[RELEASED] Star Wars : Commander

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id847985808
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lucasarts.starts_goo
Windows8 : http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/48e11314-dd1c-4122-baaa-b53c61fa690e
UPDATE: now available on Windows8/phone.

 

We are now fully live.

Here are some great launch day articles:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/21/60...d-chewie-star-wars-commander-is-bringing-back
http://www.gamezebo.com/2014/08/21/star-wars-commander-best-rate-game-screen-ever/

 

Here is our "Rate this App" screen:


And just in case anyone was curious, Unity does support JumboTron as a platform:

 

game looks awesome, but pretty scared of the paywalls.

If this was a paid app would buy in a second, but not sure it will be enjoyable with the paywall hanging over your head (and the potential future paywalls).

 

There are no paywalls at all, and none planned at this point. Basically, you can pay to speed production up or progress faster. No part of the game is exclusive to people who pay. The design team intentionally have gone with no paywalls and not forcing monetization, (they are not fans of those things either).

 

okay well I will download now and give a try!

 

I downloaded and gave a try.

Here is my quick review
-graphics are great
-loading times pretty good
-You can't play a different game on each of your devices (I want to play one rebel and one imperial, it seems I am stuck with the rebels now) You also can't have one slot for each, so pick your side carefully.
-It very quickly descends into long waiting times for buildings, obviously to encourage IAP which makes the game frustrating.
-You have no idea how many of your troops are actually coming to battle with you which can be frustrating when you think you have made plenty but only a few turn up.
-While I haven't played that much because I am waiting there doesn't appear to be an epic star wars story behind it, which I always hope for with Star Wars games. Maybe I expect too much!
-The first IAP on the list is $130! It kind of feels crappy seeing that inside a free mobile game.

Overall I gave is a 5/10. It is an average game which is well produced.

 

Indeed, that is by design, part of the SW story.
Interesting note: about 60% of players choose Empire.

Click on info on any of your transports and it will show what you are taking into battle.

The story is there in the missions. It doesn't start out epic, but will get more complex as you proceed. Additionally, it launched less than two days ago. The story will unfold progressively, the first aspect of that coming soon. The content currently in the game is only a small portion of the content created, and tiny fraction of the content being built. And let's just say, that the time the game takes place in and how it will unfold over the next couple of years... well...

----

The story and narrative was written jointly with the LucasFilm team, and we are pretty stoked about it and where it is going. And don't forget that as epic as Star Wars is... the adventure started on Tatooine with a farm boy and some banged up droids. Ours starts with a small time smuggler caught in the middle of the war and forced to make a snap choice on where to place loyalties. Maybe they will regret that choice, maybe as the war progresses the situation will change, maybe other choices will present themselves. Maybe Spock won't really be dead, and the Enterprise will have to go find him.... oh, wait... scratch that last part.

 

Yeah i didn't know and was going to play empire on phone and rebels on ipad. So empire was my first choice too although I obviously screwed up cause it wasn't clear it was one and done choice.

I know that stories build, but I played for a while and it has felt disjointed and kind of pointless story wise. I think the time barriers will scare me off soon. I assume this game is similar to clash of clans (which I never played so I am just assuming) so it will probably roll the money since it would be frustrating to play otherwise.

I hope someone makes a similar type of game as a paid game. It would be interesting to see how the game played with times set for gameplay reasons rather than IAP reasons.

I guess im kind of sad to see star wars IP go this way. I would of thought it was strong enough to make paid apps.

 

Paid apps have a barrier to entry that prevents a lot of people from playing at all. It also limits the scale of games because the come with essentially a preset budget. We have experimented with paid apps and many other variations. (most recently Guardians of the Galaxy). This game is large the reality of dealing with large IP is that that it requires a large budget. F2P means that anyone can play, and those that want to progress faster can. And by not being Freemium, it also means that all players have the same opportunities and features. Games cost money, just a fact of life (games with Wookies cost more). Personally, I like IAP (for progression, not Freemium) because there are no "second class citizens", and the only thing paying gets you is playing faster or progressing quicker. In fact, virtually all of are top players on our game have never spent a dime (the game has actually been out for over a month in geo-beta). Another feature of F2P that I do like is that the developer can't sell me a game based on screen shots. I have to actually enjoy the game before I'll commit to spending.

And while some consideration is taken in the timing, IAP is not a huge part. A big part of it is strategy based, balancing what to upgrade and when to keep your base less vulnerable. The design decisions are made first of the quality and balance of the game, and then later for monetization if needed. Sadly, in the past we have had experience with doing it the other way around, and it has never gone well. If you balance or tune the game with monetization in mind, it is problematic because plan that out in detail, and since only a small portion actually pay, tuning a game for <10% of your players means you are screwing it up for the other 90%. Tuning it based on actual play without considering payers is a win-win. You please more people and it is a better game. When people pay, they are outside the tuning. In an odd way, it is like charging people to cheat. (not really, but they are experiencing the game different than the intended tuning).

