1. Introduction I purchased the game on Thursday and have now completed it on Savage with every class (I didn’t bother with normal and easy). It was a pretty fun ride! I thought I’d write a review from the perspective of a hardcore roguelike player who has a lot of transferable skills for games like this. 2. Praise! Overall, I think the game does some pretty cool stuff. My favorite things are: - The monsters that spawn other monsters. In particular the Black Jellies are by far my favorite monster. They give the game a sort of Tetris feel where you’re scrambling to stomp out every damn one, haha. - The magic system (5 Stamina, each kill restores a Stamina) is simple and good. - The art is FANTASTIC. Seriously, please ignore everyone who says the art is too cute or whatever. I love this adorable art style and am happy whenever I see it in a real game (as opposed to Free to Play stuff aimed at children). - I like the structure of the game. A lot of roguelikes have this one giaaaaant level, basically, and dying and starting at the beginning can be pretty frustrating. By splitting up the game into 10 levels you mitigate that a lot while still retaining the classic roguelike feel. - This is a pretty small thing, but smashing pots has never felt so good, haha. It feels *great* to run into a pot and have it explode into coins. A++ - You did a pretty good job of making the classes feel distinct from each other. All of them play pretty well (although there is usually only 1 viable build for each of them). 3. Criticism With that said, I have some criticism. My biggest beef with the game as a whole is the “progression” system. I usually tolerate games with RPG level-up elements because I know casual players really love them. All I really care about are interesting decisions, so as long as the difficulty scales to match my increased power, I’m mostly okay with it. However, in this case your progression system trivializes a lot of the game, and makes it considerably more shallow. One of the joys of roguelike is that having different loadouts makes you have to approach monsters differently. If I have a staff that can freeze monsters one game, and a staff that lets me blink strike in another game, that’s really going to shake up the possibility space and force me to get good at playing the game in a variety of situations. However, you subvert that roguelike goodness here by letting the player buy weapons and bring them into the stage. Firstly, as a “progression” system it feels a bit hollow. You’ve advertised that there are tons and tons of weapons/armor/items that you can buy, but in practice I purchased almost none of them. By the time I was done with completing the game with all 6 classes I had some ridiculous amount of gold - like 30k. In reality, you only need to buy the *best* item. You don’t need to buy a weapon that gives you +1 HP/kill when you can buy a +2 HP/kill one instead. So I would tend to only buy 1 (sometimes 2) weapon/armor for each of my classes. Second, when I have what I believe is the best loadout, opening treasure chests becomes a chore. If I have the best of every weapon, there is usually no reason to even read what item I’ve gotten - I just mash “Keep Old”. Third, you lose the strategy space of traditional roguelikes. Rather than being forced to make do with different stuff, I just bring the best loadout every time, and employ the same basic strategy. Another issue with the progression system is how damn easy it makes the game. Granted, most users will probably spend their gold suboptimally, and so this might be less of an issue. But I put in maybe 5 minutes of thought into optimizing progression. I beat the early levels (which don’t require gear at all) with the starting classes first, which gives you a large influx of gold from all the 1k bonuses. Then I maxed out the ability that reduced item prices, geared up one character and cleared the entire thing. After that it was filling in all of the passives. So combined with all the damn gold you get by playing on Savage, I was maxed out by the time I cleared it with my 3rd character. And the game is… just kind of trivial if you are going in with gear of your choice and all passives maxed. One thing I might try is to complete the entire thing without ever upgrading or buying anything. I’m not sure if the game is beatable this way, but it’s worth trying. Still, I shouldn’t have to place arbitrary restrictions on myself to have a reasonable challenge! My last major issue with the game is the village-building thing - it seems pretty superfluous and probably should have been cut from the game. This isn’t as big a deal as the progression and lack of challenge, however. 4. Strategy I doubt I’ve found the absolute *best* way to cheese the game with every class, but here’s a brief summary of the builds I found. For all classes, I used Alchemist’s Vial (can sip potions twice) + Health Potion. It’s just ridiculously good to start with (almost!) three lives. You also have a good shot at finding another health potion midway through and refilling. It’s very strong, and perhaps one reason for the lack of challenge was that I found Alchemist’s Vial very early. Farmer: Wisp King (2 HP/kill) + Pumpkin Sack (spawn pumpkins when hit). Max out Pumpkins and just spam them like crazy - they are good versus basically everything. Warrior: Wisp King + Whatever. The key to winning with this class is realizing that Charge does not use a turn - it’s just a free action. So you basically should just run around spamming that as much as possible. Best skill build is something like Cleave (to kill Vampire Wisps) -> Charge -> Shield Wall -> Shield Wall -> Shield Wall. Archer: