With Jared out of town this week, I decided to tap Carter “3.5 Stars" Dotson to join instead. Cranky Carter, the source of The Carter Crater, and I discuss some surprisingly random stuff with Mike Meade before being joined by Prettygreat’s Phil Larsen later in the podcast to talk about where he sees the future of the App Store headed for indies with so many stories coming out about how little money is often made by developers. There isn’t any substantial game discussion this week as due to scheduling we recorded this on Tuesday, which was before the new games even came out. To make up for it, we’ll do an extra-rad podcast next week, I promise. My other idea for this week’s episode was to read an hour worth of Five Nights at Freddy’s fanfiction. I’m not sure if this is better or worse.
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After getting countless ads for Clash of Clans and Game of Whatever: Something Age-esque builders jammed in my face I think I'll stick to the original Space Miner game. I really dislike the forced multiplayer aspects of these games too.
Agree 100% with siryami
Perfectly said. Nothing is safe from becoming a 'Clash of Clans' variant , it seems.
And I also agree. The solo game is just-about perfect - quirky, enjoyable and a gentle challenge. Clash introduces the near-random possibility of everything being zapped in an instant, which is the opposite of the careful approach of Miner.
That random nature is exactly why I don't play builder games anymore. All of them have the same type of gameplay and multiplayer is something you can't turn off.
How can I tell whether I'm in New Zealand?
It's kinda disappointing to see a series I used to love so much become this. Hopefully it does well for them, at least.
Yup. I'd love to see a premium space builder where I don't have to worry about other people attacking my base or buying IAP or waiting for timers/energy. So tired of f2p. I'll be sticking to the first Space Miner.
This may still be really fun. I've played Book of Heroes for years now and it's "freemium" done right, in my opinion. But I just noticed that it doesn't show up as Venan on the App Store anymore. It's now R2 Games USA. Which concerns me now haha.
I don't know... I love Space Miner - it's one of the only games I've never deleted, but I think there might be some promise here.
I don't play CoC, but I do play Boom Beach on a casual basis and I like it over CoC because you have some control. FWIW, I'll totally give this a go, because it is Space Miner after all.
10 minutes in and this is not your typical CoC clone. Flying your ship against a base adds an element of skill that I have never seen in one of these games before. The gameplay is classic Space Miner, but looks amazing on my iPhone 6.
The F2P element is just an energy timer, so far I don't think it's going to be an issue unless you are sitting down for a marathon session or just want to suck all the fun out of saving up for stuff.
We will see where this ends up, but as of right now I am not disappointed at all as a long time Space Miner fan.
PS: to the guy who said its not under Venan on the NZ store: I can confirm that it is under Venan, not sure what game you saw.
I was referring to their Book of Heroes game. It's odd because I still use my Venan ID to play. As long as the new Space Miner is Venan, I'm happy :)
I've been playing since the launch.
It is fun still but the demands on "nano fuel" increase meaning that you may be able to go on 4-5 mining missions in a row with tier 2 ship before having to wait. Each mission lasts 3-4 minutes until your cargo bay is full. In the original the progression was very smooth. Here you will eventually hit the wall unless you cave in. I'd rather they created a premium SM 2 game. So far it is fun though and I will persist for now. I won't spend a cent though.
So far so good but only a few hours in
Have been playing it from the launch day here in Sweden. So far I like it a lot - much more flying and pretty nice story. On the plus side there is also crafting. On the cons - fuel limitation and re-designed weapons/items stacking system. But it is very solid game!