Let’s Talk About Red Dwarf XI: The Game

[Ian Symes]

The game is now out! Well, it’s out on the App Store at any rate – the Play Store will presumably follow soon. It’s going to be pretty tricky to discuss this on the front page, as the game contains spoilers for Twentica, and people are watching at different paces. Also, some people might want to play through without having any surprises spoiled.

So, for now at least, let’s confine any specific discussion of the game’s contents to this thread. ONLY READ AHEAD IF YOU’RE OK WITH GAME SPOILERS!

My very early impressions were as follows:

Ooh, Robert Llewellyn voiceover!
Haha, they spelled “welcome” wrong.
This is pretty good.
This is tricky.
Ooh, it’s a prequel! That’s clever.
ZOMG, I’m playing as Rimmer.
FUCKING SHOOT THE BAZOOKOID PROPERLY
HOW CAN I DIE, I’M A HARD LIGHT HOLOGRAM.

Topic

[GameDigits]

> It’d have been lovely to see some music or something in some of the levels.

Thank you for this, and we completely agree!

We unfortunately don’t have the licenses to use the official music tracks (we wish we did!), but we have added ambient music ‘stings’ throughout the game for the Give & Take update. These also reflect the mood of each sub-game too, so hopefully this will fill the void for you.

[bloodteller]

>We have added ambient music ‘stings’ throughout the game for the Give & Take update. These also reflect the mood of each sub-game too, so hopefully this will fill the void for you.

that sounds great, really looking forward to it!

[Ian Symes]

GIVE & TAKE IS OUT NOW!

I have been lolling for a solid ten minutes at one of the files in the Kryten level. You’ll see which one when you get there.

[GameDigits]

As the other Ian said – the Give & Take update is OUT NOW – GO GO GO!!!

App store – https://appsto.re/i6hK7Qw
Play store – http://bit.ly/2cqHCe4

…and Mr Symes – I think I know the one, glad to be of service ;)

[GameDigits]

… and also, if you’re feeling generous please take some time to put in an App Store or Google Play review if you like the game. They make us really happy.

Merry Smegging Christmas folks!

[curtis]

Enjoying it. But by Christ how do you manage to get onto those four pads in time in the finding Snacky level?!

[curtis]

Never mind. Sussed it :-)

[si]

Had a play through the first couple of levels, great stuff. The Kryten’s Files section is excellent, really well done. However, I’ve got the flying level coming up now, so God knows how long that might take me. I’ll have a good look at it later on.

[International Debris]

That particular file in Kryten’s level is magnificent. Well done, sirs.

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

The latest episode is still not showing up on the iPad for me :o( Anyone else having this problem?

[flanl3]

Have you actually gone and updated the app?

[Chris Stokes]

Locate Snacky is driving me mad

[Chris Stokes]

Managed it now. On the very next go after typing that.

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

Have you actually gone and updated the app?

Oh… umm thanks for that. It worked and managed to complete the whole episode in one go yesterday. First time I’ve managed that and can now feel a little less thick for a change.

[Dax101]

Do you need to complete the previous episode to play the next one? i did complete Samara but to a certain degree i had to cheat on the memory game because it was pretty tough and id be surprised if many casual players would even bother trying to cheat to get through it to play the next one.

[Ben Paddon]

Finally picked up the Android version yesterday – 99 cents! Wotta bargain! – and I mostly find myself playing it on the toilet, as is the custom with handheld titles.

So far I’ve found it to be incredibly easy. Maybe that’s because I’m playing this off the back of (almost) finishing SuperHOT on the Xbox, and I acknowledge that as mobile games reach a much wider audience they maybe need to be a little more forgiving, but I’ve literally been able to plough through some of the Metal Gear Lite areas by just charging forward and taking the hits. Possibly that was harder before health pickups were sprinkled around the game like confetti.

I’m digging it, though. It’s a little more robust than your average mobile game offering. Just, y’know, a bit easy for my tastes.

[(deleted)]

The difficulty level was more gamer-y at the start, but after feedback it seems that they realised it might have been a little bit out of whack with what the average audience for the game was after from a mobile tie-in title. For me personally, the softened difficulty curve has saved this one for me.