Biting Frost (3x3 Freeze) + Vest of the Master Potter (pots heal 3-4 HP). Yyou need the 3x3 freeze to be able to kill Vampire Wisps, so the Master Potter Vest is to make sure you have some passive healing. This is maybe the easiest class, and is the one I beat Savage first with. Other than Shoot Arrow and Roll, your moves are mostly useless. Thief: Wisp King + Whatever. Hide in Shadows is ridiculously good at level 3. It makes your ultimate fairly useless, since you can just cloak -> hit 3 times. This is the same damage as your level 2 ultimate but doesn’t take an action, so it’s close to strictly better. Before level 6, you have to make due with Fire Traps to kill stuff, but after 6 you just run around stabbing everything with your free attacks. Vampire: Fang of the Blood Goblet + Stormguard Tuxedo. Blood Goblet is ridiculously strong and basically makes you immortal, especially in conjunction with Alchemist’s Vial. Here’s an amusing screenshot: This was before I figured out that I needed Stormguard Tuxedo to kill Vampire Wisps. As it turns out, Drain Life at low levels is not powerful enough to overcome the Vampire Wisp’s passive regen. Fortunately, Fang of the Blood Goblet is so OP that I was able to beat the level anyway, because whenever I was low HP, I’d just spam Drain Life until I got a health potion. When you’re surrounded by Vampire Wisps, this happens sooner rather than later! Once you realize you need an armor that damages when you're hit, you can easily clear all levels. Wizard: Biting Frost + Master Potter. Wizard Magic missiles is bugged when using the 3x3 freeze staff (and probably others - I didn’t check). It *always* spawns two 3x3 freeze fields, regardless of whether or not you attack twice. Even level 1! Yes, it’s kind of a big deal, haha. 5. Bugs! In case you care about that sort of thing: - Rogue traps normally take a turn, but don’t when you’re stealthed. - Bosses can’t attack certain spaces, so sometimes they’ll get stuck and just stand there while you poke them to death. - If you have Alchemist’s Vial and have 1 potion equipped, finding a new potion of the same type and keeping it won’t bring you back to 2. - Vampire’s “Feeeeeed” can be used on Sapius. It heals, doesn’t kill Sapius, and doesn’t take a turn. - Defeating Surma on Savage doesn’t get you the Easy/Normal achievements. But defeating Big Ick on Savage does get you the lower difficulty achievements. - Mentioned earlier, but Wizard’s magic missiles always procs twice for stuff like Staff of Biting Frost. - Vampire’s Drain Life can be used even if there are no nearby legal targets. - Surma can’t hit Wizard’s Yetis, so he just sits there while he gets beaten up. - When you earn Surma for your village, he’s way too small, lol. Like he’s about as big as a regular size frog. - Guys that spawn out of Mushroom Portals (which includes stuff like Bizarro Cloghead) give XP, which means you can farm them endlessly for XP. Given that you can't do this with Black Slimes, Vampire Wisps, or those weird flying fish things, I think this is a bug. 6. Conclusion! Overall, I enjoyed this game. While the lack of challenge is somewhat problematic, there's plenty to like anyway. I do hope you end up implementing the "endless" mode you talked about earlier - it sounds fun! There's a lot of cool places you could take this game, and so I hope you continue to add to it. I understand that with these sorts of things it's often more profitable to go and make a new game, though.
Awesome and well-thought-through feedback, thanks for taking the time to write that up. (I agree that for a player who's experienced enough to trivially beat Savage, you'll really want a start-from-scratch endless mode once you get the hang of the game. I know I do. ) e: Sproggiwood MFi support is now Julia approved.
So just to update on status, I've got a bunch of bugs and issues fixed and lefty/righty supported posted in the current Steam Beta build. I'm currently waiting to get another Android controller in the mail (should be tomorrow) for final testing for controller support. So the first patch will have a bunch of bugs fixed, lefty/righty support and controller support for iOS. It will also have controller & keyboard support for Android. Keyboard support on iOS is going to require bare metal API work, because it doesn't work natively with Unity. Unfortunately the iOS keyboard API is very limited, unlike Android's, so Unity doesn't support it. So, I'm going to defer iOS keyboard support till after the first patch.
I really like how much you've been interacting with users here. That's always good to see. That said, is iCloud support still on the table? That's kind of the kicker for me, at least.
I would love iCloud support too, would be fantastic if this could be implemented as I play on my phones on breaks at work but iPad at home. Aside from that I really enjoyed the game. Going through beating the levels with the different classes after killing the Final boss.
Yup, Cloud saves are just going to require pretty extensive testing before release to the wild, so I want to get as much bug fixing and accessibility/quality of life stuff as I can into a patch and get it out there before I head offroad out into the riskier technical stuff.
Fantastic game. Very difficult to put down. Fans of the genre should seriously consider the purchase. It's worth the asking price.
Alright; iOS controller support is all wrapped up and working, Android controller+keyboard support is also done. The first Android beta is up and a new Android and iOS 1.2.10 beta will go up this week, as soon as I wrap up a few more bugs from the list. Then I'll start hacking on cloud saves (for iOS, at least).
