Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/m-duck/id1608380500 M.Duck Andrew Lee M.Duck is a roguelite gallery shooter about a duck that knows magic. Help Magic Duck fight his way up the mysterious to… $1.99 Buy Now Watch Media DetailsM.Duck is a roguelite gallery shooter about a duck that knows magic. Help Magic Duck fight his way up the mysterious tower that has been shining light on his pond each night and interrupting his sleep. Battle fearsome foes, discover new relics, uncover the secrets of the tower, and turn off that light once and for all! M.Duck combines roguelite features with gameplay inspired by classic gallery shooters to create a unique single-player experience. Features: - Battle over 40 different enemies and 8 unique bosses across 4 zones of the tower - Discover over 80 relics and 9 different weapons that promote a variety of different builds and playstyles - Waddle between offense and defense as you dodge attacks to find openings and blast enemies with your magic wand - Unlock additional lore, new relics, and even new game features as you fill out Magic Duck's field notes by climbing the tower and completing different challenges - Music composed by Calbert Warner Information Seller:Andrew Lee Genre:Action Release:Mar 31, 2022 Updated:Mar 31, 2022 Version:1.0 Size:157.7 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating:Unrated Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel orangecan Well-Known Member Aug 9, 2011 2,000 150 63 #2 orangecan, Apr 1, 2022 Ok I’ve just taken the plunge on this because I was bored and it looked a bit of fun and the first thing to say is that, yes it is fun. It’s a really lovely put together thing it’s got a great look and atmosphere and I really want to love it but I just can’t quite get my head around the controls. They’re not remotely complicated and really well explained in the tutorial - essentially you switch between moving left/right and moving an aim reticule around the screen and shooting but you can’t shoot and move - but my brain doesn’t seem to like the switch between the two modes and I just keep doing the wrong thing. I would say that as much as I’m struggling with it as soon as I finish typing this I’m going to pick it up again and persevere with it because it has the potential to be a great timekiller. protractor likes this. protractor Member Apr 5, 2022 5 3 3 Male #3 protractor, Apr 5, 2022 Hi, I'm Andrew, the dev behind M.Duck. Thank you so much for trying out the game and providing this thoughtful feedback! I really appreciate the kind words. The controls can definitely be a little challenging at first. Some of my testers also struggled with them initially before it eventually clicked. Hopefully it'll be same for you! orangecan likes this. Anotherkellydown Moderator Staff Member Patreon Bronze Feb 10, 2014 4,577 1,132 113 Male CAD Technician I Upstate NY https://youtube.com/channel/UCcvu9xhE7xT-mZrXUZQJr5g #4 Anotherkellydown, Apr 6, 2022 Last edited: Apr 6, 2022 I heard the controls were tricky from a couple different places so I didn’t plan on getting this. But I’m so glad I did. They definitely take some getting used to but not as long as I thought they would. I’m not an expert with them but can tell with some more practice I’ll be making good progress. After only a couple runs it all clicked. M.Duck has all the good stuff that makes a great RogueLite. The Field Notes tab shows you the creatures you’ve encountered and gives a bonus for beating a specified number of them. Once a set of waves is complete you’re offered three choices of relics to choose from to carry with you until the end of each run. Pretty standard stuff. But what’s cool is that in the same Field Notes book with the list of enemies there’s a list of all the relics you’ve used as well. Picking up those relics during a run will grant you a permanent buff after collecting each particular one a given number of times. Edit: not all relics have this. A few of them can get upgraded though. Everything about the presentation is quite good. Graphics, music, enemy variety and new game mechanics just to name a few. I’ve only scratched the surface but can see this staying on my iPhone (and iPad) for a very long time. Speaking of playing on multiple devices, I would love the inclusion of cloud saves so that I can play on iPad when I’m at home without having to start from scratch. As a solo indie dev, it’s probably not something you’d prioritize for future updates but it sure would be a nice bonus. I’m going to make a gameplay video on my iPad mini and post it here for people to check out. Thanks for the follow back on Twitter, @protractor Lull4by, protractor, orangecan and 1 other person like this. Anotherkellydown Moderator Staff Member Patreon Bronze Feb 10, 2014 4,577 1,132 113 Male CAD Technician I Upstate NY https://youtube.com/channel/UCcvu9xhE7xT-mZrXUZQJr5g #5 Anotherkellydown, Apr 6, 2022 Gameplay video with tutorial at the end: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel protractor Member Apr 5, 2022 5 3 3 Male #6 protractor, Apr 6, 2022 @Anotherkellydown Thank you for trying out M.Duck! I'm really glad you seem to have had a relatively smooth time with the controls and have been enjoying it. It's so cool seeing a gameplay video - you had