A Baldur's Gate style game would be much more do-able since the core combat would be basically the same and all I would really have to add is a world map that would allow you to travel to the various areas in any order you want as opposed to the more scripted approach in Demon's Rise. I'll take a look at Baldur's Gate and see if there's some way that I could merge some of that open-world design into a future RPG. By the way, Demon's Rise 2 was just awarded Pocket Tactics Best RPG of 2016!!!! http://www.pockettactics.com/news/rpg-game-of-the-year-2016-demons-rise-2/
Congratulations on the award, well deserved! Re BG style RPG: Realtime movement and turnbased combat, like Spiderweb does really well in the Avadons and Avernums? Cause frankly, I'm getting too old and slow for this realtime fighting stuff And you can still have a more "scripted" game than more open ones like BG or Spiderweb's games. Just look at various Final Fantasies. Up to a certain point they are extremely linear because they are telling a story. If the story is good, I don't care that I can't step off the path.
Hey guys .... another award today for Demon's Rise 2! The coveted Touch Arcade Golden Poncho, which ranks it as one of the top 5 original RPG's of the year! On top of that, I'm almost certain that I finally fixed that annoying non-response to touch input bug that has crept in lately! What a great day. The bug fix will be in the next update along with some balance changes / tweaks as per your collective feedback.
You deserve all your success for your hard work and great game. Good luck in the new year and I look forward to your new games in 2017
I also think that the awards are well deserved. This was one of my favorite games of 2016 and I wish you a wonderful 2017.
Thanks gents and / or ladies. I'm almost done the update for DR1. Adding the campaign menu that allows you to replay campaign levels already completed at higher difficulties was arduous and really time consuming. Still, appears to be done ... I just need to test it a bit to make sure it's not broken in any way.
Hey guys, Here's the general direction of changes I plan to make in the upcoming balance patch: - Reduce the extra attacks that a lot of abilities grant and replace with traits that increase MELEE damage and / or critical damage. This should make these buffs less effective on missile units and more effective on melee units, which was always their intention. - Increase damage of AoE magic / missile abilities so that it is possible to kill the large number of mobs in later levels and seriously hurt powerful monsters with ranged special skills. - Possibly replace a few abilities with ranged AoE spells as they are a little sparce. - Increase stats / power of summoned units as I think some are still kind of weak. - Add a cooldown to some of the summoned spells so you can't create a tide of cannon fodder as easily. - Possibly add another heal ability somewhere to a character that currently doesn't have one. So the main change will be to make most buffs really emphasize melee damage. The reason is that melee combat is meant to be the main aspect of the game and shooting is meant to be more secondary or tactical. Having a big buff to melee power makes a creature strong but still vulnerable to melee counter attacks, which then means that teams still need to have ways to heal the characters they buff. Currently, all you need is to add loads of attacks / damage buffs to shooting units and have them clear the board. Since missile units don't suffer counter attacks, you don't need to worry about healing those buffed characters, nor do you need to think about tactical movement or positioning since missile units have a long range. Anyway, it'll be a fairly big change so let me know what you think while there's still some time to change direction. If you agree, let me know as it will be helpful to know I'm going in the right general direction.
Update is all done ... was actually quicker than I thought. Will be submitting the update for Demon's Rise 2 that includes the balance fixes and bug fixes and the big update to Demon's Rise 1 that includes all the recent additions for Demon's Rise 2 today. App Store review team will love me for that, I'm sure. Otherwise, woke up to a great review from KickMyGeek.com where they went into loads of detail and gave the game a glowing review and rated it 9 / 10! I scored the same as XCOM and a smidjen higher than the excellent Templar Battleforce. Very happy to be ranked so highly among such great competition. http://www.kickmygeek.com/test-jeu/iphone-ipad/demon-s-rise-2-lords-of-chaos
One more thing ... I have flip flopped on my decision regarding the next game, Temple of Shadows. I will be launching it as free but with IAP's and / or advertising. I really need to explore other monetization methods to make sure I'm not shooting myself in the foot from a business perspective. I also do need a free gateway into the Demon's Rise franchise that players can try before buying one of the other games. Now before anyone panics about freemium and so forth, I'd like to ask what is a reasonable / nice free-to-play model to emulate? The truth is I don't play mobile games so I have no idea what makes a free-to-play scheme nice versus abusive. I've heard timers are a bad thing so I'm pretty sure I won't use those .... which is handy, since I have little idea what they are and no idea how to code them. I'm thinking of having Temple of Shadows be free (possibly with ads) with about 20 campaign levels and 10 or so quick battles and 6 characters. Then have perhaps an extra character pack for $x and possibly extra campaign levels that extend the story for $y and perhaps some extra quick battles for $z? So something similar to the old expansion pack system that I used to see in PC games when I played them. Should I also include the ability to buy gold? What are the big things to stay away from and what is acceptable from a gamer's perspective?
Congrats on the reviews. I play about every mobile game that comes out and I am burned out on freemium games, I prefer paying for additional content after original game release. Wave light games are very popular now, I like what you are producing. Great game, dev listens to patrons and tweeking game to improve it. I don't know if freemium is the answer, I don't mind paying for content, I support the dev.
I completely understand looking to try new monetization methods, and free-to-play, if done correctly, can please everyone. Plus, like you've already said, it provides a gateway into your game that otherwise could be missed by those who don't want to take a chance on it with a purchase. The models that I've enjoyed are ones that allow for a portion of the game to be played for free, then, if you like it and want to go further, you'll need to pay a one time fee I order to do so. Exiled Kingdoms does this and it works perfectly. I also have zero issues with paying for future content as well because I see it as a win win for both the player and the developer. This content doesn't make itself! Congrats on the awesome review too! It looks like word is definitely getting out about how good your games are.
Yea why dont you do like 5 levels for free then an IAP to unlock full game. You could then do IAP for extra classes or different modes etc. I think people are way more into buying extra classes if they actually dont need them to complete the game but they just like to have them all you know?
You could also do a completely free full game with ad support, and offer a fee to remove ads. You could also make unlockable characters with their own story, including levels that can also be purchased for real money. I was never a fan of buying gold, but it never hurts to give it as an option, too. I'm also a fan of "free at first", but that's not everyone's cup of tea.
Bought the game, excited to start! Any tips on good first 6? Looking for OP team i can steamroll with!
Might be a bit tough at first ... at the lower tier levels, the characters aren't really that overpowered. Also the next update that hopefully Apple will approve does rebalance a few things for the late game where some characters are a little OP. I would go with something like this: - Vampire Knight (good fighter and has self heal and AOE damage spells later) - Werebear (strongest early game character, I think) - Huntress (best healer early game and good missile support) - Shamaness (has a good AOE damage spell and some good summoning spells later) - Demon Knight (good all-round fighter with some good missile and melee buffs later) - Void Walker (good caster with powerful buffs later and a nice AOE spell in early game) But perhaps the best way to steam roll would just be to turn the difficulty slider down. Also, you can always change up your team for a small fee during the campaign so don't worry too much about choosing the best starting line up.