I’ve been a gamer since I was little and I’ve never understood the appeal of wilfully ‘difficult’/’hardcore’ games – I play them to escape the stress and anxiety of life, not to add to it. I’ve got a mate who’s a Rare superfan and virtually everything they’ve ever made descends into crazed masochism by the end (when I was young I had their Marble Madness and Digger on the NES and both were like psychological warfare within about 20 minutes). If a game ever tips over the line into taking the piss for me now, I just stop, I’m not a typical 101%-er like said mate is. I know there’s a decent market for these, and I like watching other people ace them, but I’m glad the Dwarf game has pulled away from that territory a bit.

The way around this might be to have, as previously mooted, different selectable difficulty levels. That way the gamers are satisfied but the casuals still get to see all the levels and jokes.

[Ben Paddon]

I’m seldom a 101%er these days, either – the last game I got Everything™ in was probably batman: Arkham Asylum on the 360, and I’m about to do it again on the slightly-disappointing XB1 remaster.

[peas_and_corn]

I’m having a small issue. In the first level of give and take, when I destroy the first turret it gives me a score then dumps me to the tutorial screen. When I go to the list of levels the next one isn’t available

[Dax101]

i had that same issue, but that was because i went on the level rather then just hit the episode title then went back to the title screen and hit “play”

[Jonathan Capps]

I’m pretty sure that first mission has a bug that finishes it early. I only destroyed one turret on my playthrough and it ended the mission straight after it both times.

[GameDigits]

Hope you guys had a great New Year!

Thanks for letting us know about the first gun issue on G&T (especially if you have ‘Capps Power’ while using an emulator) – sorry Jonathan, but we’ve fixed this now and it will be in the next update ;)

Also, for anyone trying to progress through the story, please make sure you start the game using the ‘Play’ button from the main Red Dwarf screen, not from the options menu where you select the individual subgames. From our feedback, it seems this has caught out a few people, so to remedy this we’ll add the option to play the story or just one subgame from the menu.

Just as a heads up, we’ve also added an on-screen thumbstick to the majority of subgames. It’s not something we initially thought was required and we wanted to keep the HUD elements quite light. However, we do have to cater to non-gamers too and people have asked for it. Plus, it’s something that would avoid any confusion about how the controls work.

We’ll aim to get an update out soon with various improvements and fixes. Plus, we’re also working on the next episode as we speak!

[Chris Stokes]

Do you think you could give it an ending?

[International Debris]

I expect the last level to end a few seconds before you reach your final target.

[GameDigits]

It’s tempting… so very tempting.

[si]

Hm. Got a new phone and downloaded the game. Logged in via Facebook, but I’ve not got any saved progress on there. Am I going to have to start over because it’s a new device? :/

[Karnie]

“Hm. Got a new phone and downloaded the game. Logged in via Facebook, but I’ve not got any saved progress on there. Am I going to have to start over because it’s a new device? :/”

Probably. I started a new game on my iPad after playing on the iPhone for a while, and nothing carried over.

[si]

Bollocks. Took me ages to complete all that.

[Jonathan Capps]

Yeah, saves are device specific.

It’s ok, si, you can do it. I slightly believe in you.

[si]

Cheers Cappsy, that means a little.

[GameDigits]

Sorry Si that your game progress hadn’t restored, we’ll look in this and aim to have a fix for you in the next update. If you could let us know your player ID number (found the options menu) this would help us a great deal to find your profile and fix the bug.

In other news, we’re busy working on the Officer Rimmer episode as we speak and I can assure you the Pac-man style Rimmer game will be making an appearance – it’s coming along very nicely too.

[flanl3]

In other news, we’re busy working on the Officer Rimmer episode as we speak and I can assure you the Pac-man style Rimmer game will be making an appearance – it’s coming along very nicely too.

Well, I’ll need to clean up after reading that.

[si]

Sorry Si that your game progress hadn’t restored, we’ll look in this and aim to have a fix for you in the next update. If you could let us know your player ID number (found the options menu) this would help us a great deal to find your profile and fix the bug.

Cheers. My Player ID is 49, although I’ve actually managed to get through Samsara now, and am pretty much in the same place I’d got to before, anyway. :)

[si]

In fact, I’ve got further than I did before!

[Karnie]

Just a punctuation error:

In Give and Take, after Lister and Cat get tranquilized, Kryten says “Mr. Lister, sir. Mr, Cat?

Should be question mark after Lister, sir
and the Mr before Cat should be a period, not a comma.

[ClareGC]

Do Mr Lister and Mr Cat even have periods? Times change, and I expect it’s different in the States.

