I would love to see SK as a type of MUD. If Raptisoft supplies level creation tools, I'm sure it could get some volunteers to create towns, forests, semi-random dungeons, NPCs and quests. But easier said than done! Seems like a huge task. [If you don't know what a MUD is, read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD]
That's great news. I can't wait for 2.0, it sounds fantastic. For anyone that's on the fence this is a great game, you won't be disappointed.
Just for the record... I was disappointed. I thought maybe this was going to be kind of like an action version of a rogue-like, but as it turns out it's a mediocre dual-stick shooter in which you battle in tiny, generic rooms. It goes like this: enter a tiny room, enemies come at you and you shoot them. Get the gold from the chest(s). Enter the next small room, enemies come at you and you shoot them. Open the chest(s) and get the gold. Repeat. Sometimes you go up stairs and find another set of small rooms and the same thing happens. Every once in a while you level up and get to improve one weapon or add a new one. Is there anything more to this and does it get any better? It's a lousy, though nice looking, dual-stick shooter.
Character can be developed in different ways, so in that sense this game is more than just simple dual stick shooter.
Out of curiosity, what do other dual stick shooters do that is above and beyond this? I've played Minigore, iDracula, and a few others, and you just described "dual stick shooters" except those don't have stairs to go up, or rooms. Heck what you wrote also describes Diablo and Diablo 2 (SK was written taking its cue from Diablo I, incidentally).
There's a lot of depth to this game. I've spent over ten hours playing through the game using different configurations. Every single time through the game is different, granting a nearly unlimited number of fresh and different playthroughs. The level-up system also makes the gameplay exciting because you're not in complete control of what happens to your character, and the game is just short enough that you care enough to do whatever you can to get to the end. Overall, it's a balanced game that actually requires thinking and foresight, something that's rare on the App Store. This game is surprisingly compelling, and I'm sure if you give it a little more time and focus on the strategic aspects as well as the actual crawling around the floors, you'll be satisfied with the experience. I'm really, really happy that 2.0 has been released. Right after I finished my finals, too!
Not a lot (I've never played Diablo, though - I didn't think that was a dual-stick shooter). I'm not a fan of the genre. As I said, I was hoping this would be something different or better, thus my disappointment when it turned out to seemingly be yet another dual-stick shooter. Worse, though, you're battling in tiny little rooms. Not only not an improvement, possible a step backward. Mind you, I bought the thing and so I'll give it some more time, but so far it's a disappointment to me.
The reason I ask is, the iPhone has limited memory and resources, so the game can't be expanded hugely, but after a couple more updates, I'm going to put out a big expanded Windows/Mac/iPad version with quests and stuff into it. When I do that, I want to add stuff, and stuff, and stuff to use up the suddenly limitless memory (remember, on iPod I have to be backward compatible for first generations). So with the extra memory, I would address issues like this.
I think you were just expecting a completely different game. I hesitate to even call this a dual stick shooter in the same vein as iDracula or Minigore. It has similar controls, but it's definitely in it's own little genre. The key things I enjoy about this game are the leveling up and upgrading your different powers, not necessarily the combat itself (although combat is really fun). I also don't mind the little rooms because they are all connected into a bigger dungeon and randomly generated, which is what they were going for. Again, in a typical ds shooter you'd want a larger playfield to focus on the combat, but that's not the case here. If you're expecting the "next step" in dual stick shooters, you'll be disappointed with this game, but it's not the game's fault because that's not really what they set out to do. Hope that makes sense
To be completely honest, I didn't like it at first either and it was because of my expectations being for something very different, as Boardumb said. I have warmed to it considerably after giving it a second chance. I've really loved Hoggy from the first moment though, even though it kicks my butt.
Man, I just had this awesome lightning build, then I was cornered by enemies and decided to escape to town, so in town I got better gear then went into the door again, it saved me in a corner surrounded by a mob of enemies that killed me like 10 times in a row. I'm incredibly bright This isn't the only time I've done this in a game, in this one computer star wars game, I had like a rocket launcher equipped and accidentaly saved it so that my guy was facing a wall, well guess what, to respawn you had to press the fire button, but it also fired off a shot, so I would respawn get hit with my own missle and die. Lol
That's awesome. I've only had to flee to town in the middle of fighting off a horde one time. And I tend to make minimal trips back to town from a habit carried over from 1.1 where half the time I would go to town the portal back would disappear. On a slightly related note: I absolutely can't wait for 2.0 to be cleared by Apple!!
I want to explain this to you the way I explained it to a friend who felt the same way. ("The walking speed is too slow and it's boring.") Quoting myself, The fun in Solomon comes from it's rogue-ish randomness; that is to say, every time that you level up (past level 2) you are presented with 3 mostly random skill choices to pick from. There's a lot of strategy involved. Let's say you pick lightning: if you increase damage too quickly and neglect your mana reserves, you will find that you empty your mana before you can clear half a room. Then you add in secondary skills: arcing (arc to multiple enemies) and stun. These take more mana too. Do you want to focus on taking down one enemy at a time, or on multiple ones, (hint: multiple) You may notice that the shop and skill trainers only have a small, limited number of items: these add to the strategy. If you're playing a fire character, and see that the trainer has the 'ember' skill, you can neglect levelling it up in favor of other things when it is offered at level up such as health, secondary skills like ring of fire or magic shield, walk speed, etc., and pay when you want to level it. In addition, if you want to up it instead of say, explode, you can do so. The same is true with the merchant...do you play anticipating buying that +2 damage ring (devestating for lightning), or perhaps that +50% exp staff you see? This is only the tip of the iceberg, ESPECIALLY with 2.0. There is a huge amount of strategy involved in the current version though, still with that rogue-ish randomness, and then there's the FUN. For instance with lightning (my favorite) when you get to 4 arcs and walk into a room and light it up with electricity everywhere...well...you get the idea. You feel powerful. It's like that game Caster. It makes you feel powerful. Every time you level up (which is frequently) you get to add a little bit more to your powers. And you never get the same build twice; you always have to adapt your strategy and choices to what you've gotten. If at the end of the day all you focus on is "walk from room to room, shoot, rinse, repeat," well, that's like saying in Command & Conquer all you do is watch units attack other units. Or something like that. You're missing the point. And that's OK: I don't get "the point" of doodle jump, it bores me to death!!
I totally agree with the feeling powerful part, I remember the save before this one I went all fire, I felt so powerful dispatching like 4 enemies in fire blast or incinerating like 20 or more with ring of fire! The power is good! The power is mine! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! P.S. Some people say I get into this game to much
Not only do you have only 3 skills(some passive)to choose from(more choices if you pick a choice+1) but In 2.0 you can choose to do the random boast and have the game pick your skills randomly, sometimes I get what I want sometimes I don't adds to the challenge