a really sick dodge at 11:26. Just to elaborate on the progression system. There are a variety of challenges in the game - many of which involve defeating X enemies or using a specific relic Y times and there are a few more complicated ones. Some relics can get upgraded via challenges (mostly spells), but the rest usually unlock additional lore or new relics that are added to the pool. I'll be sure to look into cloud saves too! Anotherkellydown likes this. andreadeda Well-Known Member Mar 6, 2013 174 43 28 #7 andreadeda, May 10, 2022 I’m playing it a lot recently but still didn’t finish it. It’s quiet hard… managed to get to the fourth level but couldn’t get yet to the fourth boss. I have a question. How do you remove curse? Some objects are cursed and I see to achieve the star you need to uncurse them but so far I didn’t find any way to do so. I collected 68 stars so far… protractor likes this. protractor Member Apr 5, 2022 5 3 3 Male #8 protractor, May 10, 2022 Hi @andreadeda thanks for playing, I hope you've been enjoying it so far! The game can be quite hard at first, but you're so close to the end. You got this! With regards to removing curses, you'll need to complete Fantome's challenges (one of the possible Zone 3 bosses). This will unlock the Holy Water which has a chance to appear as a reward whenever you are using a cursed item and can be used to decurse an item. Good luck! andreadeda Well-Known Member Mar 6, 2013 174 43 28 #9 andreadeda, May 10, 2022 Thank you for the reply; i'll go straight away to try it tops2 Well-Known Member Jan 21, 2011 2,083 56 48 #10 tops2, Jan 12, 2023 Last edited: Jan 12, 2023 Picked this up the other day and having a lot of fun. I’m okay with the controls now. But boy is the game tough. The certain bosses are so frustrating as if I don’t take out the trash mobs, they quickly overwhelm me. Even the easy mode is still so difficult. Otherwise, having fun with the game at the moment. We’ll see how long can I can put up with the difficulty. Edit: After a bit too many tries (and working on unlocking items), somehow made it to the last boss on the easy difficulty. Boy is the game tough but fun still. I just noticed right now that I can pick some starting weapons/spells! Did not know that! Time to try unlocking a few more items! tops2 Well-Known Member Jan 21, 2011 2,083 56 48 #11 tops2, Jan 12, 2023 Last edited: Jan 14, 2023 So played 2 more rounds and somehow managed to beat the boss on easy mode! Boy what a rush! Maybe the difference maker (a side from getting used to the controls) is playing more tactically/slow vs fast like an arcade game. I also found I didn't need to take care of all trash mobs near bosses. 2 or 3 of the bosses are still a bit hard, but the rest aren't too bad anymore. I've almost unlocked all the simple goals so mostly have the beat the game with all weapons and beat the game on normal. Loving the game a lot now that things clicked. Edit: Oops! Was trying to edit my original post but some weird internet connection thing happened. I accidentally replied to myself instead of editing. Sorry about that. Edit 2: Boy oh boy! Getting better. I was able to beat the game on normal. Got almost everything unlocked. Still can’t get 2 of the cursed items uncursed. Kinda feels like there’s way too many relics and gets frustrating when going for specific item unlocks. I have 2 more items left to beat the game with and 2 boss achievements to try for. I do see 2 more relics locked. Overall, loving the game! protractor likes this. protractor Member Apr 5, 2022 5 3 3 Male #12 protractor, Jan 15, 2023 @tops2 Thanks for playing and congratulations on beating the game! It's awesome being able to see your improvement and I'm really glad you stuck with it. Your experience is very similar to other players I've spoken to who have completed M.Duck. A lot of them talked about how playing slower really helped them progress further. Eventually the game just 'clicked' and they were consistently making deeper runs while mastering the game (which also allowed them start playing much faster)! I also feel like there are too many relics in the game right now and it's especially painful trying to get the last few relics uncursed. I've been planning a pretty significant content update and I'd like to remove some of the relics from the game while also adding some ways to remove items from the pool during a run. For now, if you haven't already been doing this already, I would toggle the Elevator Pass from the main menu and restart runs until you begin with the cursed item you need in your inventory. Thanks again for playing! Seeing your posts definitely makes me eager to work on it some more. tops2 likes this. tops2 Well-Known Member Jan 21, 2011 2,083 56 48 #13 tops2, Jan 15, 2023 Last edited: Jan 18, 2023 Wow! Didn’t know the Elevator Pass gives you random relics! Not sure if it’s mentioned anywhere about the unlocks like Elevator Pass. I didn’t know how the boss selection worked until I finally tried it today. Otherwise, love the game. I now just have the Cursed Laptop, beat Magnetic Duck under certain time and last boss with 6 or fewer relics. The Magnetic Duck is tough though. I had one run with a bunch of summons…but I forgot to use boss selector… Next time! I can constantly reach 3rd