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CUPCAKES
Jan 26, 2008

Kepa posted:

urg I'm releasing a new game on the 24th urg. It's my procedurally generated Secret of Mana-y thing. Followup to Mage Gauntlet, but now it's super difficult, with randomly generated levels, 6 different characters all with different playstyles, etc. It's huge, took us 2+ years to make.

I'm going to put a code down here. Get the code if you have some free time, because I have some special conditions below.

RW6TY6LR63YY

Whoever gets it: If you get to the second area (past the first boss), let me know here and write some feedback. If it's meaningful feedback, good or bad, I'll then leave another code in here. And so on until either the game's out, or someone grabs a code and runs without saying anything.

Here's the website so you can see what you're getting into. I need to update the video and press kit though. Going slow because I'm sick right now.

Kepa, this game looks ridiculously good! Please keep us posted when it's released! Hope you feel better soon :-)

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Superschaf
May 20, 2010

Superschaf posted:

Got it, will post impressions soon.

So I just beat the first boss of Wayward Souls with the mage:

At first I was really surprised how hard the game is, but then I remembered that Hook Champ was pretty drat tough as well.
I had some trouble with the controls in the beginning. Especially hitting enemies like bats with the mage's attack can be pretty tough, but now I'm pretty good at it.

I really like the spells. Swiping up and down feels good and I rarely do something I didn't intend to. I'm really bad when it comes to hoarding them though.

I beat Humphrey the second time I got to him and the frost upgrade for the staff helped a lot with that, since it attacks a lot faster and range isn't that useful when fighting him anyway.

One thing that was kind of annoying is backtracking from the end of the level to the beginning, because you missed some unexplored area. I never felt like I could skip it because a forge might be there and those upgrades are invaluable. Not sure what a solution to that problem is though.

I also played some on my iPad with the thief (?) class and that made me really wish for iCloud syncing. I hope that gets added, especially with the ultimate upgrades that improve all classes.
One problem I had on the iPad was the swipe to dodge with the thief. It felt like the swipe motion had to be really deliberate, almost like it wasn't adjusted for the bigger screen.

Overall I'm really impressed with the game so far. To me it's kind of the game Mage Gauntlet should have been, so I am very happy you were able to make it work.

Quick bug report, if you flip the screen and take a screenshot, the screenshot is upside down.

PS: I hate you rock-spitting worms. A room full of them ruins my run every time.

Superschaf fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Apr 20, 2014

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Javid posted:

There were upsides to the giant crash, namely shipbuilding being really cheap and people being able to buy massive amounts of everything to sell later. Unless, of course, you tied up all your loose funds in electrium at its pre-update low, in which case this depression is just a giant "gently caress you".

Yup, that's me. Saw electrium hit 350, said there's no way this is going lower, and went all-in. I fell from the top ten to #28.

Yolkfolk
Mar 20, 2007
Love is the stuff inside.

Notorious QIG posted:

Yup, that's me. Saw electrium hit 350, said there's no way this is going lower, and went all-in. I fell from the top ten to #28.

I lost a lot of money destroying ships, and then more having electrium on hand.

choobs
Mar 25, 2004
Never bring a duck to a cock fight.

lionlegs posted:

Machinarium is great, and works really well on an iPad. Probably the best adventure game I've played on iOS (even though it's a PC port).

Also, Hector: Badge of Carnage is a really good series of iOS-original adventure games. Very humour driven.

I'll second both of these. Machinarium is a great game, the port was well done.

Hector is really funny but extremely crude. If that doesn't bother you, they're a lot of fun.

Weavered
Jun 23, 2013

DarkHorse posted:

Anyone having crashing problems with Warhammer Quest? I can get through the first dungeon but it locks up and crashes partway through the Miserable Minstrel quest. I have a feeling it's because of my iPhone 4.

It always seems to happen with a decently large battle, right as I'm getting into the game :(

Works fine on ipad mini. Might be that the iPhone 4 isn't up to it? Have you tried closing all the other apps and rebutting the phone before playing?

