To be honest, I do go too far on performance optimization. I've actually got this game working and playing smoothly on my iPhone 4S. However, that shouldn't come at the expense of those with newer devices. I think you're the first person to be able to test it on a 2GB RAM device. I would be very eager to know if you run into the situation where characters do not respond to player input at the start of the level. I find on my iPhone 4s, that it happens when I load the second or third level in a single play through. I then have to restart and it works fine again for a couple of levels. It seems to me that something is either chewing up memory as each level is played or there is some object that is being created at the start of the each level that is not being destroyed at the end of the level and thus is causing conflicts / bugs.
I keep wondering if it has something to do with how many apps I have on my device. Yesterday I was frequently downloading apps and removing others. Christmas shenanigans.
It could be ... I know that apps occupy more memory (roughly double) when installed or perhaps when running. I'm not sure. So perhaps the amount of free space on the device has an effect. I honestly don't know ... I'm not sure if there's an equivalent to virtual memory on iOS and Android devices as there is for traditional computers. Version 1.2 should be a lot lighter on the RAM front so if you haven't run into that issue for the first 3 levels, I'm hoping it is due to RAM and therefore something I can fix with further optimization. The fact that restarting the app seems to fix it for a particular level would suggest that it's something to do with the amount of RAM available. I suspect closing other apps in the background would be helpful in that case.
Looks like iTunes Connect is down for the holidays as the file I uploaded earlier today still hasn't been processed. As such, I don't think I'll be able to upload a new file until the following week when Apple are back from their christmas break. I'll keep working on it though and try to figure out what's going on with the bugs. I'll also put more previews of other characters as I finish them as well pics of later levels.
One more question ... what do you guys think of making the game a free download but with a single in-app purchase to unlock levels 4 onwards or something. That way, people could download the game and try it before buying the full game? Is that common in iOS? It's a pretty standard feature on Windows Phone games (trial mode).
I think it would be a good idea. I think you would only need to make the dungeon free as your get the gist of it right away. Be careful though... it could backfire. This is a gamers game, in the sense that it is not casual gaming, and therefor, if some mistake it as freemium they may discount it right away. Of course, make it clear what your doing on the forums and in the app store description. Like "Try before you buy" - first level free! Of course, sometimes, if you treat it upfront like it's a premium game, people are willing to pay for it as such. I think the type of audience you have for this sort of genre are premium players. Players who will shell out $12 bucks for XCOM or $17 for FF Tactics... but thats just my two cents. Iron out the small bugs and compression issues, finish up any missing content, and fix the inventory issues... you have yourself a winner here. I've played the day 1 levels like 10 plus times now, and it's not a chore at all. This is good stuff!
Had a busy week and hoping to get on it on the weekend, I got the email but never did anything yet. As for pricing I don't mind paying for good games but even I have to think very hard before I buy games priced like Xcom ect as your open to a much smaller audience at those price. Any paid price reduces the number of downloads and players. But you need money and sadly everyone goes f2p which sadly ruins a lot of games. There's the free to download and pay to unlock after so much gameplay which some games do well but I believe on android that makes it easy to pirate? For me I'm happy to pay up to £2.99 for something I like the sound of and look into a little, if it costs more than that I have to really want it to bother getting it. I don't envy anyone having to make those decisions as there's so much to think about. But generally the lower the price the bigger audience you'll hit Id imagine but at the same time you want profit of course and then you always need to think about being a lesser known Dev compared to some out there that are well know either for good things or detested.
Jim - Could the game go in the sub 13-20 $ range? Yes. Should it? I don't think so. Xcom and FF came from a big following already and are well known brands. Most people, especially casual gamers (who are the core buyers), would not buy a high priced game from a dev they don't know. Besides offering free access, level restrictions, could also go wayward souls way. Start at 2-3 $, then increase price as you add chapters or dlc extras. Early adopters get free content, new buyers buy a more full and fleshed out game. Keeps hardcore gamers on it because it's not freemium, builds a following, and alliws for increased revenue. Or offer game free, then each additional chapter 1-2 $ each. As Jim said, make it clear your buying dlc and theres no timers or energy to buy. Not sure what restrictions apple has in place for iap, could potentially limit what you can make free or sell. I haven't touched the beta at all due to work ....spending alot of quality time with it this weekend! Will provide feedback hopefully on Sunday! Have a good one WaveLightGames!
