Amiga.org
Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: saimo on April 04, 2009, 07:08:54 PM
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Campobasso, Italy - April 4th, 2009
EDITEL is pleased to announce the immediate availability of BOH, a brand-new game for AmigaOS 4 and Windows.
BOH is a game of exploration and action. You move in claustrophobic and dangerous battlefields searching for the Evil Masters. This no easy task not only because of the traps-packed corridors and mind-blowing puzzles, but also because of the countless enemies that the Evil Masters throw at you more and more until you discover them - at that point, you will be attacked directly by the Evil Masters themselves, the toughest of all. Although your quests are made slightly less hard by the bonuses and power-ups scattered all around the battlefield, carrying out the missions demands lots of concentration and quick reflexes.
The game features:
* immediate & addictive gameplay;
* immersive & thrilling action;
* 25 challenging missions divided into 5 levels of difficulty;
* multi-phase missions;
* battlefields of any size and shape (also spread over multiple floors);
* AI-driven enemies;
* hand-pixelled 2D graphics;
* real-time lighting;
* atmospheric audio;
* full expandibility (themes, missions, languages);
* Deutsch, English, Español, Français and Italiano translations.
BOH comes on a CD-ROM (containing both the AmigaOS and the Windows versions) in a plastic DVD box along with a 24 pages, full-color printed manual (English only), at the bargain price of EUR 12.50 (VAT excluded).
At www.bohthegame.com (http://www.bohthegame.com) you will find more information, screenshots, a 5 minutes trailer and you will also be able to order your copy.
Do not hesitate to dive into a new, exciting adventure!
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EDITEL snc
via Trento, 20 - 86100 Campobasso (CB) - Italy
VAT no.: IT00814390704
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payback in gauntlet
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Doesn't look all that bad judging by the trailer. Original concept, reminded me immediately of "into the eagles nest" ;-)
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It looks great :)
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Site - awful.
Text justification on width - is awful.
A monospace font - it is awful.
Static width of the block - it is awful.
Unknown minimum requirements for amiga - does it run on a4000 with AmigaOS 4?
Shipping? You write about shipping at purchase with Paypal??? Why I cannot download game immediately after payment? Why I should wait for 2-4 weeks? Is now 21 centuries?
There is no at least a playable demo - awfully.
The trailer looks not bad. If to shut eyes to that is remake AlienBreed. :)
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@zyphoid & hooligan
I do not know the games you mention, but I do know the games that inspired BOH ;-)
Here is a little excerpt of the "TRIVIA" section of the user manual: "As regards the gameplay, BOH was inspired by these C64 titles: Wizard of Wor, The Amazing Spider-Man and Impossible Mission I and II; from a technical point of view, inspiration came from the MS-DOS version of Shadowlands and a coin-op Formula 1 game (maybe Tail to Nose); other games that may have had an influence are Alien Breed II and The Chaos Engine, both for the Amiga computer."
saimo
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@hooligan
Doesn't look all that bad judging by the trailer.
Thanks :-)
BTW: please keep in mind that the actual game looks a lot better with respect to both the smoothness and the crispness of the graphics.
saimo
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@yssing
It looks great :)
Thanks for the compliment! :-)
saimo
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@easy_john
First off, thanks for the feedback.
Site - awful.
Do you mean the general design or are you referring to the points you raise below?
Text justification on width - is awful.
I must say I cannot see anything wrong with it. Can you please tell me what is so bad about it?
A monospace font - it is awful.
This must be a problem with the font configuration of your browser: the site only asks for a sans-serif font.
Static width of the block - it is awful.
I understand that this may feel like a (little) constraint. Sorry.
Unknown minimum requirements for amiga - does it run on a4000 with AmigaOS 4?
Requirements are the same for all machines (namely: 500 MHz CPU, 16 MB of RAM, 32-bit graphics card, 16-bit sound card, CD-ROM drive, 5 MB of disk space).
Shipping? You write about shipping at purchase with Paypal??? Why I cannot download game immediately after payment? Why I should wait for 2-4 weeks? Is now 21 centuries?
