Universal Super Glyph Quest - (by Alexander Trowers)

Mate, give me your paypal and I send you a couple of bucks for a pack of nappies. Sad to hear that things are not working out for you. Started to fire out recommendations on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Bulk Paint,

I discover something odd...

In my previous playthrough, "Bandit Wanted" quest was an extremely tough quest to finish, and I was only able to beat it by using one heal portion. My strategy at the time was to do whatever it was possible to increase chain length. This prioritized over all other strategy, believing (at the time) that this was the best way to increase damage per attack.

In my current playthrough (start from scratch, no carryover from previous), the same "Bandit Wanted" quest turned out to be quite easy to beat. I use, however, a very different strategy. I no longer concern about increasing chain length. Instead, I will prioritize casting only 3-glyph or 4-glyph spell (at this time, no combo is allowed). When casting a 3-glyph spell, I will prioritize Aftertouch on a 4th glyph so that it will maximize the chance of creating a 4-glyph spell for me to use next. I don't care if this break the chain length. In fact, I beat the level without ever rising about 3rd chain (as compared to my previous record of 25th chain). I also have level 3 Aftertouch (which I prioritize over all other perks).

I want to know if this latter strategy completely dominates over the necessity of worrying about chain length. If so, then I no longer need to strategize as much as I did it in the past, since I no longer need to worry about more than 1 move ahead. As well, I want to know if you believe this only works because I max'd out my Aftertouch.

Not knowing the "exact" damage calculation that goes on behind the scene, you are the only one who can tell me the relative effectiveness between these two strategies.

 

It's rude, expecting an apology when someone screws up? We were definitely raised in two different worlds. I was taught to apologize when I screw up, expect an apology when someone screws up (if you are to continue respecting the person), and have a tough chin.

I have been nothing but polite, and owe no one an apology. Again, I know it may be hard to determine tone and intent through text, but I meant no harm in my comment.

...the fact is the Dev screwed up pretty bad (with the screen caps, zero marketing, an no planning for release week) which is why we, as early adopters paid 3X more than what is now the asking price, one week later.

The game simply isn't designed for mass appeal, it is more suited to a core group. a proper marketing plan with this game would have involved great screenshots, gameplay videos, posts in every forum, press kits and codes sent out to every sight, and most importantly - a premium price which stands firm, so that the core crowd can be confident they are getting what they pay for. I think, if anything, they are charging way too little. They should have released for one buck during the feature, then raised to $5 and held firm.

If you buy a car for $30,000 from Toyota on 11/1/2014. They screw up the marketing of this vehicle, and decide on 11/8/2014 that they will make a last ditch effort to try to recoup their time/money invested and lower the price to $10,000. Would you feel you are at least owed an apology? Would you feel like you owed an apology to someone for expecting one? Do you think Toyota would issue a formal apology - you damn right they would. There would be backlash. The consumer could have bought three cars for the same price.

That is exactly the same scenario here. Why does the amount of money spent change anything?

 

Why would that be a reasonable request, Eli?
I have maintained a polite nature, and been courteous and understanding.
I simply brought up a fair point that has sparked meaningful dialogue and seems to have increased the devs sales when they needed it most.

 

Look who steps in. THE BOSS AROUND HERE! (Not being mean, just being funny or somethin')

 

Played the first and now am really enjoying this. While a puzzle game at heart, the humour and quality raise it to something special. No game will suit everyone, but if you like the description and graphic style then it will amuse and delight.

Regarding the price drop: I paid full price for this, and think the game was easily worth that. Sure, some people will get it for less but that's the nature of the app store. It remains a fun game made with real love and attention to detail, and with friendly devs who clearly care about their players.

 

This is a really fun little game, which I am enjoying more than the first one, however it is sad to learn that the game is doing so poorly in the charts.

Unfortunately freemium is often the only option for many small devs as they do not have the capital behind them for marketing and such, but compete with the huge publishing businesses who have seemingly unlimited resources.

Hopefully this sale will generate some additional interest and help make this game an economic success which at the end of the day is the main driver for a developer who makes / sells games in order to live.

Comparing to a sale on a car however, is not a fair analogy to this situation. A game is not a huge investment compared to a car. The developer who probably spent months making a game has valued his finished product at $3, however competition is such that he is not selling enough copies to cover costs.

