Well the list is up...

Avault Top Shareware (http://www.avault.com/articles/getarticle.asp?name=topsw2k3)

My feeling is that it covers good and bad. IE it includes some games that are good that I haven't heard of.
It includes some terrible games and calls them great.

However, with any kind of list like that there will be always be people who totally disagree with certain games. My end of the year items have been met with the same disapproval at times.

My biggest frustration with this actually comes from the writer. The last year list was one of those key events that made me launch my website. It was interesting how many people were sure that they had made the list based on emails from Bob, only to find out they weren't included. I got that feeling again this year from talking to various developers.

Anyway it is more press and help for the titles listed, so that is the positive side, even if it overvalues some games and undervalues others.

It would be nice for them to also include a link to all the games that weren't included b/c they already had a review done on Avault during the year, so that people could check out those games as well.

Ahahaha :D We seem to have made the list ;) Where does that put us?

Cas :)

It was interesting how many people were sure that they had made the list based on emails from Bob, only to find out they weren't included. I got that feeling again this year from talking to various developers.
Yeah, I was pretty sure Big Head Zed was going to make the list based on Bob's enthusiastic response. Then when a member here told me they were notified that they were in, I was pretty sure I was out. :) Congratulations to everyone who got listed.

Excuse me, I don't know anything about this "Bob" who seems to be friend of all of you :) What's the idea? Do we (developers) send him games for reviewing? Is he the editor?

Wow!

Well. Let we ask by another way in this case...

Does anybody from here wasn't proclaimed by Bob as the "very-very..." candidate?

Because we had the same negotiations with him as well :D

PS Today morning wasn't too great for us as well. I was planning to drink a beer whole the day but later had decided that we should work even a little bit harder. So, beer was postponed on always Friday :p

Yah saw the same things last year in regards to Bob...very frustrating for Indie Developers from what I've seen. I think the intent he tries to put forth is that "You have a great game." Kind of the making you feel good about yourself...even if you don't make the list.

However it comes off as "you are very likely to make the list." That then leads to upset people. (or maybe I'm just trying to put a positive spin on it? )

Bob is Bob Mandel. He usually finds things on his own through CNET and other sources. Rather opinionated as we all are...

Hmmm...

I think I posted something like this in another forum... how original genius gets forgotten?

I'm looking at Abandoned Well, and DANG if it doesn't look an awful lot like the old game "Oil's Well (http://screenmania.retrogames.com/c64/03/c64_0085.html) ", published by Sierra in the early 80's. Now, maybe this game IS totally different (I haven't played it) and the resemblance is only superficial. But when I hear a clone / remake of a classic game being called an "original gameplay experience" it bugs me.

I'm really far from idea to blame any game included in the list. Backward, (I forgot to mention this in the previous message)

Our congratulations to all creators who had achived the inclusion! Hope this will help you to step ahead!

Speaking about Bob... Well... it could be great to be included but we can't bet all on that or spend all on that by anyway.
Most important to make good games which would be accepted by peoples around the world. And this is area where we are trying to do our best and we'll continue by anyway. I suppose the same is about most of guys from here.

So, good luck to everybody as well. :-)

I like some of his opinions ;)

Cas :)

I was contacted by Bob Mandel as well about "Trials of Werlin" and after I asked him a couple questions my enthusiasm faded a bit and I just looked at it as "If it makes it great, but don't get your hopes up".... and in hind-sight it seemed like the best way to be about it.

Rocknor's Donut Factory made the list!!!! Whoo hoo! So did Digby's Donuts. It's a good year for donut video games. :) Contrats to everyone who made the list.

My feeling is Bob gives games the benefit of the doubt, and in enthusiastic to check games out (and get a free copy).

Last year he asked me for a copy of Rocknor's Bad Day, he was very enthusiastic, but the subject line of his email read something like "Review copy of Rocknor's Bad Day for possible review on avault.com" (my emphasis). My feeling was that he wanted to try the full version to see if it qualified for his article (it didn't). I think that's a fair way to do it, although I was bummed that RBD didn't make the list.

Hanford

For all of the hype about it, we're seeing precious little traffic from the list. It is a game nerd site after all. Not you guys normal market at all.

Cas :)

I tried six of these out just now for "first impressions," (or in Alien Flux's case, second impressions). They say that you have only a few minutes to hook the user, or he's lost forever. Here are some random thoughts:


Dr. Blob's Organism: This came across as a game with good, clean production values. In my mind, it was what a solid shareware game should be. However, they left me confused as to what my objective, and dangers were. Was I supposed to shoot the growing green blob, or the thing at the center? Am I supposed to prevent the blob from filling the screen; from touching the sides of the petri dish; or from touching my weapon? This would be cleared up with more play, but again, I just wanted to go with my first impression. I think they could have benefited from a pop-up at level start that said, "Don't let the organism touch the sides!" or the like.