world even if the relics aren’t “optimal”. Getting through to 4th world is still really tough and pretty dependent on relics for me. Last boss actually seems not bad. Not sure how tough it’ll be if I have 6 or less relics but we’ll see. Not sure what’s the best way to handle the number of relics. You mentioned some options. Main way is remove relics. Vampire Survivors allows banishing (multiple) skills. Multiple rerolls (and not allow ones that showed up to be show up again on reroll). Or allow 4 or 5 options..but especially with 5 options, may make it too easy to build something specific. Or maybe once cursed relics are chosen AND the cursed relic achievement hasn’t been unlocked, drastically increase the chance of Holy Water to show up. I do like the intermission of zone 3 where there’s options to exchange relics. Could add intermission to zone 4 (but maybe retheme?) Maybe ensure at least 3 options are present for exchange to possibly deal with relic dilution? I do feel like enough runs I try to gamble for certain relics just not have the relevant ones show up. Like picking the relic that gives bonus when armored and not having the relics that actually generate armor to show up. Can’t wait for the update! I do feel a bit burnt out so may take a break, but it was a lot of fun! Edit: So...ended up playing a bit more. Unlocked everything except for the Magnetic Duck. The last bonus weapon was fun to use but a bit tough initially. Found a relic that really helped it and made it much easier! Boy..not sure I can do the Magnetic Duck task. I guess I need to learn to time his moves and find a way to do more damage faster! Edit2: Whew! After a few attempts, I settled using the hammer. I lucked out on some extra ammo and the cursed laptop and last ammo extra damage. Got to Magnetic Duck and timed spamming attacks and finally beat him within 45 seconds! Finally unlocked everything. Now…I can take a break until next update! Love the variety of weapons and different play styles I can explore! protractor likes this. protractor Member Apr 5, 2022 5 3 3 Male #14 protractor, Jan 18, 2023 Congrats! You did it! Magnetic Duck is by far the hardest boss and his challenge is one of the most demanding ones as well. Did you uncurse the laptop? If not, you must have been landing everything to overcome that initial delay from the curse. The update I envision is pretty far off, but I'll hopefully be able to dedicate some time to it again once I finish with my current project at my day job. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience/thoughts. Thanks again! tops2 Well-Known Member Jan 21, 2011 2,083 56 48 #15 tops2, Jan 19, 2023 Last edited: Jan 19, 2023 I think I was able to uncurse the laptop and also got a +1 ammo relic. Think I had increase last shot damage. Really helped to spam 4 timed shots. I think I was almost holding my breath and heart pounding! The last boss turned out to be a cakewalk with this build! Guess my main “cheese” strategy pick a weapon and then keep rerolling the Elevator Pass until I get an okay set of relics. PBSNellie Well-Known Member Jul 7, 2013 1,381 168 63 Southern CA #16 PBSNellie, Jan 20, 2023 I am so uncoordinated. tops2 Well-Known Member Jan 21, 2011 2,083 56 48 #17 tops2, Jan 20, 2023 The controls definitely takes getting used to. Initially, its feels clunky and hard to play M.Duck like a fast paced arcade game. Especially against certain bosses, I totally feel like the controls stack the odds against me and feels frustrating when the trash enemies build up and I don't have time to clear everything. Eventually I slowed down and played methodically (and learned enemies behaviors). Prioritizing which enemy to eliminate first helps with the movement/aiming controls. I found I don't need to eliminate all trash mobs for the bosses. Learning positioning and having enemy shoot in disadvantageous spots give you time to move and shoot while they reload. I spent time unlocking relics and slowly getting better. But at some point, there's too many relics so difficult to build effective relic combos for some runs. Since completing the game a few days back, I'm still playing (at the easier difficulty) and having fun exploring different weapons. PBSNellie Well-Known Member Jul 7, 2013 1,381 168 63 Southern CA #18 PBSNellie, Jan 20, 2023 Thank you for this. I appreciate it. (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now. Yes, my password is: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
Ok I’ve just taken the plunge on this because I was bored and it looked a bit of fun and the first thing to say is that, yes it is fun. It’s a really lovely put together thing it’s got a great look and atmosphere and I really want to love it but I just can’t quite get my head around the controls. They’re not remotely complicated and really well explained in the tutorial - essentially you switch between moving left/right and moving an aim reticule around the screen and shooting but you can’t shoot and move - but my brain doesn’t seem to like the switch between the two modes and I just keep doing the wrong thing. I would say that as much as I’m struggling with it as soon as I finish typing this I’m going to pick it up again and persevere with it because it has the potential to be a great timekiller.
