We came up with the world map to help us ground the story and fiction of the game in a defined place. The first campaign will probably take place in just one of the sections and then we'll introduce the others through additional campaigns as we expand the story. We do have some character classes that are designed to have pets but we're not ready to talk about how exactly that's going to work. We also will have a store in the game in addition to any loot you find in the quests. We're still working out the loot system but we're planning to have randomized loot as well as unique weapons/armor that you can earn through the quests. As for levels, we're planning to continually release updates with new levels and areas to quest in. We're also looking into how we could build random levels for each section of the world but that will probably come after release. We're definitely thinking about the hardcore player, we're making the kind of game we want to play. With that said, we're also trying to streamline things so that someone who isn't as familiar with a party based RPG will still be able to play and have fun. It's a difficult balance and as we start to solidify the design a little more we'd like to share our ideas and get your feedback. Thanks for the comments, keep them coming!
I missed this one in my last post. You almost got me to post a couple screenshots this weekend but I think it would be best to post them when we post the video. So hopefully next week we'll have something for you.
Pocket Heroes Developer Video Hey everyone, I'm sorry to say that our video is going to be delayed. Cody and I are getting together to shoot it this weekend so I'll try to post it to the website and here on the forums on Monday. As a peace offering I've attached a couple screenshots for you to check out. Please understand we're mostly working on the gameplay functionality at this point so everything from the menus to the particle effects, to the screen layout is likely to change. These screenshots show a couple different enemies, some of our current abilities, and some of our battle descriptions. It's hard to 'capture' what's going on in a turn based game in screenshots so feel free to ask questions. Let us know what you think and if you have any questions or suggestions.
Really liking it so far, can't wait to see more. But more than anything, I simply LOVE the concept. I'm already gathering some iOS friends to play some quests togheter (I hope that there will be some sort of story quests....I know it will be mostly combat focused, but I hope there will be some varied purpose on the various adventures, and may an arch story to follow).
I can tell just fine from the screen shots what's going on, it's the making of a freaking awesome game I seriously cant wait for this. I love Loot based RPGs and this is looking sweet.
Pocket Heroes - Alpha Demo Video Hey everyone! I'm happy to say that our demo video for Pocket Heroes is here and we're really excited to see what you think about it! We're still early in development so a lot of things will change but we have spent our time since E3 working on gameplay features and enhancements and we discuss quite a few of them in the video. We also highlight a few areas in the game design that we're still figuring out so if you have suggestions definitely let us know. I've embedded the video here and we'll have a blog post up soon that goes into a little more detail about everything we've been up to. Check it out and let us know what you think! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Watched the video, loved it, here's some things I noticed in no particular order of importance: -You've got to get rid of the market felt font. I kind of like how the UI is reminiscent of Final Fantasy games with the standard blue boxes, but I think a lot of character can be injected via the look and feel of these boxes. For instance, you could go more fantasy oriented with something similar to that mega cliche Diablo font that every Geocities page was written in and menus that look like parchment. Alternatively, a cool style might be like a 16-bit looking lightly pixelated font with menus that have pixelated rounded corners like SNES Final Fantasy games. -One of the biggest parts of D&D and similar games is communication with your party, and either formulating plans, giving shit to party members that don't follow plans, and ridiculing those who fail at executing plans. I'm not sure the best way to convey all this with Pocket Heroes but at bare minimum there needs to be a chat feature. Ideally, it would be cool if each player could place marks on monsters (think raid symbols in World of Warcraft) to go along with this. Presumably, battles will get more difficult and coordination will be required. What would be -really- sweet is if you could use your finger to actually draw on top of the map as an overlay of sorts that you could use to illustrate which path to take, where you suggest another player stands, etc. This would likely be much more complicated, but still. -Another aspect of D&D that's missing from this is dice rolling. Obviously you're never going to be able to duplicate the feel of tossing out dice, but it would be neat if you guys used something like the Mach Dice engine and stuck to basic d20 rules. i.e. When you attack something you swipe, tap, or shake to roll a d20. Similarly, if you hit, you roll the appropriate dice to do your attack damage. This will really make players feel like they've got a serious effect on what they're doing and will result in turns that are total busts as well as potentially saving the day with a lucky roll. You might be doing this already behind the scenes, but I think displaying what's happening and allowing players to create the random seed themselves for the number generation with a shake/touch/roll will really assist immersion. Another benefit of sticking to a d20 based system is you'll be able to balance the game easily based on something like 40 years of existing d20-based games for examples of how much damage a weapon should be doing, how much damage a monster should be doing, and things like that. -If a d20 system is used, you basically need a critical hit (20 rolled) and critical fumble (1 rolled) table like this one. It's just ridiculous how much this adds to a turn-based RPG as instead of just missing, you can have some really hilarious side effects. Alternatively, instead of just doing double damage on a critical strike, you can do things like apply a debuff of sorts or just flat out kill an enemy if you're lucky enough with your percentage dice. Heck, you could even send out special push alerts for criticals, as I'd totally be interested in being alerted to see what happened even if it's not my turn yet but a party member just cut off three of their fingers. -There needs to be a much better way to see what is going on in the game, both with other players turns and monster turns. Two potential solutions I could see is the ability to hit like a backward/forward arrow to go through the previous actions of the battle. i.e. when it's my turn, I hit next through each action and the camera pans to focus on it. Alternatively, I could hit a button to see a text log, or another button to just skip it entirely and take my turn. Anyway, this sounds like a lot of stuff but I really think by using a d20 based system and using existing d20 material as a reference guide your game will basically be automatically balanced, and balanced based on years and years of real-world play testing. This will free up development time to do things listed above. I think you guys have a rock solid foundation here, but I think what needs important consideration is how you can implement methods for players to emulate that pen and paper tabletop atmosphere in a remote turn-based environment.
Thanks for the ideas! We will have a chat function, it just hasn't been implemented yet, so you'll be able to communicate with your party during the game and chatting will be independent of your turn so you'll get notifications when someone is trying to communicate with you. I REALLY like the marking system, I hadn't even thought of that yet, we'll definitely look at putting something like that in place. Full drawing on a map like the DS Zelda games would be really cool and I'm sure it will be a great update at some point We're also working on a replay system that will let you see all the moves that have happened since your last turn. The original idea was to make that completely user controllable (with forward and back buttons) but we aren't ready to say that is the interface until we get a little deeper into implementation. As for the rules, up to this point we've been working off our own ruleset, mainly as we've been focused on getting the technology framework in place. We've gone back and forth about using an existing ruleset, and if so which one, or coming up with something that is our own. Your comments about the D20 rules already being balanced make a lot of sense but it's also fairly complex and could exclude some players, so it's a tricky balancing act. We had looked at taking something like the rule system in the HeroQuest boardgame and adding to it, but then we could end up with balance issues again. We'll take another look at the existing rulesets and see how we could integrate that level of rules into an approchable interface. Any other ideas or suggestions on rule sets for us to look at?
Well, just because you'd use the math behind the d20 system doesn't necessarily means it needs to be any more complicated to the player than just rolling dice. Since you can do all the calculations inside the app, all the player really needs to know is whether they rolled high or low my suggestion to actually show the dice was really just to add flavor/feel to the game. All the math that makes D&D seem complicated is entirely trivialized by the app being able to calculate it for the player. I just think following some existing system at least as a guide would be good because you'd be able to look at existing encounters and easily figure out how many HP a player should have at a particular level, as well as what works as far as monster HP. From there you could also see what appropriate equipment would be for that level, all using the figures from the tons of D&D encounters you can find online. Balancing a game is super tricky, and it just seems like when there's seriously a wealth of information out there on existing systems that you could integrate seamlessly into your game, there's not much reason not to. You could start out just by checking out a kit like this- http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Game/dp/0786956291/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1311113307&sr=8-6 You could pick it up locally at basically any book store for $20, or Amazon for $14. From there you could get an incredibly basic look at how D&D math works, as well as how players and monsters work. I'm not saying duplicate this 1:1 or anything, but it could be some incredible inspiration on how to balance/implement things.
