District Wars - Now Live!

[Seker]

The past few months, while I haven't said much of anything about it, I have also been developing my own game while also working on mods.

District Wars was built using MCCodes V1. Say what you want about that, just say it to yourself, as I don't care too much to hear about it.

I've probably re-coded over half of the base scripts. While some may say the layout is "too MCCodes," again, I'm not too worried about that, either. The average player has no idea what MCCodes is. The design is simplistic and functional, and I'm okay with it.

The login page, yes, is... Lacking. To say the least. However, a new one is in the works and will hopefully be in place soon.

Now that all of that is covered, down to what makes District Wars the slightest bit unique.

Well, for starters, on a coding level, as I said, it's probably 80% my own work. Some of it may have the same look as MC, but I can promise you the coding is far different.

A custom items system is in place, built entirely by me, with PROPER weapon equipping and a more stylized attacking process. Default V1 equipping is hardly worth the page space it took up.

A referral exchange has been put in place. While rewarding players, I feel it will also be a good way to get the players to do a lot of the promotion for me.

Custom built Revenge and Daily Mission systems.

A wonderful "crystal" lottery that I'm quite proud of which selects three different jackpots or rolls over if no winner is selected.

There are a lot more little tweaks, and a lot more to come.

Is this the most blatant "advert-ish" post? Probably not. I simply wanted to let everyone know what I have been working on while lurking around the community.

I welcome all of MWG to come check it out!

Keep in mind, today was our first launch, and the building of this has been very secretive. Mainly to avoid embarrassment and letting people down if I failed to finish on time. There are hardly any players yet, as the marketing campaigns are slowly being rolled out.

Regardless, check it out at http://districtwars.net

[rulerofzu]

Hahaha yeah your login page is a bit screwy to say the least!! For me the text is off the white background and ranged over to the left.

Why not style your error page?

Was a bit confusing how to register as I would have expected the Register today to be a link not some white text above but that may be due to its all out of alignment.

The tree background on the menu once logged in looks horrific. Why not do a background that covers the entire menu area? The menu is to wide than it needs to be reducing the main content.

I dont think there is any need for those vote now and donate graphics to be that size.

Various alignment issues and its insecure in places.

I dont see anything custom about the weapon equipping or attack process from v1/2. As far as I could see its doing exactly the same? With regards to the attacking its the little things you need to pay attention too. For example if I attack a female player then I dont want it to say He hit you ....

[Seker]

Hahaha yeah your login page is a bit screwy to say the least!! For me the text is off the white background and ranged over to the left.

Why not style your error page?

Was a bit confusing how to register as I would have expected the Register today to be a link not some white text above but that may be due to its all out of alignment.

The tree background on the menu once logged in looks horrific. Why not do a background that covers the entire menu area? The menu is to wide than it needs to be reducing the main content.

I dont think there is any need for those vote now and donate graphics to be that size.

Various alignment issues and its insecure in places.

I dont see anything custom about the weapon equipping or attack process from v1/2. As far as I could see its doing exactly the same? With regards to the attacking its the little things you need to pay attention too. For example if I attack a female player then I dont want it to say He hit you ....

Eh I suppose the items system is more on the backend side of things than what a player would see. For example, with V1, you can literally equip an unlimited amount of weapons and there's no way to unequip them. That's just ridiculous, even for the default package.

Mind taking a SS of the alignment issues? Everything seems right on my screen.

And yes, I've been thinking on the vote and donate images. Sure, they probably don't need to be THAT big, but I don't want them tiny, either. Should always be there to... Encourage.

Also, with the menu, I've considered changing the tree. But again, mind doing a SS of the "reducing?" Again, all looks fine to me.

[rulerofzu]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]604[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]605[/ATTACH]

I guess you forgot to style your hr bars ;)

Google chrome btw....not looked in other browsers.