Hi, I'm Andrew, the dev behind M.Duck. Thank you so much for trying out the game and providing this thoughtful feedback! I really appreciate the kind words. The controls can definitely be a little challenging at first. Some of my testers also struggled with them initially before it eventually clicked. Hopefully it'll be same for you!
I heard the controls were tricky from a couple different places so I didn’t plan on getting this. But I’m so glad I did. They definitely take some getting used to but not as long as I thought they would. I’m not an expert with them but can tell with some more practice I’ll be making good progress. After only a couple runs it all clicked. M.Duck has all the good stuff that makes a great RogueLite. The Field Notes tab shows you the creatures you’ve encountered and gives a bonus for beating a specified number of them. Once a set of waves is complete you’re offered three choices of relics to choose from to carry with you until the end of each run. Pretty standard stuff. But what’s cool is that in the same Field Notes book with the list of enemies there’s a list of all the relics you’ve used as well. Picking up those relics during a run will grant you a permanent buff after collecting each particular one a given number of times. Edit: not all relics have this. A few of them can get upgraded though. Everything about the presentation is quite good. Graphics, music, enemy variety and new game mechanics just to name a few. I’ve only scratched the surface but can see this staying on my iPhone (and iPad) for a very long time. Speaking of playing on multiple devices, I would love the inclusion of cloud saves so that I can play on iPad when I’m at home without having to start from scratch. As a solo indie dev, it’s probably not something you’d prioritize for future updates but it sure would be a nice bonus. I’m going to make a gameplay video on my iPad mini and post it here for people to check out. Thanks for the follow back on Twitter, @protractor
@Anotherkellydown Thank you for trying out M.Duck! I'm really glad you seem to have had a relatively smooth time with the controls and have been enjoying it. It's so cool seeing a gameplay video - you had a really sick dodge at 11:26. Just to elaborate on the progression system. There are a variety of challenges in the game - many of which involve defeating X enemies or using a specific relic Y times and there are a few more complicated ones. Some relics can get upgraded via challenges (mostly spells), but the rest usually unlock additional lore or new relics that are added to the pool. I'll be sure to look into cloud saves too!
I’m playing it a lot recently but still didn’t finish it. It’s quiet hard… managed to get to the fourth level but couldn’t get yet to the fourth boss. I have a question. How do you remove curse? Some objects are cursed and I see to achieve the star you need to uncurse them but so far I didn’t find any way to do so. I collected 68 stars so far…
Hi @andreadeda thanks for playing, I hope you've been enjoying it so far! The game can be quite hard at first, but you're so close to the end. You got this! With regards to removing curses, you'll need to complete Fantome's challenges (one of the possible Zone 3 bosses). This will unlock the Holy Water which has a chance to appear as a reward whenever you are using a cursed item and can be used to decurse an item. Good luck!
Picked this up the other day and having a lot of fun. I’m okay with the controls now. But boy is the game tough. The certain bosses are so frustrating as if I don’t take out the trash mobs, they quickly overwhelm me. Even the easy mode is still so difficult. Otherwise, having fun with the game at the moment. We’ll see how long can I can put up with the difficulty. Edit: After a bit too many tries (and working on unlocking items), somehow made it to the last boss on the easy difficulty. Boy is the game tough but fun still. I just noticed right now that I can pick some starting weapons/spells! Did not know that! Time to try unlocking a few more items!
So played 2 more rounds and somehow managed to beat the boss on easy mode! Boy what a rush! Maybe the difference maker (a side from getting used to the controls) is playing more tactically/slow vs fast like an arcade game. I also found I didn't need to take care of all trash mobs near bosses. 2 or 3 of the bosses are still a bit hard, but the rest aren't too bad anymore. I've almost unlocked all the simple goals so mostly have the beat the game with all weapons and beat the game on normal. Loving the game a lot now that things clicked. Edit: Oops! Was trying to edit my original post but some weird internet connection thing happened. I accidentally replied to myself instead of editing. Sorry about that. Edit 2: Boy oh boy! Getting better. I was able to beat the game on normal. Got almost everything unlocked. Still can’t get 2 of the cursed items uncursed. Kinda feels like there’s way too many relics and gets frustrating when going for specific item unlocks. I have 2 more items left to beat the game with and 2 boss achievements to try for. I do see 2 more relics locked. Overall, loving the game!
