Puzzle Quest 2...

The first one was a terrific game.

It looks like the sequel is pending release, and the developers have made a demo flash version playable from the browser.

I know at least FlameDuck enjoyed the first one as much as I did, so here's the URL in case anyone else is interested...

http://www.playpuzzlequestgalactrix.com/

Oh so it's a sci-fi version. Interesting move, may loose some players by dropping fantasy.

I loved the original, I'll wait to play the full version before I decide on this one.
Plays nicely though and I like some of the features, but I'd like to see some of the other stuff tucked away in there.

The official demo is out. Grab it at Blues.

Is it true that sci-fi/space theme doesn't appeal to casual audiences, and if so, to what extent?

I loved Puzzle Quest (DS version). It was the only game I played on DS for months and months, despite owning loads of others. It cheats like a bugger at times, but was a very addictive game.

I'm hoping the next game in the series carries on the tradition :)

I'm a bit surprised this series has yet to get an OSX release. I figured something like that would have did well enough on that platform to warrant the cost of support.
(just slap both PC/Mac versions on the same disc for retail)

[EDIT] Bleh, one thing bugging me about the new hexagon layout is that it's hard to tell fom which direction the gems will be replaced. I already accidently set myself up to get bombed three times in one round because I was expecting the icons to shift from a different direction.

Don't follow it's "next move" advice. It gives you a hint of a move you can do. Not a move you SHOULD do. :)

Like pencil and paper RPG's, much of the "cheating" is skewed probability based on the abilities and attributes of the enemy you're "fighting". If you got your attributes and abilities configured similarly, those mana gems start falling in your favor too.

Yes I believe it's true and to quite a large extent. The games will be viewed as for men and boys as they will seem look like classic computer games and so a large part of the audience may not purchase them. This is a generalisation of course, but see how many sci-fi games you can find on the casual portals and then see how many of them made it into the top 10, it will be a shockingly low number.

I bet they're banking on the success of the first one to try to push their audience into that theme. If what Jake says is true, then it'll be interesting to see if that strategy works.

Jake - Most of the space themed games are shooters, aren't they? That alone tends to skew the numbers lower because that's a genre that has to have a pretty special angle to sell...

I know, I finished it right through months ago - every monster captured, every quest completed. I was totally unbeatable by that point. Strange that levelling up stops at 50 though. I suppose it's got to end somewhere but still. You can continue after completion, but there's little point, other than to have a quick non-losable game: pretty pointless.

There were only a few people who liked puzzle games to start with.

Bummer... I need to consider changing the theme of my game then. I'm not going for hard core sci fi though, so perhaps that would improve perception?

What about a cutesy space theme, like the one in the 'Math Blaster' series (if anyone even knows what I'm talking about)?

Math Blaster?

@RocketGnome: I've seen sci-fi puzzle games and those are the ones that don't do very well on portals let alone shooters.

I tried out the Windows binary version of this last night. (You can find it at bigdownload.com if you want to get it without having to sign up for anything)

It is definitely a "Puzzle Quest" game at heart. The dialog conversations still have that "smart mouth/standoff-ish" vibe to them between characters.

The puzzle variations this time around aren't as optional as they were. The original had slight variations to the match-3 formula to earn certain power-ups, but one could probably get through the game without ever going after them. This time around, you are forced to explore a couple of them in order to get further along in the plot of the game.

At heart, the game is trying to be a casual gamer's "Mass Effect" and "Bio-shock". Borrowing some plot elements from both of those titles.

This one also has a multi-player option that lets you "fight" other players over the internet.

If one can get by the sci-fi "skin" of this game, it should hold a lot of appeal to those that enjoyed the first. The game play is mostly the same, yet different enough to rightly be called a follow-up/sequel.

I suspect their core/target audience is going to be the x-box live and playstation network crowd. They will probably be far more forgiving of the sci-fi theme than the non-hardcore gamers buying from the PC portals.

Yes absolutely, it all depends where they try to sell it and XBLA and Steam and Reflexive are probably good bets for a start.

i like the sci-fi stuff but my tastes differ from the casual gamers very much