Universal Castles (by Sets and Settings)

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by folmerkelly, Aug 26, 2015.

  1. unexpect3rd

    unexpect3rd Well-Known Member

    Dec 7, 2011
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    Mobile Game Developer (Fulltime as well as indie)
    Singapore
    Very clean design thusfar. loving it. Looking forward to it.
     
  2. djshep1973

    djshep1973 Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Aug 20, 2011
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    I'm really loving the art style for this, can't wait til it comes out!
     
  3. Kimchisoju

    Kimchisoju Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2015
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    Male
    Caregiver
    Castles beta

    Hey I'm kimchisoju, aka bearkiddy on Twitter and mobcrush and Facebook aka Barrett baker haha. If I could get into the beta I'd love that. Id broadcast the game if I have your permission ahead of time and I'd make sure to let you know of any issues bugs glitches and things of the like. Thank you for your time!
    Sincerely, Barrett
     
  4. ShaggyPKA

    ShaggyPKA Active Member

    May 16, 2013
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    Looks so good! Will there be a way to just pay to unlock all the cards right away?
     
  5. Chris Savory

    Chris Savory Well-Known Member

    Oct 23, 2014
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    Game Developer
    Vancouver, BC
    Great choice with the art style, instantly stands out and caught my attention. It reminds me of Rampart for SNES even though it really shouldn't.. other than just both having castles in it :) This looks like exactly the kind of experience I love on mobile. Can't wait!
     
  6. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    Can I ask what "cardwars" are you referring to here? On what system was it?
    All I know of is adventure time card wars.
    If it's not that, then it sounds like something I should check out.
     
  7. chriscambell

    chriscambell Member

    Feb 12, 2013
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    Looks great! If you ever need another tester, I'm your man!
     
  8. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    Whoa, this took off!

    Thank you TouchArcade for the lovely write-up <3 Also thank you (... a mod? someone?) for changing the thread title, that was bugging me!


    Alright so first things first: I appreciate all the beta testing requests. I'm not going to clutter up the thread with responses to every request, but I'm reading everything and keeping tabs. I'll reach out to everyone when the game is at that stage where I'll be running a beta.


    @Talbs: My bad! I actually meant the flash game Castle Wars, not Card Wars, which I think is an Adventure Time iOS game. Haven't played that so I can't comment on it. I don't think any mobile action card game has really influenced me making Castles.


    Funny story though: I started designing Castles on a Thursday morning, and on Thursday evening Monsters Ate My Metropolis came out. I'm a big PikPok fan and I liked the Monsters Ate... series so I was excited about checking that out, but I had no idea it was an action card game as well! I just assumed it'd be about swiping condos again. So MAMM isn't an inspiration but it was an interesting coincidence. MAMM is basically like if Castles only had attack cards, which is not my approach at all.


    @ShaggyPKA: I'm not sure about unlocking all the cards at once, but there should be an option to speed up unlocking cards considerably.


    Alright, so I'm steadily working on getting all the cards into the base engine, which should be done this week (I think), at which point I'll have what I can consider a working alpha. That version will be sent out to a small group of close gamedev friends (please don't ask to be in the alpha, thanks), and while they tear the game apart I'll be working on all the secondary stuff- the card unlocking system, deck building systems, all that fun stuff. Once that is in, I'll start organising the beta on TA.


    Keep the questions and comments coming, I'm always around!
     
  9. grautur

    grautur Member

    Aug 19, 2011
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    Wow, this looks amazing. I played Castle Wars quite a bit back then and had to try it again when this reminded me of it.
    Would love to beta test it!
     
  10. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    Was messing with icon designs, kinda love how this came out:

    [​IMG]
     
  11. MassiveIndie

    MassiveIndie Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2015
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    Indie Developer and Publisher
    Arizona, United States
    That icon is on point!
     
  12. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    So most of my time right now is spent drawing each card animation, which as you can imagine isn't the most exciting task. Every once in a while I take a quick break to do something else, which today lead to:

    [​IMG]
    Minor tweaks to that icon concept.


    [​IMG]
    A Night Mode option! I was playing Castles in bed last night and the huge amount of white shown on the screen just flooded the room, which isn't ideal in certain circumstances. It's a v easy thing to add to the game, so I put it in :)


    [​IMG]
    A small addition to my loading screen: I've always wanted to use that Apple spinning wheel somewhere and this felt like the perfect opportunity to finally make that happen.


    Anyway, back to animating cards for me!
     
  13. kled

    kled Member

    Aug 3, 2009
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    Hi,

    I'm available for testing, Thanks !
     
  14. PointOfLight

    PointOfLight Well-Known Member

    Dec 29, 2008
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    Programmer
    Indiana, USA
    I might as well throw my virtual hat in the ring as well. I first noticed this game during the gbjam competition, and I still think it looks extremely cool. If I can help test I'd be more than happy to. If not, I'll just hold my breath in anticipation until it comes out (warning, though, I can't hold my breath for long, so you'd better hurry up!)
     
  15. kripa1415`

    kripa1415` Well-Known Member

    Nov 30, 2012
    463
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    Looks interesting!
     
  16. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    Whoa, an early fan! That's awesome:D


    I wanted to take a moment to say everyone who has expressed interest in the beta in the thread so far will be included, no worries! I don't have an estimated time on when that'll be though- too early and too many factors to tell just yet.


    Progress: All the card animations are done. More than that: All the cards and their effects are now in the game! Actually took less time than I had anticipated, turns out my pipeline worked pretty well.


    Only things left to do before the alpha are the logic that drives the AI to select a card based on their resources, and the player + opponent deck build (both can have a deck of max. 15 cards while there are way more than that in the game). Tricky but definitely not impossible.


    Today's distractions:


    [​IMG]
    Made that loading screen a bit slicker :cool:


    [​IMG]
    CARDS BE FLIPPIN
     
  17. Talbs

    Talbs Well-Known Member

    May 1, 2011
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    I'd love to be on your beta when the time is right as well. Card games and generally strategy are my faves, and I'm really liking what I see here. I can't stand all the generic CCGs with the exact same bling graphics out these days.
    This has its own style and is awesome for it. Like dream quest though, it doesn't take just graphics to make a first class game, so really interested to see how the mechanics of this work out.
    Cheers
     
  18. Hypnoticfart

    Hypnoticfart New Member

    Sep 4, 2015
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    Looking good!

    The card animations look great, as well as the fancy loading screen. Whenever you decide you want to start testing, I would love to help. Card games are the best and always grab my attention. The fact that this card game has animations and castles to defend makes it super duper rad.

    Keep it up!
     
  19. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
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    I appreciate all the comments and test requests, it means the world to see people dig my weird niche game, thank you so much! <3

    I'm recharging a bit this weekend, ready to crunch out the alpha early next week, but of course it's #screenshotsaturday!


    [​IMG]


    I slowed it down to show how the world builds itself up :)
     
  20. folmerkelly

    folmerkelly Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2012
    82
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    I'm the worst at weekends.

    Made a logo.


    [​IMG]
     

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