Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to tell you that we're very close to wrapping up a new Texas Hold 'em game for Xbox 360!  It's been 3 years since we released the first game...with several updates since...but this is a ALL NEW game!

Here's a little info:

It's called Hoyle Texas Hold 'em.  Hoyle is the Official Name in Gaming.

It supports Microsoft Avatars!

You can play any combination of up to 10 online humans or AI players.

We pinged a ton of online poker players and asked them which stats they use the most....and put those stats (and more) in our game.

Loads of customizable game types including Limit, No Limit, Spread Limit and Table Limit games.

You can view some screenshots and such at:

http://www.tikgames.com/xbox/HoyleTexasHoldem/tabid/67/default.aspx?id_game=432

The game should hopefully go live later in September.  It will have a free demo so you can check out the single player action.  Pricing should be around 400 points.

Feel free to post any questions. 

- Mitzi (TikGames)

Looks good! Also it will be distributed through the Indie Game area of the Xbox Live Marketplace 

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Your only as good as your ping

Yes, as a matter of fact, I have some questions.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of more or less game-breaking bugs that have been reported to exist in your first game, Texas Hold"Em, for which I have already paid 800 MS points.  I sent you an email several months ago via a form on your website, informing you of these bugs.  To my knowledge, none of these bugs have been corrected:

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cheaters/line tuggers, making play impossible at 50,000 buyins and up.  no one is going to risk 50 grand to a cheater.

disconnects result in 8th place finish, even when finishing 2nd

players receive double money (or no money) if loser quits the game too quickly

cards dealt face down

cards dealt to eliminated players

pots won by a player not even in the hand

player wins pot only to be disconnected after winning

displayed percentage of winning the hand incorrect when underpair faces 2 overcards

blind timer starts when game is created instead of when game starts.

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My questions:

1.  Why have you not patched the original game to correct these bugs?
2.  Have the above bugs been corrected in your new release?
3.  If so, why have you not folded back the fixes into your original release?
4.  And if not, why haven't you fixed these bugs?

A final word, TIKGAMES.  There is a thing called customer confidence.  Games that work as intended, that are patched in a timely manner, build customer confidence.  Ignoring game breaking bugs and not responding to emails sent via your own website to inform you of the above bugs erode customer confidence.  You, TIKGAMES, fall in the latter category.  FIX THE BUGS in your present game, and I will consider a purchase of your new game.  Otherwise, I see no reason to throw good money after bad, because quite frankly, I have no confidence that your company can produce a stable, bug-free product.

Thank you for reading.

Eddy Vegas

Awesome, cant wait to try the demo and see what they have thought up

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Waiting for: Forza 3, Dirt 2, Codemasters F1, GTA The Ballad Of *** Tony(episode 2)

Hi Eddy,

I will address  your issues in the next day or so, as I want to walk through them one by one with the team (and make sure I have the correct information!)

First, I will tell you that I worked on both this and the original Texas Hold 'em for XBLA, so I at least can provide you with a bit of insight.

We updated the original Texas Hold 'em 3 times during the first year it was released.  Partly because of real bugs reported by players, and partly because Microsoft continued to improve the core infastructure and we wanted to take advantage of that.   One of the main reason we updated it was due to a huge exploit from cheaters.  Sadly, the cheaters continued to find any way possible to take advantage. 

One of the reasons I think it won't be as much of an issue in Hoyle Texas  Hold 'em is due to the fact that there's less emphasis on Leaderboards and Achievements (none, since it's an Indie game) and more emphasis and Stats and playing with your buds.   

Also, I will say that this is not to be considered a "new release".  This is a different game.  We built this game on a different multiplayer infastructure (Texas Hold 'em for XBLA was a very early title for the platform and many improvements to the Xbox Multiplayer core have been made over the last few years).  It also has a completely different AI.  Both games carry a different feature set.  Some you'll like in this new game, some you might miss from Texas Hold 'em for XBLA (as an Indie game, we had a few limitations, like no Achievements). 

