That's why I'm here. This looks incredible. First off, I'm a sucker for Portrait mode games (I almost never get anything in landscape anymore; I'm weird like that). Second, Puzzle RPGs are always a blast, so I'm pumped for this. Third, it just all looks so good. Keep it up!
Thanks for all the support, being on the frontpage of TouchArcade was a great surprise! A slow week has past that I spent mostly with working on a new landing page for SwapQuest (still not finished though) and improving the world map. But I also got a Windows Phone testing device, which makes the trio complete. What a nice little family we have here.
This week I've been working more on the world map. Some features were still missing like being able to choose your path whenever it splits up. Unfortunately I had to code the whole thing again to add the flexibility I needed, but now it's done. Jussi also has been working on the next level, the Dark Forest, which is right next to the Light Forest. The story behind this is that the Horde once attacked the kingdom and hid inside this forest, cursing it for the centuries to come. Now it is a haunted place filled with strange shadows and glowing eyes. Here are two of the enemies you will encounter in the Dark Forest. Moonlight Flower - This carnivore plant has thorny vines growing all over the place, making it hard to progress. It can even create other flowers when the vine grew long enough, so make sure to cut it off as fast as you can. Will-o'-the-Wisp - No one really knows where these strange lights come from, but they appear out of nowhere and can be hard to kill. Legends say that they hold the souls of the men who died in this forest as their eternal prisoners.
Sorry for the long absence, I've been working on (and fighting with) the new SwapQuest website and it's finally finished. So please take a look and leave feedback! SwapQuest Website In other news, I'm also preparing some things for the upcoming Amaze Festival in Berlin. Like these cards. But don't get too excited, there's no SwapQuest board game in the making (yet ).
Finally I can show you something new. It's the vine that grows from the Moonlight Flower in the Dark Forest. It slowly grows over the level and creates a new flower eventually. The vine can be cut by the hero, though. Hope you like it.
I've been working some more on the Dark Forest. There are two new objects. First there's a strange hole that emits an even stranger mist that you should avoid. Also a strong enemy emerges near those holes. It is invisible as long as you don't fight it, but you can still see its shadow on the ground. The second is a mysterious eye that appears out of nowhere and you have to touch it fast enough before it disappears again to get some extra jewels. When I was not working on the actual game I had some more fun with this:
I am rather excited for this and wayward souls, I just hope my ancient 3GS is up to the task of running them both lol. Honestly, I'll be buying this right off the bat, if the app store lets me, as you seem to have a knack for game design. Everything so far is very impressive, and I'm excited to see what you will so with the game over time. I would love to see equipment with varying effects, you know, a sword with range, an axe that has double crit, a dagger that steals a gem 50% proc rate on hit, Trinkets that give a small damage shield after swapping x number of tiles, things that alter the game further than "+1 damage whoo". Maybe for a large update later. XD Keep up the good work!!
@Tyra & Rogue Calypso Haha, thanks, but this is only for playing around right now. I will look into this after the game is released, though, so stay tuned. Thanks a lot! I will try to optimize the game for low-end devices as well, but I can't promise it will run on every device. There will be different effects for weapons, like a chance of poisoning the enemy or a raise of the luck stat, which is responsible for dodging and dealing critical hits. I haven't decided how deep I will go with this, but I hope it will keep you entertained. I made a little gif showing all the status effects that are currently in the game. Paralysis: randomly paralyses you when moving or in battle Confusion: the hero will randomly choose a direction at forks and you cannot stop him Blindness: the hero has a 50% chance of missing the enemy Poison: the hero loses some life from time to time
Woah, those look great! Will there be equipment that negates some of those effects? Or at least reduces?
It is not implemented, yet, but I'm planning to add special equipment that can reduce the probability to get status effects. Oftentimes they cannot be acquired in the store, but you rather have to find them.
I was at the A Maze festival last week to show SwapQuest to as many people as possible and had a great time doing so! I got a lot of great feedback and it was fun meeting new people to talk about game dev. Here's a little snapshot from the awesome mobile games piano! (it was kind of a mess after a few days...)
I made a subreddit for SwapQuest, so if you want to subscribe there click on the image below. I still have to figure out what the best way to use it is, but hopefully I will be able to get more attention for the project there. Also I made some changes to the way the hero reacts when a tile is swapped right in front of him (before you weren't allowed to swap tiles that the hero wants to walk on). Additionally, the character now stops immediately when touched (before he would walk to the center of the next tile first, but that confused A LOT of people).