Ok, the following patch is available on both Testflight and Google Play beta. If anyone would like beta access to help give it a test cruise, shoot me an e-mail to [email protected] with your platform account e-mail and platform preference (iOS or Android). *Added left/right compass position option *Added controller toggle to phone style settings *Added keyboard/controller navigation to phone style settings *Added improved controller defaults and bindings for Linux, iOS, Android & OSX *Added keyboard support for Android *Fixed Savage achievements for Hills not properly triggering *Fixed beating Surma on Savage not awarding easy and normal difficulty achievements *Fixed non-interactive wisps sometimes appearing in the swamps *Fixed exception when using freezing fang and vampire feed *Fixed cupid's bow *Fixed Feeeeeed! targeting bosses *Fixed door-summoned monsters incorrectly awarding xp *Fixed magic missile incorrectly proccing some abilities multiple times *Reduced memory usage in audio manager *Updated icon *Updated to cInput 2.8.5 *Updated to Unity 4.6.5p4
Any chance you can add a per-level save? I noticed that once I exit out of the app, all current dungeon progress is lost. That's pretty harsh for a mobile game and it caught me by surprise.
Well that first patch I posted the changelist for above is complete and approved for release by Apple on iOS. It's available in beta for anyone that wants to try it (just shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] with your iOS or Android e-mail). I'm a little uncomfortable setting it live this week because 1. We haven't had a ton of testers try it out and 2. We're right in the middle of launching Caves of Qud on Steam on the 15th (next Wednesday). Once Qud is out next week and I have the bandwidth available for managing potential support issues, I'll set both Android and iOS versions of patch 1 live, and I'll start working on the second patch which will take a stab at iCloud and dungeon resume. e: Repost of patch 1 notes, it's complete for anyone that wants to try it out in beta! *Added left/right compass position option *Added controller toggle to phone style settings *Added keyboard/controller navigation to phone style settings *Added improved controller defaults and bindings for Linux, iOS, Android & OSX *Added keyboard support for Android *Fixed Savage achievements for Hills not properly triggering *Fixed beating Surma on Savage not awarding easy and normal difficulty achievements *Fixed non-interactive wisps sometimes appearing in the swamps *Fixed exception when using freezing fang and vampire feed *Fixed cupid's bow *Fixed Feeeeeed! targeting bosses *Fixed door-summoned monsters incorrectly awarding xp *Fixed magic missile incorrectly proccing some abilities multiple times *Reduced memory usage in audio manager *Updated icon *Updated to cInput 2.8.5 *Updated to Unity 4.6.5p4
You seem like a developer who's really devoted to interacting with fans (given your activity in this thread), so I caved and got it earlier, definitely worth it. I'm only a little ways in, still wrestling with the 2nd dungeon objectives. Liking how the gear you can unlock isn't just straight-up stat sticks, and they usually have effects like freezing or the shovel that shoots flames on a line when you attack. Art style's charming, and the gameplay is pretty strategic. The village component seems a little half-finished though... you can decorate it, but it doesn't seem to serve a purpose aside from housing the NPCs you free from completing certain quests, which do spit out some funny bits of dialogue from time to time. Doesn't detract from the game either though, so not a big deal. I think it might have been better to have the player unlock village decorations as they play, just as an extra carrot, rather than giving them all away at once. It's all cosmetic, but may as well have them as a reward. The virtual controls for moving, waiting, and targeting skills are also really well done. I think most devs would simply slap on a touch-to-move-and-attack interface and call it a day without realizing that direct touch controls make a roguelike slower for the player. Glad you didn't do that. The animations being so quick was a really good decision too (was that deliberate?) since it keeps the control pace quick. You never have to wait for the game to do anything, which was a common complaint I had with a lot of non-ascii roguelikes. I'm looking forward to the first major patch, and I also really hope you can manage to implement iCloud. It looks great on a bigger screen, but it's also nice as a bite-size roguelike-like on the go. An option to suspend mid-dungeon would be good too (I think that was suggested before though). Thanks for all the hard work!
I've been doing some tinkering around with Qud on Android & iOS, and it's not 100% infeasable at this point, but it is also not a slam dunk, and frankly has a lot of reasonably significant barriers (memory, performance, UI, storage...) to get there on mobile. So I dunno at this point. It'd probably just be better to do something built for mobile in the Qud world, in between Sproggiwood and Qud in terms of complexity/interface... but for the near-term future it looks like it's going to be PC only for Qud.
I like the game, in fact I've rated it 5 stars here and in the App Store. I'm just a bit suspicious when the devs of the game rate their own work 5 stars.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time working to get the controls and animations to feel as seamless as a non-animated console. This was a combination of making the animations very quick, allowing monsters to animate their moves but not attack simultaneously, and immediately cancelling movement animations and "hopping" forward if another move started before the previous ones ended. This means you can spam move with no lag at all, you simply hop to the next square and start animating, but since the distance transitions are very brief (and a monkey with the walking animation to simply keep playing it), it (hopefully) feels seamless. I'm a super impatient player, so any amount of time waiting between spamming moves annoys the heck out of me.
