I've got screenshots, but my iPod is stuck rebooting after applying 3.1.3 this morning. Setup looks like this - Top 4 enemy and Hero slots are filled and tied. Bottom most enemy slot has that 4/4/down-arrow guys (ooh I hate those guys!) and the deck consists of nothing but heroes that tie these guys - you play one, they tie and get shuffled down off the board. Repeat... FOREVER! Saddest thing is that you forfeit your score if you quit, one game I had a really nice score but lost it due to this situation. If my iPod ever comes back from it's coma, I'll post screenshots.
We should have this bug tackled. It's being tested now as well as some better memory handling for pre-3GS iPhones and iPod Touches to improve stability.
We're sorry that you haven't enjoyed the game, but in a sense you're dead on in pointing out our use of "Solitaire" in the game's title. We wanted to give players some idea of what to expect, in that this is a card game where the luck of the draw can play a large part in your success. It is not a turn-based strategy game, or even attempting to be a true CCG. And yes, it's true that failure can come in just a few draws if the shuffle is particularly bad, whereas in traditional solitaire you may not know that you've lost the game for many, many draws. I have to respectfully disagree, as tactical choices will vary depending on whether you simply want to win quickly or want to achieve a high score. I get the sense that your expectations of this game are way out of line with the short-burst, casual experience it is designed to be. Many of the points you make are conscious design decisions based on many months of play-testing. That's not to say that the game is perfect by any stretch, and we're very open to suggestions and feedback. You've identified why the game doesn't appeal to you, but I'd love to hear ways to improve it. As I've mentioned before, we're not out to nickel and dime people to death with expansions; it's important that the core experience is fun and complete. For instance, the idea of giving the castle a real HP pool that is tied to monster attack values is getting a lot of discussion and would certainly open up another layer of strategy. However, it's possible that this is simply a game that will never appeal to you no matter what improvements we introduce, and that's ok. Hopefully it won't keep you from trying other titles from our studio in the future. Cheers, Ryan
Just wanted to add my vote of support for what you are doing, there are too many tacky unimaginative card games on the iPhone without any real entertainment value. I love the Solitaire format of the game, for me the excitement is in adapting to the draw, making the decisions quick and off the cuff, so as to maximise the likelihood of a win. Its not about deck building and stacking the deck, its about going out there, and adventuring with whats been dealt to you. The cards are very well rendered on the handheld, the game mechanics simple to understand, but quite involving and entertaining as the game plays out. You've taken a very easy to understand stat comparing game, with artistic flavour, and have added a simple but powerful shift mechanic, alongside RPG concepts of buffs and debuffs, and limited inventory stacks, and come up with something really special. Kudos. After two games of utter thrashing I knew the game was something special. I bought the expansions immediately. And no doubt if there are more planned I'd be shelling out for them too. I wish you every success with the game, and I hope you can develop and expand upon it. One thing, these "expansions" should be called Boosters, and then you could charge full price for proper "expansions" in the future More Dungeon Solitaire and new cards please!
Great idea...I'll pass that onto the devs. Rest assured, lots of new cards are coming, both mini-expansions and larger sets. For the record, what we currently call mini-expansions like Baloran Bounty consist of 2 cards each, whereas Dragontomb and Shambling Dead-sized expansions are generally 7-9 cards. There may be opportunities to build bigger expansions down the line, especially if the game proves popular enough to warrant a full campaign setting.
Now then, a "Campaign Setting" sounds very promising, with specials tailored to a storyline of some sort.. I'll be drooling over my keyboard next..
It's funny how this game has evolved for me. I started out thinking it was really unbalanced and all up to the luck of the draw. I was losing much more often than winning. NOW, I've won more than I've lost, and yet it's no longer about winning or losing. Now it's about how much gold I can make. In fact, a lot of the time I don't WANT to win because that stops the influx of gold! lol And actually, the win methodology seems a bit arbitrary. Maybe if you provide the castle HP option, consider changing the win requirement as well? One idea would be that once all hero slots are filled, any hero that is turned up could be added to another hero's stats (just like in Magic when you double up defenders on an attacker). Then the condition for winning could be simply getting through all monsters in the deck. Another idea would be to have two castles - one for heroes and another for monsters. So the hero side would work the same way as the monster side - do 3x damage (or enough HP damage) to the monster's castle to win. In fact, now that I think about it, that idea seems to make a lot of sense. Only thing is, balancing might have to be adjusted depending on how many heroes there are.
really likeing this game easy to pick up and play but has some skill involved as well as luck.....i think some sorta campaign would be cool as well as being able to play as the monsters as well. also really like the artwork on the cards great job is it just me or are the monster cards alot more powerful than the hero cards?
