2013-01-11 22:26:24

Howdy partner, and welcome to the Silver Dollar Saloon!

Draconis Entertainment revisits the popular saloon of the old west featured in many of its audio games for the blind and visually impaired with a new mini title for Mac OS X! (Coming later to Windows PC's.)

Primarily intended for the blind and visually impaired, SilverDollar offers three mini games that serve as both a great introduction to audio games for new players, and  addictive fun for experienced ones.

SilverDollar has no visual elements. Use your fingers, ears, and wits to engage in some western fun.

So put on your 10 gallon hat, partner, and get into a little trouble at the old west's premier watering hole for outlaws and gunslingers alike.

• Start a brawl with the Silver Dollar's resident tough guy.
• Prove yourself a gunslinger by testing your shooting skills, blasting flying crockery out of the air.
• Spend a little time at the one-armed bandit.
• Features many favorite characters from previous Draconis titles, including Old Man Stanley.
• Audio hints to help newcomers navigate the game menus with their ears.
• In app instructions for all the mini games.

Other mini games are planned for future updates. Have something you'd like to see? Let us know.

SilverDollar is available in the Mac App Store for $1.99 USD at the following link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/silverd … 3274?mt=12

We are open to questions on this title, or Draconis in general. As always, we don't comment on unannounced titles, but we will do our best to answer questions.

The dragon awakens...

2013-01-11 23:21:15

Hi,
wow, two titles, two months apart? you weren't kidding when you said this engine would provide quick development times. Of course, I don'th think this will happen all the time due to new titles and such, but seriously, this is a job well done.
A friend of mine is going to buy the game and I think before this night is up, I would have heard how a rootin tootin adventure in the silver dollar salloon would sound! I will most likely record this, too as a sort of first impressions playthrough type thing.
I am looking forward to windows titles even more now.

2013-01-11 23:25:25

Actually, if you count by release dates, it has been less than one month since the release of ChangeReaction, which went live on 12/December. SilverDollar is a significantly smaller title, but this should give some indication of the engine's flexibility. We are deep into development of the next title, already.

The dragon awakens...

2013-01-12 00:26:31

oh nice, I haven't a macosX, and I will buy your all new tithes when it will be released.

2013-01-12 00:57:47

Hmm, all is nice, but most users here have a windows based machines lol, me too. So, have fun all lion MAC gamers there, i'll find funny things somewhere.
Question for the Win price, if the windows releases will comes out, if it will be as the MAC version and costs the same, i can get it for now, if the prices will be like 19 or 29 dollars, no, sorry, with total respect for you guys.

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2013-01-12 01:08:04

Interesting; I am actually considering switching to MacOS, and it's good to know there's actually some audioGames I can play.
Have you considered porting some games to iOS?
I'd really like to play Alien Outback or Monkey Business on my IPad.
Good luck, and I'm really looking forward to many more new games!
Not too many though; You should really consider the feelings of the mods.

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

2013-01-12 01:09:45 (edited by Draconis 2013-01-12 01:10:51)

The plan is to have the same pricing for Mac and Windows titles. We've been saying this since ChangeReaction came out for Mac last month, and are already offering ChangeReaction for Windows at the lower price. Anyone who buys the old game now at the lower price will be upgraded to the new version when it is ready.

The best way to help us keep the prices down, is support the titles and discourage anyone you know who has pirated our games from doing so. Sadly, our Windows titles are heavily pirated. This will be much less of a problem on Mac, since we are selling them via the App Store.

One of our goals when developing the cross-platform engine was bringing the cost of our titles down. We thank everyone who has supported us so far.

The dragon awakens...

2013-01-12 13:58:07

Don't get me wrong. No offence, only i wanted to let you know i am the user heavily windows base, and IOS. If the game is good, if the price isn't too hight i am getting original copy. Always i tried to support the devs if it's impossible. I am looking forward to checking these tittles on the PC machine.
Good luck!

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2013-01-12 16:59:08

We should have something for our Windows users before too long.

As far as there being mainly Windows users here on this forum…that probably has more to do with a lack of Mac titles available, which we're working on changing. smile In fact, an extremely large percentage of blind folks have switched to Mac in recent years, and we are currently seeing far more robust sales for Mac apps than we have ever seen for Windows ones at initial launches.