[Seker]

Very strange, as I use Chrome as well. I don't know why the tree is repeating for you and not for me. Or why the whole menu is centered, as it's not supposed to be.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]606[/ATTACH]

[Frosty]

The game itself seems fine (feature-wise) but a tad over complicated as there are soo many options a user has. The most important thing about a game is the tutorial which you haven't done anything to, it still says "MonoPaper" "Local School". The game idea is good but you need to update it form the 1970's look to the 2012 look, all those boxes look so bog-standard that it's just annoying. And the Graphics need an update to 2012 too. Otherwise it's a good game but it needs some changes to improve it, i think it's a bad idea that you launched before you even made the login page as any players you get now will leave nearly straight away. Also you need to make your game fit in a 1024x768 res screen as currently it overlaps a little.

Edited August 18, 2012 by Frosty

[Seker]

So, the main problems I'm hearing seem to be display-wise, correct? That's actually good news, as I expected that.

And Zu, I did catch that one security issue you... Decided to test.

I knew it's better to do things yourself instead of relying on others' work.

But yes, graphical and design based changes will be coming. That is definitely my weak area, and I can admit that. :P

[rulerofzu]

A simple test nothing malicious Seker so you know what to change :D

[Seker]

And I do appreciate it. Took the creator on his word, silly me.

[Frosty]

So, the main problems I'm hearing seem to be display-wise, correct? That's actually good news, as I expected that.

And Zu, I did catch that one security issue you... Decided to test.

I knew it's better to do things yourself instead of relying on others' work.

But yes, graphical and design based changes will be coming. That is definitely my weak area, and I can admit that. :P

Yes the design/logo/ingame graphics do suck a little but they are not the only problem, your tutorial is a major problem as it's the default one which sucks. You need to have a very user-friendly tutorial (preferably a pop-up tutorial on main page) Guiding new players around the game. As game makers we never seem to realize how complicated our games are because we know them inside out but people who don't know what mccodes is might find the game hard to play with as they don't have a clue what to do. Try see it from a new players perspective or ask a relative/friend to play that game while your sitting next to them and make a note of all the questions they ask you while they are playing as these questions are what other players might ask you. If someone does not understand something they are more likely to leave and never come back.

[Djkanna]

Still a little misaligned for me on the login (not nearly as bad as RoZ's screenshot), but meh functionality over looks.

Best of luck with the game Seeker.

[Seker]

Still a little misaligned for me on the login (not nearly as bad as RoZ's screenshot), but meh functionality over looks.

Best of luck with the game Seeker.

Yeah, even that doesn't look like that for me. I just don't understand it. I thought it may be screen size, but zooming out or in changes nothing.

For now, I have another one that, while still not what most would call very good, is at least better than the one there, I believe. My only issue is figuring out how to code it. Going to play around with it later today and see if I can stumble upon a solution.

But, thanks for the feedback, everyone. Will definitely work on fixing the issues.

[The Coder]

I think its a nice game. :)

The theme is nice, I'm guessing its based around the woods an that nature? If so, very creative. I have to say, you really transformed this V1 package, which I found highly impossible, haha.

As Ruler suggested, the layout can be improved, but all in good time. :)

Ps...Paper boy here. ;p

[Seker]

Well, a little update.

Changed the login page completely.

Bad news - It's still not very good.

Good news - It's a little better than that ridiculous other one.

Better news - I coded it myself, so now I know how to do it when I get a better page. :)

[newttster]

Congratz on your release, Seker. I hope that all goes well for you ... I know you put a lot of man hours into this.

[Seker]

Congratz on your release, Seker. I hope that all goes well for you ... I know you put a lot of man hours into this.

Thank you muchly. :)

It's definitely been a journey. Especially since this whole project has been teaching me PHP. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew I would get it done. Was only a matter of time. :)

[Razor42]

Well done looks like you've worked hard on this and I can see it becoming a big success, one thing is the layout thought. Well done bud. Hope it all goes well.

[URBANZ]

No offense but this looks like my first game in 2007 and i think game should have moved on alot in 5 years the graphics dont look good and the header looks very familiar i think i used it in one my first games along with alot of other people i think it was a free header given away on CE or CW but cant remember u should rethink some of your designs to be honest as there is alot of game u are up against you need features unique to your game never seen in another game

[rulerofzu]

No offense but this looks like my first game in 2007 and i think game should have moved on alot in 5 years the graphics dont look good and the header looks very familiar i think i used it in one my first games along with alot of other people i think it was a free header given away on CE or CW but cant remember u should rethink some of your designs to be honest as there is alot of game u are up against you need features unique to your game never seen in another game

Minecraft is a very successful game done in 80's style graphics made for a spectrum 48k. Okay so its a 3d game so its different from a text based game however it doesnt mean that a game has to be state of the art graphics for it to be a success.