Inadequately
Oct 9, 2012
So I tried Hearthstone for a while, and it was pretty okay. Tried Card City Nights, and that was pretty fun too. What other iOS card games would you guys recommend? Preferably something with a good single-player AI/campaign, most of the people I know aren't much for virtual card games.

SilverMike
Sep 17, 2007

TBD


Calculords is a neat free CCG, you use math to play your cards every turn.

Ascension has been played a bunch in the iOS board games thread, it's less a CCG than a game where you build your deck during the round by buying cards from a cycling pool available to everyone.

Spectromancer was fun during the demo I played on Steam, might be a bit too far from the concept though. $4 too.

Kepa
Jul 23, 2011

My goal as a game developer is just to make gnome puns

Superschaf posted:

So I just beat the first boss of Wayward Souls with the mage:

I really like the spells. Swiping up and down feels good and I rarely do something I didn't intend to. I'm really bad when it comes to hoarding them though.

One thing that was kind of annoying is backtracking from the end of the level to the beginning, because you missed some unexplored area. I never felt like I could skip it because a forge might be there and those upgrades are invaluable. Not sure what a solution to that problem is though.

I also played some on my iPad with the thief (?) class and that made me really wish for iCloud syncing. I hope that gets added, especially with the ultimate upgrades that improve all classes.
One problem I had on the iPad was the swipe to dodge with the thief. It felt like the swipe motion had to be really deliberate, almost like it wasn't adjusted for the bigger screen.

Overall I'm really impressed with the game so far. To me it's kind of the game Mage Gauntlet should have been, so I am very happy you were able to make it work.

Quick bug report, if you flip the screen and take a screenshot, the screenshot is upside down.

PS: I hate you rock-spitting worms. A room full of them ruins my run every time.

Yeah in the easier areas you really don't need to use the spells. That changes. We try to limit backtracking just by not making the areas too big. I think we could tweak map generation a little more to limit backtracking further, but that would also make things more linear. Maybe in another game like this I'd make the levels just a bit smaller, even though they're not big now?

Urg iCloud urg. I hate iCloud. Maybe we'll do something else, like dropbox syncing or some other save file export. Not sure what your swiping problem is, without seeing it. Right now the swipe is a hard flick, we plan on also supporting slower swipes. Maybe that will help.

Yes, it's exactly what Mage Gauntlet was supposed to be in the beginning. We just didn't know how.

Haha yeah our flip screen thing is pretty ramshackle right now. Rockworms do suck. They're a much harder enemy than the others in the area, balanced somewhat by how they only do half damage to you.

New code: FEX67XPKN3R7
Note: Whoever gets the code has to beat the first boss as the Rogue. After that, I'll post another code.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

Kepa posted:

Yeah in the easier areas you really don't need to use the spells. That changes. We try to limit backtracking just by not making the areas too big. I think we could tweak map generation a little more to limit backtracking further, but that would also make things more linear. Maybe in another game like this I'd make the levels just a bit smaller, even though they're not big now?

Urg iCloud urg. I hate iCloud. Maybe we'll do something else, like dropbox syncing or some other save file export. Not sure what your swiping problem is, without seeing it. Right now the swipe is a hard flick, we plan on also supporting slower swipes. Maybe that will help.

Yes, it's exactly what Mage Gauntlet was supposed to be in the beginning. We just didn't know how.

Haha yeah our flip screen thing is pretty ramshackle right now. Rockworms do suck. They're a much harder enemy than the others in the area, balanced somewhat by how they only do half damage to you.

New code: FEX67XPKN3R7
Note: Whoever gets the code has to beat the first boss as the Rogue. After that, I'll post another code.

Has been redeemed. :(

Duranki
Nov 16, 2004

There is vengeance to be dealt, Marc Spector. And you have not lost your taste for such things. Have you?
Son of a BITCH, thought for sure I'd nab that one...

Uberskooper
Apr 30, 2007
Skoops up goood

Kepa posted:

Yeah in the easier areas you really don't need to use the spells. That changes. We try to limit backtracking just by not making the areas too big. I think we could tweak map generation a little more to limit backtracking further, but that would also make things more linear. Maybe in another game like this I'd make the levels just a bit smaller, even though they're not big now?