The product is meant to be a "tangible" one. I thought it was something the Amiga market missed and that amigans would appreciate it (at such low price).
The long delivery time is due to the cheap shipping method - a faster one can be chosen, of course, but then shipping would easily cost more than the game itself.
There is no at least a playable demo - awfully.
I am considering it (but not making any promise).
I am also thinking about making the PDF version of the manual available, so that it is easier to get an idea - the manual really says a lot of things, with its 24 pages ;-)
The trailer looks not bad.
Thanks :-)
A remember that it looks even better in reality (maybe I will publish also a real-world video to show it) ;-)
If to shut eyes to that is remake AlienBreed. :)
Yes, there are elements in common with Alien Breed (see one of my previous posts above).
saimo
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Not to be confused with BOFH :-D
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I must say I cannot see anything wrong with it. Can you please tell me what is so bad about it?
This must be a problem with the font configuration of your browser: the site only asks for a sans-serif font.
very sorry, my fault - invalid font for this size.
after fixing - site looks better. :)
Requirements are the same for all machines (namely: 500 MHz CPU
bad. a4000 only have 233 mhz.
The product is meant to be a "tangible" one.
Nice, but anyway, I always prefer immediately download after payment, even if I buy box version for my bookshelf. :)
a faster one can be chosen, of course
there is no such thing as faster shipping for some country, for example get package in Russia faster then 4 weeks - miracle, because 2-3 weeks spent for custom procedures..
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@Saimo
I produce an immediately downloadable game for Amiga OS: Total Chaos AGA. Most people are happy with it but a few complain: "I want a real CD and a printed 100 page instruction manual! Gimme something tangible, not just an internet download! Gimme gimme gimme!"
No matter what you do, you just can't win. :crazy:
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@Saimo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLBcx1EZec
Amiga version was a really good game
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The game is looking pretty sweet, Saimo :)
I love the combination of the soundtrack and the visuals in the trailer.
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@gazgod
Not to be confused with BOFH :-D
Definitely :lol:
saimo
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@easy_john
very sorry, my fault - invalid font for this size.
after fixing - site looks better. :)
No problem.
bad. a4000 only have 233 mhz.
CPU power is needed because everything is done by the CPU - and there are some demanding tasks going on there: 24-bit interpolated rotation, 24-bit real-time lighting, 8-bit alphachannel, etc. The upcoming update will include the possibility of disabling interpolation, which maybe could make the game perfectly playable also on your machine.
there is no such thing as faster shipping for some country, for example get package in Russia faster then 4 weeks - miracle, because 2-3 weeks spent for custom procedures..
Oh, well... strange... the delivery time of the International Express Courier is said to be 2-10 days for Russia... the only *slight* problem is that it costs EUR 46.70! :-o
saimo
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@ChaosLord
I produce an immediately downloadable game for Amiga OS: Total Chaos AGA. Most people are happy with it but a few complain: "I want a real CD and a printed 100 page instruction manual! Gimme something tangible, not just an internet download! Gimme gimme gimme!"
No matter what you do, you just can't win. :crazy:
Yeah, right. But, after all, it is just normal that one cannot please everyone...
saimo
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@hooligan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLBcx1EZec
Amiga version was a really good game
You are right, it definitely has more than something in common with my game.
saimo
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@Trezzer
The game is looking pretty sweet, Saimo :)
I'm glad you like it ;-)
I love the combination of the soundtrack and the visuals in the trailer.
Yeah, I spent some time to sync the visuals with the audio...
saimo
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Hi all,
I just wanted to inform you that now the DOWNLOADS page of the website (http://www.bohthegame.com) allows you to get hold of the PDF version of the user's manual (including the updated version relative to the upcoming update). Having a look at it is highly recommended to get a good idea of what the game offers ;-)
edit: I have also added a screenshots page, which includes 3 new grabs (more will come later).
saimo
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OS4 needs games, well done :-D
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@NovaCoder
Thank you :-)
saimo
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Hi again,
as promised, I uploaded a new video showing a real-world session: the direct link is http://www.bohthegame.com/data/game_session.wmv (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/game_session.wmv) (the file size is about 129 MB).
