20 replies to this topic

[PipFromSlitherine]

When we first released Battlefield Academy, this forum was one of the first places we saw a recommendation appear - and there wasn't even a Mac version at that time!  So to say thanks we want to give you guys first access to a Beta version of our new Demo - and it's a native Mac version too!

You can download the Beta Demo from this link:

http://www.slitherin.../BADemoBeta.zip

We are happy to get any and all feedback on both the demo experience, and also on whether the game provides a good Mac experience.  We've not done a large number of OSX releases, so be gentle with us    For now this is the only place the Beta Demo will be available, so we hope you all have some fun with it.

It is a single application file, so you can just download and run.  The demo includes one specially built demo scenario, completion of which unlocks a full D-Day scenario from the full game.  You can also browse the briefings for all the full game and expansion campaigns and scenarios.  Please note that the Mac version of the full game is not yet available to buy - it's in final Beta as we speak!

Cheers

Pip and the Slitherine Team

[dojoboy]

D/l'ing now. Thanks, Pip! And thanks, Slitherine. Now for Panzer Corps!

[Janichsan]

Sweet! Downloading now!

[Janichsan]

Consider that game bought.

[PipFromSlitherine]

Janichsan, on 29 July 2011 - 02:45 AM, said:

Consider that game bought.

  Glad you like it!  Any feedback for us to lure in more of your Mac brethren?  You found the demo engaging and easy to play, and it ran fine on your Mac?

Cheers

Pip

[dojoboy]

PipFromSlitherine, on 29 July 2011 - 09:52 AM, said:

  Glad you like it!  Any feedback for us to lure in more of your Mac brethren?  You found the demo engaging and easy to play, and it ran fine on your Mac?

Cheers

Pip

Played smoothly.

The 'command-Q' combination doesn't quit the app or bring up an option to save and quit.  The "Q" key spins the terrain view. Would like an easier way to exit the app. Maybe just adding a quit command in the BADemo finder?

[PipFromSlitherine]

dojoboy, on 29 July 2011 - 11:38 AM, said:

Played smoothly.

The 'command-Q' combination doesn't quit the app or bring up an option to save and quit.  The "Q" key spins the terrain view. Would like an easier way to exit the app. Maybe just adding a quit command in the BADemo finder?

Thanks for the feedback.  I will see about adding that functionality.

Cheers

Pip

[Tacohead]

PipFromSlitherine, on 29 July 2011 - 09:52 AM, said:

  Glad you like it!  Any feedback for us to lure in more of your Mac brethren?  You found the demo engaging and easy to play, and it ran fine on your Mac?

Cheers

Pip

Wow this one certainly came out of nowhere!

I'm very impressed with this game! At first glance it looked like a rather simplistic game but once I went through the beta demo, and the mission after that, it became clear that there's quite a lot of depth and strategy to the game. The interface is clean and simple and I love the comic book–like mission descriptions and briefings. The In–game cartoony–looking graphics are well detailed and suit the game well. The sound effects are spectacular as well! After peaking at your forums it's pretty clear that Battle Academy packs a lot of bang for your buck with all the user created mods and scenarios available to download after completing the game (or even before).

The game ran flawlessly on my system (specs in my signature below). My KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard even works perfectly with it in full-screen mode which suggests to me that you followed Apple's guidelines quite well when creating this port (something I don't see as often as I would like).

The only issues I noticed was there was no way that I can see to switch between windowed and full-screen mode from the keyboard while playing. Usually games use keyboard combinations like Commmand-F or Command–Return to accomplish this. I also didn't see any way to switch to the desktop via a keyboard combination. Finally windowed mode (which must be chosen when first starting the game) uses a pretty small window. Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the resolution so the window is bigger? I'll probably be playing in full-screen mode anyways so it's no biggie for me but for some people it might be.

All those things are pretty minor though. This is a really nice looking game and I will certainly be getting it when it comes out!

Now I'm going to have another game to add to my ever-expanding games that need to be played queue. Damn you Slitherine!

-PN

P.S. Thanks for the beta peek Pip/Slitherine!

[PipFromSlitherine]

Tacohead, on 29 July 2011 - 12:58 PM, said:

Wow this one certainly came out of nowhere!

