Now Available! Yipee! Download, go crazy and please rate and review. http://apple.co/1Oqj55d Thanks to all of you who have given me such awesome feedback over the past couple of months. This has been a fun adventure, but just the beginning of a journey.
Retrodigio, thank you for that very thorough explanation. Basically you are telling us to break out of the "word game - forming words" box in our heads and it will start to click....I played it for awhile, and liked it but didn't really understand what I was doing! Also, can you help with the pickaxe? I cannot figure out how to use it. Thx.
Hi PBSNellie! Thanks for the feedback. First off, the pickax is your default tool. It will be used by default whenever you tap a word, notice, it will just fly over from it's current resting spot and break the word(s) you tapped. It is the mining aesthetic of the game, the tool the gnome uses to break words. Hammers and chisels have a one-time use for breaking stone words but you probably already knew that. In a future update you'll be able to acquire 'better' pickaxes, or a different tool altogether that can play the same role as pickax does now. Regarding the breaking out of the typical word-game box we're all familiar with. Yes, well, if I could say it best I'd say that Gnomium uses words similar to the way Tetris uses tetrominoes. Since the grid is dynamic (i.e. it finds all possible words automatically), the best we can do is to re-arrange the existing tiles/words in such a way that the grid connects new and existing words together to form the largest most valuable connected word-groups. True, with some effort and skill one can play Gnomium smartly by identifying places where a tile swap or a word slide can produce a beneficial connection or new word (especially with multiplier tiles), but for the most part, simply causing changes to the grid by re-arranging existing word-groups (sliding them into a new position) is sufficient to produce new (and usually beneficial) outcomes. Those outcomes being copper, silver or gold word groups that will produce ore (for points) and coins! Once I have coins in the grid, the game introduces a new mechanic, the matching mechanic, which is where one needs to be successful in order to play for any significant period of time. The game then becomes, 'not only do I need to change the grid in order to produce copper, silver and gold words (and break them), I now need to get these 3 copper coins together, or 3 silver etc.. in order to produce the items necessary to open the chest and acquire more tiles'. Layered gameplay that can take some getting used to. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions or feedback. Thanks again!
Enemy Slime Review Enemy Slime just published their review of Gnomium PE. Not your mother's word searching game. I agree with his assessment of the tutorial, and he has great suggestions. The game is both simple and complex. Arguably the tutorial was the most difficult thing to create and required several iterations. Always trying to strike the balance between too much and too little. I still think there is a lot of room for improvement.
Definitely a lot to take in and incredibly deep gameplay. It says something that the game is a blast to play despite me barely knowing what to do. I'm looking forward to increasingly enjoying the game as I learn how to play. Thanks for all of the background info about the gameplay. I got a feeling that quite a few people are going to appreciate all of it.
TheGodless, Thanks for the great feedback. What I have found is that after a few games (the first games being mostly an exploration of cause and effect mechanics), people begin to see the game pattern sequence and how the layers of one mechanic feed into the other. Its a fun thing to observe naturally, but I could see how it might turn off those who may be looking for just another puzzle. Gnomium is much more about efficient management of resources (tiles, coins, gems, mushrooms, tools etc) in order to achieve a goal, and much less about solving a puzzle (which is the way we have been trained to approach a letter-grid game). Gnomium is something new, which is also risky. It is called a 'word' game, but it is unlike any word game we've seen before. The consequences are high (good or bad), but I've never felt comfortable doing the 'just make Crossy Road' thing, or in this case 'just make Words with Friends'. We'll see. In any case, I love playing it and so I think that others will too. It gives me great satisfaction to know that it's a blast for you to play even at these early stages. May you find joy in the unfolding.