Anyway, I won't ramble on. I will, (and have) happily discuss IAP in a thread about that topic. Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback (it was helpful, particularly about the troops) and giving the game a try.

 

Just downloaded it. Looks pretty good. Was this a Unity project?

 

Yes it was. Our studio's first Unity release. Interesting note, this is the first time about half of the team has ever used Unity, and for almost all of us, it was our released game using Unity.

 

This game looks amazing. It must be very rewarding to work on IP that so many people will experience.

 

Looks awesome.

 

I have played this a bit more. Few comments and issues.
-It is frustrating that you can only take heros on pvp.
-when you build a factory and barracks you don't know how fast you are filling up your ships
-the battles are generally pretty good in that you can finish them but often need to upgrade to get 3 stars. I think there is good balance there.
-the way buildings stack is good
-I know there is a back button to after getting info but I always accidentally click the cross.

The bad, your implementation of tapjoy makes the app a scam. I completed 3 of them in an effort to get enough crystals to buy a third droid and I completed the requirements for didn't receive any crystals. That was a pretty negative experience. It was the first time I have ever done tapjoy offers.

I also really want to be able to play the empire too. I either hope you put it on android or give the option of a empire save too.

 

How many peeps on the team?

 

There are 2 battles where you can't take your own troops and they are impossible to get 3 star. I googled a bit and found threads of people who had the same issue. I think it is a balance issue. I am kind of hoping if I upgrade my tanks it will upgrade the tanks they give me otherwise I don't see how it can be done.

 

Interested in fun facts? As an old playtester for Decipher's Star Wars CCG, they made an anagram of my name and gave it to a minor Cloud City character (Pucimir Thryss). I can count the number of times that's been a relevant topic at dinner parties on ... two fingers .

Seriously though, Star Wars is a truly wonderful IP. Kudos and well done to you and your team @zombiegorilla!!! Grat-tastic!

Gigi

 

It's a great and fun app, maybe a little bit too "freemium" for my taste, but it is still very enjoyable. Also, I thought that recently EA had netted a deal giving them exclusive game development rights to the Star Wars franchise, obviously I was wrong!

 

So will there be an android port soon?

 

Core development, right around 30ish. Full team, about 40. (counting QA/Product/Marketing/etc..) Started small and then grew as more people were needed and became available. I didn't start until about 2 months into production (I had to finish and train folks to handle my tasks on the Avengers game).
Development was about a year and a half, though it was in a complete state in under a year. (followed by lots of polishing)

 

They do, for core games. But the agreement is... complex. Also, we are the first party. So you won't see any core games apart from EA and us.

 

Definitely. Currently the game is an "App Store Exclusive". After the exclusive run it will be available on other platforms.

 

Thanks! It is a lot of fun to work with not only a great IP, but one that the we all love. We all felt honored and driven to do right by the ip. (and of course getting to be part of the Star Wars legacy). It was challenging for sure (the hologram in the story took me nearly 6 months to get right) but well worth it.

 

We are still working on bugs and tuning (AI fixes are our top priority right now). Heh... our QA team did a great job, but when you get several million players pretty much overnight, lots of stuff shows up.

 

You need to fix the tapjoy wall too.

For the most part the battles are well done, because once you level up you can go back and get 3 stars (which generally means you play each level a few times.

I am quiet taken by parts of the game and wonder how well it would work in a more traditional game

 

well finished the game, all the chapters done. It was actually pretty short.

Wish I could play the empire now!

 

I got a new campaign that opened and I am half way through (campaign 1 the dandorian conflict) and level 16 will always just hang forever and never load. It is the same on iphone5 and ipad2.

I assume that means all the mission points will be useless as you can't move on (and I assume this isn't going to be fixed before it expires with the 1 week apple update).

Also chapter 6 part 6 is impossible to get 3 stars. There is no way with the 3 tanks given you have any hope of destroying everything. In need of an urgent patch (I am hoping there is one already on the way).

Think you need a new QA team... not sure how these bugs could be released

 

The chapter 16 issue was discovered the morning. It is a main focus, and should have a fix/patch very soon.

The tank mission (6/6) just takes a little more planning on where you place tanks to get the 3 stars. Not impossible, just challenging.

Since is a live, ongoing game, our QA is testing and working on up to 3-4 release versions at time across many platforms. The current campaign was actually released several months ago during geo-beta, we have hundreds of thousands of players who fully completed it. This problem didn't exist the first run, so something introduced since then broke it. It sounds like they have isolated it and should be patched/fix soon. Our QA does a great job, but it simply is a massive game, and with many millions of players at any given moment, stuff is going to slip through. It's pretty typical of large game, and it will smooth out over the coming weeks.

