Hey guys, glad to see people playing it and enjoying it. One thing I wanted to say - we're super committed to updates and improvements for Heroes Call. There's a new hero being worked on right now, as well as a whole new set of levels, and some extra fun stuff. We're also be revising the balancing and tuning with the first update. This is absolutely just the beginning of the story for Heroes Call. Also, we set out at the start to make a F2P game, as we knew that was the best model that would support the sort of ongoing development we wanted to do with the game. So we made the sort of F2P game we thought would balance free with reasonable. For a tiny team from Australia, we think we've done a pretty good job - the comments comparing us to games from much bigger studios (like Gameloft) are really pleasing. In the end, we're very happy to have it out where people can play it - this is just the start!
The wait times start at 5 minutes, then go up every level you play (by the 4th level it's up to 12 minutes). I assume that the cycles resets every day, but I have no specific information about that. Levels take about 8-10 minutes to complete. I can tell you that the I didn't notice the first two wait-times, since I spent longer than that buying and selling gear and deciding what ability I was going to unlock. The 12 min wait coincided with the end of my commute -- by the time I got home the next mission was ready. You can, of course, use gems to skip the wait time. So far I've been finding gems at about two per level. I also have 4 identify scrolls (there's a wait time to get items "researched" without scrolls.). We'll see how much longer the wait times get and whether they reset at some point. The good news is that otherwise the game has otherwise been generous with gold and loot, so there has been no temptation to use IAPs for any other reason. Oh, and the shield-bash ability is awesome.
Although I'm not entirely happy with most freemium or "F2P" games, I appreciate the balance of "free with reasonable". It sounds like you did a good job from initial impressions. Just maybe wish there was a one-time free to remove the wait times. And, although it may be flattering to hear your name with Gameloft, that really isn't a complement around these parts -- particularly with their move to freemium. That said, your game is probably better than Gameloft's often bloated games, so I'm sure you will be well above my feelings for that developer.
I can neither confirm nor deny that we have awesome plans for co-op and PVP. I can definitely say it won't be in the first few updates, though.
Glad that you are here to speak about your plans for the game. I have to say, so far the only two things I would change are: 1) speed up the character movement a bit. 2) add a one-time-purchase "no wait-time" IAP -- make it around $4.00 and you'll have a lot of takers. Considering the nature of iOS gaming, waiting between levels is really not a big hardship; the game is structured in a way that makes it easy to step away and play something else. Still, I'm really enjoying the game, and picking up a new skill and having to wait to use it is kind of annoying. In any event, you guys have a lot to be proud of here.
But leave it as it is and I'm guessing they'll get a whole lot more. No offence meant to Defiant (yet!) - I haven't played more than a couple of missions, so I have no real feel for how annoying or not the wait timer will be to me. But moral judgements aside I'm pretty certain there's a very good chance they'll make much more money with the game the way it's currently designed.
Not from me. As I said, I can always play another game. The ironic thing is that I would love to have a way to give money to the devs -- I really like the game -- but I will never pay to speed up a timer.
I agree with what he said, I have plenty of other games on my iPhone at my disposal to play and kill time with. While they may not be dungeon crawlers similar to Diablo III, I'm willing to wait for a decent one or not play any at all. The game looks good and sure I'll download it and give it a go to kill time here and there but the timers will be what kill it for me. I'll never *ever* pay to speed something up.
My point being that I'm pretty sure lots more people will pay, and if sufficiently high numbers are fine with it then your/our opinions - on that point at least - don't really count for anything. At the same time, I note you can grind earlier missions - will gems still drop on them, or just loot/gold? I'm sure if it's gems the drop rates are still so low as to push people towards giving in and buying a bundle of them, but having them drop at all would be something.
I like the game. Character may move a bit slow, but it gives it more of a casual feel, so I don hav to concentrate as hard. Only played the first couple quests, but getting some good finds, gold is not too hard to come by, graphics are good. Good Diablo type game. Been a long time since a game like this has been out - dungeon hunter 2 I think. I don't mind the 5 min wait time since I am buying and selling stuff, and looking at all the equipment and stats. The chapters are a nice length, and so there is not a fear of not being able to get through an area. The IAP to buy jewels is very unobtrusive to me. I'm a happy guy, and hope the game does well.
Haven't played it yet as it was not fun to install (some painful deletions had to be made). Just FYI -- 468 MB uncompressed. Here's hoping it was worth it!
Sigh, great looking and playing game ruined by insidious IAP. I'd drop $6.99 to fully unlock it, but there is no way I'm paying a dime to speed things up. I just find it offensive that I would have to continually spend money to remove the ridiculous wait times on things. Deleted.
A few questions, can't download it at the moment. 1: how is the challenge? A diablo game with no challenge is 100% pointless since the point of loot is to find rare items to help you against the challenges. 2: are there multiple difficulties? Will you unlock a new and harder difficulty when you finish the game or is your loot pointless since the game just ends? 3: drop rates? Are the drop rates as horrible as in Dh2 where I had 4 legendary items before I even left the tutorial area? I seriously did The game looks great, got a nice D2 feel to the graphics, I love loot hunting games, however 99% of all loot hunting diablo clones are failures because they either have to generous drop rates or no challenge, or both. Thx in advance.
Have only played the first three quests, but really enjoying it so far. Hasn't been too much if a challenge yet and the drop rates are decent (not too high but decent enough to help you get or be able to sell items to keep upgrading equipment at the end of each level). Been looking for a new Diablo type game on the iOS and this fits the bill. Great graphics and fun gameplay. That said, I do wish there was an unlock to disable wait times completely. So far they haven't been too bad. But since they increase after each quest, I can see it getting really annoying. And I also refuse to get IAPs just to speed things up. Definately glad I gave it a try and will be anxious to play more. The biggest con is the freemium model.
Precisely. People seem to care little these days about lack of integrity, and perhaps even less about their own intelligence being insulted. Principles run a yet more distant third. Good on ya, and I'm having none of that either.
That is subjective since its based on each individual obviously but wiser still, is to realize that your opinion is just that..an opinion not another person's truth. People can like whatever game mechanics they want and it have little or nothing to do with integrity. Forced IAP is atrocious IMHO but reasonable and unforced can be just fine depending on the game. Intelligence has little to do with the source of fun to be had of one person who has the means to turn to IAP or lacks patience. I would rather have a price w/o IAP but have enjoyed games that employ it. Games with forced IAP, I simply delete. Gabrian, you have made your point abundantly clear