A respomse to lil pips one star review on the App Store Hello lil pips, Thanks for taking the time to rate and write a review for Gnomium in the App Store. It's a shame that Gnomium is not the type of word game you had expected. It sounds like you've read through the posts in this forum thread and probably have a good understanding of how the game was designed to operate, so I'm not sure what you had expected otherwise. It appears that the idea that the game's unique gameplay, and it's (albeit) page-length documentation has upset you enough to leave the one-star rating and review. Perhaps other feel the same way, who knows? But I figured I would respond to you here as I am incapable of doing so in the App Store (which is a poor decision by Apple), so that your points can at least be discussed. At least you like the music.
lil pips, addressing specific points. 1) "The tiles might as well not even be letters (they could just be random symbols that will either match or not match randomly with no control over the outcome by you)" True, they could, and that was actually tried in development (colors, symbols etc. with various rules). But the truth is you actually 'do' have some control over the outcome because they are letters matching to a known set of words. The fact that the rule set for matching letters contains 70k+ possibilities of varying length introduces the appearance of randomness in the results and the results are comprehend-able as opposed to true randomness with no comprehension of a result. Plus a strong majority of testers feedback was that this seemingly random (though it is entirely not random) operation of the grid when making a change is what attracted them to the game play, because every move has a chance to improve the state of the grid. It's the whole risk-reward thing, loot thing that your brain enjoys. 2) "the coins and gems that you are going for disappear VERY quickly, so you really have no time to think about anything" True, the copper coins have a 30 second lifespan and silver have a 60 second lifespan, everything else is permanent. This was done with the intent to induce urgency, especially in the survival play mode (which is the only play mode available now). It is meant to entice fast game-play and provide back-pressure. Not to worry though, it's easy enough to provide alternative play modes that remove all timers for the gamer that wants a truly causal way of playing the game without pressure. If enough people request this type of play mode then it's something I can add in a future update. Thanks.
Neto, thanks or the feedback (and the purchase of course). The survival play mode is mapped out in the sequence of 12 locked chests (one for each gem in the 4 tiers), with each tier becoming more difficult to open because of the resources required and your ability to manage your tile count properly during the game (not waste tiles willy-nilly). I'm not sure how far you made it in the game (how many chest you were able to open in a single game), but I know that opening a diamond chest could take considerable time and effort to not run out of tiles before doing so. Unlocking the diamond chest does unlock a new state/feature for subsequent games. I've got a speed-run play mode in the works with shorter to longer challenges and a few changes to the rules. Certain strategies will produce faster and more efficient outcomes in either play mode. Thanks for playing.
Premium unlock? Does it eliminate the need for an ad or coins to open s gift? I'm all in for this game but if ads remain after the premium unlock I'll just stick to watching ads for everything. I know it's optional but i prefer premium unlocks not paying and being asked about ads. I want this dev to make a fortune on this game but I still like to get rid of ads.
Hi ShinHodoukin, Thanks for the feedback! The single IAP is to remove the credit system and update the grid size to 8x8 (from the default 7x7). The gifting mechanism is still either gold or ad driven at all times. Once you get the hang of the game you can make a ton of gold pretty quickly and the cost for gifts become fairly negligible. Plus, the potential value you can get from a gift is very high, so removing any kind of sacrifice to get them would devalue them too much.
That makes sense, the gifts I've gotten have been pretty darn cool. I do think it breaks the action a little bit but I understand what you're thinking. Thanks for the details & for being a part of this forum. It means a lot when a dev gets involved & answers questions. I buy games based on that alone too. Fun game, still getting the hang of it but I like it a lot. I hope this does really well! I want you to have success & hey, updates & future games sounds great too!
Thanks Shinhodoukin. Much appreciated. Was hoping for an App Store feature yesterday (as all devs do), but alas.. TA has been an awesome resource and means to get the word out. I'll be posting for feedback on potential updates soon. This is for you.. Think about it..I'm 1'5" and wield a sharp pickax.
iPod Crashes? I've had two friends contact me saying that the game is crashing early on their iPods. I have not received any crash reports and cannot see anything obvious in my analytics error logs. I'll be looking at the issue further this weekend. Has anyone else experienced the game crashing?
AdWeek - SocialTimes So my twitter feed just blew up! AdWeek / SocialTimes just published an article on new mobile games this week and prominently featured Gnomium! Just sent a text to my wife, she will bake a cake. Yes. Mobile Game Roundup: Gnomium: Pocket Edition, Punch Club and More
