Universal WazHack (by Warwick Allison)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by strivemind, May 7, 2013.

  1. WazWaz

    WazWaz Active Member

    May 8, 2013
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    I really just deleted all the pauses. Making a video of a roguelike is quite impossible - all the interesting moments are when you're in deep trouble and looking over your inventory wondering how to get out it it - but those moments don't make for "good television". Some players of the Web, Windows, and Mac versions have made Let's Play videos, just search for "wazhack" on YouTube.

    Also good for multiple-wall bounces to get the most monsters... just watch out for friendly fire on your poor pet (and yourself).

    I'm glad people here are liking my game! I've submitted a fix to that critical text-input bug. Until you get version 1.1.5, players on iPhone (or mini?) should not rub any oil lamps whose oil never seems to run out (especially if they are blessed).

    --
    Waz
     
  2. worldcitizen1919

    worldcitizen1919 Well-Known Member

    Jun 27, 2012
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    #22 worldcitizen1919, May 8, 2013
    Last edited: May 8, 2013
    I nearly deleted the game because of low sound. I like sound in my games. The default sound setting makes the game almost in audible. Luckily I went into settings and turned the volume right to full otherwise this was a delete for me.

    Make sure you enable sound enough by default.
     
  3. Gabrien

    Gabrien Well-Known Member

    Nov 24, 2009
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    Finding this highly enjoyable, mainly due to the high level of variety and attention to detail.

    Have a strong feeling the interface and in particular inventory management could be streamlined for touch devices.

    @dev: Consider adding a $2.99 "unlock all" option.
     
  4. worldcitizen1919

    worldcitizen1919 Well-Known Member

    Jun 27, 2012
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    Ok it was just me. The controls are perfect just a bit different. Pess and hold down and you run super fast like in the video. Tap to anyowhere hold to sprint. Very cool. I will be supporting this. Good relaxing game. I like it. I'll probably buy a couple of units to support the dev maybe the knight and hunter.

    Good game.
     
  5. quickninja21

    quickninja21 Member

    Feb 6, 2013
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    #25 quickninja21, May 8, 2013
    Last edited: May 9, 2013
    First impression: 3D Nethack?

    I really enjoy this game and plan on buying some character, but I dislike how you can't play multiplayer unless you buy a character. It's probuably just me since I'm cheep but oh well! Pay 99 cents for a good game!
     
  6. strivemind

    strivemind Well-Known Member

    Yeah I didn't mean the "Warning" in a bad way. Just that I know there are a lot of fans of roguelikes on TA and I didn't want them to get the wrong idea and pass it up.

    Btw, welcome to the forums and grats on the release.
     
  7. Puce Moose

    Puce Moose Well-Known Member

    Sep 1, 2011
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    This is not a game of plodding through a fixed story, it's about experiencing the journey... and learning lessons that will help your next valiant attempt until you one day conquer the dungeon!

    Does this mean there is an actual ending to the game? I'm a little confused about the "fixed story" comment - do different story options/different plot points open up depending on the procedural generation? Is there a victory condition of some sort so that one can actually "conquer the dungeon"/get an ending?
     
  8. Pocketnova

    Pocketnova Well-Known Member

    Oct 15, 2012
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    I can confirm that the mini works fine with the text input, because it has the close keyboard button. Thanks for sending in the fix! Oh, welcome to Toucharcade! Thanks for the awesome game!
     
  9. gabikun

    gabikun Active Member

    Jan 22, 2012
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    #29 gabikun, May 8, 2013
    Last edited: May 8, 2013
    There is an ending. Your goal, as nethack, is to reach the bottom of the dungeon, obtain the "amulet of Zaw" and come back to the surface alive with it.

    I recall there were 4 pairs of characters to choose from... knight, rogue, white mage and dark mage, everyone with male and female versions.

    Waz, is the new dungeon sidebranch added to the ios version?
     
  10. TheEvilRobot

    TheEvilRobot Well-Known Member

    Apr 4, 2013
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    Just played this game!

    It's awesome!
     
  11. WazWaz

    WazWaz Active Member

    May 8, 2013
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    WazHack follows the traditional roguelike approach: the "story" has a very loose framework (basically, it consists of the brief message at the beginning and a little more later). All the meat of the "story" comes from the game you play. Is it the story of a huntsman that finds a ring of invisibility and sneaks through the dungeon piecing sleeping monsters with arrows? Is it the story of a knight who finds Excalibur and smites all he meets in mortal hand-to-hand combat? A valkyrie who discovers a spellbook that leads he down a very different path? The story "tree" comes from the vast variety of items: there are so many that in any given game you'll only discover a fraction of them, and in an order that will change the character's fate completely.

    There is also the side story of the pet: dead and forgotten 100 feet down by a stray magic missile blast? Or slain while valiantly defending her master 2000 feet down, and sorrowfully mourned? Polymorphed into a troll maybe? Rescued? Healed?

    The distinction is between roguelikes and other RPGs that tend to have a strong fixed storyline which you play through and enjoy... but usually only once since doing it all over again would be like reading a book twice in the one month. Part of the motivation comes from permadeath - it would be horridly boring to start from scratch and playing through the same story, whereas games with saves encourage a more single-playthrough story-based game.