Urg iCloud urg. I hate iCloud. Maybe we'll do something else, like dropbox syncing or some other save file export. Not sure what your swiping problem is, without seeing it. Right now the swipe is a hard flick, we plan on also supporting slower swipes. Maybe that will help.

Yes, it's exactly what Mage Gauntlet was supposed to be in the beginning. We just didn't know how.

Haha yeah our flip screen thing is pretty ramshackle right now. Rockworms do suck. They're a much harder enemy than the others in the area, balanced somewhat by how they only do half damage to you.

New code: FEX67XPKN3R7
Note: Whoever gets the code has to beat the first boss as the Rogue. After that, I'll post another code.

Got it! Will post feedback.

Duranki
Nov 16, 2004

There is vengeance to be dealt, Marc Spector. And you have not lost your taste for such things. Have you?

Uberskooper posted:

Got it! Will post feedback.

Please tell me you redeemed that, like, 30 seconds after Kepa posted it.

unlurked
Jan 20, 2006

Set phasers to HURT!

I lost so many hours to this game back in MSDOS days. Thanks for the tip!

Uberskooper
Apr 30, 2007
Skoops up goood

Duranki posted:

Please tell me you redeemed that, like, 30 seconds after Kepa posted it.

Maybe. I was at lunch with my wife and thought I would check the forum while she was in the restroom. I'm playing through the tutorial now. I'll try to get done quickly and post feedback.

Uberskooper
Apr 30, 2007
Skoops up goood
The game is harder than Kepa eluded to. It's very fun so far.

emgeejay
Dec 8, 2007

FlashBangBob, did you play GTA: Chinatown Wars? The drug market trading in that game was even more compelling than the shooty-bang-bang stuff (which was the best on the DS). I'd check it out if you haven't.

Kenny Logins
Jan 11, 2011

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AND OPEN PALM SLAM A WHITE WHALE INTO THE PEQUOD. IT'S HELL'S HEART AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I STRIKE AT THEE ALONGSIDE WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER, ISHMAEL.
Just wanted to say, Kepa, looking forward to Wayward Souls. I think the way you're conditionally doling out codes in the thread is cool because, hey, it gets me excited about the game. People could learn.

FlashBangBob
Jul 5, 2007

BLAM! Internet Found!

Max22 posted:

FlashBangBob, did you play GTA: Chinatown Wars? The drug market trading in that game was even more compelling than the shooty-bang-bang stuff (which was the best on the DS). I'd check it out if you haven't.

No but I read into it. The style doesn't apply to Electrium in its current form as you'd buy cheap in one area in the game and take it over to another. You could get caught doing this and lose your stuff. The profit didn't come from playing the market, the profit came from actually getting it from point A to point B. This is non existent in the market. The other issue is that the game is turning out to be more of an educational experience for me more than what I'd call a success.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005

Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch
I know it's freemium as all hell but I'm really enjoying Trials Frontier. Yes there are timers and IAP and things to collect and missions and such but none of it in oppressive leaving you with a nice looking, solid, quirky Trials game. Currently my poopin' and bedtime game of choice.

Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.

Yodzilla posted:

I know it's freemium as all hell but I'm really enjoying Trials Frontier. Yes there are timers and IAP and things to collect and missions and such but none of it in oppressive leaving you with a nice looking, solid, quirky Trials game. Currently my poopin' and bedtime game of choice.

I may not be as aggressively progressed in that game as some, but I've sunk hours into it and not had a reason to even think about spending dime one. And it controls surprisingly well...

Shwqa
Feb 13, 2012

Kenny Logins posted:

Just wanted to say, Kepa, looking forward to Wayward Souls. I think the way you're conditionally doling out codes in the thread is cool because, hey, it gets me excited about the game. People could learn.

This is basically what I'm thinking as well. I'm planning on buying it day one.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005

Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch

Feenix posted:

I may not be as aggressively progressed in that game as some, but I've sunk hours into it and not had a reason to even think about spending dime one. And it controls surprisingly well...

