Stop. With. The. Engine. Talk. It's Unity3D. It's constantly being upgraded and one of the most (if not the most) advanced in the field of cross-platform 3D and 2D development. The appearance of the game and lack of polish is strictly the developers fault. He did do expansions for The Quest, which had already all assets and everything polished by the developer who made it. Catacomber mostly did the level design as far as I know. Unfortunately he used the same approach with this game, using Ork framework as the base. Ork however, mostly focuses on scripts and not all aspects of a quality RPG. And that's the reason why this game is as it is and why Catacomber is so oblivious to all other aspects of the game.
Well, I've not really had a problem with criticism because there have been both positive comments and criticism. It just made me a little mad that someone took a free promo code for a .99 cent game and five minutes later was talking about polish without playing the game. I'm sure if that happened to you you might be a little taken aback. I won't be giving out any more Promo codes is the bottom line of that. I didn't care that there was debate about the icon. I realize that some things are a matter of taste. We're a small team. We put a lot of work into Omber and think it's a good game and don't mind making an update. I'm happy to listen to what you have to say and work on things, more likely for our next game though. Admittedly we focus more on story because that's our strength. We're not a big developer with a lot of money to spend on hiring people to work on graphics. I didn't honestly think there was anything wrong with the graphics. I'm not a contentious person but again to take a free promo code for a .99 cent game and leave nothing but a negative comment after five minutes of play--how would you expect me to react? I'm a she by the way. And I was part of the original Quest development team from day one--working on the story.
Do you do positive criticism then, Elsa? Haven't seen a lot of evidence of it, senior member or not! Tell me,'what is wrong with a nice little game for 87 pence? I have purchased loads of little games and this stands up to them, and a lot of them were much more expensive and perhaps not perfect either. Give the game a chance, some of us are enjoying it!
Here's some positive feedback: I've been a fan of "The Quest" and its 678 or so expansions for five years, all of which I have immediately purchased upon release. It's a massive world, and has been wonderfully developed by Cat and her cohorts, especially given the limitations of the game engine. IMHO, a new open world from these folks with an updated engine can only mean great things. I am downloading Omber right now, and look forward to getting lost in its narrative world ... Rob
Rereading this thread and just thought I'd pop in here. Catacomber, first off, I was taken aback as to how you rated your own game five stars, seeing as this is one review out of four, it raised my eyebrow a bit. As for Elsa and Coolpepper, I've known them for a while as they are active members of the touch arcade community, it would do well to take what they say with a grain of salt. I know Elsa is abrasive when giving criticism, but that's just how she is, she doesn't know any other way. I am impressed, however, that you are actively engaging your commenters and listening to their criticism. I won't be giving any because I haven't played the game yet, but I will say that the graphics are becoming a big deal. Looking at the pictures, I can tell that the graphics are a bit dated, and with the current iOS market, any laymen would ignore your game and go find something prettier like Vainglory or something. I understand that graphics don't make the game, but it's an easy way to judge a game by its cover, and with the amount of free time the consumers have, they'd rather use it to play a more well-known game by a developer they know. That being said, it is great that you are reaching out. I wish you luck. Edit: ok, as for Coolpepper, he got to game for free so he could review it. Isn't that what promo codes are for? You should be ashamed for verbally assaulting one of your customers for providing criticism. And yes, the shield looks bad. I have no idea where you thought that would be ok.
Calm down. I don't mean unity I mean the way the dev has created their games as the quest and this one are all pretty similar interface wise, appearance wise and the way the game plays. To me that 'engine' (not unity but how they create their games via unity) seems outdated nowadays. They seem to do the games one certain style using Unity and to me that now seems old. the quest 5 years ago seemed cutting edge but not really anymore And to be fair, the dev isn't the only one who ranks their threads 5 stars. Lots of devs do that whixh is laughable as its for views from users not the devs (as Theyll obviously rank it 5 stars whatever)
This game is cheap for the quality. I'm playing in landscape mode and the controls are comfortable. The quests and riddles are all fun.
