Love for Sail - Try the DEMO before release!

Hi guys,

here is finally the trial version of Love for Sail. I put it here in front of you FOR THE FIRST TIME, before publishing it. The main reason for doing so is because I feel that it is a work from all of you that have helped in various moments of this project's lifecycle.

Thank you George, Matt, Dan, Rhuarc, jcl, Doug, Steempipe, DavidLancaster, Drew, Larry. Thanks to anyone else I forgot.

Nough said!

If you want to give it a try, here's the 67 MB version which contains 2 levels:

- One simulation level (AEGINA island)
- One race level (DEMO RACE)

You can see the Trailer here:

trailer (8 MB)
trailer (23 MB)

Oh and don't forget to visit the *brand new* Love for Sail website! (still in the works..)


( What do you think of the game? What do you think of the website? Constructive criticism is more than welcomed )
Cheers.

For some reason the flash on the Love for Sail website isn't loading.
However the main page does load.

The screens look good , ill leave more comments later.
I'll download it later, quite busy at the moment

Andrew

Awesome game I feel like a real sailor now

Seriously well done. It looks and plays like a professional game. I enjoyed it quite alot although the difficulty is a bit to ummm difficult. Tho I did get better the last few times playing which is a good sign.

I had a little difficulty understanding the directions.... 45 degree angles 90 degree angles and so on... but eventually started watching my speed opposed to where my sail was and helped alot. I almost made it to the finish line... or might of been a check point.... red bouys with a red ribbon?

Anyways the graphics are very well done. I really like the water shader tho real time reflections wouldve deffinately added alot... Prehaps they were there and I just didnt notice them... The babe on the boat was a nice touch too made me feel not so lonley but I kept waiting for jaws to appear tho and take a bite outta my boat

... I did encouter a problem tho... after playing about 6 times it crashed on me.... Possibly because of my computer tho. It likes to play games on me every now n then. I saved the error report in case it might be of use to you... Doesnt make any sense to me.

Anyways congratulations this is deffinately a well made and very original game I must say. Just goes to show what can be completed with enough dedication.

Congratulations on making a finished game!

Okay, this is all meant to be constructive observations, so please don't take it otherwise.


First off, this isn't a criticism or a problem right here: It's more of a sailing simulator more than a straight out game, so I have a lot of the same problems i do with any complex simulator.. I found that couldn't just jump in and begin playing, after about 10 minutes I could only move the boat a little bit, never get away from the harbor. I have the same problem with perfectly good flight simulators too, though. Having the little tutorial comments are a good idea.

I'd recommend making it a LOT easier so a novice can hop right in and start sailing, with winds set up nice and easy, giving the player the easiest possible situation to begin with, even if it's unrealistically easy, then slowly make things harder and give tutorial points on how to use the controls more and more.

Though for someone looking for a real sailing simulation, it would probably be a good selection.

I'm not sure if there's romance involved in the game, like the title suggests, though. If that's the case, hmmmm it might not be a good name for it? Or am I wrong here? Personally I do not like the scripted font for the 'for' part of the "Love for sail" loading screen, but that's just me. To be honest, I find the title kind of kitschy, like you chose it because it's a play on words, but it really doesn't what the game is about. It almost sounds like it could be a Leisure Suit Larry game (yeuch!)

Seems to me that a few things really do not fit the interface:

I'd recommend changing the finger pointing cursor to something else, it looks too cartoony for the otherwise realisitic interface.

I cringed when I heard the conitec beep on the top interface! It's really an unappealing sound, I think it should never be in any finished A6 project personally, and instead it could be replaced with something subtle or suited to a sailing game.. anyway, I think it's a good idea not to use art assets with come with 3DGS in a professional product in general just on principle.

Also, I kind of think that the 5,4,3,2,1 countdown doesn't sound high quality enough for a professional quality game-- you might want to either record it with a good mic or studio, or get rid of it and replace it with some kind of visual countdown with beeps like Pole Position did.

In novice mode, a window kept appearing where I think the picture of a helper is supposed to appear, but it was just a brown square. Might not be implemented yet?

For an A6 game with probably a very limited budget as most of us are working with, it looks quite good, nice one. Lots of luck!

Really I liked the title and the title screen alot.That was one of the first things that really caught my eye.

Didnt have the brown box issue... least not that I noticed.

I agree with not using assets that come with 3dgs... What came with 3dgs tho? Is that where the girl was from... She did look a little familiar?

Dont have my sound hookd up so couldnt really comment on that.

Not sure if you noticed or not jetpack but you can change the wind in the options... And it makes it a little easier tho didnt seem like much. Was deffinately a little tricky at first but the more I played the more it started making sense. The radars and such at the bottom could be a little bigger tho in my opinion other then that I still think its a great game.

First of, a true bug finder (thanks to Jetpack_Monkey): there is indeed a grey box showing when the captain gives advices and that's because the relative video was not included in the package That's too bad, I will upload a new corrected version in a couple of hours.