Yeah that genre works surprisingly well on mobile devices. There's a lot of garbage in the App Store though but if you like Trials Frontier be sure to check out Bike Baron. It's top notch.

Kepa
Jul 23, 2011

My goal as a game developer is just to make gnome puns

Kenny Logins posted:

Just wanted to say, Kepa, looking forward to Wayward Souls. I think the way you're conditionally doling out codes in the thread is cool because, hey, it gets me excited about the game. People could learn.

Yeah I like how the code doling challenge works for a really difficult game like this. I think I'll do this again in the future, but integrate it into the game itself somehow. Like a special code you can put in to get a specific challenge.

Also it's doing better on the Toucharcade forums mostly because I had people make a queue via private messages, then encouraged people further back in the line to encourage/harass whoever was up to bat.

Duranki
Nov 16, 2004

There is vengeance to be dealt, Marc Spector. And you have not lost your taste for such things. Have you?
Sarah Northway's (of Rebuild fame) Word Up Dog just went free.

Javid
Oct 21, 2004

:jpmf:
Upside to giant market crash:



With a zillion pages more waiting to mature.

Kilometers Davis
Jul 9, 2007

They begin again

Had anyone had the issue in Tapped Out where a ton of your buildings disappear? Happened to my gf this morning and we're trying to figure out how to get things fixed. Googling led her to uninstalling, logging out, etc soft fixes and nothing helped.

Helmacron
Jun 3, 2005

looking down at the world

Kilometers Davis posted:

Had anyone had the issue in Tapped Out where a ton of your buildings disappear? Happened to my gf this morning and we're trying to figure out how to get things fixed. Googling led her to uninstalling, logging out, etc soft fixes and nothing helped.

Yeah, Boom Beach and Tapped Out just got combined, unfortunately the app internal update has only been rolled out in some countries, letting like people from Canada attack Australia, or whatever, but not vice versa. It just looks like everything disappears to them because their online poo poo just got annihilated. They said it should be universal today or tomorrow, and next week Temple Run 2 is getting some limited integration as well. Exciting times.

Stumpus
Dec 25, 2009
Which Ascension in app purchases are worth it if you really liked the base game?

Are they all compatible with the base game? Only one specifically says it is.

zonar
Jan 4, 2012

That was a BAD business decision!

Stumpus posted:

Which Ascension in app purchases are worth it if you really liked the base game?

Are they all compatible with the base game? Only one specifically says it is.
I believe all of the expansions are theoretically compatible with the original, but the game is very much designed in sets of two - Return of the Fallen 'completes' the original set, Storm of Souls is 'completed' by the third expansion, and so on. Storm of Souls is essentially a standalone base playing set in and of itself, if that's your boat.

For what its worth, I feel that Storm of Souls is the best single expansion if you were only buying one. Return of the Fallen is fun, but Storm of Souls is incredibly well-balanced by itself.

FlashBangBob
Jul 5, 2007

BLAM! Internet Found!

Javid posted:

Upside to giant market crash:



With a zillion pages more waiting to mature.

So I was talking with my wife today about the market. I had an idea to take it in a drastic direction that would remove the buying and selling of elements and turn it more into like a "job" market? For example, every few minutes there'd be five "orders" on a board, and you could claim one of them. They'd be larger orders -- for example, "The klingon race is demanding 100 of each resource (non-electrium) in the next hour. Rewards: $1000".

Here's the summary of the changes I'm thinking of:
1) The current resource market is completely removed.
2) A new "job" board takes it place. There are a few jobs every minute or so that require filling. You use your ships to fill these jobs.
3) Once a job is claimed by a player, they cannot claim another job until that one is complete, or the time expires.
4) The ability to buy resources you don't have or sell resources you don't need go away completely.
5) Ships and upgrades are no longer purchased by using resources, instead they are bought using cash.
6) Ships mine resources -> Fill orders -> Player gets cash from the order -> Buys more ships.

Few other ideas: Competitive orders, where the first player to fill a tough order gets a special reward, or a leaderboard point based on players that complete these sorts of jobs.

