Play with Fire Goes Master

Play with Fire, the abstract platform-puzzle game that’s been developed as an indie project for release on Manifesto went Master this Wednesday. It should be on sale in early January.

It’s been 17 months since the original concept design, and 14 months since we broke ground on the code. That’s a lot longer than the 6 months originally planned for the project, but then we’ve suffered numerous delays during this time on account of setting up the developer, Fantasy Labs – including changing the programmer (which is always excessively costly in time), and cross-talk with other projects that had to be undertaken to provide bridge funding.

But still, the basic principle has held: we’ve developed on a very low budget. Now all that remains is to see if there is a niche market out there looking for something a little bit different, something that could never be a mass market success, something which endeavours to be original. My biggest concern is our rather high minimum spec. We may be at the mercy of players more interested in the latest glossy FPS than an oddball game like this one. 

I’d like to thank everyone who has supported the project, especially the volunteers from the external pool who contributed more than half of the game’s fields, and in particular Maurizio Pozzobon, Patrick Dugan and Ian Tyrell, whose contributions to the game have been immense, and who will all be receiving a share of the revenue in return. It’s not too late to help the project – please lend a hand building awareness for the game by mentioning it on your blog when the link on the Manifesto site goes live. (Images should be available on the Manifesto page).

This is a game about burning stuff to the ground. It has a path for people looking for challenge and fiero, a path for people looking for mind-melting puzzles, and a path for people who just want to have a bit of fun and watch things blaze and collapse. All it needs now is players.

Comments

[Peter Crowther]

That's really good news - I was hoping this candidate would make it. Now I just hope my box meets the min spec!

[Neil]

Well, one of the plusses of the slightly strange development is that the game should work on most PCs, but you'll see some weirdness (and by some I mean lots) on slower PCs or those without decent 3D graphics cards.

I think our (and by this I am hoping I mean Manifesto's) biggest issue might be the fact that the game runs differently on each and every PC. Hey ho. We shall see.

Now, on with spreading the word... Maybe some large arson/media events? ;-)

[chico]

That´s great news, Chris! Congratulations! Fortunately, now I´ve access to a machine that will meet the min spec!
Again, congratulations on the project!

[Peter Crowther]

Can't do arson, but I know a few people who routinely juggle with fire who might give a tolerable photo opportunity at least :-). (I merely have some fire juggling balls that I'm not enormously good with)

[Corvus]

Congrats Chris, Sanjit, and all the level designers who've worked so hard!

That must feel really good, eh?

[Neil]

I assume "fire juggling balls" is/are different to how my dirty mind is picturing.......

And I'm sure it's not your skill, but your effort which counts ;-)

[Darius K.]

Congrats!

[Patrick]

I think you're vastly underestimating the casual appeal fo the title, which is ironic, considering your insistence to water down the difficulty of achieving combo goals. ;)

I don't think we'll see the full glory of PwF's performance until we get it on a console's digi-distribution channel, preferably Wii but XBLA is quite alright. I prefer Wii primarily because I believe there'll be more of an audience for us there, long term. Of course, technical specs won't be an issue in those regards.

[GregT]

Congratulations!

[Kevin]

Hey! I downloaded the demo version from Manifesto games but had an error when trying to start it. The file "d3dx9_30.dll" is missing and thus the game cannot start. Is there something I can do to fix it?

thanks!

[Chris]

Kevin:

For some unknown reason, Windows XP service patch 2 and x64 service patch 1 are missing this dll file, which is part of DirectX 9.0c. In other words: it's all Microsoft's fault. ;)

To fix this problem, you need to download and install DirectX 9.0c, which you can do from here

Hope that solves your problem!

[Patrick]

Cough*We should have developed cross-platform with the Unity3d*Ack! Cough!

Sorry, I think I've got some sort of respitory virus.

[22samurai]

I try starting the demo and the screen flickers, but then it returns to the desktop. ErrorLog.txt says this:

---
Error Logger started

PlayWithFire::init() begins

Direct3D9 Initialize Successfully

Direct3D Device creation Failed
---

This is one of the first games to fail on my laptop, A Dell e1405, ~800 Mhz, 512 MB memory with the Intel 945GM express card chipset. Any thoughts on how to make PWF work?

[Chris]

22samurai: I'm sorry; this was a troubled software project and it is notoriously difficult to get this game running under certain hardware conditions. The company that made the game no longer exist and so there's no technical support either.

I can offer nothing except my apologies. :(

[cheap computers]

I prefer Wii primarily because I believe there'll be more of an audience for us there, long term. Of course, technical specs won't be an issue in those regards.