Universal Storm Casters (by Get Set Games)

Great points, especially obscured hazards.

 

Thanks so much! We know the game isn't perfect right now, but we're working hard to buff out the kinks. The enthusiastic response has only spurred us on to make this the best game we can.

Hmm - it should do exactly that. If you place your finger anywhere inside the circle, the thumbstick will move there. Perhaps you're tapping outside the thumbstick's maximum range? What device are you playing on?

Playing with it, I think I can understand the problem - the center of the thumbstick is placed on the outer edge of the circle, so half the thumbstick actually comes to rest outside this area. Intuitively, it seems as though you should be able to tap on the area where the outer edge of the thumbstick comes to a stop, but this is actually outside of the touchable area. A technical/visual fix could help here, to extend the active area slightly outside the visible area of the circle.

Here's a picture:



The area that's currently not tappable should be tappable for better responsiveness.

Glad you got it working, and in the meantime we're continuing to stamp out the original cause of the bug so it doesn't happen again.

Have you tried re-installing? In any case, this is good information and we'll keep tabs on iOS 8 compatibility.

Thanks for the thoughtful and well-explained suggestions. This gives us a lot to work with and think about for how to improve gameplay in general. Great stuff!

The next update should be out within the next week or two(ideally next week if we can swing it) that will fix a number of big issues, and the lag issue specifically will be fixed in the update after that.

 

Oh wow, that's a lot longer than I expected. Guess I'll shelve the game until then.

 

Unfortunately this is pretty much as quick as anyone can get updates out. Here's how the process works in a best case scenario with just one bug:

1) Bug gets reported
2) We work on finding and fixing the bug (2-3 days if we're lucky)
3) We send the game to QA (Quality Assurance/testers) and they do a full pass to make sure new bugs haven't been introduced (2 days)
4) If that passes, we send the update in to Apple for approval (a few days to a week with any luck)

So at minimum you're looking at two weeks or so after a bug is reported and only if we start work on the bug right away. Add to that the fact that we're actually fixing multiple bugs for each update and it starts to add up!

The lag bug wasn't on our bug list for the first update, which is already in QA right now, so it's going in the next one. We all wish it could be a faster process, but even finding the source of a bug and then fixing it can take a lot of time.

 

Some thoughts:

Back to the one heart start issue, I am definitely finding that I can go many, many rooms without ever finding a second heart. Getting one-shotted time and time again to fully end a run can become tiresome. I understand the balance concern but with the timer and level of hazards, there's plenty challenge! So I support the idea of an additional heart every room or so.

Along with the frustration of repeated deaths is all the reloading and having to pick a zone and walk to it. Maybe an option to go right to replaying the same one? I understand the reloading requirement to set everything up but the zone reselection could be optional. The loading status comments are hilarious by the way. Some originals in there. Did you lock everyone in a room with a bong and a minimum to come up with those?

As for the cards - as I get more and more of these I find that I have no interest whatsoever in some of the weaker and redundant cards. If we can't pick our cards it would be nice to be able to sell the ones we don't want at all. I know, there's a shuffle/lock system, but some of these I'd like to not even be in the random generator for cards or crates.

Now back to that damn 12th zone!!

 

Fair enough, appreciate the explanation. It's not like the game is going away or anything so I'll just have to find something else to play in the meantime.

 

You're right. I see now that the difference between this game and other games I have with virtual joysticks is that the tappable area is a bit smaller in this game. I think making the area bigger would fix the problem. Thanks for responding.

 

I want add to this a little. Now that you've pointed out to me that I can tap to move the joystick, as long as I tap inside the circle, it has helped me. It's easier and quicker to aim or move in a specific direction if I tap on that side of the joystick rather than starting from the middle and sliding. However because the tappable area is so small, I find that I frequently end up missing the tappable area unless I look down at my fingers. I don't really want to have to look at my fingers in a game which can get as frantic as this does on higher levels, so making the tappable area larger will definitely help.

The point I wanted to make is that, you said you thought this was primarily a visual problem, because it looks like you should be able to tap where the head of the joystick is. I don't think that's really the main problem, but rather it's the fact that since you can't feel virtual joysticks, the area you can touch needs to be larger so players can reliably hit it without having to look at their fingers.

