It is here - finally - alpha 0.1 released!!!!

[jkartik]

Fantastic Review there Arun.

Unlike other "Professional" companies, we take the bugs VERY seriously and dont just deliberately leave it there as a marketing gimmick / highlight for future releases!

am actually loving the feedback, proper mix of positive and constructive criticism. this is how it should be!

You guys are simply amazing!! Keep em coming.

 

[edx]

Fantastic stuff guys Played it on full res and fantastic graphics and i have to say was amazed at the quality of animations and graphics much better than what i was expecting! No bugs other than what have been said already. Anyway cant wait for the next one.

 

[legend_master]

Thanks everyone! Really appreciate all the feedback - positive and negative - in effect you guys are all alpha testing' for us!! We had no time to test the final build, literally, so was bound to be bugs. You have my personal word though that these 'identifed' bugs will be solved (to the best of our ability) for the next release. Hope we don't introduce to many more lol

First to the bug list - these have been identified (and well found everyone!):

- hitting space after ball delivered re-does the bowler anims and moves him forward - looks bad - <confirmed>
- batting stroke played with arrow in rear of wicket direction - no animation is played and ball flies off in odd direction - <confirmed> - ran out of time to fix it.
- bowling falls short of cursor - <unconfirmed>? Could be due to powerbar being absolute minimum?
- bowler disappearing! Never had this happen to me....can't explain it either. Could be one off though, no other confirmations of it? <unconfirmed>
- ground friction issues - was aware of them - on my radar as high priority. Definite fix for 0.2 <confirmed>
- some shot paths are almost identical (not so much a bug as a 'didn't get time to address' issue :-S Ok, dammit, counts as a bug!) <confirmed>
- Unusable FPS frame drop when free came behind wicket keeper (never tried this! - will try tonight and see if it happens to me too...bound to be a logical explanation lol!) I wasn't going to include the free cam for this one, but thought was cool to put in. Did not test much so not surprised it has some bugs. Still, gotta look into it. <confirmed>
- length balls bouncing too much (needs tweaking...ran out of time to totally fix...was aware of this being an issue) <confirmed>
- Any more?


Now for some other small tips & advice:

* Please read the controls txt file closely! Very important. Someone said they can only play 2 shots...please read the txt file (attached to my first post in this thread). Also someone said they thought space makes the batsman play his stroke, it's all in the txt file - mouse controls the batsman totally and mouse only for this release.

* The batting arrow chooses the direction and left button is defensive stroke whilst right button is 'ground stroke'. Longer you hold the mouse button the more power goes in to the shot (shown by the batting powerbar rising). You can do a 'soft' shot by only tapping the mouse button, making the stroke happen instantly. But if you build up full power the stroke will be slightly delayed in taking place.

Annd finally, looking forward - To come in 0.2/0.3....

* Simple AI (hoping to have this ready for 0.2 release)
* Alternate key assignment (for laptop users!)
* Batsman movement - steps left, right, back and forward...possibly charging down the wicket (time permitting)
* Bug fixes galore - see top of this post!
* More amazing strokes animated by JK
* Improved sound effects (including added stuff for edges/mishits etc) all round

Then the FULL ALPHA....

* Completely overhauled graphics
* Practice nets - with net physics ;-)
* Advanced AI
* All strokes completed with new animations

LM

 

[Sedition]

Finding it too difficult to bat and bowl at the same time. No numpad on my laptop either and the mouse is annoying for batting.

The graphics look good and I'm sure will be impressive in the final product.

I'm eager to see the career aspect, as that will be one of the primary selling points for me. Hoping it will have a lot of depth and realism.

I'll be checking back often for news on the next alpha. Good luck

 

[legend_master]

Finding it too difficult to bat and bowl at the same time. No numpad on my laptop either and the mouse is annoying for batting.

The graphics look good and I'm sure will be impressive in the final product.

I'm eager to see the career aspect, as that will be one of the primary selling points for me. Hoping it will have a lot of depth and realism.

I'll be checking back often for news on the next alpha. Good luck

That's a bummer....unfortunately laptop users were a little neglected for this version. You absolutely need an external mouse....touchpad would be awful. And you kinda need keypad too.

Next release should have basic AI so you can just bat or just bowl. Hope you can then get better enjoyment from it.

 

[chaitanyaraghav]

Longer you hold the mouse button the more power goes in to the shot (shown by the batting powerbar rising). You can do a 'soft' shot by only tapping the mouse button, making the stroke happen instantly. But if you build up full power the stroke will be slightly delayed in taking place.

LM

Looks like i missed this point yesterday. I didnt get to hit any ball powerfully for a four. Now everything looks sweet. I am able to time the ball nicely and its kind of speeding to the boundary!!

 

[AbhishekS]

Yeah, playing with the touchpad is awful, it pissed me off in just 5 minutes. Enjoyed the game once I connected the external mouse.

Will the batting controls be changed in the further versions? I am sure that not just I but many can't be carrying an external mouse everywhere.

 

[P Squared]

I played this game for about 10-15 minutes and it was working fine but then suddenly when I pressed any keypad number the bowling cursor started moving and it was moving with the arrow keys too. So I couldn't bowl any swinging or spinning balls.

 

[Sedition]

That's a bummer....unfortunately laptop users were a little neglected for this version. You absolutely need an external mouse....touchpad would be awful. And you kinda need keypad too.

Next release should have basic AI so you can just bat or just bowl. Hope you can then get better enjoyment from it.

Cheers man, can't wait for it.
The mouse I'm using is an infrared one and is a bit dicky sometimes, so that is contributing to the difficulty. I can definitely see myself playing this a lot once more features are added.
Also, I love the number of graphics quality options. I can only play on the lowest 2 because of onboard graphics, but it's good to see you're catering for everyone.

 

[jkartik]

i think we need to figure out a way to design a separate set of controls specially for laptop users!

@Yudi - i think you werent able to hit boundaries because you must've not hit the ball with power.
longer mouse button hold = more power applied.

 

[AbhishekS]

longer mouse button hold = more power applied.

Oh wow, working perfectly now. Wonder how I missed out on that.

Thanks a lot.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Me too did not notice that and will definitely try once again

 

[Meet]

I see that we can hit a shot even when a bowler is going through his action.Is it a bug or is it done deliberately?

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Yeah!Even I feel that there should be a change in batting controls.
@JK and LM-I will just try to find out the bugs as I agree to all the positive comments so far and thus will more concentrate on negatives.

 

[Dipak]

Downloading it..

 

[MuchMore]

Hi JK and LM,

Others have covered a lot of + and - already, so I'll keep it short.

Plus:
Satisfying moments.
Realistic edges.
Pretty decent animations.
Level of control player has when bowling.

Concerns:
Length to hit stumps needs to be tweaked, me think.
Ball travels a little too far even when it hits a pad.
Batting controls should be activated a wee bit earlier?

Questions:
Any deadline for Alpha 0.2 ? (Ok, don't answer this one )

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And ya, a big THANK YOU to you two.