Thanks for the detailed reply. It is indeed sad that all mobile users seem trained to not pay anything for... well, anything. It's not just games either... They won't pay anything for music, etc. So I'm sympathetic with the rather toxic environment today's devs face. I understand why you made it the way you did. Still you are sorta saying two different things here... that the IAP is hardly needed - yet the game wouldn't function properly without it without rebalancing the entire thing. In other words there must be a point where you have to buy something to progress further in the game. And I understand this... how else would you make any money? So besides buying into something where you don't know the overall cost... today's gamer has to wonder if the tough level he is facing is because of his lack of skill or tactics or that he is now "supposed to lose" so the dev can get paid. Kinda warps the whole concept that a game should require -some- semblance of skill or planning. I don't know if I should buy an IAP at this point to continue the game or if I should feel guilty as maybe if I kept trying I could get past it. ??? But I do believe you should be paid... Just wish there was a better way to do it. I suppose games where you get to play a good bit and then have to pay to unlock the rest also don't do we'll financially? That, to me would be fair but I honestly don't know if that plan makes money either. So of course I'll try your game and will probably enjoy it and send some $$$ your way. Heck I feel like I owe you for making you go through the justifications for your pricing setup. ;-) To the people annoyed about the IAP discussion... Sorry 'bout that - I simply wanted to ask as it looked like a game I'd enjoy. Back to your usual programming now...
Suggestion to the developer: Implement a 2.99-3.99 $ permanent coin doubler via IAP in the next update, I will buy that in a heartbeat.
The game seems pretty generic overall. I've played up to the first castle and I MAY play further but I doubt it. The unlockable items feel superficial as the incremental enemy difficulty creep is more than sufficient to prevent you from feeling any real benefit from upgrading your gear. Mostly the battles play out the same way: match tiles to do attacks. You're trying to actively work an elemental weakness system that rewards you for paying attention to enemy types but ultimately you only have so much control over which tiles you have on your board and what you can make a match with at any given time. One thing I will say that is somewhat nice is that you're able to make a move without making a match. This allows you to be somewhat more strategic and set up bigger combos to align with your critical hit that procs every so many tile matches. However, each time you make a move (match or no) the enemy will smack you in the face. It's an interesting risk/reward mechanic but not super deep. You also charge spells which aren't horrible but generally feel underpowered when compared to the attacks. I found myself mostly using them every time they were fully charged because they charge back up pretty quickly. For what it's worth, the IAP thing didn't seem that pervasive. I did finally run into a timer after losing a fight on an optional level. It looks like you have 3 lives and 30 minutes to recharge. Not horrible as long as you aren't dying repeatedly. The premium currency system looks like it's almost exclusively used for extra primary currency and early equipment
Damn' what a fun game...this was. Lost the 3rd world boss battle and now i should wait for refill, or pay to rent this game for a bit longer. Deleted. Edit: i don't even care to rate these timer crap anymore on the app store. "One" voice is not enough to stop the timer train which left the station a long time ago.
What the ? You have only one game on your iDevice or what ? Between this, SMU, Terra Battle and Angry Birds Transformers. Timers are just flying away.
I can understand the frustration with timers. But - this is a VERY lenient timer system. (I'd hesitate to even really call it a timer...more like a countdown - it's hard to run into it quickly...) So for you to lose and have to wait to play again that means you... - Died 3 times in quick succession, using up your stock of 2 life potions - Didn't opt to continue instead (via premium currency or by watching a 30-second ad). Granted, this is really only effective if the last boss' health is low already cuz you only get a % of your life back. - When you replayed you didn't look to change your equipment, armor, or pre-charge any spells (via coins earned) that could have helped you - Decided not to use the offer to watch ONE 30-second ad and get a full life potion right away. - And decided that you didn't want to wait 30 minutes or use stamps to get a full life potion again either. If you died once, saw a timer up in the left-hand corner and decided to delete the app, then you may not have realized that it's merely counting until you get an additional life potion. You have 2, giving you 3 lives effectively, that regenerate at a rate of 1 every 30 minutes. Did you die just the once, or had you used up your potions completely?
Wow you broke it down for him lol. I agree but dont we all work anyway I mean who cant do something else for 30 minutes
Yeah I mean I get that no one likes timers but the game literally gives you many chances to avoid it and then presents an option to skip waiting that doesn't even involve paying!