@tops2 Thanks for playing and congratulations on beating the game! It's awesome being able to see your improvement and I'm really glad you stuck with it. Your experience is very similar to other players I've spoken to who have completed M.Duck. A lot of them talked about how playing slower really helped them progress further. Eventually the game just 'clicked' and they were consistently making deeper runs while mastering the game (which also allowed them start playing much faster)! I also feel like there are too many relics in the game right now and it's especially painful trying to get the last few relics uncursed. I've been planning a pretty significant content update and I'd like to remove some of the relics from the game while also adding some ways to remove items from the pool during a run. For now, if you haven't already been doing this already, I would toggle the Elevator Pass from the main menu and restart runs until you begin with the cursed item you need in your inventory. Thanks again for playing! Seeing your posts definitely makes me eager to work on it some more.
Wow! Didn’t know the Elevator Pass gives you random relics! Not sure if it’s mentioned anywhere about the unlocks like Elevator Pass. I didn’t know how the boss selection worked until I finally tried it today. Otherwise, love the game. I now just have the Cursed Laptop, beat Magnetic Duck under certain time and last boss with 6 or fewer relics. The Magnetic Duck is tough though. I had one run with a bunch of summons…but I forgot to use boss selector… Next time! I can constantly reach 3rd world even if the relics aren’t “optimal”. Getting through to 4th world is still really tough and pretty dependent on relics for me. Last boss actually seems not bad. Not sure how tough it’ll be if I have 6 or less relics but we’ll see. Not sure what’s the best way to handle the number of relics. You mentioned some options. Main way is remove relics. Vampire Survivors allows banishing (multiple) skills. Multiple rerolls (and not allow ones that showed up to be show up again on reroll). Or allow 4 or 5 options..but especially with 5 options, may make it too easy to build something specific. Or maybe once cursed relics are chosen AND the cursed relic achievement hasn’t been unlocked, drastically increase the chance of Holy Water to show up. I do like the intermission of zone 3 where there’s options to exchange relics. Could add intermission to zone 4 (but maybe retheme?) Maybe ensure at least 3 options are present for exchange to possibly deal with relic dilution? I do feel like enough runs I try to gamble for certain relics just not have the relevant ones show up. Like picking the relic that gives bonus when armored and not having the relics that actually generate armor to show up. Can’t wait for the update! I do feel a bit burnt out so may take a break, but it was a lot of fun! Edit: So...ended up playing a bit more. Unlocked everything except for the Magnetic Duck. The last bonus weapon was fun to use but a bit tough initially. Found a relic that really helped it and made it much easier! Boy..not sure I can do the Magnetic Duck task. I guess I need to learn to time his moves and find a way to do more damage faster! Edit2: Whew! After a few attempts, I settled using the hammer. I lucked out on some extra ammo and the cursed laptop and last ammo extra damage. Got to Magnetic Duck and timed spamming attacks and finally beat him within 45 seconds! Finally unlocked everything. Now…I can take a break until next update! Love the variety of weapons and different play styles I can explore!
Congrats! You did it! Magnetic Duck is by far the hardest boss and his challenge is one of the most demanding ones as well. Did you uncurse the laptop? If not, you must have been landing everything to overcome that initial delay from the curse. The update I envision is pretty far off, but I'll hopefully be able to dedicate some time to it again once I finish with my current project at my day job. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience/thoughts. Thanks again!
I think I was able to uncurse the laptop and also got a +1 ammo relic. Think I had increase last shot damage. Really helped to spam 4 timed shots. I think I was almost holding my breath and heart pounding! The last boss turned out to be a cakewalk with this build! Guess my main “cheese” strategy pick a weapon and then keep rerolling the Elevator Pass until I get an okay set of relics.
The controls definitely takes getting used to. Initially, its feels clunky and hard to play M.Duck like a fast paced arcade game. Especially against certain bosses, I totally feel like the controls stack the odds against me and feels frustrating when the trash enemies build up and I don't have time to clear everything. Eventually I slowed down and played methodically (and learned enemies behaviors). Prioritizing which enemy to eliminate first helps with the movement/aiming controls. I found I don't need to eliminate all trash mobs for the bosses. Learning positioning and having enemy shoot in disadvantageous spots give you time to move and shoot while they reload. I spent time unlocking relics and slowly getting better. But at some point, there's too many relics so difficult to build effective relic combos for some runs. Since completing the game a few days back, I'm still playing (at the easier difficulty) and having fun exploring different weapons.
