League of Epic Heroes Release Date: November 20th - November 25th Price: $1.99 USD Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel A few details about the gameplay: League of Epic Heroes is based off of the popular indie game Desktop Dungeons, developed by QCF Design. If you haven't played it, you owe it to yourself to try it out. It's one of the best indie games of 2010. To give credit where credit is due, League is based on the core gameplay of Desktop Dungeons, with a few changes which I'll talk about later (the main is a loot drop system). It's worth mentioning the QCF is working on a Unity version of Desktop Dungeons, that will likely come out for mobile devices at some point. For anyone who has played the game before, I'm sure you will agree that it is a perfect system for mobile. And a disclaimer: QCF has no involvement in this project, and this should not be seen as an 'official port' of Desktop Dungeons. This is a solo/independent project based on the Desktop Dungeon ruleset. The gameplay of League is somewhat similar to a Roguelike, but it also plays like a puzzle game in a way. You start out in the dungeon at level 1, and the goal is to defeat the boss(es) of the dungeon. Killing monsters grants XP, which allows you to level up and kill stronger monsters. The randomly generated dungeon also features various dungeon standards like potions, shrines, and treasure. Defeating a boss with each class unlocks new content: new, more difficult monsters, new classes, and new dungeons. One of the core gameplay elements is exploration. The dungeon initially starts out unexplored, and exploring a space restores health and mana, and it's the primary way to do so. A large part of the strategy is figuring out how to kill monsters that are higher level than you (for an XP bonus) and then exploring unexplored tiles to recover your health and mana. Some people refer to Desktop Dungeons as a 'puzzler': the randomly generated dungeon has a sort of 'solution' for leveling up and defeating the boss. Where League differs from Desktop Dungeons is in the random aspects. One of the main problems I had with DD (though I'm sure others might disagree) is the randomness -- randomness in the Gods that spawned, randomness in the equipment, and the gold system. I opted to implement a 'drop-based' system based on my experience with Diablo and World of Warcraft. Killing bosses grants loot, which can be equipped and used to defeat subsequently more challenging dungeons. Gods are also absent from League, though they might return in an update. The reason for not including the Gods is that I find them confusing for new players, and the small iPhone screen makes it difficult to show all the information that players need to understand the system. I plan to post more updates and class previews soon, as well as a beta. Stay tuned and please feel free to ask any questions.
Undecided on a Beta, mostly because I'm unsure of the logistics (I haven't done a beta previously). If I figure out the details, I might do a beta and post about it here.
It depends if you need help and feedback for bugs, gameplay and so on. It is easy to arrange here actually.
Just updated the main post with a new teaser image showcasing one of the new classes, the Champion! Information on the beta and preview screenshots should be coming in the next few days, as I finish up with the first Beta build!
First screenshots and gameplay description posted in the original thread. Stay tuned for more Beta info soon!
Wowza! Thanks to your invitation I just gave Desktop Dungeons a spin on my PC and LOVE the game! If you could take that concept and improve upon it I'm COMPLETELY on board! I love how the game has OODLES of unlockables, in-depth scoring with end game achievements (not just like standard OF or GC achievements, but feats that can get you cool end of game bonuses each time they are fulfilled), several game modes, and cool gameplay (almost a hybrid of a Roguelike and Defense of the Oasis)! I was even impressed with (and there would be no reason to keep this aspect in your re-write of the concept) how what I thought was some unintended design flaw that I tried to exploit to my benefit shows up as an End Game Achievement to the effect of, "Exploited the Yada Yada Rune Loophole (not the actual rune name, but you get the idea)"!
Wow, just saw this thread. The screencaps alone make me want to give you my money. Can't wait for the game.
Thanks for the comments so far Beta should be this week hopefully. I'm working to figure out the distribution. I don't know how many testers I'm going to go with but if you are interested, please send me a PM with your UUID and I'll see what I can do. I also wanted to show some of the great work Javas did. I commissioned all the character portrait from Java (from Deviant Art) and he did a fantastic job on the design/sketches. I then colored all the portraits on my iPad, using a 99 cent app called 'Art Studio'. Hands down my favorite painting app. It was fun to 'finger paint' all Javas' sketches You'll notice many of the portraits are inspired by World of Warcraft, and he did an excellent job breathing his own style into the WoW inspired designs. Below is the 'Assassin', one of the 12 classes in LoEH: Hope you enjoy!
Nice game and ready to go ... How can I say, well I got lucky with a beta! The graphics is really detailed, and I am on iPad with 2x mode, the gameplay is easy to pick up and intuitive. Here is a screenshot from the beginning pf the game ... Who should I kill now? So many and stronger than me!
Just had a few runs and so far haven't experienced a crash. Works great on Iphone 4(iOS4.1) Never played Desktop Dungeon so I can't compare them, but the game is definitely fun and addictive. You start off with only 4 classes and one dungeon, with the other two locked. Beating the dungeon unlocks new classes and monsters, increasing the difficulty of the same dungeon you have just beaten. The game is not easy, but not unreasonably hard either. Touch control is ok but still has room to improve. There are times that instead of moving to the next tile it brings out rune windows, which can lead to frustration. Overall it's a great game, and I love the potraits so much Edit: Hmm, after a few tries it seems the game crashes whenever I attack the bosses in 3rd dungeon.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I definitely want to support as many versions as possible. I'll do some investigation and see if I can set the target version to 3.x
