OS Independent Scotland Yard Released 35
DarkLaser writes "When's the last time you played Scotland Yard? A version called London Law,
written by Paul Pelzl, is now in beta. Its updated status can be seen on the freshmeat information page. It is written in Python, and intended to be able to run on Linux, BSD, Mac, and Windows."
Cross platform gaming (Score:5, Insightful)
What I think a lot of companies might not realize is that when you're making a game that plays on Mac or Linux boxes, you're not just adding that ~2% - 3% of marketshare to your total games sales.
Instead, what you're doing is creating a game that everyone can play. That means next time someone decides to have a LAN party, YOUR game is at the top of the list for anyone who would rather bring their Linux or Mac machine along with them. Sure, there are half a dozen MMPORG's out there. However, the only ones I'm considering, along with half a dozen friends of mine are ones that are cross platform. The reason is that we want to make sure our friends who use something other than Windows can still play in our groups. So yeah, there might be one Mac user and one Linux user out of 10 people, but writing your game to support those two people happened to net you another 8 monthly subscriptions.
Re:Cross platform gaming (Score:2)
You missed one more point. I do not have a MS Windows machine. If you have a linux version, and none of your competitors do, you get 100% of the linux market (sure only 2% total) by default. If you have 100 potential in the target market, but and it works out to 2 linux users, or 1 MS Windows user, you are better off targeting linux. It is only when you achieve the big bucks that the MS Windows platform is better.
I recall several games for tiny platforms that did very well in global sales, not because
Re:Cross platform gaming (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cross platform gaming (Score:1)
I work in Linux though, and its great having fun time wasters that don't require a reboot to run. I'm tempted by Transgamings WineX, but I can't justify the $60/year for it to the board (wife).
Portable games are more than just Windows/Mac/Linux, by going with Python or Java you also can be on phones, PDA's etc. The biggest battery killer for my old phone was Gemmaster.
Re:Cross platform gaming (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, you are. The important point is that if you create your game using cross platform tools you get 2-3% more market share (your figures, I'd expect it to be closer to 5-10%) at no extra cost. If you write it using DirectX, then try to port it then it will cost a huge amount to get this extra few percent.
Re:Cross platform gaming (Score:2)
For something to be actually cross-platform (instead of theoretically cross-platform), it would have to be actually tested on all those various platforms. This testing, not to mention the additional hardware and software, is not even close to free.
Which is not to say designing something so it'll even just theoretically work across platforms is a bad thin
Re:Python programmers (Score:2, Funny)
Come to the dark side....
Who needs to compile...?
Your code will look sooo pretty....
The voices in my head are back. I tried to tell them I was happy with VC.net, but they keep calling to me...
Perhaps I should give in to them.
great game... (Score:4, Informative)
I'll have to look at it more later (I'm at work now, and believe it or not, don't have time to look at it too much). I'm hoping in the endgame you'll be able to trace routes of Mr.X and the agents just to see how close they came.
Re:great game... (Score:3, Funny)
So Mr. X gets the short end of the deal, then?
Re:great game... (Score:4, Informative)
Against 5 detectives, Mr.X has no chance at all.
The game is best played with Mr.X against 4 detectives. The detectives will almost always win the game, but occassionaly Mr.X will make a brilliant escape.
Against 3 detectives, Mr.X easily wins the game.
Actually, that is the bad thing about Scotland Yard: the game is fun but never fair; either Mr.X has a huge chance of winning, or the detectives have, depending on the number of players.
One cannot help wondering whether with a different map design, the game could be made more fair. Perhaps with different maps for 4-player, 5-player, and 6-player games.
Re:Is it all there? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Is it all there? (Score:4, Funny)
detailed game info (Score:5, Informative)
Scotland Yard Live in Toronto (Score:1)
http://www.culturehole.com/index.asp?giorno=27&mo
This was a first pass at the rules, and they've since been changed a bit, but you get the idea.
Re:Scotland Yard Live in Toronto (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Scotland Yard Live in Toronto (Score:1)
from the author (Score:5, Informative)
Also, have mercy on my department's poor webserver. I understand some people actually rely on it to deliver important things like, say, homework.
Re:from the author (Score:1)
Re:from the author (Score:4, Informative)
Re:from the author (Score:2, Informative)
Re:from the author (Score:2)
OS X build available now (Score:2)
zerg (Score:2)
Anyone inspect the source yet? (Score:3)
Re:Anyone inspect the source yet? (Score:3, Informative)
Now quit complaining about free st
Re:Anyone inspect the source yet? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Anyone inspect the source yet? (Score:2)
I'm working on OS X as we speak; hopefully the porting issues are minor. Check the site again in a day or two.
An editorial review may be useful ... (Score:1)
I mean, we know it's Beta, but maybe take a new shot that's not putting down your hard work?
Re:An editorial review may be useful ... (Score:2)
Mornington Crescent (Score:2)