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Title: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on January 09, 2009, 11:59:24 am I've developed a Windows game called "Xeno Sola", which is directly inspired by Carcassonne. I don't know if it's a "variant" technically, but I thought I'd share it with everyone. It involves building a space station with tiles. Power lines are the same as roads. Landing pads are like castles. And then there are power nodes -- which, basically, score when all connected power lines are completed.
(http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xs_thumb4.jpg) (http://www.xenoclone.com/images/xs_pic4.jpg) The download site is here (http://www.xenoclone.com/game_xenosola.html). Just so people don't feel like I'm advertising, below is a key for anyone to unlock the full version. I don't expect folks to pay for it on this forum. But I would love to get some feedback. I'd eventually like to make a sequel with player input in mind. Here's the key: 4xtt-nkhc-cmgz-h4q5 With that said, any thoughts or ideas? Anything is open to discuss. :) UPDATE: I've removed the availability of this game in anticipation of the Starcassonne (http://www.cascadiagames.com/game_starcassonne.html) release. Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: scotty13 on January 09, 2009, 02:54:41 pm I will be checking it out for sure. Thanks for the key. Thats really cool.
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Lakoda on January 09, 2009, 03:12:38 pm Great game, the betting mechanic offers a nice twist! Initial feedback ... having to click up in the corner for my tile is kind of annoying, but overall this is a very well polished game.
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: scotty13 on January 10, 2009, 12:55:51 pm Should of read how to play first, because I was way down on points at first, but quikly caught on and beat the computer guy.
Great game. I like the idea of being able to move alrighty placed tiles if nobody has it claimed. I have the PC Carcassonne game with the river, inns, traders and the King and Hunters & Gatherers and now this, so I have a few to chose from. Thanks alot. Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on January 13, 2009, 03:52:39 pm Thanks for the comments. Any ideas on how to make a better sequel? I've got my own, but I'd like to hear ideas untainted by my thoughts first. :)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on April 23, 2009, 11:33:46 am Hey guys.... sorry to bring up an old thread. But I'm currently porting this game over to the iPhone. I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions on this game, or how they feel a Carcassonne style game should play on an iPhone?
Site: http://www.cascadiagames.com/game_xenosola.html (http://www.cascadiagames.com/game_xenosola.html) Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Wishmaster on April 23, 2009, 12:11:52 pm Can't help you regards iPhone. How about a PSP version? ;D
Regards the excellent PC version - I've entered your serial code (Top of this thread and thank-you!), but the game seems to want me to enter it everytime I play. Is that correct? Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on April 23, 2009, 12:30:42 pm It shouldn't. But it seems to do that on Vista, unfortunately. :(
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Wishmaster on April 25, 2009, 07:51:28 am It shouldn't. But it seems to do that on Vista, unfortunately. :( That'll explain it then.... Yep, I got Vista. :( Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on April 30, 2009, 02:22:32 pm Well I'm making good progress. The tile shows up in the bottom left of your screen. The board shows faded out versions of that tile where it can be placed. So you just have to drag the tile over to place it. Same goes for the bets (weighted meeples). Lifting tiles works similarly. Rotate is handled by the middle buttons. Discard is handled by tapping the bottom left tile. Overall, it's starting to feel much improved over the PC version.
One flaw from the PC that I'd like to rectify is the tile stack. Right now it's generated randomly with a little weighting. Do folks here know what a proper Carcassonne stack is comprised of? I'd like to have a (mostly) fixed set of tiles for this version. I think that helps balance the play more. Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Novelty on May 01, 2009, 08:52:39 am Do you have a screenshot (or better still, a photo of it running on an iphone) that you can show us? I know it is still in development, but that will be interested to see.
I have no idea what do you mean by "stack" but for a list of tiles in each Carcassonne expansion, you can check out the CAR. Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on May 01, 2009, 12:02:51 pm Sure. I'm surprised I hadn't put one in here. I think it's a fairly novel way to compress the interface. This is a slightly dated pic.
