First impressions.

[ledow]

I saw this game on Slashdot a while ago and thought it looked good.  Downloaded the demo soon after and was impressed enough to buy it, having previously bought BCS from ChronicLogic.

I'd just like to say well done for such a good little game.  I like the fact that the install is smooth, it runs smoothly on my 1Ghz with a rubbish nVidia Geforce4 ***PCI*** graphics card, I like the fact that you're obviously keeping on top of bugs and thinking of updates such as a level editor.

The price is a steal, although the registration system is a bit hateful.  I use Zonealarm and it almost crashed my PC when ZA popped up asking if I should allow Gish access to the internet... I thought I'd already done that when I'd been given a download URL after entering my code.  

ZA only crashes my PC when it asks for permission on Gish and Half-life games (mainly because they are full-screen OpenGL). Maybe CL could think about having a seperate tiny registration program in the package that is run after setup and never runs again?  I have to say, I don't like those sorts of registration systems anyway, but I can see why you need to protect your code.

The game itself is a tiny bit large... over 100Mb expanded on my machine.  That's not a lot in terms of modern computing but it seems a lot for such a small game.  It looks like it's all those TGA files that are slowing down the load time and taking up so much RAM.

I love the physics system, it's simple, you have only a few controls but you can play to your hearts content and do just about anything once you've got the knack.  I've already wasted several hours throwing boxes in the air, turning cartwheels with the little "miner's cart" with Gish between the wheels, swinging on suspended platforms and picking up those damn little dog things to throw them at stuff.

The lighting is nice, but maybe for lower-performing machines it could be switched off?  Mine has no problems now but I imagine people with worse graphics cards or slower computers might struggle, mine certainly did when it was running off the motherboard graphics.

The music, I'm afraid, was the very first option I clicked off in the game, before I'd even started it, but that's what I do with every game.  Nice to see Ogg Vorbis getting some use, though, along with SDL and the rest.

I personally feel a need for more (as in more in number) "squelchy" sounds as Gish moves about, he seems eerily silent with the music off.

The gameplay is good.  Somehow you've managed to whittle all the complicated physical maneouvures into just four buttons, which is quite impressive.  I imagine that took some testing to get right.

The two-player option is marvellous, but how about a computer AI for the Sumo/Football etc for those of us who can't persuade their girlfriend's to have a go? http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

I do hope that you make this game more extensible in the future, because being able to mod a game expands the possibilties for those who complete it quickly, to stop them from getting bored, so that they buy your next game http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

I see from the IGF pages that you made this game with only $2000... have you made that back on the game so far?  I hope you have, because it's a marvellous piece of work.

I know that most CL games are physics-based... have you thought of doing something like the old Spectrum/C64 game "Kikstart 2"?  It's a motorbike-simulation game over an assault course, fairly similar to a modern game called Action Supercross/Elasto mania (you can Google any of the above for more).

Anyway, well done, keep up the good work, and I'll visit regularly to look out for new releases from you people!