If he then made the game freemium with adverts, I could understand the backlash, but a $2 discount is not worth getting angry about....especially if you have enjoyed the game.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, but I felt compelled to post...I really like this little game and hope that some of you guys do too....peace out

 

I am happy Lazer Kat brought up this discussion because of that we are more aware of the developer situation and reality of being a developer.

Thank you for the app. I had a quick glance at it and the art, mechanics, story, and gameplay are just amazing. I hope we, consumers, can spread the word (it is what I am doing).

 

That's why.

Your glyphs shrink or become otherwise unusable due to certain attacks from enemies, or if you create a backfire spell. You can't do spells with opposite elements. For example, you can't use water and fire glyphs in the same spell.

You learn a lot from practicing. Just know that you want to cast spells that use the same elements as your previous spell if possible, because that causes a chain, which makes your attack stronger. I think someone has asked for recommendations about your last situation. Personally, I'd probably always go for the 4-glyph spell, then hope at least one of those glyphs changes to the same element, allowing me to use that with the remaining 2 glyphs. If you matched 2 of them, and then the remaining 4 in the next spell, that would be more powerful than doing it the other way around since the more powerful attack would then be part of a chain.

I have to admit, my first reaction to seeing the price drop was with a groan because it happens so often. But since I was happy with the game at $3, and know the struggle the developer is going through, I'm even embarrassed about my own reaction... mostly since I'd rather not get lumped in along with someone complaining about it, comparing it to buying a car.

 

This info is for those expert players of this game may be thinking of adopting the following strategy (see below) that I suggested to Bulk Paint.

While the strategy may work early on, ultimately this is not a good way to playing the game (or even "gaming" the game). In my trial of early grinding, even after nearly 100 Adventure quests, I was unable to score the necessary materials to craft most of the staffs. All I got was an overabundance of certain materials but none of the others. This suggests that certain materials do not start dropping until you reach 1) at a critical point of the story (that is, progress is gated to the story), 2) at a critical player character level. Regardless of which reason (or both reasons), grinding to "prep" your character does not work since you can never advance to make your character strong enough to reliably win the tougher story quests (such as the dreaded Draguardian quest) without using consumables. This is very disappointing, because I consider this to be a sign that the game's core mechanic is inherently imbalanced so that consumables (especially healing potions) must be used as a clutch to win the level. I am considering waiting for the third update to retry again.

 

Is there a way to change your character's appearance once the game starts? I blew through the character creation because I just wanted to quick check out the game... but next thing I knew I had played over an hour Oh well

 

At the end of the day I believe Lazer Kat has a right to express his/her opinion. In fact Lazer Kat accepted the apology of the developer.

@ Lazer Kat I do believe the developer stated earlier in the thread that as the app was posted they were unable to make changes to the photos via the apple upload policy and they would be changing the photos and even description as soon as they are allowed etc...

I am 100% behind no IAP am a total premium user. I only buy games that have IAP it the IAP allows the game to become premium which is what the original Glyph Quest was which was great!

Personally I can't stand freemium games and have not spent a dime on any since I can't stand the idea... I hope more developers stick to premium games or free games with trials up to a level or point and an IAP that allows the whole game to be purchased outright!

While I understand why some would feel burned by price drops... This is just the way the App Store works and developers need to make a living.

Smaller developers might be great at game design and development but may not have as much background or skill in marketing etc... I'm not trying to pick on small developers but am trying to justify why it isn't realistic for smaller developers to be as sophisticated or financially secure to invest in marketing and strategy for releases and thus may not be as smooth or as great as they want....

I believe this developer has done what they could to release a game and hopefully get enough people to buy it... In a perfect world they would have had all the additional funds to get a marketing campaign etc....

Good luck to the developers and hoping to read more about strategy and tips for this awesome game!

 

I got to the point where I got the combination spells upgrade. It's says I can combine 2 elements together, but it's not doing anything differnt saying combining 1 of differnce tenements together or 2 of 2 different elements together. Am I missing something here? I figured it was supposed to form a new spell or something?

 

I hope that Laser Kat doesn't stop posting and I hope that Eli and Jared both show restraint in making direct appeals like this. This thread has actually been very restrained and polite (unless some posts got deleted or edited that I didn't see) and I don't see anything offensive. An opinion you don't share is not an inherently offensive thing.

I also hope the devs find a way to rescue the sales of this under appreciated game but I don't think the keystone of that solution will be the forum police stepping in.

 

Try combining in the sequence ABAB, i.e. Fire light Fire light.