    Because the game is so visually different to other roguelikes, the description of WazHack is written for people who have no idea what a roguelike is - that's why I have to say "time stops when you do" - that's obvious to anyone who has played a roguelike, but to those used to realtime games it's like some weird Braid-like innovation ;). Permadeath is like that too - for 20 years of gaming every game was permadeath; there were no "save games" in Pacman, but now you have to explain it to people, and carefully encourage them to give it a go and discover the far richer emotion you get when there is permanent consequence to your actions.
     
  12. WazWaz

    WazWaz Active Member

    May 8, 2013
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    Yes - it's the full 1.1 version. The version numbers across all platforms correspond to the same functionality. The 1.1.x series will only add tiny new features (like the lever at the bottom of the Gnomish Mines) - mostly I want to iron out all remaining bugs before I then move on to development of version 1.2. I'm always collecting feature ideas on my list though :).
     
  13. WazWaz

    WazWaz Active Member

    May 8, 2013
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    The main idea is to broaden the audience. For better or worse, "99 cents" is becoming the standard price for mobile games. Some people will just play occasionally, maybe not ever even reaching the bottom, and will be fine perfecting one pair of character classes.

    The secondary reason is that it helps motivate me to add new classes, and to add them properly. I only want to add new classes when I also add enough supporting features to make them a different experience. For example, before I add the conspicuously missing Rogue class, I need to at least improve the Stealth mechanics and add Theft and some kind of Trap detection.
     
  14. gabikun

    gabikun Active Member

    Jan 22, 2012
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    #35 gabikun, May 8, 2013
    Last edited: May 8, 2013
    Hey, I'm not arguing! In fact, I think your game is awesome and its value is more than the 3 $ I spent on the android version. Just was curious about that change of policy.

    About the Iap, yes... unfortunately, the "freemium" and 0'99$ games with Iap are standard these days, with many developers over-using it to get money from users. I think your way is the right one, people check the game, then, they can purchase it full if they like (no more iaps for items, upgrades, cheating, etc). Consider to put an Iap to buy all classes, I'd purchase it.

    Back to the game: I've downloaded it on my ipad, still haven't played it though. I will probably like it more on the ipad's larger screen.

    I edit this to not double-post. I've played the game until 700 feet down (still alive), and a curious thing happened. I don't know if this is a bug. I put this in spoilers:

    My pet was still alive. I managed to kill a werewolf and gave its meat to my dog. It then transformed into a werewolf (as expected). 100 metres ahead, my pet and I took different paths and I received the "you feel sad for a moment, then it passes" message. All normal here. My dog died.
    The thing is that, suddenly, two wolves came to me and when I was prepared to fight I discovered that both were pets (at the same level as my poor dalmatian and with the same experience). Now I have 2 pet wolves with me :p. Is this normal, or a bug?
     
  15. oooooomonkey

    oooooomonkey Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2011
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    Forge World
    #36 oooooomonkey, May 8, 2013
    Last edited: May 8, 2013
    I'm really enjoying this more than i thought I would.
    I bought the knight pack.
    But I'm loving the way everything you equip you actually see on your person, also the way everything has physics so when you kill something they flop over and die or fall down the ladders etc.
    the randomness seems to be done pretty well too as everytime I've played the whole thing is different, the items/potions/rooms monsters everything. Love it.

    I like the gravestone when you die telling you how you died etc. it would be cool if there was a screen that kept all the graves for you to browse, like a grave yard or something :D
    Can't wait to get deeper down. (And maybe try a different characters because so far I've only tried the knight)

    Edit:
    Nooooooooooo I was doing well going through the dungeon when bang "you stepped on a magical teleporter" took me from 300 down to just over 500 depth and obviously I wasn't prepared and got mauled by giant ants, trolls and rats! Damn another grave to the pile :D
     
  16. bigred447uk

    bigred447uk Well-Known Member

    Apr 16, 2009
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    This game just gets better the more you play. I bought the first two classes but I will have no problem with buying the other classes. Awesome value. Thanks to the dev for a great game.
     
  17. WazWaz

    WazWaz Active Member

    May 8, 2013
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    Yeah, sorry if I'm formal - I just like explaining the reasons behind stuff as frankly as I can; I have an Open Source background mainly, but I also know that projects easily wither if they're not self-supporting in some way, so I'm looking for the most all-inclusive way of doing that - multiple platforms is ideal - spreads the game and creates multiple funding streams. The first web version of the game was up as donationware ... that lasted 3 days before it hit the free quota cap on Google App Engine. Someone once joked that I should add an IAP to resurrect a dead character - maybe I should do that on some wicked gaming platform like Facebook - then everyone else can play for free ;)

    I suspect your pet used his affinity with like creatures to call for help. I've never seen it happen myself, but it's certainly possible.

    --
    Waz
    (sorry for my own double and triple posts, I'm new here)
     
  18. Zaraf

    Zaraf Well-Known Member

    Dec 17, 2009
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    Great game! Really enjoying it!

    I think there may be a bug with Weapon Knowledge Lvl 3. I have lvl 3 but selecting weapons in my inventory does not know Appraise. It still shows Knowledge.
     
  19. LordGek

    LordGek Well-Known Member
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Feb 19, 2009
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    Software QA Engineer
    Saratoga, CA, USA
    Game Impressions

    Nice one, Mr. Waz. While mostly NetHack turned into a side scroller, I see you've added a number of unique touches. Once things solidfy a bit more with the 1.1.5 release I plan to plunk down some cash in your direction.
     

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