", or at least in a state that could be called "final", before patches.

Thanks for the quick answer.