Really looking forward to this! Loved DMII (still have my Sega CD copy ) and Undercroft was great (was a beta tester for Rake In Grass), but felt pretty ripped by the deus-ex-machina-cliffhanger-ending. (And that the IP changed hands so who knows if there will ever be more...) Love The Quest to pieces, but it gets very Rambo feeling after a while - the series is starting to get new 0-level expansions, which helps. I thought the art looked fine in-game, the movement buttons look more out of place than the character portraits. And Interplay's in enough trouble at the moment it'd be hard to say if they ever bring back Dungeon Master II - if you've got a solid game engine you might want to consider contacting them...
The original art could use some polish and fleshing out but I still prefer it. I think it has more personality and seems more immersive. The newer artwork looks better suited to a high school sim than a RPG. Maybe I'm just the odd man out in the opinion. The other art design looks very promising. Now I'm concerned about the possibility of buying a first person dungeon crawler RPG from someone who through The Quest was bad; what is the meaning of this? I'm going to think optimistically and assume a desire to polish and improve on dynamics similar to The Quest rather than go in some off the wall diverant direction.
The thing that bugged me in The Quest was the combat. I didn't like the way the enemies would attack and retreat - it seemed random and I found myself chasing them around the woods constantly which got old really quickly. I like a solid, turn-based system where you encounter an enemy and you stand and fight until one of you is dead(ish). Just a personal taste thing really. Are there any other games in this style on the App Store? I'm pretty sure there was another one that was pretty good and I can't think of it now.
Tool a look at the artwork and thought I'd throw out my (professional) opinion. I don't see much issue with examples on the original post. Maybe a slight tuning for more depth and shadows/lighting but other than that, it looks fine. But there is one thing that bothers me on the original screenshots, though. I don't believe this has been mentioned but the bright blue background behind the character art definitely (at least to me) throws off the art concept of the whole screen in general. I'd go with black or something more neutral. Of course those screens don't represent the finished product but just saying.
That's actually a bit of a problem if you're trying to evoke the whole classic Dungeon Master/Eye of the Beholder vibe. One of the reasons those games were regarded so highly was because the combat was real-time, which was a relatively new concept over what had traditionally been separate, turn-based fights. Who doesn't remember killing an enemy by luring them back under a portcullis and repeatedly slamming it closed on their head (or head-like alternative) while simultaneously engaging in hand to hand and experimental spell-based combat? Or getting swept up in a winning battle, only to start getting severely pummeled by roaming monsters that you hadn't previously noticed? In this situation, if you're aiming to recreate the DM experience, then locked-in, turn-based combat is a bit of a step away - and backwards - from that.
That's a really good point. The background layer or those portraits changes color depending on various statuses of the characters (e.g. gold if they've levelled and have points to spend, green if their endurance is out and they need food, etc). It's been a while since I've stopped and thought about the "default" blue color. Maybe blue wasn't the best choice there. Thanks for the input!
That's very true, but I'm only drawing some inspiration from those titles - not outright trying to recreate them. The combat system in Descend is a traditional turn-based system. It works well on the mobile platform. If you're characters are healthy, you can breeze right through with nothing but attacks. If you're characters are suffering a little, you can be more strategic about using defend rounds and potions. In a future game, I'd definitely like to try out a more "Dungeon Master" style of combat incorporating movement. It's a difficult thing to do well though (like DM did), so I think it's a bit of a fine line to walk. It really did kick butt though watching those mummies turn into puffs of smoke under a heavy iron door
I don't visit the "Coming Soon" forum often, but I'm glad I did just to see this. Really want this after reading the description and seeing the few screenshots.
Nice hint That I can do, just bear with me. I need to replace those screenshots anyway because they came from my phone - I think they were compressed and recompressed a few too many times on the journey. They're very blurry. I will definitely post better/additional screenshots up within the next 12 hours or so. It's on the official "To Do" list!
Hmm, the combat font could stand to be less fancy and more readable, and the character portraits take up too much of the limited screen real estate. The pictures don't need to be as small as the ones in Undercroft, but they are a little too big at present.
This reminds me of Shining in the Darkness/Shining in the Holy Ark actually. They were first person dungeon crawlers similar to this with a turn-based party system. Shining the Holy Ark is one of my favourite RPG's and had a great combat system.