(http://cascadiagames.com/images/xenosola_pic1.jpg) When I say the "stack" what I mean is the complete set of tiles. When you open up a Carcassonne box, there's a certain number of road tiles, a certain number of castles, etc. For the PC Xeno Sola, this set was comprised of a random group of tiles. That throws off the inherent balancing that comes with a predetermined set. Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Novelty on May 01, 2009, 12:04:54 pm Wow, this looks great. I can't wait to get it onto my iPhone.
Well, if you want to look at the list of tiles for each expansion, the CAR has it near the end, after the rules. You can download the CAR from the link at http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=587.0 Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on May 01, 2009, 12:07:18 pm Wow, fast reply! Thanks, Novelty. That PDF works perfect for what I need. :)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Novelty on May 01, 2009, 12:09:03 pm Glad I could help. Well, I guess by helping you I'm helping myself since I'm awaiting eagerly for the end product :)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on May 08, 2009, 11:17:35 am I'm glad you're looking forward to it!
Currently, I am wrapping up the tutorial. The PC version was slammed by newbies for being too hard to learn. So that's been fixed. The tutorial is nice and thorough. :D Any thoughts on the pricing? I'm thinking $1.99. I did end up dropping Mini Shogi (http://www.cascadiagames.com/game_minishogi.html) to $0.99 though. It's a tough market! Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Novelty on May 09, 2009, 01:27:01 am Make it free for the first week, then 0.99 for the first month and up it to 1.99. That usually works :)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on May 14, 2009, 11:23:52 am Haha. It won't be free ever. But 99 cents at some point is completely possible. I might go the same route as shogi.... base price $1.99, but do sales occasionally down to 99 cents to attract fresh traffic. :)
Right now I'm polishing the game up... hunting down the final bugs, tweaking the sounds, etc. In some ways, this is the most tedious part of development! Title: Starcassonne Post by: xenoclone on June 25, 2009, 03:59:15 pm Okay! Long time no post. Basically, Xeno Sola had a major flaw... it would crash after 20 minutes of play. Unacceptable! It was, after much effort, unable to be fixed. So instead, I started up a new game written from scratch to play faster on the iPhone. I decided that a more adult art theme and a better name were needed.... thus Starcassonne (http://www.cascadiagames.com/game_starcassonne.html) was born!
(http://cascadiagames.com/images/thumb_starcassonne_pic1.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/starcassonne_pic1.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/thumb_starcassonne_pic2.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/starcassonne_pic2.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/thumb_starcassonne_pic3.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/starcassonne_pic3.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/thumb_starcassonne_pic4.jpg) (http://cascadiagames.com/images/starcassonne_pic4.jpg) This is still under development. The goal is to get the features wrapped up this week and final polish done next week. :D Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Novelty on June 25, 2009, 08:09:57 pm Wow, this looks better than Xeno :) I can't wait to play this on my iPhone.
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on July 08, 2009, 12:30:44 pm Development is still moving along. I just got a draft of this music last night and it sounds great. Most features are done. I'm wrapping up auto-saved games and putting the final bits of polish on the interface. So I'm about a week behind where I thought I would be... but it's running absolutely great and should be a bigger and better game than I initially thought. :)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on July 17, 2009, 01:51:10 pm Finally submitted this guy to the apple store. It should be available in 1-2 weeks. When it's out, I'll start a new thread. :D
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: Whaleyland on July 17, 2009, 04:54:26 pm xenoclone, when you're done with this project, check out here (http://www.carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?topic=1022.msg12716;boardseen#new) and see if you can help out. Thanks!
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: CKorfmann on August 05, 2009, 10:43:28 pm I've been wondering if we could host a version of Carcassonne here like Toulouse on AsoBrain. Especially if it could include some of our own fan-made stuff! Not sure if it would work, but it would take someone with mad skills! Like... Hmmmm... The xeno man maybe??? ;D
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on August 06, 2009, 04:33:09 pm Rumor has it that Torque will be expanded to handle browser support. I'd love to see Starcassonne hosted if it came to that. In the meantime, it just went live in the app store, yay! Site with iTunes link is here (http://cascadiagames.com/game_starcassonne.html)
Title: Re: Xeno Sola -- Carcassonne Style Game in Space Post by: xenoclone on September 15, 2009, 02:25:45 pm After a brief trademark "discussion" with the kind lawyer of Hans im Gluck, this game is back online under its original name of "Xeno Sola".
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