hmm... let me look into that resurrect issue asap. In the meantime (as stated in the spell description), the 'HEAL' spell you have has a small chance of reanimating a dead character. You may have to try quite a few times and you will loose some XP of course (as you should). It is the crude and unapproved approach to temper with life and death. I already have a small update pending Apple review, so if indeed I need to fix something it would surely miss the Apple X-mas closeout and come out next year. Will make sure I submit asap. **UPDATE** this issue does not exist in my current version and I did not touch it in v.1.0.1 changes, which is VERY strange. I got 5 characters eaten by wolves and fled with the last one to the monk. Revived all 5. If the version I released is not the v1.00 I archived to mirror the one everyone is playing right now, than my apologies. In any case, once v1.0.1 comes through the AppReview this should work fine. Are you sure you are talking to the mysterious monk in the temple of VAR in the settlement in the northeast as opposed to the cleric that came with you and sits in the cave/shelter? The cleric's talk may not be specific enough, he basically is too inexperienced to resurrect.
I intend to leave the game fully playable without having to buy consumable inApp goods. However if some rich guys ask me to please let them cheat/fast-track the spell recharge by use of some buy-able gems, I would consider it. But unlikely because I think it would ruin the retro feel of the game. And in any case it would only be to make rich kids happier by giving them cheats and taking their burden (money) off them. <sarcasm end> What I AM thinking about is how to build the next Chapters. If you finish the first Chapter at the moment, there is a message saying the next Chapter is in the making (true). In v1.0 which is on the AppStore now, I also said Chapter 2 will be a US$1 inApp purchase. I REMOVED THAT IN v.1.0.1 (which is stuck in AppleReview). So at present the Chapter 2 I am working on will come out for free as a normal App Update. Just not sure when. Anytime Q1 2015. I am however considering eventually releasing expansions as InApp purchase. Because frankly a developer needs an incentive to expand a game vs. making a new one. Hope that makes sense. If anyone finishes the game soon before v1.0.1 is out, and is reading about the $1 for Chapter2, IGNORE.
A developer has to make money. And to be honest I have no problem with IAP that help cheat. For example, if the game usually only lets you use the power five times a game but you purchase an IAP to make all powers goto 10 a day all is good. Any IAP that lets you cheat is fine. Some guys would rather pay a dollar or two to seethe rest of a game.without taking the hard route. there is also nothing wrong with releasing adding or "chapters" for a low cost. If someone buys your game for a buck and you decide you want to make it go from 10 hours of play to 20 hours of play by adding tons of content, please do NOT HESITATE charge. I am more then happy to pay for your time! Pretty much you know what's greedy and what's not because anything that would bug you would bug us. One time I played a game where I spent 2.99 and got a rare axe! Yes, I paid to cheat it was cool and I motored along. Until one day, one day it broke! There was a durability number on it that you couldn't stop! That was horrible, I was angry and removed the game.... Perishables shouldn't cost real money I know lots of companies make a killing that way, it's just greedy to me. Lol. Again. People gotta get paid! So EA can do what it wants but you won't see me playing their games. (Dungeon keeper was a game I loved growing up and they butchered it). I would pay 19.99 to have the exact PC game on my tablet..., but I'm not spending 1000000 on replenishables. Anyway, back to the game, I was talking to the guy in the cave. When I hit resurrect he says only high level priest are supposed to resurrect but boss wizard says he can. Also if if the character has enough karma he will resurrect with no problems, otherwise it will cost des and str. I, sorry but it really really sounds like he can do it! He pretty much says he has permission to do it. So the next logical response is "Just Do It!" Haha. So I must goto the settlement to the north east Eh! Is it far north east? Last time I went exploring some trees kicked my behind all over the place! Also where's the hot girl characters to look at in 32bit quality? Nothing wrong with an Amazon kicking arse hehheh. Pretty fun game as it is! I've been digging it. I like games with character generation and this one has a couple different things about it. It's kinda like DCSS with tiles but less complex (haha funny eh?) and a party. Maybe the tile set makes me think about that. Android people can goto the trunk site for DCSS and download it for free.... Hmmm seems like a cool forum post. Anyways! Back to DoC! Gotta get my rogue back!
thanks for the detail, it seems I need to tweak the Cleric's chat responses. Worst case it reflected some earlier thinking (where death lowers your STR and DEX. unless you use a pay-for GEM! just kidding ... was considering it in the early days but decided against it).
spread the word and before I forget, the best way to support the game and me is to spread the word! RPG lovers tend to know a bucket load of like-minded people so I would be very grateful for any word of mouth propaganda, as it carries more weight and can reach deeper. Bigger user base is also a greater motivation to build new content!
I like this sort of games. What nice way to begin the week -- finding a game like this! I just had time only to create my party and do the first quest. I love the character generation with random perks; it'll be fun to play around with different class mixes. I just have one small complaint: the red colored text on those buttons are harder to read. I also think it might be useful to have coordinates on the 'map' feature. I ventured outside and fear I might not be able to return to a place of interest without some way to note the location.
thanks for the feedback, always useful and welcome. Unfortunately, I am not too fond of making people's life too easy. that is not retro! 8^) I almost had no minimap at all (Bard's Tale style !) but then my brother convinced me otherwise and I also realised that in Ultima 4 I did actually have a map as well: the cloth map! I may have never spent as much time exploring the land and seas in Ultima 4 if I did not have that overview... The minimap is a concession that goes a long way. if you want to remember a spot, once you open the minimap and see the 100x100 surroundings of it, you should be able to remember location and even path. I think coordinates would make it too easy and I also think that sharing experiences and places BETWEEN players is more fun if you describe the landscape. I would not expect this to be to everyone's liking but I really don't want to show coordinates. In terms of button colour: yes, I get the comment from my wife all the time when she has a glance on my screen. The combination of brown, red and mid-level grey is not ideal. However they are not beyond readable and I think I may stick with it for now. After an hour of play you know what each button does from my experience and click them blindly. If really an issue then please let me know, over time I will collate feedback and decide what bothers people most. I noticed that such feedback also seems to be more prevalent for iPad mini users, as the display is a good bit smaller. I had not catered for that initially when I set up my UI design.