@Jetpack_Monkey: the easiness of the gameplay was an issue that troubled me a lot. As a sailing simulator, and not a casual game, it is supposed to make the player work out the controls a bit more and probably have a look at the manual (which is intentionaly not too complicated).

So, I guess you should be aware that keys Q, W control the Sails and they're probably the most important controls in order to make the sailboat move due to the wind. You can also raise a spinnaker with O, P if the wind is from behind (really fast mode ) A sailing simulator can't get any easier than that!

@andrewds: I believe the website is working now.

@FeiHongJr: could you please PM me the report from the crash you had?

Guys, all your comments are taken very seriously as there is still time for making improvements, though not big ones.

You might want to ask some friends or relatives who do not know about sailing to sit down and try to play the game for a while and watch how they play, and ask for things they might find easier. Especially if you're going to sell it, I know a lot of companies spend a lot of money and several months doing this, but even getting some friends or kids or buy some people some beer to do it, I bet it would be helpful!



Looks great, you're probably the envy of many people here, having finished a professional quality 3D game.

Bye!
JPM

Congrats on finishing the game.

Imyself am not a simulation kinda person and had my finger on the up arrow all the time, hoping to go faster (till I realised it really wasn't going to help) but the game looks like it can be quite a bit of fun.

Things I didn't like were the visible seams in the ocean and bad collsion for boats.

Personally I didn't have any problem with the countdown voice.

Hope the game does well!

There's an updated version up. The grey window is fixed.

I appreciate all your comments, I would especially like to know the following:

1. Are you satisfied with the framerate? If not, what's your system's specs?

2. Did you manage to finish the race and have your name in 'Hall of Fame'?

3. What's the least appealing visual element that you see in the game?

4. Do you think it's better to distribute a Trial version that ends in X minutes (per game) or a Trial version with unlimited play that ends in 30 days?

Thank you all.

1 yes didnt have no problem with the frame rate. I have a p4 1gig memory and a raedon 9550 gfx card.

2 No cant say I did... I came close to crossing past the red bouys but not even sure that was the end.

3.cant really say off hand Ill have to give it another shot and let you know.

4. I wouldnt do the 30 day trial thing as some people might just finish the game within 30 days or might be like my self. I tend to get bored quickly with games and 30 days is ussually more then enough of any game for myself. There are of course a few exceptions.

The time trial seems more sensible or else doing it how you have now. Unlimited play but only one level. It allows just enough to get a taste for the game but yet leaves alot left to see and discover.

1 no I didn't have problems with framerate.
2 finished race but never won (got 6th I think...) Isn't clear which one in the list I am.
3 Like I already said, I don't like the seams in the sea. But the main issue I have with the game, and the reason I (and my father who, by the way really enjoys the game) didn't win was because of the bad collision. The one moment you can ride halfway through a boat the next moment I'm far away from an other boat and I still crash.

Quite unexpectedly I actually do enjoy the game.

cartoon_baboon, thank you for your comments.
The issue with the unexpected collision is smt that I thought I had dealt with. I think I'll give it one more shot...

Oh, you're "KARAYANNIS" at the list!
I think there is no "Hall of Fame" in the demo version,though!

After playing the game a bit more, do you think the gameplay is intuitive enough? Would you like it to be more or less complicated?

You guys, I just received a warning that Love for Sail title will attract bad publicity due to the *almost* same title by Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry.
So, since there's still time, please VOTE for your favorite title:

I think the controls are really easy and after playing for a short time it's totally clear what to do when the wind is at a certain angle etc.
I wouldn't want to see it more or less complicated as it seems to be pretty realistic as it is.

The big problem I have is with race mode: It's really frustrating when enemies ram you from behind. It makes sense to punish the player for ramming other boats. But when they ram you THEY should be punished. Instead their bad behaviour sends you spinning out of control...which is terribly mean.

Perhaps a extra option that allows you to play race mode without collision is an idea. That way you can combine the excitement of playing against other boats with the possibility to sail properly instead of being forced to dodge enemy boats.

just gunna throw out some ideas here, not sure any of them will be any good but here goes...

Sloop

Sloop race/r

Wind Sailor

Wind Sail/s

Sail/s

Points of sail

S.S. Sea Sailing

S.S. Sloop Sailing

S.S. Sail Simulator

Wish upon a wind

Wind over water

White waters

Ummmm.... yea like I said doubt any are any good.

MMm! I love Wind over Waters.. that's beautiful and appropriate!

HardEdge Sailing maybe

Sail`s R Us


Wind&Sails

Oceans-Sail

I'd stick with Love for Sail, it's nice that it resembles Love for Sale, don't worry about Leisure suit larry too much, however it might be clever to add a second title. Love for Sail: Wind over Waters for example. Just to keep clear that it's a sailing game, not Larry ...

Cheers

Quote:

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Love for Sail: Wind over Waters

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I second that