Yes, but heroes get equipment, potions, and control the placement of traps. There are some really powerful 6/6 monsters, but heroes can even the odds with items. @Artfoundry "One idea would be that once all hero slots are filled, any hero that is turned up could be added to another hero's stats (just like in Magic when you double up defenders on an attacker). Then the condition for winning could be simply getting through all monsters in the deck." Agreed. When trying to maximize your score, you are sort of penalized for doing well (eg: you win too fast). It would be cool if drawing the 6th hero provided some bonus -- maybe if you choose not to accept victory, you can replace any hero currently on the board, or something of that nature. I still have a terrible win ratio (15-45-1) but am still loving it. I found it's not hard to win, but once you start trying to stack treasure, that's where it gets dangerous.
Took the plunge on this and very happy that I did. This is a solid little strategy card game. For those who feel there is no strategy and it is all luck, that is just kind of silly. The comparisons to Magic are quite apropos. MTG: has always been about the meta game. Even in a casual environment playing with friends all the time, knowing that your friend likes to play certain types of cards lets you have an idea of what to expect. With Dungeon Solitaire, you basically have a built in meta game. You know what monsters are going to show up, you have a basic idea of what you need to do to beat each one and it is about setting things up for what you expect will happen. Now there is luck in the game. But this is essential and is actually what makes the game work so well, because you are essentially playing against yourself and lady luck. Had this been a monster vs hero deck than an AI would have had to be built, and find me a good AI on an iphone app. The very fact that this game is solitaire with no AI is what makes it so good. Now, there are some crash bugs still. One I have noticed is double Slayer tie breaker (where both the hero and monster have Slayer activated against each other) seems to crash the game for me each time. And I there have been some other crashes that I don't know what triggered them. I also think that the Booster packs are a ripoff. They do not change the game play enough to justify $.99. Think about it, the game is $1.99 and the game comes with like 53 cards. Then for $1.98 you get 14 more cards that really change the environment that much? I really think for $.99 I should get 21 new cards. This will make choosing to play with only one expansion also more interesting. I recommend you update more cards for those of us who have already paid for DLC and you really consider this for future expansions.
Have you rebooted your iPhone/iPod lately? Maybe you've got other things filling up memory, like Safari (which stays in memory even when you exit it), so the game crashes from running out of memory (the iPhone kills the currently running app if its memory runs low). Just saying because I haven't seen any crashes, and I've had to put someone with Slayer next to another a couple times and saw the resulting carnage. Actually yeah - the 7 Dragontomb cards actually make the game noticably more challenging, while the 6 Potion cards make it quite a bit easier (though those ones are free)
Not much in the way of feedback, but I just wanted to let the devs know (and anyone on the fence) This game is fantastic. I have not yet bought the expansions, but I know I will.
Just want to say I was hesitant to get this due to what seemed like too much of a chance factor to the gameplay. Having played it though, I couldn't imagine it being any other way as the gameplay just works perfectly. There's a HUGE sense of achievement to be gotten from winning a game where the deck is stacked against you, and that's really what this game is all about. Can see myself playing this for a long time to come.
I did reboot the iphone after the first crash just to make sure and it crashed not long after with the double slayer kill. As for the 7 dragontomb cards, I thought they were nice additions, but I don't think they changed the overall game play enough or warrant half the price of the original game. But that is just my opinion.
really digging the game bought one expansion plan to buy the other cant wait to see whats next btw what is next? lmao
1.1 Update on the way! Preview: - Fixed the "stalemate" bug - Balance tweaks - Stability improvements - Support for future expansions
This is very good news. I'm thoroughly enjoying the mix of what there is available at the moment, but I'm keen to see what other themed mechanics can be added to the mix. As someone else said previously, the gameplay is so rewarding when you manage to pull off a high gold win, that I can see myself playing the game for a long time to come. I can't say that of any other iPhone game I've purchased, and I purchased quite a few. Most of them blow their novelty value after a few gaming sessions. This game gets better the more you play it, because you begin to understand more about the card interactions.