 

Don't have an apple device to play this on and I'm not particularly a fan of freemium games but this still looks like a solid job.

Will give it a go once it hits other platforms.

 

The fix for level 16 in the campaign went out a few hours ago, should work fine now.

 

On the empire side it is possible when I googled. However the rebel side I have found plenty of threads saying the same. It doesn't matter where you place the tanks even if they had enough armor there isn't enough time. Make a video to prove it please. I don't think it is possible with current resources.

Thats good to hear, I thought I would be waiting for Apple.

 

Its been a while since I passed it, I don't remember the specifics, though it did take me a couple of tries. (so did the ship level 10ish?). It is definitely possible, we have millions of players who have 100% on the chapter. Just keep trying. If I remember it was a matter of keeping the tanks from clumping so time doesn't run out. (far away from each other).

 

I need some help I recently got this app and payed $10 in crystals And have received nothing is there anyway I can report this?

 

Absolutely, click on the settings button, then "Help". There is a link about 4ish topics down about how to contact support for purchase issues. Customer support will help sort it out.

 

The ship level was tricky but possible.

You can't clump the tanks cause they run out of time easily. You can't put them alone because they die too easily. I think you must of cleared it at a time when it was reasonable. Apparently on the empire side you get twice as many tanks.

 

Have you upgraded your tanks?

 

It gives you the same type of tanks not matter what level you are on. My tanks are on level 4 but I am only given level 3 tanks when doing the level.

edit: I double checked to make sure because that would help, but yeah no luck

 

Hmmm... well... I'll take a look on Monday, (I don't have any of my development devices with me at the moment). I'll run through it, and have one of our QA guys check it out on the production build. When I checked this afternoon there haven't been any reports of problems, and as I said, many players (both factions) are completing the chapter at 100%. On my game, I played through it about 3 weeks ago and remember it taking a few tries, but don't remember what I did to beat it. I'll look into it and get back you monday about it.

ZG

 

Thank you.

It is a good sign that I care enough about it to complain about problems and not just throw it away.

I have actually started prototyping that style of game to see how hard it was for me to make. I find the battles strangely appealing considering the lack of interactivity and the amount of watching.

 

Indeed it is. When people voice concerns over a game, it at least means they are interested. If they don't like they just don't play again.

Same here. I am a fan of RTSs in general, but the mid-core RTS style is almost a different type of game. Almost like football, you call your plays in the beginning, and see how it plays out. I tried one that just came out that is more of core RTS, where you have more direction over troops, but it feels a little awkward on a pad/phone. Maybe it was just that game. I'm not sure if like a full AOE or StarCraft would translate to a device. (I would like to see someone try though).

Once our games smooths out a bit (still only a couple of weeks old), new strategies and features will start rolling out. (right now our focus is on improving the AI).

 

I gave it a try and so did my QA guy. It took him a couple of tries to beat it, it took me 5 before I got 100%. I followed his advice and just started with a couple of tanks and let them take out turrets on the edges before I brought out the others. (kept them from having to roam to far and waste time.) Sort of a sweep pattern. Then saved the Striyx until the Sandpeople clumped around one of the tanks.

 

I only have 3 tanks, so there are no others to bring out(well one other, but that isn't enough). If I use 2 on the edge I only have 1 tank left and they are all only level 3. You make it sound like you have more than 3 tanks?

 

Good stuff Zombie!

 

Yes, there should be 6. (and the Stryx) You only have 3?!? chapter 6/6 right? Rebel, yea?
Looks like this, correct?

 

Ok, after a little more research, you are 100% correct. In the current released version 6/6 only has 3 tanks, and is pretty much impossible to get three stars. The first 7 chapters are bundled with the client and not updatable externally. (additionally chapters and content are). Design did a rebalance in defenses on the last release which which apparently wasn't caught at the time, and broke that mission. It was eventually caught, and fixed (there are now 6 tanks, still a challenge, but very doable).

The bad news, is that the fix won't show up until the next release. Which should be very, very soon. The good news is that this whole thing has started some needed discussions on communication between design and QA.

 

That is good I am not going crazy. I could see how with 6 tanks you could do it, but 3 there just isn't time. I am glad you finally agree!

Sadly the bug for the time limited event means I won't get to finish it because that was time I needed which sucks


I have actually started prototyping it now. Just my own simple watered down version.

 

Quick question will our points from the dondarrion campaign carry over to next campaign or should we spend them before store closes.

 

Spend them, they don't carry over. I recommend spending them on alloy or credit packs, that's what I did. Alloy and credit packs are stored until you use them, so they can't be looted. I was able to store up about 40k before my time ran out.