Hi!

I would be very grateful if you guys can test my game and tell me what you think about it because I have some sales problems with it. I have a 0.2% rate :(
This past month it got 3000 downloads, most of them from download.com, but I don't know how can I increase this...
Maybe the fact that it's a 3D game could be the problem...

The game is Helium 3D and can be found here:
http://helium.planetiso.com

Thanks all!

First of all you need to have a direct download link from you site, i had to click 6 times to get the game :s ( i almost quit cause i got tired of clicking , what happened is that the download didn't start automatically then it took me to some other page asking me to click again... ) so it might be counted as a download but in fact some people probably are not downloading anything.

I really like your game, the directX8 factor might be the problem, you're aiming a hardcore gamer platform for a non hardcore gamer game. I remember somebody putting a question on the uninstaller of their software , it launched a page where it asked why people are uninstalling the program, maybe you could try that..

pat.

had problems getting it too work on a P2 400 win2000 - the screen just went black - no error message or anything...

Tested on a P4 1700 w/ Geforce 5200 and it run fine.

A few points I noted:
* The initial menu screen didn't make much sense to me with all those rune shapes etc
* You should consider rotating the gems so they face upwards - it looks like they're rotating on their sides because of the top down view.
* The ball doesn't roll
* You should consider adding little help points which inform the user what to do. The game is pretty explanatory but I think adding some help points would add more to the games 'character'
* Have you considered making a 2D version of the game? - I didn't see much in there that couldn't easily be done in 2D
* I kept getting 'Press ESCAPE to exit..' and I'm not sure if I died or if I completed the level...

I downloaded the game... and found a couple things:

1) I didn't have my browser maximized and it took me a min or so to find the download link at the far right of the screen. I would put another one right by the screen shot.

2) DX8 is kinda high requirements

3) The game crashed after the level selection menu (the one with the weird cone thing in the middle)

This may be unique to my system, but i doubt it. If you want me to try any fixes i'd be glad to.

Athlon 500
128mb ram
32mb ati rage vid card
win xp

Helius,
Are you guys any relation to Synapse Audio?
( http://www.synapse-audio.com/ )

Your websites are a bit close dont you think?

I gave it a real quick play...

The installer should provide an option to launch the game IMO.

The main menu was a bit frusterating since it's just random symbols as far as I can tell. Figuring our how to start or exit the game was just guess-work.

I believe the game play has potential but something about the controls or the sensitivity of the ball movement made it frusterating. Even if I was really careful with the mouse...the ball was always bouncing off the walls making it more difficult to control than I felt necessary (especially for level 1 when I am trying to get familar with the game).

The ball should roll (visually) IMO as mentioned above.

Escape Factory made a slightly similar game for WildTangent which is very good IMO. It's called "Overball" and you can check it out at www.wildtangent.com

Good luck,
-Scorpio