I'm very impressed with this game! At first glance it looked like a rather simplistic game but once I went through the beta demo, and the mission after that, it became clear that there's quite a lot of depth and strategy to the game. The interface is clean and simple and I love the comic book–like mission descriptions and briefings. The In–game cartoony–looking graphics are well detailed and suit the game well. The sound effects are spectacular as well! After peaking at your forums it's pretty clear that Battle Academy packs a lot of bang for your buck with all the user created mods and scenarios available to download after completing the game (or even before).

The game ran flawlessly on my system (specs in my signature below). My KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard even works perfectly with it in full-screen mode which suggests to me that you followed Apple's guidelines quite well when creating this port (something I don't see as often as I would like).

The only issues I noticed was there was no way that I can see to switch between windowed and full-screen mode from the keyboard while playing. Usually games use keyboard combinations like Commmand-F or Command–Return to accomplish this. I also didn't see any way to switch to the desktop via a keyboard combination. Finally windowed mode (which must be chosen when first starting the game) uses a pretty small window. Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the resolution so the window is bigger? I'll probably be playing in full-screen mode anyways so it's no biggie for me but for some people it might be.

All those things are pretty minor though. This is a really nice looking game and I will certainly be getting it when it comes out!

Now I'm going to have another game to add to my ever-expanding games that need to be played queue. Damn you Slitherine!

-PN

P.S. Thanks for the beta peek Pip/Slitherine!

Thanks for such detailed feedback.  You can't adjust the game window at the moment, nor toggle the modes.  This is a limitation of the way the UI gets set up, and so it's not likely that we can get it working before we release.  But it's been mentioned before.  I'm not sure whether we will keep windowed mode for the final release - it's really designed for use when developing your own mission scripts etc, and having it on the launcher might make it feel more fully featured than it is!

One thing to note is that our fullscreen isn't a "lock you out of everything else" fullscreen mode - it's actually just a borderless fullscreen window, and so will play nice with any other apps or notifications - at least that's the plan...

Cheers

Pip

[DaveyJJ]

How could I have missed this? Maybe not visiting the forums much with summer and the kids out of school. Thanks much Pip! Now that I've removed my Windows partition btw, can I use my Windows version serial with the Mac version? Is their some form of upgrade pricing available????

Of course, tomorrow morning I go away for a week's vacation, without any machine (iPad2 excluded). At least I'll have it to look forward to when I return.

Editor fully functioning too? I still have my old scenario I made for the BA community and will post a link for Mac users to grab it.

[Tacohead]

PipFromSlitherine, on 29 July 2011 - 01:33 PM, said:

Thanks for such detailed feedback.  You can't adjust the game window at the moment, nor toggle the modes.  This is a limitation of the way the UI gets set up, and so it's not likely that we can get it working before we release.  But it's been mentioned before.  I'm not sure whether we will keep windowed mode for the final release - it's really designed for use when developing your own mission scripts etc, and having it on the launcher might make it feel more fully featured than it is!

One thing to note is that our fullscreen isn't a "lock you out of everything else" fullscreen mode - it's actually just a borderless fullscreen window, and so will play nice with any other apps or notifications - at least that's the plan...

Cheers

Pip

Thanks for the response Pip.

A "borderless fullscreen window" is perfect! I wish more games would do this. That's actually probably why KeyStrokes works with it so well. Keep up the good work!

-PN

[DaveyJJ]

Actually, my scenario is still available via the in game menu to download community made scenarios (woot!) and is called Fields of Fire ... and also in this thread ... http://www.slitherin...ic.php?t=18916.

I will consider creating a new scenario when I get the game. It is awesome, btw. Dare I say it ... even more fun than Combat Mission!

Enjoy! And thanks to Slitherine and Pip et al. Their community is great and the support for the game is wonderful. Recommended.

[PipFromSlitherine]

DaveyJJ, on 29 July 2011 - 05:00 PM, said:

How could I have missed this? Maybe not visiting the forums much with summer and the kids out of school. Thanks much Pip! Now that I've removed my Windows partition btw, can I use my Windows version serial with the Mac version? Is their some form of upgrade pricing available????

Of course, tomorrow morning I go away for a week's vacation, without any machine (iPad2 excluded). At least I'll have it to look forward to when I return.

Editor fully functioning too? I still have my old scenario I made for the BA community and will post a link for Mac users to grab it.

I believe your existing serial will work - although I'm not sure of how we would manage upgrades etc - it's something we've tended to do on an ad-hoc basis up to now.  But I am sure we can sort it out for someone with such a distinguished BA service record .

