You might remember an interesting little title that released late last year called Arranger (Free), developed by composer Arman Bohn and published by Ayopa Games. It was a retro-inspired RPG/adventure/mini-game concoction that saw your little yellow square of a hero traveling fantastic lands and completing quest in an effort to complete a collection of instruments. The whole game is very music-centric, being created by a composer and all, but it really gelled together well, as we noted in our review. Arranger was a really cool game.
As we’ve seen happen in the App Store world before, the publishing deal with Ayopa expired or otherwise went south for some reason, and the original release of Arranger is no longer available. Arman has just re-released Arranger under his own name in the App Store, and in an effort to do right by previous purchasers, he’s making it available for free for a limited time.
The Ayopa-published version should still continue to work for the forseeable future, so you can continue playing that version if you wish. But it won’t be seeing any future updates. My advice if you enjoy Arranger is to grab this new version while it’s free.
And if you hadn’t picked up Arranger previously but had your eye on it, well, you can basically score it for free right now too. It’s a really unique game, and although it doesn’t take too long to complete, it’s a fun journey while it lasts.
"[Y]our control options are limited to moving around your cell, sighing, and crying. That's it."
You really sold me on that!
Well it's the introduction to a girl locked in a cell. What can you expect from that?!?! That's like bitching about Zelda 1 saying the buttons don't do anything cause u don't start with a sword. The shame is that we have to check it again in 24 hours to see if the controls are still limited, that you can't keep playing to see what develops. That's the real crime.
I'm kind of intrigued with what this is trying to do. I like the idea of something outside the box. Not everything has to be a typical gaming experience.
Not available in my country :(
The voice acting is terrible.
I've heard worse voice acting in some big budget movies.
I don't think the voice acting was bad, really. TONS of good budget anime and games have much worse voice acting. The failure was limiting your playtime PER DAY
I love the idea, although controls are very limited thus far. One major flaw, "come back tomorrow to see more". Dude.... Do you really want to limit how much someone can play your game in a sitting?!?! What if the user loves it?! What if they want more?!?! What if they only have an hour a week to play and u just crushed their hopes?! If I payed money for this I'd be furious. But it's free so ill stock it out.
Developer tip #1: DON'T LIMIT HOW MUCH USERS CAN PLAY YOUR GAME IN A SITTING!!!
5 minutes?!?! Really, you come up with a brilliant idea never before done, get people pumped and intrigued and tell them to come back tomorrow after 5 minutes?!?! REALLY, YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?!?! It's a cruel sick joke, and a shame. All that originality and you limit it so much. Frankly, I'm curious to know what will happen, but so furious I'm inclined to delete the app. But it was free so ill play before bed tomorrow I suppose.
YOU FAILED just so you know. Poor execution on this brilliant idea. Very poor. Making people play 5 mins in 24 hr increments. I hope you fix that in an update. Such a basic rule you violated. People don't like to come back when you make them. People like to cone back to games as their option, not as they are forced.
Because you seem somewhat upset, they will now allow you (but only you) to play for SIX minutes each day. But because such a long time would get boring, it will be split into three-minute segments every twelve hours. Pretty sweet, yeah? You can't complain about that!
Probably it's part of the experience. Like, a princess can not just change the time on her cell. We have to wait as desperately as her (nearly)
Ok so i just finished day 1,2,3 & 4.
You never get to do anything but sigh and cry. but the story's ok if you don't mind just walking around in the Cell while she monologues of her past night/day.
The story actually does have me interested and the the game gives you little updates on the knight at the start of each day and an old school level clear screen where you see how many monsters he killed etc..
Day 5 however doesn't load for me, the screen stays black and the story was just getting really tight. oh well ill just have to wait the actual five days now lol.
Anyway Pro TIP, change your day forward on your iphone and you dont need to wait. just remember to set it back when your done or some stuff wont work anymore.
I took your advice and I encountered the same problem so its a possible bug
Surprised there isn't options for different genders. Perhaps have the prince in his cell, except if it was the prince he'd have wifi internet and generally be incredibly happy every day.
The End.
ps. I'm not trolling, I think this game is a nice experiment :-)
Well, I'm enjoying finding out what's going to happen. I ranted pretty hard against the gameplay tactic of the developer, but what I FAILED TO UNDERSTAND is that you can only play snip- its on a limited timeframe, to add to the mood of the story, which I think is INCREDIBLY CLEVER. So clever, it went way over my head and just upset and frustrated me. NOW I get what the developer was getting at. In a way, getting mad about the login every day thing is similar to getting mad at an author for his setting and tone. Very, very unique game that deserves a shot. I'm enjoying my experience, and I retract my previous grumbles. Great idea here, guys. I'm curious what else you'll come up with or what other games will spinoff from this unique idea. :D
Good on ya, really couldn't understand your earlier opinion. I guess you sort of have to prepare yourself for the change. I mean so far isn't this the quintessential "Not-Game".
But my opinion still stands that its great thus far and you can tell how well it's gripping us due to the fact we are coming back and posting about it.
It's visually confused (it'd be better all in 2D with text than the low poly 3D and 8 bit interludes). The script is pretty weak and though I'm fine with interactive art over a gamey game, there is no interaction here at all; if you we're presented with six five minute audio monologues it'd have exactly the same effect as you never go beyond this tiny room. Wastes the medium a bit.
Seems it has been pulled from the US App store
Definitely NOT currently on the U.S. App store... Aww shucks, I was actually pretty interested in this one.
Yep--it's gone. Hopefully to return soon! I missed it.
so got the day 5 Notification and i'm getting black screen in game after starting on the menu, anyone else.
I'm also with a black screen on day 5. Actually, I missed one day, so I'm not sure if it would be really day 5.
So where's the "deeper look"?
Looks like this is back in the App Store now.
Prince got defeated, had to pay 1,99$ for credit, i didnt pay, prince died, princess hung herself. All free??
It was a trick, you don't actually pay, they just wanted to see if you cared. I didn't get that ending, he saved her and all was well. Didn't even know that could happen, that was pretty dark.
Took me some time but I finally finished this game.
It was pretty 'k.