15 maj 2023 kl. 18:51 skrev Cara Quinn <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>:
It's been a long while, but it's finally time to announce the
start of a new chapter for Draconis Entertainment, LLC. The
dragon is awakening yet again!
This new incarnation of the company brings big and exciting
changes. We will explain those and some of our plans for the
future here, but know that we aren't spilling all the beans
quite yet. What fun would that be!
The world has moved on!
Our first announcement is that we are bringing new and
enhanced versions of our classic games, along with brand-new
titles, into the modern age and on to Apple platforms, with
an emphasis on iPhone! Thanks to VoiceOver, the overwhelming
majority of the visually impaired community has access to at
least one of Apple's operating systems, and this will make
our games available to the widest possible audience. It's
hard to believe sometimes, but that little rectangle of glass
we all carry in our pockets has infinitely more power than
any of the PCs or Macs that our legacy titles were developed
on, and with the tight integration of Apple's operating
systems, we will be able to easily make new releases
available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, or AppleTV going forward.
This approach means that we can integrate newer technologies
like full 3D spatial audio, touch and accelerometer
interaction, and support for console game controllers and
advanced haptics.
What does this mean for our Windows products?
We know how beloved these games have been over the years—we
love them too—and we want to bring all of them, with
expansions and new features, into the twenty-first century,
so they can be enjoyed by new and old generations of gamers
alike. The support cost for the original Windows games, some
of which were new when Nintendo 64 was the hot ticket and
Xbox didn't yet exist, is simply too high to manage for a
small company like us, while also investing in the future.
We will be bringing our Windows development to a close and
giving these games new life on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and
AppleTV. That said, for the time being, we will continue to
offer downloads of the installation packages for our legacy
catalog on our site, and customers who purchased them may
request replacement keys within reason. (For more details,
see the Legacy section of our new website at
https://draconis.llc.)
Back in March, the legacy Draconis Score Server (DSS) and
Draconis Online License Factory (DOLF) for the Windows
versions of ChangeReaction 2 and SilverDollar, migrated to a
new host and received some modernization. As you've already
seen, this brought much needed stability to both of those
services.
So what’s up first?
With all of that in mind, we're pleased to introduce major
updates to the Mac versions of ChangeReaction and
SilverDollar. Freed from the cross-platform constraints of
developing for both macOS and Windows, we have been able to
add some new features to these titles. The most exciting of
which is full-support for any of the console game controllers
supported by Apple platforms. These include the PlayStation
DualShock 4 or DualSense 5, the Xbox X / S controllers, the
Nintendo Switch JoyCons, any MFI controller, and others.
SilverDollar now includes a great deal of new and remastered
audio, support for Apple Silicon, and countless bug fixes and
tweaks.
These upgraded titles will be available as free updates to
anyone who purchased them previously from the Mac App Store.
SilverDollar 2.0 is out now and is available for free.
ChangeReaction 3.0 will have its price reduced to $4.99 in
the US when it is reintroduced in the coming weeks. (Prices
will vary based on exchange rates.)
Looking forward, the development to bring a mix of new and
familiar titles to life is well-underway, and we can’t wait
to show you what we’ve been working on! The future is bright.
We know the dragon has been sleeping for a very long time. We
appreciate your patience and support more than we can say.
Thank you for the last twenty years. We hope you'll join us
as the dragon is reborn.
Cheers!
Cara
