Quick App: DZ.Tanks 26
Since buying the Pre in June of last year, I've been waiting eagerly for two games: a decent Scorched Earth clone, and a decent Tower Defense type of game. The App Catalog is full of great 3D gaming titles to be sure, but one of my favorite ways to kill a few minutes of time in game land is with these kinds of titles, as they tend to be less attention and time intensive.
For one of those games, my wait is finally over. DZ.Tanks ($0.99 in the App Catalog) is a fairly rudimentary Scorched Earth clone that offers the basics: 4 weapons to choose from, destructible landscape, full touchscreen support and a global leader board. There's no 3D here, but the game works well (done in Canvas, I assume) both in terms of performance and playability in its current form.
I've found that the game is well worth the 99 cent admission fee, though I can't say that I agree with the developers plans to charge for additional content for what is a very basic game. It isn't going to be too long before PDK based apps hit the Catalog and Flash based games are accessible through the browser, changing the playing field significantly. While I can appreciate the economics of the downloadable content pack model, you have got to start with a solid base (read: more than 3 purchasable weapons in a Scorched Earth clone) if you expect any traction with that model.
26 Comments
FIRST!!!!!
Pretty fun game if you ask me.
only 4 weapons....? Oh well
Robert, you state there is no decent Tower Defense game, so I'd encourage you to check out Virus Defense in the app catalog if you haven't already. Very good time killer for what it is.
:) Thanks Nullity!
Oh, didn't realize you were the developer from Invasive Bamboo. Very nice work!
Was gonna say the same thing! Great little game, and just got a recent update. I reviewed it here:
http://www.webosroundup.com/2010/03/virus-defense-review/
You should check it out! Would love to read your impressions of it as well.
Great review, vara411. You summed it up quite nicely. Only thing I'd add is that the game keeps record of the high score for each level, and this helps with the replay value. I'm always replaying levels to see if I can clear the stage with fewer towers / more free memory to get a better score.
Thank you, kind sir! You make a great point about high scores. I try to beat my own scores, too! I'll be sure to add that to my review immediately. ... While we're on the topic, it would be nice to see an ONLINE leaderboard... just sayin'. ;)
We're working on the online leaderboard as we speak. We're just making sure that only valid users are updating the list and not anywhere who knows how to use a web service.
Doh! Beat me to it!
We are working on online leaderboards concept at this time, but we are trying to make sure that the integrity of the scores remains in tact. We don't want to have any cheaters out there!
[Deleted] ... My bad! Duplicate post!
Just wanted to second this, I enjoy Virus Defense as well. Amusing story-line, plays really well, nice strategy and color-coded tower/creep strength so you don't have to keep track of what tower is strongest vs what creep.
Great game!
Thank you very much Nullity! :-)
Really? Flash coming soon?
Like when, after we all get sucked into oblivion by the Large Hadron Collider?
Ha, you beat me to it. I came to comment on just the line of the article. Someone still has faith in Adobe, isn't that cute. ;)
They said "first half of 2010." Just gotta wait until that time comes. Hopefully they'll honor it.
I thought that's when it will officially be launched (about another month and a half)...What about the beta version we were promised?
This game is pretty fun, but not really worth the $1. There's some chatter about "40% off upgrades" and all I can say is: it better come with some upgrades or it's not worth the $1.
i am amazed how little value people place on apps. $1. really? you can drink a $1 worth of soda (or water, if you really want to get ripped off) in a few seconds. the price is different than the value. if you value apps so low that $1 really doesn't cut if for you, be sure to wait, read reviews, check out the youtube video (if posted), and make sure you make a large investment of time in determining if that $1 is really worth the purchase. sorry -- $0.99. wouldn't want to short change anyone on that 1% difference.
I often feel the same way Shanerooni. I mean people have no issues spending 2.99 for a cup of OK coffee and finishing it in minutes. It is just the value of .99 for an app is valued higher than I would have thought. It is hard to make a living .99 at a time, but it can be done.
And I'm just about to cut the government about 30% of the small amount I made from the App Catalog last year. :( Love paying into Social Security that will never be around for me.
Thank you so much for your comment...I mean seriously $1??? It might suck to buy a very use-less app for a buck but at the end of the day you only spent a buck and have helped a developer out on a platform that needs as many active developers as possible. Your $1 might've paid for the next update that will make that app that much better.
That's the truth. We developers often work far more than the few dollars we make on these apps as a labor of love and the hopes that some people will enjoy what they have. At the end of the day it is a dollar though and that isn't a lot of money. Still we at Invasive Bamboo strive to give our users the best value we can out of the apps we create and keep updating them as often as necessary based on feedback we receive. Many of the small developers we work with and know do the same thing. In the end, I think there are many apps of good value worth more than what is being charged. It is often just so hard to tell the difference between a good app and a bad one and people getting burned is bad for all of us.
FYI, as one of the developers, I can tell you that DZ.Tanks doesn't use canvas. Palm's canvas support wasn't adequate for what we needed, so we went with pure HTML/Javascript. That wasn't easy, by any stretch of the imagination, we had to invent some new techniques, like advanced collision detection: https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1468
In any case, it's been a blast to develop, and we've had some great feedback from beta testers and reviewers, which is very gratifying.
Keep a lookout, we're pretty excited about what's coming in our next release. :)
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