Thoughts, goons? Am I putting effort into something that not worth it?

duckfarts
Jul 2, 2010

~ shameful ~





Soiled Meat

Stumpus posted:

Which Ascension in app purchases are worth it if you really liked the base game?

Are they all compatible with the base game? Only one specifically says it is.
All of them, Storm of Souls first then Immortal Heroes next if you have to prioritize. I highly recommend trying the expansions, as they bring in some very different strategies compared to the base game; the base game isn't really good for focusing on power-only kill decks, but that can be pretty useful in the other sets, as well as making lifebound heavy decks for combos or using void cards to trim all the crap out of your deck. The promo cards can be pretty cool too, though the people you play with will need them too.

You can mix and match sets all you want, though if you lump them all together, you can't really have focused strategies. Like zonar said, you can play Storm of Souls by itself without adding the base deck, and if you're just playing 2-player games, Immortal Heroes and Return of the Fallen can be played by themselves too.

Daedalus Esquire
Mar 30, 2008

FlashBangBob posted:

So I was talking with my wife today about the market. I had an idea to take it in a drastic direction that would remove the buying and selling of elements and turn it more into like a "job" market? For example, every few minutes there'd be five "orders" on a board, and you could claim one of them. They'd be larger orders -- for example, "The klingon race is demanding 100 of each resource (non-electrium) in the next hour. Rewards: $1000".

Here's the summary of the changes I'm thinking of:
1) The current resource market is completely removed.
2) A new "job" board takes it place. There are a few jobs every minute or so that require filling. You use your ships to fill these jobs.
3) Once a job is claimed by a player, they cannot claim another job until that one is complete, or the time expires.
4) The ability to buy resources you don't have or sell resources you don't need go away completely.
5) Ships and upgrades are no longer purchased by using resources, instead they are bought using cash.
6) Ships mine resources -> Fill orders -> Player gets cash from the order -> Buys more ships.

Few other ideas: Competitive orders, where the first player to fill a tough order gets a special reward, or a leaderboard point based on players that complete these sorts of jobs.

Thoughts, goons? Am I putting effort into something that not worth it?

Ehhh, I'd probably stop playing. I like that that's its a market trading game, I just think you need to add something that makes it more then a wild guessing game. You said you don't want people to see historical prices, but you never know how the market is going to change based off past performance and with random events it's even less predictable.

FlashBangBob
Jul 5, 2007

BLAM! Internet Found!

Daedalus Esquire posted:

I just think you need to add something that makes it more then a wild guessing game.

I really need your help with this:
If you have the sense that a resource is going to go up in price, but it doesn't... it essentially makes you feel like you are playing a wild guessing game. <--- This is not fun
If you have the sense that a resource is going to go up in price, and it does (Because the game or history told you so) then there's absolutely no work to be done by the player other than to translate the information into buy or sell. <--- This is not fun either.

FlashBangBob fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Apr 21, 2014

Uberskooper
Apr 30, 2007
Skoops up goood
I thought I would post some feedback on Wayward Souls. I have played about a dozen games as the Rouge so far (would put in more but I have to prepare a lecture) and I have been having a blast. I have not beaten the first boss, but I have reached him twice. At first I thought I would have trouble recognizing him, but once I got there I had no doubt about who he was.

The game is quite difficult, but in a fun way. Health regenerates only a little bit after each level of the dungeon, so you have to develop quite a bit of skill to win. Otherwise you will reach the boss with only a little bit of health like I did. I died a lot, but my frustration was assuaged because the core gameplay is as fun as it was in Mage Gauntlet (possible more so) and because I felt like I was still making progress even if I didn't make it far. Each run resulted in some coins that I could use to upgrade my abilities to help me do a little better next time. This and the prospect of unlocking characters, dungeons, abilities, and equipment make it easy for me to see how this game will have a lot of life.

In the little bit of time I spent tooling around with the Sorceress, it looks like each character will have a pretty distinct play style. The Rouge took a bit of getting used to since she is so different from Lexi, but once I got the hang of it I started to do better.

The procedurally generated dungeons have quite a bit of variety. There are also story elements that seem at least in part procedurally generated. Every once in a while I encountered conversations with other characters or between ghosts. I didn't expect this and was pleasantly surprised.

