hermitgames

Updated Leave Home to version 003, game now scans your machine to see what resolutions it can support. Still only $3. Buyers should already have been emailed with an update, if not just drop me a mail "matt @ hermitgames . com".

I have reduced Leave Home to 80 MS Points (normally 240) on XBLIG for the next three months, click here to queue/buy/rate it. Getting the game back into the top rated lists would really help with downloads so if you like it please rate it, anyone can do this on the marketplace web page you don't have to have bought it.

I have also reduced the PC version to $3 for the same period (normally $5).

As far as I know Leave Home is now featured in version two of the Game On Exhibition. The original exhibition featured an old Yaroze game of mine called Robot Ron (which I think is still in v2). It runs at Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston in Tasmania, Australia and will open on the 3rd July and run to 3rd October. Would appreciate info of sightings or photos from anyone going to the show.

New version of Leave Home is live now, demo here:
http://hermitgames.com/storage/leavehome_demo002.zip

This adds:
- 16:10 screen ratio support
- POV hat joystick input (360 dpad and some sticks)
- 1280x800 and 1440x900 resolution support

People who have already bought the game should recieve an email with the update. If not just let me know: matt @ hermitgames . com 

 Also: hermitgames on facebook

I've had a few people ask me why I ported Leave Home to C++ DirectX8 on PC rather than release the XNA version on PC. The common perception seems to be that a releasable PC version comes for "free" when working with XNA.

The test version and promo PC versions (built with XNA) had a high proportion of people say it didn't work on their machine, even after installing the correct .net and XNA. Possibly user error but this wouldn't be a problem for a DirectX8 app which would work out of the box.

XNA games require an up to date version of .net and the XNA game libraries to be installed. An installer with these things included was ~230MB. An installer that Visual Studio built for me (clickonce) that would download these things if the user didn't have them was ~50MB. The clickonce installer was also multiple files and so would have required another installer to pack the clickonce installer into one file. Alternatively pretty much everyone these days has DirectX8 (standard since windows98), the DirectX8 version I built was 7MB packaged in a zip: one exe (ready to run the game) and one dll (fmod audio).

I already had a good system for allowing the user to setup their window, resolution, aspect and input that I wrote for fren-ze (a before launch windows dialog). This annoying code would have had to be rewritten for the XNA version if I released that.