Mage Bros: The impression I got from this game is that the authors loved to make me wait. I could not skip the intro screen that displayed the company's name, (and held it there); nor could I skip the menu animations that kept me sitting there for serveral seconds each time I selected a new option. An otherwise decent-looking game, I decided to put this one away after only one life, because I didn't like waiting.

Aerial Antics: Tough controls, but that's the point of the game. The graphics were nice, but I felt that the environment could have been spiced up, (some animation, perhaps?) I played this all the way through before I realized it, (which may either mean that the demo was too short, or that I was enjoying it more than I thought). Either way, the short demo time led me to believe that there wasn't much in the full version. It was only after repeated trial and error that I realized that the actual portion of the bulls-eye I landed on mattered. I'm still not sure what the "bonus" refers to. Also, I'm not sure why it told me I couldn't use the keyboard and the mouse at the same time. Huh?

Alien Flux: The prettiest out of the bunch. I liked the controls (keyboard and mouse), but they might not be obvious to a new player, (and as pointed out elsewhere, some people might like a more conventional control system). I flipped through the help pages, but my eyes glazed over; I never really read docs before I try out a demo.

The only big complaint I had: "Alien Flux logs your graphics card and sends it to Puppy Games when you play. If you do not want to send this information to Puppy Games, disconnect from the Internet or block Alien Flux using your firewall." As a developer, I can understand why Puppy Games might want my video card info, but I thought it was pretty rude to ask me to disconnect my Internet connection, or to modify my firewall, because the developers did not want to put in a "No, thanks" button. If the game had asked me to help Puppy Games out by automatically letting them know what my video card was so that they could tailor future games to my system -- and if I were given an option to decline -- I'd probably have said, "sure, thanks for asking." As it was, it just left me sour.

Arcadrome: My favorite of the bunch, this game was fast-paced, fun, and pretty. There was some confusion as to how many hits I could take before dying, but that's a minor quibble. I would like to have seen keyboard controls in addition to the mouse. A Robotron-style (or even Alien Flux-style) system would have been welcome, and might have made the game a little neater.

Deimos Rising: "Error: Quicktime Still Image converter missing. Read our readme on how to install the Quicktime Still Image Converter!" Well, no. I already installed the game. I'm not going to exit the app, find the readme, read it, find the Still Image download, install it, and then play the game. The other games didn't ask me to go find anything else. I took the easy way out and simply uninstalled Deimos Rising.

I've played most of these too - here's what I think:

Arcadrome - it was okay. Nothing special though. Controls were a bit awkward.

Ratinator - Gauntet-like; again it was okay, neither bad nor great.

Dr Blob's Organism - Interesting concept, very nice presentation - a little bit too simplistic though; gameplay is not very compelling. Nice try though.

Deimos Rising - good quality update to the Xevious concept. Nice visuals. Not earth-shattering but solid.

Mage Bros - I like JJSoft's style and I liked this game. I did find myself getting a teensy bit bored... but maybe I've just played too many videogames, cause it's pretty cool. Very professional.

Goof Ball - interesting visual style - Loads of different game types, some great, some not so great. The defender game is totally cool; great idea. The Squish game is totally stupid. The Kill game is so-so. Definitely something different. Feels like it could use a bit more tweaking and polishing though.

Superstar Chefs - totally charming. I love those graphics, and the gameplay is fast, simple and solid. Not massively original but who cares; I dig it. This game has got to be Coin World's biggest problem I think...

Alien Flux - well we all know about that one :)

Rocknor's Donuit Factory - I really liked this one too. I liked the presentation of Rocknor's Bad Day, but I've just played too many of those Chip's Challenge-style games to really be enthused by it. This game has all the charm of RBD and plenty more. Okay, so I've played a few games like this before too, but there was just something about it that really appealed. The donuts look totally delicious, and the story really makes you want to play more (the monorail used to stop here!) - this game has oodles of style, it's tutorial-ed up to the hilt, and it deserves to do very well indeed. I like it a lot.

Crimsonland - never really understood the appeal, TBH. Good solid presentation and plenty of bonuses and upgrades don't do enough to beef up the one-dimensional gameplay. I can't help thinking that this game wouldn't have taken much to put together.

Chicken Shoot - a very simple Operation Wolf-style shooter, it won't win any awards for original gameplay... but go download it and check out those graphics, would you? It looks like a freakin' cartoon - really, really awesome presentation. Does this make up for the gameplay? Yeah, in a way I think it almost does.

