• immediate & addictive gameplay;
  
• immersive & thrilling action;
  
• 25 challenging missions divided into 5 levels of difficulty;
  
• multi-phase missions;
  
• battlefields of any size and shape (also spread over multiple floors);
  
• AI-driven enemies;
  
• hand-pixelled 2D graphics;
  
• real-time lighting;
  
• atmospheric audio;
  
• full expandibility (themes, missions, languages);
  
• Deutsch, English, Español, Français and Italiano translations.

Hi again,

as promised, I uploaded a new video showing a real-world session: the direct link is http://www.bohthegame.com/data/game_session.wmv (the file size is about 129 MB).

Moreover, I added 4 new screenshots to the SCREENSHOTS page.

Enjoy,
saimo

Last edited by saimo on 06-Apr-2009 at 01:43 PM.
Last edited by saimo on 06-Apr-2009 at 09:04 AM.

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

Hi again,

for those who can't bother or have problems downloading the videos, I have added a VIDEOS page to the website where videos can be seen in streaming.

saimo

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

The game session video was interesting. There are some nice atmospheric sounds, although it did seem to me that (perhaps intentionally) the monsters were a bit quiet, and also there was no music.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@ChrisH

Quote:

The game session video was interesting.

I'm seizing the chance to point out that the fact, to keep the file size low, I was playing without hesitations (except in a couple of places, where I just messed around when it was all but necessary - see the section where I take all the wrong directions first or where I madly shoot at the barrels), knowing exactly what to do and where to go, spoils the game of one of its main elements, i.e. the uncertainty, the fear of the dark, the continuous tension of not knowing what hides behind that corner. Playing without knowledge gives a definitely different feeling.

Quote:

There are some nice atmospheric sounds,

Seizing again the chance to mention a technical aspect I did not mention anywhere (not even in the manual): the base ambient sound volume depends on the size of the area the player is in - so, in a (very) small room it is barely audible, whereas in big rooms or long corridors it becomes a solid presence. Another aspect is that the volume of sound effects depends on the distance of their sources from the player: a metal door that opens in the distance is hard to hear, but the floor cracking under your feet does ring a bell

Quote:

although it did seem to me that (perhaps intentionally) the monsters were a bit quiet

Correct. Ideally, it would be very nice to have monsters making noises. And, indeed, originally I did plan to have monster sounds. However, that would have required:
* additional audio channels, i.e. more CPU strain due to mixing, which would not have been a nice thing given the demanding calculations needed for graphics;
* more work to produce themes - even without monster sounds, there are a lot of sound effects.
At some point, I decided to limit the monster sounds to just those made by the two closest enemies... but then an idea struck me: what if I included a gimmick that beeps when a monster is in the surrondings? So I added the detectors - which made the functional aspect of monster sounds much less important - and gave up on monster sounds.

Quote:

and also there was no music.

That's a fixation of mine: I rarely like background music - after all, which music do you expect to find in places like those? So, I replaced the background music with the ambient noise (which, incidentally, is much less CPU-hungry than decoding complex sound data).

saimo

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

Hi all,

I'd like to inform you that I have added a FAQ page to BOH's website where I collected all the questions, observations and answers scattered in the various threads here and elsewhere. The page turned out to contain plenty of interesting information about the present and also the future.
Thanks to everybody who contributed!

saimo

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

Any plans to distribute through resellers (eg Amigakit)?

_________________
Happiness is mandatory.
MindSpace: MindMaps and UML diagrams for OS4

We ran 5 Recursion Computer Fairs before hitting the exit condition

@ yoodoo2

Quote:

Any plans to distribute through resellers (eg Amigakit)?

A few months ago I made a little survey to which most of the resellers kindly partecipated. It turned out that handling orders directly was the better solution to keep the cost down for the end-user. That does not mean that interested resellers cannot get in touch to place quantity orders

saimo

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

@saimo
The FAQ raises the issue of why no demo. This is something I had been thinking of asking about, and your answers actually make me think it would make more sense:

Making a demo executable that only uses the demo data files shouldn't be hard IMHO. You just need to have a (crude) checksum for each file, or possibly even just a combined checksum for all the data files (if they are loaded sequentially & in a predictable order). I really don't see this should take more than a few hours work, including testing it... I think it would be more work to actually edit the data files down into something shorter yet still playable.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@ChrisH

Quote:

The FAQ raises the issue of why no demo. This is something I had been thinking of asking about, and your answers actually make me think it would make more sense: Making a demo executable that only uses the demo data files shouldn't be hard IMHO. You just need to have a (crude) checksum for each file, or possibly even just a combined checksum for all the data files (if they are loaded sequentially & in a predictable order). I really don't see this should take more than a few hours work, including testing it... I think it would be more work to actually edit the data files down into something shorter yet still playable.

What you are suggesting coincides with the last case I was considering in the FAQ, so please allow me to answer with a self-quote (trying to save some time ): "Finally, making a demo that works only with the data files that come with it requires some work and time: at the moment, I am already busy with advertising around the world, handling the orders and finishing the update and the themes.
I must frankly add that the material available on this site already allows the potential customer to get the idea of what BOH is about, so I am not really keen on going through the hassle of preparing and distributing a demo package..."
You are right when you say it would not be any major work, but still it requires some thinking (the protection should not be too naive), implementing, testing, packing and distribution. The whole would take some time (not much, but still some), which, for the moment being, as explained above, I prefer (need, even) to dedicate to something else.
I am sorry. I hope you understand.

saimo

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RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC