Well, we certainly aren't the best icon designers. Everything we've read says the most successful icons have a large face on them (think Clash of Clans, Kingdom Rush, Catch the Rope, etc.). Beyond that -- if there's a certain style that you (or anyone here) thinks would be good, do let us know and we'll put it on the list of things to look at. In general, any programming we do is free to us, but any art we do costs cash money to have the artists create. So it's something that's hard for us to play with and commit to until we're ready. Thus, the easiest thing is to take from (say) anything on the title screen, or character cards, or things like that, since we've already paid to have the artwork created.
No, it's pretty minimal, actually. Basically -- in the first pass, the iPhone used the exact graphics as the iPad (scaled accordingly). However, that turned out to use a bunch of memory, and caused a bunch of crashes on iPhone 4 and 4s devices. After that, we cut the memory usage in half by changing from 32-bit color to 16-bit color on the iPhone. That helped the memory a bunch, but some areas -- especially things like the backgrounds of the deck display, or the in-game roads -- got very flat and ugly looking. So in this version, we went through by hand and adjusted all the 16-bit graphics to make sure they still look good on the phone. Some things (character portraits, buildings, things like that) will look almost identical to the previous version, while a bunch of stuff like stone backgrounds or roads will look much less "blocky" after being touched up.
The app icon is cute, but doesn't seem to have much to do with the game. It looks like an app icon for a medieval bar simulation (which would be a great game). Plus why is the beer red? I can't think of any better ideas for an icon though.
Like what ive said its just a small issue thats doable in the future..but it wont impact the overall greatness of the game..i even bought this game on its highest price and not regretting any yen/¥ i paid for this..and i will continue to support the devs like how i support the devs of kingdom rush when theyre not yet famous..hopefully you guys will have the same success as them.. Sorry for not giving up on the icon hahahaha i think the icon will look good with borders and the footman overlapping it.. Cheers from Japan
Yeah, we have no idea why the beer came out red .. we actually ended up using it for one of the mini-skits in a "er, what are you drinking?!?" conversation. We might be able to use something like the "leaping forward conscript" who shows up on the title screen.
No worries -- we take the advice in the spirit it's given! And it's definitely something to play around with (as long as we're not changing it daily to confuse people). We really appreciate you (and everyone) supporting us, by the way -- we'll look forward to the day we become zillionaires, but in the meantime, you guys make it so we can keep doing this, instead of getting jobs for some insurance company. ;-)
We might be able to use something like the "leaping forward conscript" who shows up on the title screen.[/QUOTE] Thats exactly what i had in mind..the loading screen looks so awesome and the first i noticed that would be perfect for an app icon is the leaping conscript..of course with borders just like the KR app icons IMO app icon with realistic visual for example real racing 3, anomaly 2 and warhammer quest looks good without borders But if you notice all app icon with cartoonish flavor looks good with borders example are KR icons, rayman run or ski safari adventure time
Yeah -- right now we've done the "sunshine rays" kind of thing, while skipping a border, partly to avoid looking exactly like CoC or KR. If I get a chance this weekend, I'll play around with different treatments for a possible new icon, so that we can get one without the mystery beer, while still not looking exactly like somebody else's icon.
i agree the app icon is corny but if i'm looking around, rather than taking a recommendation from a game blog, i do this: - look under the Board and Strategy game categories - click and look at anything over 99 cents to see if there really is quality to warrant the cost (there's a lot of crap out there) that, in fact, is how i came by this game. to be honest, if i was just looking for a game based only on how cool app icon was (some people do!) i woulda skipped right over this one
Well, eventually we'll hopefully have both a good and well-rated game, and also a good and well-liked icon.
Exactly my point, mostly of the people do that because theres really alot of crappy games and it shows by just simply looking at their app icon so it would be a waste of time to look on each disregarding the app icon..usually they click on something like an eye candy then look at the slideshow and game description.. But this is a very good game hiding a mediocre app icon so some people will assume that this is just like the other games without knowing how awesome this game is
No need for apologies. I paid for the game because it peeked my interest. If something goes on sale afterwards, good deal for everyone else. No skin off my back Besides, if it helps sales, we all benefit! More updates
That's certainly our plan! I'll post something here once we see how the test went, to let you guys know if it's helped.
If your going to go free why don't you go ahead and finally add pinch and zoom, fix the hang-up issue where the game locks up/freezes when showing a "cut-scene" and... oh yeah, AdD PiNCH & ZOom, Please. Free?! Really? There goes the prestige I had revered for this game. Welcome to the club bubs, Enjoy, It's a great Frikken game. I want a refund.
Hi, TheCalm1, Like I replied to your angry e-mail, I'm sorry you feel betrayed by our going free. As I posted earlier in this thread, we really didn't want to do a free campaign, but it was either that, or just call it quits and remove the game from the store -- it's just not making enough money to support us right now. I'm not quite sure what going free has to do with things like pinch-and-zoom. I've written about the pros and cons of that before. You're welcome to disagree, and if enough people let us know that, we'll put it in, no matter how we feel about it personally. As to a crash in the cut-scenes, we've never heard of that before -- had you mentioned it in a thread or e-mail and we just missed it? Also as mentioned, I've offered to give anyone who feels upset about the free campaign currency for free. Regardless, I'm sorry you've lost respect for us/the game, but I'm really not sure what more you'd like us to do. Constructive criticism is very welcome.
Well, that's a good way to ensure that we can't actually make any games, but I won't blame you. If we make a game free, it's with the intent that people grab it!
