Just noticed an interesting bug. I had a timer set and my phone was on vibrate while I was playing this game. My timer went off and my phone started vibrating. But even after exiting the game the vibrating did not stop. Nothing I did worked so I had to restart my phone.
I've noticed that a lot of people at TouchArcade consider themselves way too self important. "OMG I paid <$5 for this app and the developer DARE to treat me less than someone who saved their company from bankruptcy? I ask you, What is this world coming to?" You guys seem to think that devs make games primarily so you can have fun. You're wrong. Devs make games so that they can eat, have a roof over their heads, get some clothes to wear, etc. in other words, TO MAKE MONEY. For the game to be enjoyable by as many people as possibly simply reinforces the concept of making money. But make no mistake. If it came down to pleasing people and pleasing their boss/stakeholders/investors/spouse/etc, it should be clear that the latter takes precedence. Not every indie developer has tons of reserve money and is able to cater to the fans like say Blizzad. Unfortunately, people have come to expect this level of player dedication from everyone. Isn't it enough that they are continuing to support the game and release updates to content when they could be spending their time making a new game and potentially make far more money? The ungratefulness of a lot of you is just ridiculous. Put yourself in their position and just think for 2 seconds. You know the way you guys SHOULD be looking at this? Being happy for the developer in whatever way they are able to generate revenue. After all, the more money they make, the better support they can provide. Those of you who are whining about IAPs and ads, did you stop to compare how it was done here compared to some other PAID apps? I've downloaded various English translated Korean games (the Koreans are really bad for this) and they bring up giant full screen ads. Some of which you have to wait for 5 second before you can remove them. IAPs that are extremely intrusive and basically required in the game or else you progress and at boring snails pace. Pop ups ever 2 min telling you to rate the game. I expect a lot of the community here are under 20 years old with little to no sense of financial responsibility. So of course they are going to think their few dollars is so important. Think about any food item you paid for. You spend a few dollars and in a few minutes you are done eating. You only get a few min satisfaction. Yet do you go complain to the food vendor why they aren't providing free food cause you bought some earlier? Or why they dare to continue selling food? Or why they dare to advertise? I'm done with my wall-o-text here. Just keep things in perspective TouchArcadians.
yeah, i won't be supporting this dev team anymore. fool me once, shame on you [terra noctis]. fool me twice.. ads in a game i paid for and supported from day one are unacceptable. it's too bad too, as i was really into both games before they went f2p. i wouldn't recommend either of them to anyone anymore, and will avoid any future games from them at risk of being burned by "updates".
You pay for a game, then it's updated with ads? Really? DLCs and IAPs are already questionable in these days, but inserting ads for those who actually paid is not acceptable at all. The App Store is really gearing to the worst kind of software policy ever known, because you can't buy something and expect it to work as just fine as when you bought it. Would you like to buy a music track and the next day they force you to listen an ad before the music? If you paid for something, by no means they have the right to change it. If it was released as a separate version, it would be perfectly fine, but the way things are going, the future here is ugly.
Enjoyed the game tremendously when it first came out, sadden by the inclusion of an Ad bar. That's the worst thing any developer can do to an App.
I guarantee you I'm over 20 and I find iOS gaming some of the cheapest gaming you can find. I'm not too stingy with my dollars, which is probably why I spent money on this game when it first came out, eh? I already mentioned I don't even have problems with most IAP. I am the type of person who almost never buys any but I recognize a whole bunch of other people do, which is what makes it so profitable. But what I can't get behind is having the first few customers pay you money, then changing the game up to make it freemium without any sort of bonus to people who paid money (I haven't opened the app up today, but if there are ads as well then that's especially egregious. If I paid money for an app the last thing I need is it spewing ads at me. If that's the case here then it's an awesome example of how going free screws previous customers over). Of course I want the dev to earn money and be able to suppor him/herself! But if that's done by screwing over previous customers then I feel the need to at least speak up. Either plan out ahead and make it freemium in the first place, or at least acknowledge there were people who already spent money on your game and do something a little extra for them (and as whale trail may have taught us, 2 level 1 upgrades worth of "krill" was not particularly satisfying either). Just my two cents.
Agreed. Plus they did it twice. I realize it's only 1 or 3 bucks depending on when you bought it....but this just isn't right.
