Author Archives: Chris

Mayhem Intergalactic: Coming soon to a Steam client near you

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I am very pleased to announce that Mayhem Intergalactic will soon* be coming to Steam, Valve’s leading digital distribution platform. Hooray!

'Inventive Dingo loves Steam!'

... Get a room, you two.

What does this mean for you?

  • The game will get more exposure, boosting the size of the Mayhem Intergalactic community and hopefully breathing more life into the multiplayer scene.
  • Wider distribution means more sales, which means more money, which will help to fund further Mayhem Intergalactic improvements and the development of Inventive Dingo’s next game.
  • The release of the Steam version will see the addition of new features, such as “achievements”. I’ll make another post about achievements in a couple of days.
  • The new Steam version and the current non-Steam version will be equally supported. All new features and bug fixes will be made available in both versions simultaneously. Existing customers will continue to receive all features and bug fixes in free updates.
  • Remember that beta call from waaaay back? This is why it happened!
    • If you signed up for the beta earlier, you’re probably wondering what happened to it. Never fear; it’s not dead, just resting. I will contact you about it very soon.
    • If you didn’t sign up earlier, it’s still not too late.

* As always, “soon” means “when it’s done”!

Double trouble: Mayhem Intergalactic wins two ATOM Awards

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Good news! I mentioned a couple of months ago that Mayhem Intergalactic had been named a finalist in the 2008 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards. Well, I’m happy to report that the game picked up not one but two shiny perspex trophies, winning both the categories it was eligible for (Best Interactive/Video Game and Best Tertiary Interactive/Video Game). Zing!

Screenshot of Mayhem Intergalactic's Starburst map
I’m a star!

(At least, I think they’re perspex. They might be glass, although I’d expect solid glass to be heavier. I’m not planning to throw them at any walls to check whether they shatter, so it will probably remain a mystery.)

2007 ATOM Awards trophies. The 2008 trophies are the same, except for the year number.

2007 ATOM Awards trophies. The 2008 trophies are the same, except for the year number.

You can view the full list of winners on the ATOM Awards website. One of the most pleasant surprises of the night (right up there with getting a pair of swanky trophies) was seeing the impressively large turnout from Narrabundah College, my old school. Not only did they raise the most deafening cheers in the whole gosh darn audience, they also swiped two awards between them and partied on into the night in style! Rock on Narrabundah!

Check out the winning Narrabundah entries (both are videos) below:

Culture Shock (Best Secondary Animation):

Enough – Faker (Best Secondary Music Video):

And of course, if you want to check out my winning entry, you know where to click.

Later!

Hotmail issues

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Just a quick note to those of you with Hotmail email addresses. Recently Hotmail has been silently deleting most of the emails sent by Inventive Dingo to its users. As far as I can tell this has nothing to do with me, it’s just a consequence of Hotmail being irrationally overzealous in its spam filtering. Spam filters are wonderful things, but when they start blocking legitimate email then they’re a problem!

This applies to download links sent from the Download Updates page as well as replies to emails sent to my contact address.

The worst part is that if you email me from a Hotmail address saying that you haven’t received a download updates email, I’m not able to respond!

If you used a Hotmail address when purchasing Mayhem Intergalactic and want to use a different email address instead to avoid this problem, please email me from that Hotmail address and provide the alternate email address.

I recommend Fastmail.fm or Gmail as good free alternatives to Hotmail.

Mayhem Intergalactic v1.2 released

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Another massive free update! This version introduces a new gameplay feature as well as further upping the ante on visuals, polish, and playability.

  • New feature: Rifts in the space-time continuum! A rift basically serves as a wall; you can’t move ships through it. This opens up some interesting map design possibilities. Some new maps which use rifts have been shipped with the game, and you are welcome to make your own.
  • Visual improvements: Ship graphics replaced, with a different look for each colour of ship. Battles are slightly animated now, as are the lines from a convoy to its destination. Added animated exhaust plumes. New background image and title screen. In/out fades when transitioning in and out of a game. New mouse pointer!
  • Selecting a planet and hovering the mouse over another will tell you the ETA for ships travelling along that route, and show you whether you can move ships there.
  • You can choose ship quantities using only the mouse now. That means there’s never any need to touch the keyboard at all while playing. (Extensive keyboard controls still exist, of course.)
  • Planet and convoy selection is much more forgiving; you don’t need to be at all precise with the mouse any longer.
  • Miscellaneous interface improvements to make things easier to understand and use. Added some help tooltips to the in-game controls.
  • Resolution selection is smarter and more considerate of aspect ratios.
  • Tons of bugs fixed.

If you bought a previous version, I encourage you to upgrade for free. The demo download has been updated, and new customers always receive the latest version.

Enjoy!

New e-commerce provider

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Howdy folks! Just a quick note to say that I’ve switched e-commerce providers (for Mayhem Intergalactic only) from BMT Micro to FastSpring. FastSpring provides a number of nifty features which BMT Micro doesn’t, and their system is a lot slicker overall. For example, all fraud checking is done instantly, so if you use a credit card or Paypal to pay then you should receive your purchase in your inbox immediately.

(Checks and money orders are still constrained by the speed of the postal service, unfortunately. No free pass there.)

Oh, and from my point of view, FastSpring is slightly cheaper than BMT Micro. That means more of your dollars going towards future Mayhem Intergalactic updates and new games!

A funny thing happened while I was in the process of setting this up… well, it was funny in retrospect. While checking a detail of BMT Micro’s ordering process, I discovered to my horror that Mayhem Intergalactic’s purchase link wasn’t working, due to a subtle Google Analytics misconfiguration error which occurred exactly two weeks ago. Yikes! Sorry to anyone who tried to access it during the past couple of weeks. I try my best to keep everything working, but unfortunately I’m just one guy. If you see something broken on this site, let me know and I’ll fix it lickety-split! Or die trying.

On that note, please go ahead and email me, post on the forums, or leave a comment here if you’re having any difficulties with the new system (or anything else for that matter). I live for your feedback, positive or negative!