Yeah, I've thought about picking this up probably 10 times in the last couple months for reference, now you've convinced me. Thanks!
Yeah check that out and if you think it's cool I'd spring for this which is much more exhaustive, has more sample encounters, loot tables, and things like that- http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Core-Rulebook-Gift/dp/0786950633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311113975&sr=8-1
I wholeheartedly agree with this. d20 has already established itself, and with a very good reason. It just works. It doesn't even have to be that complex to the player. Leave the detailed dice rolling feedback disabled by default, but have an option in the menu that would toggle rolls on/off. The people that are overwhelmed by the mechanic don't have to look at it, and the hardcore people that love seeing every stat possible and always enable that option in games like Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/etc can geek out that way if they want to. As a bonus, you'll endear yourself to pen/paper lovers everywhere.
if this hasnt been mentioned.... Pls add the possibilitz for a GameMaster host, that would be EPIC, like raiders against another plazer plazing the dungeon master
Forgot to chime in and say thanks for the video. This game is looking great. I would prefer the complexity to be low but the variety of content high. I would like to be able to customize my avatar's appearance with a simple mix-n-match head legs body swap mechanism so there is some uniqueness to my character. Trading items among players should be simple and easy. I am really pumped about this game big time. There is a lot of potential here.
Don't have much to add other than this looks truly excellent. My biggest request would be to try to put some effort into wrapping the thing in a story; perhaps with the odd mission that involves choices for players to argue about. Dungeon crawling without a purpose can feel pretty hollow
Wow! Somehow I managed to autodelete a long post about the video and I realized it just now. I'll make it very brief.....REALLY liked the video and the general direction the game is heading to. While I would appreciate some known ruleset I do not see it as critical as others (but I do care about perfect balancing)...something home made and simple should do. I concour about the style: while I wouldn't have minded for a more realistic graphical approach, I do like the 'roguelike' feel but surely I agree with other about fonts and colors (less FF style, more classic pen and paper style!!!). What I personally do care most though, given everything else will be as great as I can imagine, is that I there will be a story to wrap things up...or maybe several story 'modules' to play (if successfull, I can already see more 'multi modules full campaigns' IAP). Aside from combat, clearily the core of the game, I would really love some puzzle solving or little choices being made between the players that affect the gameplay or the adventure. Said that...I really can't wait to play it...already gathered and informed some friends (some from my p&p group back in the days). BTW...asyncronous multiplayer on iOS devices (in particular the always connected iPhone) simply ROCKS.
I'd not really considered posting on the Touch Arcade forums before now. Just wanted to chime in with yet another "looks amazing" and say I will be buying this *for* people just so I can play with them. Been waiting for something like this to come along. I'm very excited about all the ideas you've already mentioned - the possible random areas, character progression, updates with additional levels and loot, potential for a GM mode eventually, etc. Here's to hoping you all get the notice an ambitious project like this deserves.
Thats probably the stupidest reply in this threadcause : 1. There cannot be RPG without a story (if there is pls quote, and the game probably sucks) 2.How will you wrap RANDOMLY GENERATED DUNGEONS to a story??? So for Gm that would be awesome if your profile could be ranked (i mean mARKED WITH STARS 1-5) so ppl know if you are a good GM... Also the obvious multi profile possibility and if you die in the game what happens: In realmofthemadgod you start a new profile and in fire emblem zou just loose zour chars... (a hardcore mode could be added, that would be sweet for hardcore gamers...) Oh and if a singleplazer is possible, could we have ally AI or multi character control? Srz for the long message Cheers