Moreover, I added 4 new screenshots to the SCREENSHOTS page of the website (http://www.bohthegame.com).
Enjoy,
saimo
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This really looks like my kind of game. A playable demo would be great as I don't like to buy games I haven't had a chance to try. BOH has an oddly Doom-like feel to me. I think it's the claustrophobic feel combined with the maze-like maps which mean that you can't see what's around the corner (or sneaking up on you!)
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moto
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Oh, and a Mac version would be nice ;-)
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moto
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@motorollin
This really looks like my kind of game.
I'm happy to hear this :-D
A playable demo would be great as I don't like to buy games I haven't had a chance to try.
I have been thinking about a demo, both before and after I got requests, and the conclusion is this: unfortunately, it cannot be done. I will try to explain why.
Two of the main design choices of BOH are these:
* it can be expanded by just adding data files to the missions/themes/translations directories;
* at any time, the player can freely choose any mission among those that he has installed - i.e. the game is non-linear (although some missions are subdivided in phases, so the player can access the later phases only if he manages to complete the previous ones).
This means that distributing a full-working demo would be a sort of self-piracy (as the distribution of data files would be trivial), also if one looks at the future: when expansions will be released (by me or third parties), the "demo" version will allow to enjoy them without problems.
On the other hand, if I distribute a feature-wise crippled version, the game would not be really enjoyable, and maybe make a bad impression.
BOH has an oddly Doom-like feel to me. I think it's the claustrophobic feel combined with the maze-like maps which mean that you can't see what's around the corner (or sneaking up on you!) :-D
Perfectly spot on!!! Some of the AIs are precisely coded to work that way ;)
Just think that several times, while testing the missions I was developing myself, I found myself jumping on the chair ;-)
Unfortunately this aspect is not really represented by the videos, because when I recorded them, to keep them short, I was playing like a robot knowing perfectly where to go and what to do (although in a couple occasions I wasted some time for the pure fun of it) - but, believe me, when one, surrounded by darkness, does not really know whether to turn left or right, the tension gets high ;-)
BTW: I'm putting up a page where videos can be streamed from.
saimo
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@motorollin
Oh, and a Mac version would be nice ;-)
It is the next thing on the TODO list after the update and the additional themes I am working on, if the game has success ;-)
saimo
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@saimo
Saimo wrote:
I have been thinking about a demo, both before and after I got requests, and the conclusion is this: unfortunately, it cannot be done. I will try to explain why.
Two of the main design choices of BOH are these:
* it can be expanded by just adding data files to the missions/themes/translations directories;
* at any time, the player can freely choose any mission among those that he has installed - i.e. the game is non-linear (although some missions are subdivided in phases, so the player can access the later phases only if he manages to complete the previous ones).
This means that distributing a full-working demo would be a sort of self-piracy (as the distribution of data files would be trivial), also if one looks at the future: when expansions will be released (by me or third parties), the "demo" version will allow to enjoy them without problems.
On the other hand, if I distribute a feature-wise crippled version, the game would not be really enjoyable, and maybe make a bad impression.
I fully see your point, that distributing the full version of the game engine with a demo data file may not be an attractive prospect. However, look how well it worked for Doom. In fact, Id Software even released the source code for the engine. This has been so successful that Id are even still selling the original Doom games on their web site for people who want to pay for the full version of the data files. So distributing the full engine for free and charging for data files can work well. I believe in Doom that you needed the full WAD file in order to use 3rd party expansion WADs, so users of the shareware WAD could only play the shareware levels. If they wanted to play the full game or 3rd party episodes, they had to register. In my opinion, it is no more difficult to pirate the data files with the engine than just the data file by itself. But of course, it is your decision. I do not intend to criticise - I'm just making a suggestion. You could even distribute a demo version of the engine which is crippled in only one way - that it only works with the demo data files and nothing more.