Thanks for the feedback, gents. I think I'll probably stick with the low entry price and then increase as I add chapters 2 and 3. Once I can get this core code ironed out and free of bugs, I should be able to re-use it and the 3d graphics to produce a small mini-game in just a couple weeks. Something like 6 characters only and 20 or so levels. I can throw ads into that mini game and have links to the main game. That way people that like the free version can be directed to the main game. It could also be fun to have the mini-game be a prequel to the story in this game. Looking forward to feedback. I submitted a new version but it didn't get approved in time. Please let me know if you guys also get stuck on level 3 or if you can progress. I'm able to progress in my version but I had made some updates that might have fixed the issue ... not really sure.
By the way, I added some a new aspect to the gameplay. The player can now donate gold to the temple in the camp and in return receive divine favour. Divine favour can be spent during battle for a chance to receive a divine blessing or intervention to help your party get out of a tough spot. So, for example, the player could visit the shrine in the camp and donate 1000 gold. He would then get 1000 points of favour. In battle, there's a new button next to the inventory that you can bring up and it has a some pre-defined blessings / devine invokations in it. A variety of things like extra life from the goddess of life / rebirth, extra attack blessings from the god of war, etc. The blessings will generally apply to all members of the party and increase their stats. Each blessing has a fixed cost of favour but has a chance of failure ... so they are a bit risky but high risk / high reward. Also, the invocation can only be invoked once per battle ... the gods don't have that much time to help you, after all. What do you guys think?
My point with X-COM was not about how much they charged, and more or less about not making it freemium. For this genre, and being a new dev, your Wayward Souls example, Woodrith, seems like the route I'd take You all make great points. I like the idea of the blessing... reminds me of Warhammer Quest.In fact, this game is a lot like Warhammer Quest, except casting spells in Demon Hunter is a lot funner.
Hi guy! Sorry for not being able to post comments yesterday, but I am in France and it was already late lol 2 comments so far: - The camera is sometimes very semsible for moving the game window, but on the contrary, I often have trouble making the rotation of the screen ... - I had a bug: just at the beginning of the 3rd fight (I think), in the front of the grid with the lever, I could not move any of my characters, or select them. I had to leave the game. I hope this helps. Soon for following Happy Christmas holidays!
Concerning the price Regarding the price of the game, for my part, I prefer to pay directly the game in its entirety and be quiet. For your game, once it is finalized and stable well, I guess I am ready to pay between 4 and 6 euros. I think this is a good price. Maybe 7 euros if you add the levels that you have planed and if they are interractifs
Cool ... seems to be working nicely so far and I think it'll add something else to do with the gold that players purchase. Now, instead of just buying more equipment, they can also use the gold for divine favour.
Thanks for the feedback. 1 - I'll adjust the sensitivity of the rotate so that it's easier to rotate. That's just changing out a variable in the code. 2 - Seems you're having the same bug that I and others are finding. This is very depressing as I was thinking was due to memory constraints. However, if you're running into the same issue on a 2GB device, there's no way it's related to memory. I'm going to keep digging. I have a couple more ideas and options that I'm going to explore. Will keep you guys posted.
Thanks for writing up the article! I'll send you more details once I'm close to release date. I just really need to focus on fixing these bugs that are in there and then I can focus on spreading the word.
I'm hoping for Jan 15th, 2015. It all depends on whether I can iron out some of these bugs though. The game is basically finished ... just needs polishing and bug fixing. By the way, I"m guessing from your username that you're a 40K fan? That's awesome ... I played warhammer for the past 15 years or so. I have a huge space marine and Eldar army as well as many warhammer fantasy armies. I'm actually hoping to use the code for this game to make a 40k and warhammer fantasy style game.
Even though i am not taking part in the beta, im checking up here and im very happy to see that the testers are reporting bugs and they are getting squashed looking forward to buying it!
yeah to busy to be a tester.... real world is hard sigh.... hope you can release it on time and got all bugs squashed will it work with ancient ipad mini?
