I pretty much just try them out on enemies. The offensive sounding ones ofc. Ones like silent, luck etc are pretty obvious.
I'm more along the lines of infinite lives for normal mode so everyone can get through it. But keep it limited lives for the master mode for those who want the challenge (since that's the point of the master mode anyways).
Yeah, I'd keep Master mode exactly the same. Instead of giving infinite lives in story mode, I might give 5 instead of 3, but I dunno. Just seems like I should go all the way and make it infinite. You know, iOS audience and all. In the sequel I think I'd like to get rid of the lives system and just make sure levels (areas between checkpoints) weren't too long/super far apart. I'd also bump up base health more, probably replace the hearts with a health bar. You have to test out the spells to learn them, yeah.
I don't like the idea of infinite lives. I enjoy the challenge though I'll admit I became very frustrated on the 3rd orc level. Once I figured it out though and got my patience back it was okay. If you want to balance that level, you could go for heart urns (more boring) or have several more spell urns (way more fun). All those big mobs were just begging for a good spell cast, but generally I would only get 2, to 4 if I'm lucky, decent offensive spells, with the others not being terribly helpful/fun against the large orc mobs. But using beam of light or chain lighting on those mobs while they were all lined up/bunched together was thoroughly satisfying I'm also one of those people who is compulsively breaking every destructible, so I'm looking forward to that update that lets me read the achievements. Also, tip for the boar boss: Spoiler Just stay up in the top right or left corner, you can't be hit in the very edge of the corner so you can pretty much harass the boss unharmed by him. Still need to watch out for the falling boars though, best thing you can do is use chain lightning and frost shards, and with some luck you can keep the boars off you and hit the boss.
I am getting frustrated as well at the third Orc stage ... There are so many f these mages and no spells to be used!
Yeah, but you said yourself you're proud of being a niche developer. Giving infinite lives because of the audience kinda goes against that philosohy. There's an easy solution though. Just give the option to select Master Mode from the get go. Otherwise you would just be punishing the good player, making him go through a boring experience to get to the real thing. Another option is to do something similar to what Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 does. If the player dies more than three times a message appears asking if he wants infinite lives. There's a catch though, if the player says yes the character will have to wear a ridiculous hat forever. Like a big pink bow or something. I think that would fit the witty style of the game pretty well. If the player also doesn't want to wear the ridiculous hat, then just sell an IAP for 0.99c to remove it (and he can keep the infinite lives, of course), heh. Everybody wins. I mean, people who doesn't want any challenge at all is the same people that spend a fortune in IAPs anyway. Or you could just outright sell infinite lives. But where's the fun in that?
Ahh, would just like to put it out there that I managed to defeat the Boar boss last night with one heart to spare and without using any lives! Rather happy about that. Currently stuck on the 3rd Level on the 3rd Stage :S It's rather fun though, I think I should be able to do it tonight!
I only found the third orc level frustrating because I was shooting for 3 stars. Its not that hard to just complete. I used the spell gathering sword, with all the enemies thats a guaranteed bonus two spells and it cetainly helps whenever the toughest melee orcs show up (gold shirts). Two or three more spell urns would drastically drop the difficulty. I saved my spells for whenever the gold shirts turned up, they give and take so much damage and can dash in any direction that avoiding spell casters or backstabbers in their presence is real heart in mouth stuff. The length isn't an issue if you're not a compulsive "breaker", just leave heart urns alone when you don't need them and come back to them when you do. The difficulty comes when so many varied enemy types work together, its not uncommon to avoid one orc type's damage zone by moving into another. Run past backstabbers and turn around, wait at a distance for spell casters, dodge their fire and move in. I think the biggest difficulty change would be making sword dash invulnerable, most of my early deaths was from sword dashing and colliding with an enemy power like gold shirts rush.
People got stuck in the first world? Holy shit. That just blows my mind. Need spells to kill mages? what? Then again I guess not even 200 people unlocked dwarven door in super quick hook so it makes sense.
Yeah we're submitting an update for that orc level. It will add 5 spell urns and more health urns, you'll be able to go on a rampage. I think we'll just add one, maybe two extra lives more than currently. That should help people without completely trivializing the game. Master Mode stays the same, though, with just one extra life... I just don't want people to get completely stuck in Story Mode. SEQUEL: Not sure! We're doing a spin-off first. It'll be a FREEMIUM (DON'T PANIC) randomized dungeon crawler using this game's combat mechanics, but with lots of different character classes.
Yea. I've put all mine into luck. I want my crit! Yup. I've died like 20 times. I should be ashamed of myself. @kepa. This game is amazing. Thank you!
First off great job with Mage Gauntlet I absolutely love it and am finding it hard to put down which may be a problem since I should be studying for the two exams I have next week haha. This game has raised the bar for Iphone games! With the sequel do you mean it will kind of be like Shiren the Wanderer? If that's the case then count me in for getting that as soon as it releases! Thanks again for the great game.
I ended up just dashing past everyone on Ork Forest Level 3 so that I could continue onwards. Master mode is unlocked after collecting all of the stars, correct?
Master Mode is unlocked just for beating the game. It's a remix of the game, with shortened levels, but much harder enemy groups and new nightmare variants in the levels.
Rocketcat games, yall have certainly outdid yourselves! Amazing game, awesome focus on combat, really the best parts of secret of mana and any other action rpg. One thing i can add for constructive criticism is that when swinging the sword, it seems kind of stiff when trying to chamge direction. In other words when swinging the sword, if i need to quickly swing left them swing up, it cant change direction as fast as i would like. Its really a minor quibble, and the movable joystick works perfectly otherwise. Hell i wish most games used the joystick in the brilliant method done here. Finally, i have put most of my points to refill the action meter. It allows me to use more of the action moves and dash more frequently. Thank you rocketcat games!! Really looking towards the freemium dungeon crawling game idea. I can totally see how a random dungeon generation action game would be just amazing!
Ha! Also died on the Orc stage, trying again right now, it's hard but I actually felt it was my fault losing, not a single drop of cheapness in the difficulty of the game!
Oh Please allow dashing along diagonals if that is possible. Dashing feels sorta restricted and wierd without that functionality. Thanks again rocketcat and kepa for an awesome game!