Saimo wrote:
Perfectly spot on!!! Some of the AIs are precisely coded to work that way ;)
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believe me, when one, surrounded by darkness, does not really know whether to turn left or right, the tension gets high
Sounds brilliant! This is *exactly* what I loved (and still love) about Doom. It sounds like BOH will be a really atmospheric game. Lots of missions too means that even once completed players can keep coming back again and again. I can't wait to try this game out! :-D
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Saimo wrote:
It is the next thing on the TODO list after the update and the additional themes I am working on, if the game has success
Excellent :-D Will registered users get a free upgrade to the Mac version? If it will help to ensure success of the game and encourage further development, I would like to buy the Windows version and play in Parallels on my Mac, to encourage you to port it to the Mac ;-)
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@motorollin
I fully see your point, that distributing the full version of the game engine with a demo data file may not be an attractive prospect. However, look how well it worked for Doom. In fact, Id Software even released the source code for the engine. This has been so successful that Id are even still selling the original Doom games on their web site for people who want to pay for the full version of the data files. So distributing the full engine for free and charging for data files can work well. I believe in Doom that you needed the full WAD file in order to use 3rd party expansion WADs, so users of the shareware WAD could only play the shareware levels. If they wanted to play the full game or 3rd party episodes, they had to register. In my opinion, it is no more difficult to pirate the data files with the engine than just the data file by itself. But of course, it is your decision. I do not intend to criticise - I'm just making a suggestion.
I believe that one of the reasons why that worked for ID Sodtware is that Doom was a groundbreaking milestone of gaming - which BOH is not. I do not think that the interest in BOH would be so high to live just on expansions.
But I do understand you.
You could even distribute a demo version of the engine which is crippled in only one way - that it only works with the demo data files and nothing more.
I will take this into consideration. As soon as I have time, I will see what I can do. No promises, though.
Sounds brilliant! This is *exactly* what I loved (and still love) about Doom. It sounds like BOH will be a really atmospheric game.
Yeah, that was one of my goals. That's why the default theme does not even have graphics for walls ;-) I understand that it is not the kind of game for everybody. I had a few friends cursing me for driving them crazy or stealing too much of their time :-D
Lots of missions too means that even once completed players can keep coming back again and again.
As a re-play factor, I added the saving of the best records for each phase of each mission - eventually, sometimes I ended up competing again myself to break my previous records :crazy:
saimo
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@motorollin
Excellent :-D Will registered users get a free upgrade to the Mac version? If it will help to ensure success of the game and encourage further development, I would like to buy the Windows version and play in Parallels on my Mac, to encourage you to port it to the Mac ;-)
The version on sale already includes both the AmigaOS 4 and the Windows versions on the same CD. I would have like to include also the MacOS and the Linux versions, but at some point I had to draw a line. Yet, I have not abandoned this idea of the "universal" CD: if I ever manage to sell all the copies produced (it will be hard, but never say never...), the next production run will include at least the MacOS port.
According to this philosophy, yes, customers of the current version would get the MacOS version for free ;-)
BTW: also the upcoming update and additional themes will come for free.
saimo
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Saimo wrote:
I believe that one of the reasons why that worked for ID Sodtware is that Doom was a groundbreaking milestone of gaming - which BOH is not. I do not think that the interest in BOH would be so high to live just on expansions.
But I do understand you.
Yes, you're right. When Doom was released, *everybody* wanted (needed!) to play it. I see your point that this method of releasing a less mainstream game which is not so anticipated would probably not work as well.
Saimo wrote:
As soon as I have time, I will see what I can do. No promises, though
Fair enough! To be honest, the trailer gives such a good impression of the atmosphere and gameplay that while a demo would be nice, I don't think it will be necessary for me to make a decision to buy the game ;-) I would rather your time and effort went in to a Mac port :-D Oh, and will a level editor be released at some point? I can see Aminet filling up with user-created levels!
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Saimo wrote:
The version on sale already includes both the AmigaOS 4 and the Windows versions on the same CD. I would have like to include also the MacOS and the Linux versions, but at some point I had to draw a line. Yet, I have not abandoned this idea of the "universal" CD: if I ever manage to sell all the copies produced (it will be hard, but never say never...), the next production run will include at least the MacOS port.