I do. I started by saying that the game is unpolished and I meant to leave it at that. However, the developer was completely oblivious towards it, as if she never heard of criticism before and even started acting quite hostile towards someone who took a promo code, played the game for 5 minutes and said it was unpolished (most developers don't even get feedback, so be thankful for that Catacomber). I wanted to bring the major problem of this game up, and not let this thread be another WizzardIsland thread with 5 people chatting and nobody really bringing up the big problem (lack of polish, that is). If the developer was straight up and said that they're a small team that prefers to focus on worldbuilding and story, therefore sacrificing graphics, controls and polish - fine. But they didn't. The developer is legitimately convinced that everything is good. Maybe she never faced such criticism before, because nobody wants to look like a jerk by bringing it up. Well, here I am, trying to help even, as qdiddy said (thanks man ), if it makes me look like a jerk in the process. But my arguments are researched, valid and served straight up. As for people who though I was bashing on the icon for no apparent reason: 1. That green thing around the actual icon is bad. It's supposed to be a border, but it seems it got cropped. 2. Groot (Ent thing) has a different visual style than the forest background, which are also trees. A tree shouldn't differ from a tree that much really...(granted, that's a nitpick) 3. It's pixelized for some reason I don't think this developer will act on criticism though, according to this post on their forum. Anyone who says something bad is labeled as a complainer and the only good thing about criticism here is bumping the thread, apparently. So... nothing to do here, I guess. Right, I see what you meant. This game isn't based on the same framework as The Quest as it uses Ork Framework as the base, which isn't exactly outdated, but it needs a lot of polish to output a great RPG. I think Catacomber tried to mimic The Quest with the UI to a certain extent, which might be the reason why it feels the same. I don't think The Quest was made with Unity at all. But I definitely agree with what you're saying here. The work habits need to be changed, especially since the developer is taking on a different role (a couple of them actually) that they didn't do with previous titles before.
Don't get me wrong I don't mean to sound totally negative. Graphics don't bother me (Lowlander is a great Ultima homage) but there are a few issues which people have mentioned but I think that's being sorted in the next update I love large open world games so I will continue playing this. A bit more polish would be good but I don't think its that bad. Good job by an indie dev. Just needs a bit more 'oomph' to sel a lot more copies apart from to the hardcore rpg fans
Let me cut through the dev conversation to say. Love this game. Love its flaws for the fact that this game is genuine. Cheers!
Let me agree with Barefoot Dragon, judging a game by the icon is like judging a book by it's cover, not, as I've said, that I have a problem with the icon, it sets the mood of the game...which I've almost finished, and am enjoying.
Elsa, I do not know where you came up with that pixelized cropped Omber logo. The logo on the Canadian store is sharp and clear with the border intacked and no pixelization. Just look at the top of every page in this forum and you will see the game icon looks nothing like what you posted. Personally , I think the logo is fine. I did comment earlier about the shield in the game looking odd to me. Okay, you are a small team and might not be able to rework the graphics because of cost etc. I get it. Just consider one point. If your character was walking around with his or her shield out like that, their shoulder/arm would get tired really fast. The shield would need to be held closer to the body. I feel the best angle would be to see the inside of the shield with the hand gripping the shield strap. Of course, this is just my opinion. Good luck with your game!
It's not that, it's the fact that the term "junior member" means that your account isn't that old. Now, we've had problems with sock puppet accounts before, rating a game 5 stars and never being heard from again. What I'm worried about is that accounts are being made specifically for the act of driving the ratings up.
@qdiddy--we have enough players that we don't need sock puppets. . And we don't use them. Sales have been very good.
Thank you! I think,I can adjust the shield. I'll try to get a shield exactly as you say without breaking the bank. I don't mind criticism.. I just think some, like the criticism of the icon has been a little bit unfair. And I apologize to cool pepper. It was very late and I had had very little sleep and sometimes we aren't at our best under those circumstances. Two days with very little sleep didn't do me any good. It's tough being an Indie game maker and wearing lots of hats. And we're making two new games. Both very different from each other. I admit I could have done more with lighting but we were trying to keep the game size down and stable. Apple now requires a 64 bit build AND a 32 bit build if you want to make a game for the older and 64 bit devices. I could have made it just for iPad but we wanted to keep some people who were looking forward to,the game. And Unity's 64 bit engine is not completely polished yet so we didn't want to take a chance with the game having any problems. I'm open to reasonable criticism and will do what I can in an update about the shield and a few other things.
I appreciate the apology. I wish all the success for developers, especially indie devs with a lot of love and passion for their games like you.
@coolpepper43--- Thanks for your kindness. : ) What menu sounds did you find annoying. Can take them out. About centered menus---are you playing in landscape mode? The only reason we included portrait mode is that we had to---Apple requires it for the iphone which defaults to portrait mode. But it's not designed to be played in portrait mode. Not sure if I can do anything about this until we switch to Unity 5 and the new GUI. But will see what I can do if you tell me which menus and please let them be in landscape. : ) Working on pulling away more smoothly. It's tightest when you are in the Resistance Hideout when you have so many things to interact with I think.
Thanks it's the menu select sound. It's one of the most common sounds in the game and I feel that it's too high of a frequency it hurts my ears. Maybe any other sound effect that is a little more soothing and easy on the ears would be wonderful. Also it would be cool to have a sound effect of a cash machine when you enter the store. That would give your game more life. I feel that the walking speed is too slow. Maybe increase the speed or get a run button. I'm not sure if that is something you can acquire later in the game. The more I play it the more I like it but I still think it needs some more polish.