The Walls of Jericho - Bejewelled-style thing. Like Bejewelled, it's incredibly simple and quite boring. I never understood why people like to play these games; I guess it's the sort of people who like to do jigsaw puzzles or something? Nicely presented though, I'll give them that.

I'll no doubt check out the rest in due course.

Hey, the article came out on Dec 10, 2003. Isn't that the 10th anniversary of the release of DOOM? Think how far the art of game design has come since then. Er, ok maybe don't think about it too much.

A couple more unacknowledged classics:

Snowy : The Bear's Adventures is Snow Bros (http://emulatoritalia.virtualave.net/mame/rc1/screenshot/snowbros.htm) (Arcade) without the charm.

Arcadrome is Crystal (http://www.soup-kitchen.net/soapbox/games/cquest.html) Quest (http://www.inwards.com/~fairway/game_pages/crystal_quest.html) (Mac)

I enjoyed playing Arcadrome. It captures the spirit of CQ quite nicely, even though it has been rendered in three dimensions.

Can anyone spot any more? (:

-J

As one of last years winners, I would say to people who didn't get into the list this time, don't lose any sleep over it. The article's effect on traffic, downloads, and sales was -barely- noticable for about a week, then dissapeared completely. Of course a 2d puzzle game isn't exactly what the average avault reader is looking for, but I get the feeling that shareware in general isn't what they're looking for.

Congrats to this years winners though. It does feel quite good to make the list, but... that's about all. :)

Yeah, I suspected it would not draw much traffic. But I think it's great for putting the little logo on the site and telling people about the game.

~Hanford

Well done to the guys on the list!

My congratulations to those who made the list! Nice to see some familiar faces there .. :)

My fingers have been itching to type a reply for a while. I always look forward to the Avault list (even if I'm never on it - sniff!), as Bob usually finds some games that I hadn't tried before. Of course, my own list would look quite different - but that's the case for any personal list.

Personal highlights on the list are Alien Flux and Mage Bros (two games I bought this year). Superstar Chefs, Donut Factory, and Walls of Jericho are also great games. A really interesting pick was Fire in Water - what a weird game! It has beautiful water/particle/fire effects (just run that ship over a few mines to see it move!), but has just a horrible presentation around it. This is one game that cries out to be polished up a little - and would probably do really well.

Chicken Shoot btw is an odd choice - it's a German retail release, I would not consider it "Shareware". And why does every list include not one but several Arkanoid clones???? ;) And why is the Deimos Rising demo 34 MB????? ;)

The only other game missing on the list is Return and Recharge your Frazzled XS at the Wonderland Colony. Now that's a bloody brilliant game! Silly name, though. ;)

Chicken Shoot btw is an odd choice - it's a German retail release, I would not consider it "Shareware".


Well, I downloaded a free demo, so that's shareware... but going to their site I see - you can't purchase online, and the game is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and GBA. So, hmm... you're right, dosen't seem to really fit the normal definition. But playing the game, um, well it felt like shareware!


And why does every list include not one but several Arkanoid clones????

Heh, probably for the same reason that many shareware sites include "Arkanoid" as a category along with "arcade" and "puzzle"...

Anthony: thanks for the nice writeup. It's nice to hear comments about little aspects of the game that I worked hard on: the donuts had to look real to me; there were talks of doing things like metal shavings for toppings and motor oil, etc. But I wanted the donuts to appeal to the gamer too.

And regarding the Monorail: Later on in the game when you get the Factory Store open and working again, the Monorails will stop at the store :) There's a few other details like that in the Level Select screen.

Anyway, thanks for noticing.

~Hanford

Rocknor's Donuit Factory - I really liked this one too. I liked the presentation of Rocknor's Bad Day, but I've just played too many of those Chip's Challenge-style games to really be enthused by it. This game has all the charm of RBD and plenty more. Okay, so I've played a few games like this before too, but there was just something about it that really appealed. The donuts look totally delicious, and the story really makes you want to play more (the monorail used to stop here!) - this game has oodles of style, it's tutorial-ed up to the hilt, and it deserves to do very well indeed. I like it a lot.

There's also a fileplanet indie games list : http://www.fileplanet.com/features/spotlight/indie/

Originally posted by hanford_lemoore
the donuts had to look real to me; there were talks of doing things like metal shavings for toppings and motor oil, etc. But I wanted the donuts to appeal to the gamer too.
Let me tell you... I'm on the Atkins diet and I was salivating over those donuts, because it is the #1 you-can't-have-this food for the diet and the donuts in Rocknor's just look so tasty. Mmmm... fresh chocolate crullers!

-Erik

Oh, I was so hoping the monorail would come back! I really liked the theme overall, it felt like a goal I could actually care about. Also I rather like the word "cruller"