Otherwise I'm really enjoying this game. One thing I especially like is the effects of some of the weapons, especially the explosive bullets. The way the explosions sound along with the screen shaking really gives me the uncanny impression that my whole iPad is shaking in my hand with each explosion. Pretty much everything about this game is really fun.

 

If I have multiples of one card, when dealing cards do those count as multiple cards, so that I'd have a greater chance of getting dealt that card? Just wondering if there's any point to not selling cards which I've already upgraded to the max. If keeping multiples does increase my chances of getting dealt those cards, then it might make sense to keep multiples of certain cards, especially since they sell for so little gold. It might even make sense to hold off on fusing cards sometimes, since I might consider it worth more to increase my chances of getting that card.

 

Wonderful game, simply wonderful! Been playing far too many hours these last couple of days, always the sign of an excellent game.

If I might make one suggestion, could the monster spawning colour (green) be different from the poison cloud colour (also green)? Especially at the higher levels, where every millisecond counts.

I've been killed more than a few times running through a 'harmless' cloud, only to get slashed by a monster appearing.

Keep up the great work, hope you get featured and reap some rewards for your hard work!

 

We'll keep an eye on the heart balancing, but it's a tough call - part of the game design to to be a bit more old school and to make hearts very valuable, and to keep the skill requirement for the game fairly high. If you're dying a lot, a good tactic is go go back to easier zones and doa loot run to upgrade your Attack. Things get much easier when you can one-shot enemies. We'll keep note of comments about the heart system in the meantime though.

As for the loading comments, those are largely the "fault" of our lead designer (and guy that made all the enemy and character models) Matt Coombe, who apparently had a little too much time on his hands one day

Agreed - I meant it's a visual issue in that what's shown on screen doesn't reflect where it seems you SHOULD be able to tap. Increasing the tappable area makes sense and we'll see what we can do about fixing that.

No - every card is treated as one card, regardless of how many copies you have, so selling and fusing have no effect on the chances of the card appearing. Fuse and sell to your heart's content!

Great suggestion - we'll take a look at this. Purple would be my option

 

Initially I posted on here that I liked the current heart balancing. Now that I've reached higher levels I think I've changed my mind. I do think the rate at which hearts are found is fine, and I agree that doing something like giving a guaranteed heart per room might unbalance things. However I don't like starting with one heart. On the higher levels it seems like there's almost no chance of completing a zone if you start with one heart. Once in a while the RNG gods rule in your favor and you find some hearts early on, but even that doesn't feel so good since I feel like I succeeded more due to luck than skill. I know the way around this is to run one of the easier zones first to build up hearts, but that can get kind of boring. It seems to me like a design flaw when a game requires you to do something boring in order to succeed.

My suggestion would be to start off with one less heart than your total hearts. So when you first start the game you'd start off with one heart, and each time you evolve the number of heats you start out with would increase. Since this would only affect the start of each run, it wouldn't change the overall balance of the game. It would just be as if you went and ran one of the easy zones first, but without making you run one of the easy zones.

I don't consider this a huge deal, since dying isn't all that bad in this game. It's just a little frustrating that now most of my runs don't go for more than a couple of rooms unless I run an easy zone first or get lucky. On the plus side it has pushed me to increase my skills, and I do occasionally make it through several floors with one heart now.

 

Interesting suggestion - I think this is something we can try. I'd be interested to hear what other players think about this idea.

On another note, we've put together a collection of great reviews for Storm Casters on our website. Along with Touch Arcade picking Storm Casters as Game of the Week, App Advice has picked Storm Casters as their Game of the Week this week!

 

I'd also like to see it. However, to maintain your guys' original vision you could introduce a newer difficulty level (Easy) that uses this mechanic. With this mode the loot would be less, so people can have the option of an easier (and longer) game. People would change their setting in the options menu.

 

Why make it an easy mode when it's the same as going and grabbing more hearts from an earlier stage, except less annoying since you wouldn't have to do that every time?
There would be no point in playing "easy mode" for less loot.

I vote for just starting with some hearts. Maybe at least three, if not the "one less than max" idea.
Dying in one shot is not fun.

 

Dunno if this has been brought up, but I suddenly can't play the game anymore. Since yesterday, every time I load up the game, it freezes at the 'Get Set' logo.

Is there a known fix to this? If I delete the app and re-install, will I lose all my progress?

 

You can reinstall it without losing your data.

Try restarting your device first though

 

Tried restarting my phone to no avail. I'll try re-installing, thanks