The dragon awakens...

2013-01-12 21:15:51

Yep,  can understand it pretty clear. Maybe i am writing in that way because i want to play these tittles on my machine haha?
Seriously, i am waiting fo the releases, and it's really great you are supporting other platforms than windows.

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2013-01-12 21:35:27

Hi,
Keep up the great work, I will be buying both windows and iOS versions most likely. I especially love iOS because I can just buy stuff without asking for help paying, as I don't have my own paypal account yet I have my own apple ID.

2013-01-13 01:47:35

I don't think mac audio games are selling better because mac has more blind users.  I suspect one reason why mac sales are a lot better is because of the app store.  When I buy a mac app, I know I get it right away, no waiting for maybe 2 or 3 days for a developer to send me a key.  Also, if I reinstall or get a new computer, I know I can redownload my purchase right away, no emailing the developer for a key, just because I added memory to my computer and now my key is invalid.  Lastly, purchasing a mac app is so much easier: enter my apple ID password, and it happens. When I want a Windows app, I need to find my banking info, fill it in to an unfamiliar website that is different for every developer, and trust that the developer of the game I buy is using proper security so my credit card won't be stolen.  With Apple, I only trust Apple with my credit card, not the programmer of the game I buy.  All of these factors mean that I will often buy a mac app, when I wouldn't even consider buying the exact same app on windows for the exact same price.  On that subject, are your games going to run on Windows 8, and will they be in the Windows 8 app store?

2013-01-13 15:39:18

Hi,
I'm hoping the games will be purchasable from the website, as I currently don't have access to the windows app store.

2013-01-14 10:15:36

Hi.
I've tried the game, and it's surprisingly good.
Big credit goes to the audio editors and the people who have done the voices. There are so fun comments in this game so I couldn't stop laughing and I died! smile
I like the shooting, and all those background sounds and comments does really make the difference. It feels like you've joined an epic party! May I ask, are there really saloons where people party that much? If that's the case, I have to visit an other country to try this! smile
I'll make a recording of the game if you're interested.

Best regards SLJ.
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2013-01-14 10:25:45

Well, i hear a podcast about it, and really quickly turned it off to avoid angry from inside me. I can't play, so better i will not listen to it lol

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2013-01-14 12:28:34

Lol, Seal! smile
I know this sounds stupid, but this game feels more solid and stable than most games does on Windows. It's how fast the game respons which makes the difference. I believe it's the game engine and not the Mac OSX operating systyem which makes that difference, or maybe it's just me who think this game is really great, and therfore I get this feeling. I don't know. smile

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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2013-01-14 12:32:47

Hi,
These days you probably wouldn't get something as crazy, but at parties you may sometimes have a crossbow contest with mini pad thingies. I actually got one of those because I liked it so much at a funfair.
In the days of he wild west, I'm not entirely sure what went on in those salloons, but if crockory targeting did take place, it would have been one crazy time!

2013-01-14 13:43:05

Well I've heard the recording and am llooking forward to the windows version, though like Aaron I hope it will be available from the website.

As regards the hole ap store business more generally, well I can't really say whether I prefer it or not, since I've never really had issues downloading games or other bits of software from websites, and indeed I miss the fact that so many games and other programs in the ap store don't have demos and just have a short description to go on, where as with developers' sites there are often links to audio clips, recordings etc, not to mention playable demos. indeed, while I certainly will buy silver dollar for the fun audio and amusing gameplay and doubtless will other Draconis titles in the future when windows versions become available, change reaction is one I'd prefer to try first before paying for it. I was not sure from the description how the game would work, and when i tried the old windows demo I didn't personally take to the game, but given all the upgrades, changes etc would like to give the game another chance, though again would prefer to try first.

As to mac vs windows, well while I am slightly disappointed the windows versions aren't out yet, I don't mind waiting as long as there is! a windows version to come. if the games were just! released on mac I would be somewhat more irritated given that I have a windows machine myself, but that is not the situation.