I have an ipad3 but I tend to bring the mini out with me a lot more. I'm not a fan of red on stone grey -- hardly anything goes with that other than white it seems. There are some text that are very small playing on the mini, like the side bar turn log during battle and the even tinier blue text that appears in the character screens. That'd probably be just small but readable on an proper ipad. I will have to try it. Not having coordinates will just take getting used to again.
Tell me dear developer or users.... I tried the lite version of the game and the control is really small,which makes it almost unplayable for me. And do mind creating maybe a small tutorial level to teach people as even for me who played complex games like UnNethack and Dwarf Fortress...it's quite hard and would actually make people angry on how the game has a really steep learning curve Thanks
Hi, sorry to hear that. Of course the intention of the LITE version was to let people test with no financial commitment if the game works for them. The UI is a bit uncompromising, however has been tested on iPad2, iPad air and iPad mini and while testing on mini has resulted in some feedback regarding the smaller controls, none of the playtesters said that it impeded it so much as to reduce their experience as much as you describe. But of course that is a matter of preference. As to the UI design, it did not plan to have flexible options to enlarge control buttons. If a 32x32 area/tile is experienced as too difficult to hit, then this would impact all areas of the game including enemy targetting in fight mode, inventory handling etc. If that is your experience I would have to say it is probably better if you not buy the game, I do not think I could rectify what you perceive as a problem. Sorry. In regards to tutorial level, again I was guided by my playtesters who have found that: - the appearance of TALK and SHOP buttons as you approach a NPC make it clear that they can thereby interact with them. the fact you can select between multiple NPCs potentially (hence there is a green crosshair first) was sometimes regarded as a redundant click (see one of the early posts on this page), but overall acceptable and consistent throughout (TALK, SHOP, LOOK, USE). - the pathfind approach to clicking on a visible tile was also intuitive - ultimately, the HELP/TUTORIAL section offered in the title screen when the game is first started, offers a good summary of the key elements Since the game is turn-based, has no penalties for time/turns spent, and does not track hunger, I felt that there would not be any harsh negative experience in the onboarding phase. The fight mode is the only area where lack of familiarity with the controls could yield frustration, however it is virtually impossible to make the first fight NOT be a group of rats or a bunch of spiders, who are both no match for the party and would allow you to even run away alive. And even death is not causing loss of equipment etc. In essence without no clear boundaries, you start the game in a beginners setting where you can't really break anything as you learn the ropes. That was my approach to counter the multi-faceted 'needs' of users, and as a final safety measure offer a free version to see it all before you buy. Hope that makes it a bit clearer why I designed it the way I did. There are many other ways I could have done it, but that is the one I chose. Kind Regards, Volker
v1.0.2 now out fixing a bug that was detected Despite all my efforts a bug was encountered yesterday that causes a crash when exiting a certain location (hot dry cave near the volcano, south west). I have fixed the bug, submitted v1.0.2 and asked Apple to expedite the review, and luckily they confirmed the fast tracking and v1.0.2 just got on the AppStore. Anyone that bought the game please upgrade to v1.0.2. The crash does not compromise savegames and any time after the crash if you upgrade you can exit safely. I have also taken the opportunity to tweak a few other things that I have been alerted to (like overpowered loot drops, sorry guys!), so please keep posting any such feedback on my support page: https://dungeonsofchaos.wordpress.com/support/ If you have played it a fair bit and think that others would enjoy it as well, please consider leaving a rating and review on the AppStore, and/or on Gamespot.com or Metacritic.com. Word of mouth and reviews are the most important distribution channel for indie games like this. Thanks!
Game Impressions Great find. Was browsing through here to scratch an itch for old school rpg when I saw this. Took up the lite version and first impression with the pixel and the opening cutscene is that it looks like the venerable fire emblem series, especially those flying dragons and the castle scenario. Battle was unlike fire emblem though but looks and feel more dynamic and quasi real time. The world exploration looks like homm open world exploration but in a rpg setting. Reading the in game guide seems to indicate some serious mechanics behind it all. Heck, having trainers to teach skills even seem to reek of old school might and magic goodness. Got yourself a buyer
Glad you like it! I have indeed tried to introduce choices and variety wherever I could, free roaming exploration being the main one. If you are a RPG veteran, best to play on the hardest difficulty setting by the way.
Correct. IPhone size would mean having a significantly smaller visible map and fight arena and I decided against it. Would be an entirely new design concept and feel to work with a small equivalent.
Gameplay For those who have tried it out, what would you like to see most in the next Update? Things I am currently looking at implementing based on feedback so far: - red dot on minimap for random maps to indicate location of exit - make the 2 highest difficulty settings much harder (monster hp scaling, XP, resistance level gain, stronger monster attack effects) - lost of tweaks (signs for lich tower indicting that the confusing teleports are intentional traps; fiercer orc groups in the orc lairs instead of single orcs; steeper STR/DEX increase costs) I have not heard any complaints about the inventory setup or dialogue system, sound or music, or general exploring. If there is anything (short of a complete overhaul) you think might improve the gameplay please let me know either in this forum or on my support blog: http://dungeonsofchaos.wordpress.com/updates/. Volker