Cheers

Pip

[Janichsan]

PipFromSlitherine, on 29 July 2011 - 09:52 AM, said:

  Glad you like it!  Any feedback for us to lure in more of your Mac brethren?  You found the demo engaging and easy to play, and it ran fine on your Mac?

Sure. The game ran absolutely fine on my 2009 13" MBP. The mission provided a nice introduction into the gameplay mechanics. The game is pretty easy to play, but obviously also offers quite an amount of depth which promises some deeply strategic gameplay. All in all, it reminded me of a turn-based variant of Close Combat, which is certainly a good thing.

[Spike]

BADemo didnt work for me at first on my MBP early 2008 (MB134LL/A) with 10.6.8. After clicking OK in the opening dialog, it would just display all white screen with a mac cursor. Command-Q would not quit (I know, already mentioned), but I could Command-Tab and then right click BADemo in the dock and select quit. I installed it on my other MBP late 2006 (MA610LL) with 10.6.6 and it ran fine. Looking at the console, I saw a lot of Failed to find DB Font messages. I normally moved fonts I dont use (but BADemo does?) to a fonts disabled folder, but have now moved them back and disabled them with Font Book. BADemo then ran great!

I find playing a game so much better when its easy to just launch and start playing, and so I commend you guys on almost having that. So if I could suggest, does that dialog asking for those options have to ask every time? Some other games would just ask the first time, and then have an option to not show again unless you held down the command or option key on launch.

Lastly, when I Command-Tab out, but then click the icon in the dock to go back to BADemo, I get the mac cursor on top of the BADemo cursor.

Thanks for an awesome game native on the Mac. Cant wait!

Edit: Removed inserting CD comment as seeing above post asked about serialization should mean no CD.

[PipFromSlitherine]

Spike, on 30 July 2011 - 03:44 PM, said:

BADemo didnt work for me at first on my MBP early 2008 (MB134LL/A) with 10.6.8. After clicking OK in the opening dialog, it would just display all white screen with a mac cursor. Command-Q would not quit (I know, already mentioned), but I could Command-Tab and then right click BADemo in the dock and select quit. I installed it on my other MBP late 2006 (MA610LL) with 10.6.6 and it ran fine. Looking at the console, I saw a lot of Failed to find DB Font messages. I normally moved fonts I dont use (but BADemo does?) to a fonts disabled folder, but have now moved them back and disabled them with Font Book. BADemo then ran great!

I find playing a game so much better when its easy to just launch and start playing, and so I commend you guys on almost having that. So if I could suggest, does that dialog asking for those options have to ask every time? Some other games would just ask the first time, and then have an option to not show again unless you held down the command or option key on launch.

Lastly, when I Command-Tab out, but then click the icon in the dock to go back to BADemo, I get the mac cursor on top of the BADemo cursor.

Thanks for an awesome game native on the Mac. Cant wait!

Edit: Removed inserting CD comment as seeing above post asked about serialization should mean no CD.

Thanks for such detailed feedback, and for detailing how you got it running on your machine that wouldn't play at first.  I will add some additional font checking - any odd fonts that BA uses are included in its data set, so I'm not sure why it would fail to find what I assume are standard fonts.  But hopefully I can add some checking code so it will always find something to use .  I'll also look at the other issues you noted.

The launcher is dynamic, loading the content from the web, which lets the game tell you about updates, new content, etc.

Thanks again for taking the time to give such great feedback.

Cheers

Pip

[PipFromSlitherine]

Just to let you know that I have updated the version on the server to fix the various items mentioned in the comments here.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply with their feedback - it's very much appreciated!  

Cheers

Pip

[Tacohead]

PipFromSlitherine, on 02 August 2011 - 04:07 PM, said:

Just to let you know that I have updated the version on the server to fix the various items mentioned in the comments here.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply with their feedback - it's very much appreciated!  

Cheers

Pip

Thanks Pip!

-PN

[Spike]

Wow. Now that is service.

[DaveyJJ]

Spike, on 02 August 2011 - 10:39 PM, said:

Wow. Now that is service.

The devs for this great game as as good as any I've encountered in many years of gaming. Responsive, delivering a great product, great to chat with, always open to suggestions and ideas from the gaming community. Can not wait until I get home from the cottage on Saturday and planning this again.