It's not saying 2 different things. Let me give you a real world example. I run the Touch Arcade troop for Battle Camp, a "free" to play game and happens to be a match 3 at its core. Been running it a year now. Unlike most of these sorts of games, this one is a true multiplayer strategy game with coordinated raids, etc.. I must have 25 solid, reliable players for the troop to do anything of note (and we do a lot, we are a top 300 troop in a game with several thousand competing troops and many thousands of screw off troops). One of my biggest hurdles in pushing us farther is people not being willing to spend on a game they play all day long for months on end. Like most of these games, they're not so much FREE to play as "payment optional". If you want to compete at the very highest tiers you are going to play a lot, so we don't go there, but even if you choose to be a functional non spender, the truth is that the game is going to squeeze you harder and harder on inventory as you climb the ladder and need to have more team build options, more trade fodder for building your team, etc.. Myself, I've put in over $100 just for inventory, and there isn't any second guessing that it was worth it because I do play the game 5-10 min out of nearly every waking hour and have been doing so for more than a year. It's a good, solid game that keeps me entertained and thinking. From my p.o.v. why wouldn't I spend money on the game since that's what keeps the servers running and development going. It's cheaper than any other type of entertainment no matter how many eyebrows just went up at me spending more than a Franklin on a mobile game over 13 months of playing. However, the majority of the troop won't spend a dime on what is their major source of entertainment. They play for months and wind up holding everyone else back because they're trying to function with only the inventory they were able to casually Tapjoy their way to. I can't force these people to spend any more than the developers can, and yet the game is STRONGLY monetized. They are jingling the tip jar constantly. And, sure, it's annoying, but you tune it out after a while and also realize why they do it, and it's because the majority of people out there will give absolutely nothing back no matter how good the game is, no matter how long they play it, and no matter how much they play it,. So, no, he wasn't saying two different things, he was stating the unfortunate reality. Somebody like me is "forced" into spending as much as 3-4 high quality console/PC games for a mobile game just to unlock enough inventory to play comfortably at my level of competitiveness because I have to cover for the 30 people who are eating up just as much server time and bandwidth without paying anything. If all of us had just been willing to drop $4.99 up front, the game could be a completely different beast with exactly the same amount of revenue, but the ugly truth is that those 30 people are going to keep on leeching indefinitely with no intention of ever paying no matter how strongly the game is monetized. -------- On a completely different subject, the game specifically LOL, my first impressions are generally positive with caveats. The comparisons to Spellfall seem mostly accurate, but this game does have true puzzling elements whereas Spellfall is very simplistic matching only with next to zero puzzle elements. More importantly, the feel of the game is much more fast paced than Spellfall. I eventually grew bored and deleted Spellfall for the combination of next to zero actual game combined with a glacial pace of advancement. That said, the match-3 is still very rudimentary. It's Candy Crush matching all the way with an overarching combat system instead of more concrete goals within the matching puzzle itself. Not seeing much strategic depth or thought involved so doubt I will stay with it very long (Battle Camp and Terra Battle are my tile games of choice), but it does have its share of charm and polish. With the up front cost of free to try it, people who enjoy these sort of games should give it a try and see if it grabs them or not.
Looky here a "free to play" match 3 that isn't a total rip-off. Been a while since I saw that. The game is moderately generous with its currency. I am almost done with the third area and so far I haven't hit a paywall yet. Unfortunately the game is a bit simple for my taste. I mean I didn't expect this to be Puzzle Quest or anything but a bit more depth would've been nice to keep me engaged and convince me to pay.
I'm not a fan of freemium games at all, but match3 is my favorite puzzle genre so I gave this one a chance and I'm surprised how polished and fun the gameplay is. Don't know about the timers yet, I didn't have a chance to die yet so I can't complain about the timers yet but so far it's very generous with the coins for repeating the easier levels (boss fights mostly) and the spell upgrades are pretty much the first thing to do. I'd appreciate the possibility of IAP for removing ads, maybe a coin doubler as well. I saw a comparison to Darkin a few pages back but AX is not that complex imo, it's easier, simpler and much faster. It's not a bad thing, just a fact. Anyway, I'm enjoying the game so far and I recommend it to all match3 fans, it's worth a try for sure.
If I was in your troop I'd probably decide to go to another. Something about being called a leech that holds you back may not sit well with people. Now...back to the topic at hand. This game is great. The freemium stuff isn't that bad.
With that sort of knee-jerk, sanctimonious attitude, glad you're not. It's one of the hardest working, best organized, friendliest troops you're going to find in the game for non-spenders. If there was any real issue with them being non-spenders we would do what most troops do that are trying to reach higher tiers: require people to spend X gold/event, and those troops are constantly full even with such a requirement because those that don't mind spending flock to them since they know their resources will be pooled with like minded individuals, meaning they'll get more bang for their buck. Instead, we bend over backward to keep the playing ground level for all members regardless of their level of "investment" in the game, putting troop ahead of any individual. However, no amount of idealism changes the fact that when we compete in an event where inventory is a strategic resource and 15 of 25 members have all of 3 available inventory slots we are at a disadvantage. It's not something I sugar coat because why should I? We are competing with troops that collectively spend anywhere from $100-$500 every single week and we hold our own with barely a dime toward consumable energy because we work as a team and play strategically. It's a rather remarkable achievement and you couldn't have read us more wrong if you'd tried. That said, if you're not paying to play in an FTP game, yes, you're a leech on those who do pay, what else could you be? A paying customer? Haha All the members who post here about how "principled" they see themselves for not spending on FTP games are the real reason the monetization seems so lopsided: it has to be because more equitable models fail. Between the people who see it as some sort of virtue to play a game without reciprocating, to the people who are just plain cheapasses, the people who do decide to pay have to pay the way for everyone, not just themselves.
Yep. You're right there. The sole reason the F2P market is so greedy is because of those people who are naive enough to buy $100 worth of "currency" packs. Sure...you may get a lot of play time for your money, but you could have bought 50 premium games with 10+ hours of gameplay each! and supported devs who are gambling on the actual gameplay of their title instead of tricky monetization schemes. Ahh well. We will have to agree to disagree...I suppose. Either way...I agree that this game, who's thread we've high jacked, isn't greedy. The F2P model is actually very nice. EDIT: A quick scan of the battle camp thread shows you as someone who has utter disdain for the game, and it's freemium BS and fervently opposes it's monetization. Why the change of heart, if you don't mind me asking? i found these quotes from the thread entertaining: Now to the real irony. In that thread you start a flame war, saying a fellow player has "no life" because he checks the game several times a day. ...Yet in this thread you say you have been doing just that for over a year.