According to this philosophy, yes, customers of the current version would get the MacOS version for free
BTW: also the upcoming update and additional themes will come for free
Excellent! With that in mind, I have just ordered :-D
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@motorollin
Oh, and will a level editor be released at some point? I can see Aminet filling up with user-created levels!
Eh eh... as mentioned in the user's manual (see TRIVIA paragraph), the engine has been designed so that creating missions and themes would not require any special tool: all that is needed to create missions is... an ASCII text editor ;-)
At the end of 2008, I started writing the developer documentation, but unfortunately right now I am way too busy with all the rest to work on it. But some day also that documentation will see the light (and will be distributed free of charge, of course).
saimo
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@motorollin
Excellent! With that in mind, I have just ordered :-D
Wonderful, thank you so much :cheers:
saimo
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Saimo wrote:
Eh eh... as mentioned in the user's manual (see TRIVIA paragraph), the engine has been designed so that creating missions and themes would not require any special tool: all that is needed to create missions is... an ASCII text editor
Ahh, RTFM ;-) I can't remember the last time I edited a game's levels with a text editor... I love it! :-D
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@motorollin
Ahh, RTFM ;) I can't remember the last time I edited a game's levels with a text editor... I love it! :-D
I'm glad you like also this aspect :-) I look forward to see missions from you once the developer documentation gets released :-D (honestly, I must say that I can't wait to play missions made by others... for me, having developed the current missions myself, it's a totally different feeling altogether... I was blessed only once until now, when a friend of mine developed the inital version of a mission while the game was still in development).
saimo
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Saimo wrote:
I look forward to see missions from you once the developer documentation gets released
I'm already thinking of porting some of the Doom levels to BOH maps ;-) I'm not actually very good at designing game maps myself. I find it too hard to get the difficulty curve right, so I tend to end up creating novelty maps which are fun to look at and run around in, but are either far too hard or pose no challenge at all. So I'll just plagiarise Doom's levels :lol: It will be interesting to see how they translate in to 2D. I know this has been done before with an ASCII version of Doom in 2D, so maybe it will work well!
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@motorollin
Funny idea :-D
saimo
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BTW, when I get my copy of BOH I'll give it a try under Crossover Mac (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/). Since the BOH manual says that the Windows version runs under Ubuntu using Wine, I'm hoping it will run ok on a Mac using Crossover.
Do you mind if I ask what that game is built on? Hopefully you used SDL as that should make porting to other platforms fairly trivial :-D
Edit - I see in the manual that libSDL is credited... nice!
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@motorollin
BTW, when I get my copy of BOH I'll give it a try under Crossover Mac. Since the BOH manual says that the Windows version runs under Ubuntu using Wine, I'm hoping it will run ok on a Mac using Crossover.
I'm confident it will work just fine: I have tried BOH with Wine (Crossover Mac's "parent", if I'm not mistaken) on three different Linux machines and it always worked flawlessly. Only you will need to install the game manually: either copy the directory as installed on your Windows machine or follow the manual installation instructions found in the revised user's manual (it is a very easy process).
Do you mind if I ask what that game is built on? Hopefully you used SDL as that should make porting to other platforms fairly trivial
Edit - I see in the manual that libSDL is credited... nice!
Yes, I used SDL precisely for portability. The only other dependency is libSDL_mixer (with all the libraries it requires).
saimo
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Saimo,
I'll be dead honest. When I first saw your news item I thought, man, this game's going to be absolute crap...Then I watched your videos and in short, I freakin' love you. :-D
That's EXACTLY the kind of game I've longed for since I watched my older brother play his c64 20 years ago! It's got that warm, retro feel that draws you in and reminds you of better days.
I don't suppose you'd offer a downloadable version for the same price? I live in Sydney, Australia, shipping here is pricey (and takes a hellovalong time!)
Keep up the great work!
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@CodePoet
I'll be dead honest. When I first saw your news item I thought, man, this game's going to be absolute crap...Then I watched your videos and in short, I freakin' love you. :-D
:roflmao:
That's EXACTLY the kind of game I've longed for since I watched my older brother play his c64 20 years ago! It's got that warm, retro feel that draws you in and reminds you of better days.