Anyway, I'll get back to you in a bit with some more info.

- Mitzi

OK, I'll wait for your full reply before responding.

Eddy Vegas

No info since 08-25-2009, 4:31 AM.  That's more than a week.

"I will address  your issues in the next day or so..."

The tiny bit of customer confidence you built up by responding is dribbling away...

Eddy Vegas

 x Eddy Vegas x wrote:

No info since 08-25-2009, 4:31 AM.  That's more than a week.

"I will address  your issues in the next day or so..."

The tiny bit of customer confidence you built up by responding is dribbling away...

Eddy Vegas

Dude you are a hard man to please LOL .. you know what its like in offices "i'll get back to you in a day or 2 " Normally means give me a week and i'll try and find the answer cos i ain't got a clue.. !!

I too really enjoyed the first game but was put off by some of the bugs Eddy has put forward. Hope these issues do not  raise their ugly head in the new game ...

TIK GAMES any chance of Eddy and i getting a Freebie of this game ??

i would be happy to play test and write a full report on the forums. LOL

Well, they should have a clue.  The person was sent here to talk up the new game and 'answer questions'.

Let them explain why the bugs in the first game weren't addressed, and how they aim to do better this time.  Let them explain how winning double money, or no money, or getting eliminated, when winning a hand isn't a game breaking bug.  We finally have a chance at some dialogue, let's have a dialogue.

Eddy Vegas

IMO microsoft should not allow this TIKshit to sell another game till they try and fix some the problems mentioned here.

 WimpyGame lord wrote:

IMO microsoft should not allow this TIKshit to sell another game till they try and fix some the problems mentioned here.

I don't think i would go that far !! .. Don't get me wrong these bugs are a pain in the butt, But i have also had some wicked nights playing Texas hold'em with friends .. PLUS its the only game you can close your eyes and lay back on the sofa and only have to take a quick peep through one eye at your cards before hitting "ALL IN"  ( double Yellow of cause !! ) 

I am so lazy !!! 

if bungie is able to host more than 600,000 people with relatively low LAG and iron out bugs on a continuous basis; TIKgames should have no problem fixing a dozen bugs. microsoft should force these developers to keep undating their games (atleast once every few months)  in order to provide smoother gameplay. afterall the developers continue to see profit from the game's sales.

Is this game out yet on XBox Live? On the site linked it says release date is September 1st but looking around the Game Marketplace I don't see it, just wondering if I missed something.

their lack of response to any of the issues raised in this thread proves they are a bunch of monkeys with a keyboard.

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cheaters/line tuggers, making play impossible at 50,000 buyins and up.  no one is going to risk 50 grand to a cheater.

disconnects result in 8th place finish, even when finishing 2nd

players receive double money (or no money) if loser quits the game too quickly

cards dealt face down

cards dealt to eliminated players

pots won by a player not even in the hand

player wins pot only to be disconnected after winning

displayed percentage of winning the hand incorrect when underpair faces 2 overcards

blind timer starts when game is created instead of when game starts.

----------------------------------

And your answer to all this is to re-fleece us again for another game?  And your solution to all this is to get the Hoyle branding and make the avatars move?  Do you take me for an idiot?

Fix the bugs in the first game, talk to us man to man, you know, like we're not idiots. 

Until then, NO SALE.

EV

After losing so much money by being cheated or lagging out, i quit playing for a few months, so i started playing a few nights ago, my first game in months & i lose my last $4000 because i lagged or got cheated, 4 of us left & it said i finished 8th, it realy is a great shame that this game with such a worldwide appeal has had so many problems since it,s release. I hope that the next poker game is a huge improvement. Anyhow i love poker so much, i will carry on playing, just me, my Baileys & my patience

If this new game is going to be in the indy games section I'm skeptical that it will achieve a player base large enough to make it worth it.