I played the game on my iPhone 4 and there seemed to be a bit of slowdown when there were a lot of things happening at once. This was only noticeable in the tutorial run with the Paladin. I got slow down when I was outside in the rain. The initial dungeon of the main game has been lag free so far. I'm not sure how much you can optimize the game, but it would be nice to turn off some of the fancier features to reduce slowdown. I assume some of the later parts of the tower will feature some more graphically intensive elements than the mines have.

Hopefully Kepa is happy enough with this feedback to post another code. Thank you for posting these codes. I think it's generating a lot of excitement and I hope it's giving you useful feedback. I don't want my poor playing ability to hold you guys up. If not, I'll keep chugging along.

Edit: Okay I beat the first boss fair in square. I thought for sure I was going to die, but I got him. All of the above comments still apply. I'm getting pretty noticeable slowdown in the tower. I walked into a big room and it was a little jarring on my iPhone 4.

Uberskooper fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Apr 21, 2014

Bogart
Apr 12, 2010

by VideoGames
Word Up Dog is an insanely charming little game. And Ascendancy might be, but I loaded that up and just got this Civ 2 flashback something terrible. What the hell is going on here. They're both free right now, so get 'em!

Javid
Oct 21, 2004

:jpmf:

FlashBangBob posted:

Thoughts, goons? Am I putting effort into something that not worth it?

Yes.

I'd let the mechanics play out as they are for a bit and see what develops. The interface could use improvement first, IMO.

Instead of tapping into a submenu and then scrolling to select a mission, make all the mission types buttons you can tap on the ship screen, like so:



Tap the mission, it shows you cost/reward/time and a confirmation dialog. Much more streamlined than swiping around is now.

The programmed "Sell x amount of y resource at z price" type transactions would be nice also.

E: best penny stock profit so far

Javid fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Apr 21, 2014

croutonZA
Jan 5, 2011
Since Chinatown wars got mentioned, how is the iOS port? I don't think it's a universal app so a phone or tablet recommendation would be awesome as well. :)

iuvian
Dec 27, 2003
darwin'd



croutonZA posted:

Since Chinatown wars got mentioned, how is the iOS port? I don't think it's a universal app so a phone or tablet recommendation would be awesome as well. :)

There is a free version. I found the controls to be awful and ruined the game.

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BennyGsGhost
Jun 27, 2002

Low P/B or Bust
Pillbug

FlashBangBob posted:

I really need your help with this:
If you have the sense that a resource is going to go up in price, but it doesn't... it essentially makes you feel like you are playing a wild guessing game. <--- This is not fun
If you have the sense that a resource is going to go up in price, and it does (Because the game or history told you so) then there's absolutely no work to be done by the player other than to translate the information into buy or sell. <--- This is not fun either.

Your first point isn't necessarily true though. Consider the success of the roulette wheel, especially when players can see historic information. We know humans extract patterns where there are none, right? But seeing the history gives you a feeling of control or knowledge that while very false, still feels better than blind guessing. "Wow, it's been red the past four spins, bet red!! Drat, black. But now red again?? Black was an anomaly!"

If we saw historic prices (maybe just over a daily period with intra-day significant movement) you would at least be able to decide if the low you saw at noon was the lowest it was going all day, even if that's a blind guess. It still feels better than having no information at all to support a decision. Even better would be the news stories that accompanied movement. So I see Electrium was $400 at noon and it's slightly up off that low at 1, and I reason that it's unlikely to break that barrier now that it's off the low, so I buy. Then the price drops and I see a news story that a one-time influx of Electrium due to the liquidation of some company has hit the price. That "news" is random, and is just generated to justify the price going down...but I, as a player, can more easily believe that I was RIGHT about that pattern and some random thing screwed me over.

You'll find (I think) that people see patterns in all kinds of ways if you give them information. Wow the past three days between 3-4pm electrium jumped because of company liquidation! It must be a daily thing!!

This is basically the way the short-term stock market works too actually, almost 100% random in the extreme short term and yet people are content to play that game, because of the illusion of control.

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