I agree with the sentiments that they should have provided some benefit to previous customers. Maybe in the form of unique gear or something. Have all of you who are complaining about the ads even seen them? They take up about 1/8th of the screen and only appear on the battle summary screen. (See attached image) You guys talk as if every screen transition has some full screen ad that you are stuck viewing for 5 seconds each time. In fact, I can think of ANY free app that I've seen with smaller and less obtrusive ads. If anyone knows of any, please let me know. Oh, and for the record, I'm not trying to defend the devs choices, but rather I prefer people to be more fair in their judgement. Everyone talks as if this game suddenly became a badly translated Korean game with giant ads and required IAP. Remember why everyone loved this game? Cause it's fun. That fun hasn't been changed by the ads or the IAP. You simply ruin your own enjoyment if you choose to dwell on those things.
Well, thank you for saving this company from bankruptcy by downloading a game for free. Thank you also for accusing the forum members here of being self important then going off on a self important rant, accusing them of being irresponsible juveniles, and telling them how they SHOULD think. Just deleted this game I paid for. I could have handled some added IAP's. Even changing the game balance to push them a little. I do not expect to get games for free. I do not expect to have forced advertising in a product I paid for. Until now I had tempered my reactions in this thread. In fact, my only post ended on the note that I had probably got my monies worth out of this game before the update. In my opinion alienating paying customers to draw in consumers who are to cheap to pay a couple dollars for a game is, most probably, a very poor business decision. I have purchased most of the games from everplay in the past. Many on release day. I will not be doing that anymore. Just keeping things in perspective.
Why should we be happy with ads or even accept them? We bought a product in a certain state, without ads, and got screwed afterwards. Doesn't matter how "big" or "well placed" they are. I can't accept them because I didn't approve of them in the first place, since they were not part of my purchase originally. Gameplay was changed too, you think I should accept that too? Lost any respect I had for the dev, same thing happened with Terra Noctis. I'm done with this dev and anything from him in the future, freedom of choice ;-)
The ads are small, but still ads for a game people paid. Yeah, 1 dollar, but still paid (fortunately I didn't, got this when it was the app of the week, but seeing this trend I'm only buying things from know companies like Cave, Kairosoft, etc., the rest will go to AppShopper to get when they become free(mium))
Same here. I will never ever buy another game from this developer. I really don't care about the price. I've been a gamer for 25 years and I will gladly pay $5 or $10 for a great iOS game. It was THEIR choice to sell the game for only a buck. And we paid that buck. Unfortunately, this kind of crap is becoming a trend on the App Store. And please don't this with Left 2 Die.
Oh balls. Yup. Ads. *deletes game* Again, unethical. Edit: And BTW, the sound is glitchy. Edit 2: I'm steaming mad. Not sure who to be mad at though: Everyplay (likely) or Fire Fruit Forge. I blamed BulkyPix for Terra Noctis... Edit 3: And you gotta love the pulsating "Get More!" every time you enter the items screen. Ugh. If I didn't care about this game, I wouldn't post.
really surprised this one went the freemium route. especially cause it seemed to get quite a lot of coverage and was quite popular. if costs of adding new content and constant updates were a problem, then why not just release Spellsword 2 or add more content through an IAP purchase, instead of making the entire game freemium.
Ok, i'm done with everplay! I'll NEVER, EVER PLAY their games again! I really hate the choice of making one of my favorite games freemium!! DELETED!!!
Basically, it goes like this: Spell Sword, despite incredible critical reviews (even here at TouchArcade) failed to come close to making a profit. So we had 2 options: 1. Abandon the game and seek greener pastures for different types of games... 2. Find a viable model to support Spell Sword so that additional updates can come out. So we *thought* that turning it free2play version 4 months after the release of the original would be a good choice. We couldn't add IAP without making it free because even with those 15 downloads per day, we wouldn't be able to support it. We KNOW there are hardcore and passionate fans out there for Spell Sword so we really wanted to continue supporting it, but we couldn't with the previous method. We have made one mistake that is being rectified for then next version update. We add premium and exclusive content to those that purchased before it went free. So keep your app on the device and don't delete it if you want those exclusive features.
Thanks for your honesty. This was a technical error. ONLY players who downloaded it for FREE were supposed to be shown the ads, not paying players. PLAYERS who purchased the game PRIOR to the update were also given a large sum of dragon coins to buy new items. The game had a time stamp that was programmed in to allow people who had the game prior to the update date to get the coins and no ads, but the update, when downloaded, overwrote the time stamp. We apologize for this and it will get fixed immediately.