Microsoft should just put out a free texas hold'em game on the dashboard, that way anyone who likes poker would be into it. They could have sponsors logos in the middle of tables to pay for whatever it costs to maintain.

 TIKGAMES wrote:

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to tell you that we're very close to wrapping up a new Texas Hold 'em game for Xbox 360!  It's been 3 years since we released the first game...with several updates since...but this is a ALL NEW game!

Here's a little info:

It's called Hoyle Texas Hold 'em.  Hoyle is the Official Name in Gaming.

It supports Microsoft Avatars!

You can play any combination of up to 10 online humans or AI players.

We pinged a ton of online poker players and asked them which stats they use the most....and put those stats (and more) in our game.

Loads of customizable game types including Limit, No Limit, Spread Limit and Table Limit games.

You can view some screenshots and such at:

http://www.tikgames.com/xbox/HoyleTexasHoldem/tabid/67/default.aspx?id_game=432

The game should hopefully go live later in September.  It will have a free demo so you can check out the single player action.  Pricing should be around 400 points.

Feel free to post any questions. 

- Mitzi (TikGames)

Looks like what I was telling friends other night.  Was saying they should patch old game and add our avatar characters in the chairs at the table to make it seem life like kinda.  Well same idea just new game.  Whats the price?  800MS?

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[Beer] Clan Leader

 EvilOak27 wrote:

If this new game is going to be in the indy games section I'm skeptical that it will achieve a player base large enough to make it worth it.

Microsoft should just put out a free texas hold'em game on the dashboard, that way anyone who likes poker would be into it. They could have sponsors logos in the middle of tables to pay for whatever it costs to maintain.

Guess I didnt read much into this.  Thought this was a sequel, not a indie game....  How much is it?  400MS or 200ms?  I figured 800MS if its a sequel.......

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[Beer] Clan Leader

 Yates73 wrote:

Anyhow i love poker so much, i will carry on playing, just me, my Baileys & my patience

This is the real problem.  We love poker, so we keep playing this buggy game, because it has a monopoly.  If a better game came out on XBLA, I'd be gone in a heartbeat.

It's sheer uncaring, is what it is.  They don't care to fix the bugs.  Let's take the simplest bug on my list: the blind timer starts when the game is created instead of when the game starts.  Since it sometimes takes several minutes for the table to fill up, often times you only play one hand at 10/20 before moving to 20/40.  So, tell the blind timer to wait until the host starts the game, and the bug is fixed.  Trivial, yet never corrected.

EV

 TikGames2008 wrote:

Hi Eddy,

I will address  your issues in the next day or so, as I want to walk through them one by one with the team (and make sure I have the correct information!)

......

Anyway, I'll get back to you in a bit with some more info.

- Mitzi

Mitzi,

It has been over 45 days since you said you would get back with us.

I think you have proven what we have been saying all along.....

Yeah, well, they've already missed their September release date.  She'll probably pop around when the game comes out, then beat it before the rotten tomatoes start flying at her...

EV

That has to be the best ever put together critique I have read.

Just one bug you missed, and that is that on occasions cards are duplicated on the board.

One time in particular I witnessed 2 cards duplicated on the Board at the same time - absolutely unforgivable!

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on what way you think about it, I have never been able to get my Bankroll up and above 500,000 to experience the cheaters at this level.

Having said that, that could be because there was one occasion where I lost 2 x 500,000, 3 x 4000 and 2 x 500 games one after the other when my bankroll was around the 220,000 mark- disgraceful!

I still go on and play the game because ironically I still feel it has the best interface of any Poker game out there.

I do play WSOP 2008 occasionally but find the interface too cluttered.

Also, I have started playing Full Tilt Poker which I would recommend.

The fact that TIKGAMES have yet to reply to your criticisms speaks volumes.

I used to play this game all the time until the cheating got out of hand. Facebook has a world class texas hold'em app by Zynga. You get players from all over the world with tables in every major city. It's pretty cool and best of all, it's free. You still have donkeys but they eventually lose everything.

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Be like water!