Look at Torn looks terrible does very well.

[URBANZ]

Minecraft is a very successful game done in 80's style graphics made for a spectrum 48k. Okay so its a 3d game so its different from a text based game however it doesnt mean that a game has to be state of the art graphics for it to be a success.

Look at Torn looks terrible does very well.

 

yes very good argument there is people that will play these games but if something comes alot better what would rather play like saying minecraft VS battlefield 3 i would trade for the better built better graphics any day and yes torn has alot of users and does well as the amount of time it has been around for and like again games like pacman people still play it cuz it retro and they like games from when they grew up just an example but to be honest with large competitors like FaceBook games MafiaWars being a giant one people need to up the graphics ect to get the members and income needed to run a game not just open it for a month then cant afford it anymore seen so many games do that and also for example with your game RulerOfZu you would agree people would rather play your game as it has the graphics very well put together ect

[URBANZ]

Minecraft is a very successful game done in 80's style graphics made for a spectrum 48k. Okay so its a 3d game so its different from a text based game however it doesnt mean that a game has to be state of the art graphics for it to be a success.

Look at Torn looks terrible does very well.

 

yes very good argument there is people that will play these games but if something comes alot better what would rather play like saying minecraft VS battlefield 3 i would trade for the better built better graphics any day and yes torn has alot of users and does well as the amount of time it has been around for and like again games like pacman people still play it cuz it retro and they like games from when they grew up just an example but to be honest with large competitors like FaceBook games MafiaWars being a giant one people need to up the graphics ect to get the members and income needed to run a game not just open it for a month then cant afford it anymore seen so many games do that and also for example with your game RulerOfZu you would agree people would rather play your game as it has the graphics very well put together ect

[a_bertrand]

Some people will run for the better looking game and others for the better game play. You will never satisfy both as the first group will not invest anyhow the time to understand a complex game and the second will not care about playing a game which is nearly purely action. So trying to do all will basically lead to a major failure.

I'm om RulerOfZu side here, people which play web games tend to be interested in games beside their maybe lacking look. I don't say you should not invest some time trying to make it even remotely appealing, but you could very well succeed without having an incredible template or transitions. What counts on web game is more the player interaction, the kind of game play, rules, story and more.

However what counts is that your home page does have some appeal, and here it's either some story, some art or whatever which convert a simple visit to a registration. Personally, an home page with great art without any explanation will not get my registration, so you see many people many different way to think ;)

As last example, WoW which is without doubt the MMORPG which had more success so far was not really on the top of the art. So even for major games, art is by far not all. On the other side, games like Duke Nukem Forever points mainly on the 3D art... and... basically didn't got much of a success.

[Seker]

I definitely agree that at least the landing page needs to hold major appeal. Mine... Does not. And I do fear it's likely cost me some signups already, but I am working on it.

As far as within the game, I also am of the opinion that it's not necessarily about the glamour. A game needs substance. Features players will enjoy and be able to utilize in a readily available manner. It's all about keeping the impatience of the players at bay, as well as keeping a good balance between what the players want and what's best for the game. Feature wise, I believe DW to be off to a good start. There are already a few more systems in the works to be implemented over the coming weeks. Honestly, overall, I'm happy with what it is and what it's growing into. Can I say for sure the players will continue to agree? Of course not. All I can do is try my best and give it my all. And, of course, create a better landing page. :P

[Razor42]

I don't feel the game needs to look amazing, just a simple, clean & easy to use and you've got what you need.

[realmoflegends]

I agree about the substance thing...but the landing page and main page in game needs to have some visual appeal, IMHO, otherwise people grow bored rather quickly. It will separate the standard MCCodes game from the pack. Thing #1 for me is: TEST the game! Don't release it with a ton of bugs or dull, unbalanced gameplay. That will send me packing quicker than anything else.