I haven’t really noticed the punctuation, as I’ve been rushing through to play each game. I’ve loved them all! Pac-Man in the arcades was about the last time I played anything, but this is very intuitive to me, and the controls are lovely and smooth on my iphone. I’m amazed how much detail and variety there is, considering it’s nearly free. I can’t wait for Officer Rimmer!

[GameDigits]

Thank you Karnie you have a very keen eye, sir. I’ll double check with our resident grammar expert (yes, we do have one!) on how that line should read and make sure it’s fixed for the next update.

ClareGC we’re really happy that you’re enjoying the game and there’s plenty more to come! It’s quite an ambitious project considering the resources, but we really didn’t want to resort to something like a themed match-3 or rehash of a overly saturated mobile game idea.

Regarding the upcoming update, not only will the new Officer Rimmer games be included, but we have spent a long time improving the controls and issues brought up by the fans. We’ve also rebalanced and updated a huge proportion of the existing games too – it’s quite a monster update!

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions relating to the game – we’re all ears! Without you guys we’d be cloche-less, and for that we’re truly grateful.

[Jonathan Capps]

Excellent! I think at some point I’ll have to do a proper full playthrough of Twentica to cover the balance changes that happened over the months.

[Karnie]

“We’ve also rebalanced and updated a huge proportion of the existing games too – it’s quite a monster update!”

That’s great, except I literally just submitted my additions for the Encyclopedia Addendum to my editor for Series XI and the first two episodes of the game…. =O

Shucks, guess I’ll have to play them again once the update hits to see if any dialog’s changed or new material added. =)

[GameDigits]

No worries Karnie, the changes are mainly gameplay related and the dialog has remained largely intact.
It’s still worth playing the game again though… ;)

Speaking of which – if it helps your Encyclopedia work, I’m happy to send you the game scripts as the episode updates are released.

[Karnie]

That would be incredibly helpful, thank you! I’ll Email you my contact info.

[TyGar]

Any ideas as to when we might expect the next release?

[si]

I didn’t want to seem overly impatient, but yeah, I was wondering about that, too.

[GameDigits]

Glad you asked!

We will be submitting the update to Apple this week, with a view to releasing it nearing the end of the month.

We’ve been working hard on the Officer Rimmer episode and have also made a huge number of improvements to the existing game too – it’s a major update!

In other news, we’ll be showing the game at the Dimension Jump event next month. So if you’re there it’ll be great if you could come and say ‘Hi’ and let us know your thoughts on the game.

[si]

Ooh goody. :)

[si]

Okay, downloaded the Officer Runner update this morning. Only had a quick go before breakfast, but didn’t get past that first game because all those flashing lights frighten me! Plus I kept having to think how you make purple… (It’s early)

[curtis]

Literally no idea how to open the grate. It was opening and closing before I could get to it earlier but now it remains shut even though I’m seemingly repeating the same action. I’m sure I’m missing something but no clue what that could be.

[curtis]

Completed it. Best episode, best game update. Still completely clueless as to how I managed to get that grate open though. Seemed random.

[si]

Officer Runner

Damn you, autocorrect.

[GameDigits]

Great to see some of you already playing the latest update, we haven’t officially announced it yet – you guys are quick off the mark!

It’s quite a monster update. Not only has it got the new Officer Rimmer episode, but also a large amount of improvements and updates across the game generally:

– Improved controls across all games
– Added game-pad visual to match the touch controls
– Rebalanced and added new content across all sub-games
– Added additional objectives on some of the game stages
– Movement controls across the whole screen, not just the lefthand side
– Added option to continue with story, or just play a specific sub-game
– Added additional audio throughout the game
– Made Karma Hack game easier
– Improved firing controls and timings
– Fixed issue with sections not appearing when walking backwards
– Fixed cheat scores for quiz sections
– Optimised download size
– General bug fixes and gameplay improvements

Si – Glad you’re passed the first game now but if the flashing lights frighten you, I wonder what you’ll make of the Rimmer Monster later on!

Curtis – Really glad you enjoyed the episode. I’d suggest that you go through the previous games again, see if you can beat your scores and check out the updates.

**SPOILER – GRATE HINT**
As for the grate, it’s not random and here’s a hint on how to solve it if you’re having trouble.
There are four buttons in front of the grate, two of them need boxes on, then you need to step on a third button to open the grate. The grate closes again quickly, so pick your buttons wisely so you can reach it in time.

As always, it’s great to have feedback on the game and G&T have been fantastic for it, so let us know how you get on!

[Author]

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