You cannot even imagine how happy these words make me, because it means I succeeded to transmit my feelings towards games. :love: :banana:
I don't suppose you'd offer a downloadable version for the same price? I live in Sydney, Australia, shipping here is pricey (and takes a hellovalong time!)
As regards the price, it is not so bad (I know because I've shipped a few items to your land already ;-)): register mail is EUR 7.50 and VAT does not apply to it (because you are outside EU).
As regards the delivery time, well, yes, it may take long (registered mail is said to take up to 2 weeks).
But the worst problem is that - I guess - that accounting would change and the company would not know how to handle the case (they are a small firm and never commercialized any software before) - believe me, the accounting issues have been a hell and delayed the release by 2 months :madashell: Moreover, that is a decision I cannot take: I developed the game, doing the PR and handling orders, but commercial decisions are up to the company. Edit: forgot to mention another important factor: anyways, now we have a stock of physical copies that need to be handed out, first ;-)
saimo
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Hi all,
I'd like to inform you that I have added a FAQ page to BOH's website (http://www.bohthegame.com) where I collected all the questions, observations and answers scattered in the various threads here and elsewhere. The page turned out to contain plenty of interesting information about the present and also the future.
Thanks to all those who contributed!
saimo
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Just wanted to let you know that I recieved my copy of BOH today. I played it on my laptop but bought it because I hope to get a SAM and play it on the Amiga.
First impressions are very good, I have completed some of the very easy levels and am really enjoying it. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING THE AMIGA COMMUNITY A NEW PRODUCT, ESPECIALLY ONE THAT YOU CAN BUY ON CD!!! I am fed up of seeing small games that you download we need physical products like BOH.
I hope you sell loads and the amiga community gets more games like this in the future.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! :-P
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@AmigoSteve
I'm very happy you are enjoying my beloved product :-)
Thanks for the feedback and the support!
saimo
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Hi all,
just a few miscellaneous notes:
1. since yesterday an updated developer's manual (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/developer's_manual.pdf) is available on the DOWNLOADS page (http://www.bohthegame.com) of the website - now only some in-depth explanations about sprites are missing;
2. the fact that some customers were surprised by the quality of the package (shrink-wrap, properly pressed and printed CD, glossy manual) led me to think that maybe the message wasn't clear enough, so I put a few pictures online: shrink-wrapped box (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/box-shrink-wrapped.png), open box (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/box-open.png), CD-ROM (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/CD-ROM.png), user's manual (http://www.bohthegame.com/data/user's_manual.png);
3. since few days BOH has a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/BOH/99598418583), which is meant to become a connection point for discussions and updates: everybody is welcome (it isn't necessary to own a copy ;)).
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Hi everybody,
I just wanted to inform those who might be interested that the developer's manual to create missions, themes and translations for BOH has been finished. As usual, it can be downloaded from the DOWNLOADS page (http://www.bohthegame.com/downloads.html) of the website.
Have fun!
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Looks like a "hall of things" to me.
But, well done. I don't have an Amiga that could run it, but it looks fun.
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Looks like a "hall of things" to me.
mmm... what do you mean, exactly?
But, well done.
Thanks :)
I don't have an Amiga that could run it, but it looks fun.
Well, it also runs on Linux, MacOS and Windows... it's likely that you can try it anyway ;)
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Hello!
I'm back with yet another little piece of news: I've ported BOH to AROS, so now the demo is available for download from the DOWNLOADS page (http://www.bohthegame.com/downloads.html) of the website.
Please note that:
* this is only the initial port only;
* the menu music reportedly stutters - maybe an issue with SDL_mixer?;
* the full game isn't available yet.
The reason why I'm not releasing the full game yet is precisely because of the music problem - other than that, the game works just fine. If you try the demo, please let me know how it works for you - it's the reason why I've released it ;)
... and have fun!
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@who likes secrets
Easter is coming and - guess what - there are two Easter eggs hidden in BOH, but nobody found them yet... who will be the first? ;)
(If nobody manages to discover them and anybody is interested, I'll reveal them on Easter.)