I don't see myself switching to mac in the future simply because I have a lot of windows programs and games I want to keep using, albeit that I do not like windows 7 and will probably stick with xp for the time being and have a fresh look at windows 8, though if I didn't have those things I wanted to keep running I would probably think again and evaluate both platforms according to what I wanted to do with them.

still, so long as there is! always going to be a windows  version with the same features and price etc as the mac  that  seems fine to me.

On the other hand I would be interested to see some touch screen ios games for phones and tablets, since the potential for action audio games on such devices is quite interesting, I've been surprised how addictive sixth sense is for instance considdering that a similar game just using the keyboard would be pretty dull.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2013-01-14 14:45:46

Thanks for the comment Aaron. smile
Dark and others: Where is this recording you mentioned? I can't find it on Draconis website.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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2013-01-14 20:36:47

Well, this is why i want to play it. I like that small crazy games, really.

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2013-01-15 05:39:43

The recording was in a mail posted to the audeasy list and was a random podcast someone did about silver dollar, hopefuly someone has the link since I unfortunately don't at the moment. indeed I couldn't get the dam thing to download and had to play it directly from the site.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2013-01-15 06:14:40

Check out the Apple Vis podcast.
Should be the latest episode!
http://applevis.com/podcasts

2013-01-16 19:54:24

Hi.

I also found the link that Draconis posted to the podcast demonstration. It was by an Australian chap called David woodbridge, though whether this is the same one as appeared on Applevis I don't know.

Still,  the podcast can be Found here

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2013-01-16 20:22:02

Yep? That's him. That guy is grand! with these Macintosh/iOperating System device reviews.

2013-01-16 21:41:57

Hi all,

Quite a few points and questions to touch on here, so I'll do my best not to miss anyone. Keep the questions coming, and we will continue to try to answer them if we can.

At this time, we are not planning to offer games in the Windows Marketplace. Windows users in general, and even more specifically visually impaired users, tend to stick with older versions of the OS, whereas Apple users tend to stay up to date. Too many of our customers on Windows will be running older versions of Windows, so we plan simply to offer them via the website for now. As, hopefully, more users upgrade their systems, this will probably change in the future.

Regarding playable demos: This is a topic we plan to continually revisit and reevaluate. In the past, playable demos were essential, given the higher price tag on the games. We are trying really hard to bring down the cost of our games. Any time you add demo version, particularly unlockable ones, (though not exclusively), you're adding overhead development plus a heightened risk of piracy. We have to weigh the pros and cons between offering demos versus keeping costs down. We will, of course, continue offering audio trailers for most titles on our website.

Regarding VI marketshare of Mac vs Windows: The VI Mac community is growing and vibrant, and largely made up of a younger demographic. The younger demographic is the more likely to enjoy and purchase games, and that demographic has been almost wholly unserved on the Mac platform before now. Raw numbers are not what is important in that regard, although I think many Windows users here might be surprised just how large the VI Mac community has become. In any case, there are a whole range of reasons why we expect sales on Mac to equal or surpass Windows ones, including these, the ease of purchasing applications from the App Store, and the ridiculously high levels of piracy on Windows.

Regarding the responsiveness of ChangeReaction/SilverDollar: This is due in large part to the game engine we've written in-house from the ground up, though there may be other contributing factors. For example, most Windows PC's tend to have relatively low-quality hardware, which Apple doesn't even offer for its Mac products. As I mentioned before, many Windows users are using older versions of Windows, which may also be effecting performance/stability. All of that said, though, we do not anticipate a significant difference in performance between Windows and Mac versions of the games that are running on comparable hardware and relatively current operating systems. (XP is not relatively current. *wink*)

Regarding the switch from Windows to Mac: Someone mentioned that a primary reason they would not switch was the library of software and games they already have built up for Mac. There are a number of ways to run Windows software on Mac, the most accessible being VMWare Fusion, which permits the Windows OS to run side-by-side with Mac OS X. For about $70 and a Windows installation disc, you can have the best of both worlds. You can also, fairly easily, set up a Mac to dual boot to either OS X or Windows, though that is not an ideal situation. It is kind of ironic that, with VMWare Fusion, a blind user can totally accessibly install Windows without sighted assistance, scripts, or anything specialized whatsoever on Mac OS X.

Really glad you are all enjoying the releases so far. Plenty more on the way.

The dragon awakens...