Solomon's Keep by Raptisoft (Dev of Hoggy) + Lite

[FlyinJ]

The 1.1 build (awaiting Apple approval) enlarges the "hot" area around the icons to make them easier to activate.

As for the sound... is this on the iPod speaker, or in headphones? In our in-house testing, we saw that it was somewhat crackly on the little speaker, but was fine in the headphones, so we're actually consulting an audio guy to find out what we can do about that. We don't want to mess up the headphone experience to fix the speaker one.

It's very noticable on speaker, but definitely still there on headphones, but to a lesser effect.

[txag2005]

The 1.1 build (awaiting Apple approval) enlarges the "hot" area around the icons to make them easier to activate.

As for the sound... is this on the iPod speaker, or in headphones? In our in-house testing, we saw that it was somewhat crackly on the little speaker, but was fine in the headphones, so we're actually consulting an audio guy to find out what we can do about that. We don't want to mess up the headphone experience to fix the speaker one.

The cracking is happening with me on the iPhone speakers and 3 different sets of headphones I tied.

[Raptisoft]

Hm, well, I'll have to wait for the verdict of the sound guy... I'm more a graphics & code guy.

[powersurge]

This looks pretty neat. Is there going to be a universal/iPad version?

[Ventura]

It is definitely NOT too easy. Around floor 5-6, I die a LOT. The trap rooms become frequent, and you get completely overrun.

When I started fighting the fire beasts that throw fireballs your way, I took to standing close to one of the trap doors, because every so often, the fireball will actually knock you through the door to the other side (at which point it opens).

[Drenguin]

Awesome game, loving the LIGHTNING!!!!

When I died the first time I went to the beginning then I died a second time and it took me straight to the beginning screen.

[rogerchiu]

Glad the game is getting some front page attention -- it's great fun at a bargain price. To those who are just picking it up based on the TA review (and can't be bother to look back a couple pages on the thread), the fix for the technical issues mentioned has already been submitted. Also, if you get killed, make sure to hit "Continue Game" and nothing else on the screen, otherwise you'll lose your progress and end up at the beginning (and yes, that issue is being fixed as well).

Haha.. Yes. It will crash sometime. NO problem. We can wait for the update.. :D

[Rad]

I just picked up this game but will wait until the patch is out, I also noticed you make Hoggy. I know I just missed the $1.99 sale any chance to bring the sale back till the patch is out for this game?

Thanks,

Rad

[Raptisoft]

This looks pretty neat. Is there going to be a universal/iPad version?

There will, but it's going to be GREATLY fleshed out, and identical with the PC version. So, it probably won't be around until the fall, depending on what happens. Though now people are trying to talk me into doing that before I do the fleshed out version of Hoggy. :)

[Electric_Shaman]

meh, I'm leaving this game till the bug fix update, it's way too frustrating at the moment

[Gryphon23]

So is this a game where its "Game Over, start at the beginning."?

[lolymoli]

no, you just lose a small amount of gold.

[txag2005]

I just beat it. What a great game! I will no doubt go back sometime soon and replay with lightning and fire to increase the difficulty.

[writingsama]

@Grubjelly: As any programmer can tell you, there's not such thing as fixing "every last bug."

Those programmers are out of jobs. Us real programmers, we just figure out how to turn them into FEATURES.

I have had no end of difficulties with this game but I've still been playing it all day. I can see the very few bugs under the hood and how they are breaking it, and I bet on an update quite soon.

Though, on the other hand, it is arguable if they were as trivial as they should be, it wouldn't have come out with them... :-\

[Somerandomdude]

Umm... I'm having an issue here... It crashes on startup every time for me. It goes to the splash screen, then the loading screen, and once it completely loads the game and the bar is full, it crashes. I've restarted my iPod and uninstalled/reinstalled the game several times. Any help?

[iVaro]

Umm... I'm having an issue here... It crashes on startup every time for me. It goes to the splash screen, then the loading screen, and once it completely loads the game and the bar is full, it crashes. I've restarted my iPod and uninstalled/reinstalled the game several times. Any help?

I just give it some time play some other games and come back to it when I'm ready, this happens to me alot.

P.S. Also if you're jailbroken like me running in safe mode causes almost no crashes :)

[Somerandomdude]

I just give it some time play some other games and come back to it when I'm ready, this happens to me alot.

P.S. Also if you're jailbroken like me running in safe mode causes almost no crashes :)

How do you put it in safe mode? I know I could screw my old iPod up and send it into safe mode, but I forgot how to.

[iVaro]

How do you put it in safe mode? I know I could screw my old iPod up and send it into safe mode, but I forgot how to.

I use SB Settings(I know don't want to take any other risks than that;) )

[squarezero]

Those programmers are out of jobs. Us real programmers, we just figure out how to turn them into FEATURES.

I have had no end of difficulties with this game but I've still been playing it all day. I can see the very few bugs under the hood and how they are breaking it, and I bet on an update quite soon.

Though, on the other hand, it is arguable if they were as trivial as they should be, it wouldn't have come out with them... :-\
You miss my point: I wasn't saying that Raptisoft shouldn't or wouldn't fix the bugs that are currently showing up. But as any real programmer should know, modern, object-oriented applications are made up of very complex code, and it's impossible to guarantee that no new errors will crop up in the future.

If every programmer who has ever delivered final code with bugs were fired, there would be no employed programmers anywhere.

[Aegis]

There will, but it's going to be GREATLY fleshed out, and identical with the PC version. So, it probably won't be around until the fall, depending on what happens. Though now people are trying to talk me into doing that before I do the fleshed out version of Hoggy. :)



This before hoggy for sure

[poutini]

From what I've experienced so far - this game is crazy fun to play.

But it's crashed about three times on me - I recovered alright twice, and the third bug set my wizard dude into no-man's land where I couldn't move or escape with a key. So I restarted my file entirely.

NOTE TO THE DEVELOPERS: You guys really should add a "restart floor" button. That would have saved me a lot of trouble, and could make some of these bugs a lot more bearable.

In future updates I'd also like to see a progress bar showing how close you are to a level-up.

[Whosatm]

From what I've experienced so far - this game is crazy fun to play.

But it's crashed about three times on me - I recovered alright twice, and the third bug set my wizard dude into no-man's land where I couldn't move or escape with a key. So I restarted my file entirely.

NOTE TO THE DEVELOPERS: You guys really should add a "restart floor" button. That would have saved me a lot of trouble, and could make some of these bugs a lot more bearable.

In future updates I'd also like to see a progress bar showing how close you are to a level-up.

Not sure if you already know, but you can check how close you are to leveling up in the stats menu. When you go to inventory it is at the top of the screen.

[txag2005]

From what I've experienced so far - this game is crazy fun to play.

But it's crashed about three times on me - I recovered alright twice, and the third bug set my wizard dude into no-man's land where I couldn't move or escape with a key. So I restarted my file entirely.

NOTE TO THE DEVELOPERS: You guys really should add a "restart floor" button. That would have saved me a lot of trouble, and could make some of these bugs a lot more bearable.

In future updates I'd also like to see a progress bar showing how close you are to a level-up.

I had that same bug hit me, where I ended up in no-man's land.

[Scottlarsen]

I also had this glitch. GD it, put me right in a wall. Still this was a completely unexpected gem.

[Rhokk]

Very fun game here. I have had a few setbacks mentioned here already but the upcoming patch should fix them. I look forward to the archer edition. I love playing the archer/ranger in rpg's. It will be an instant buy, along with the warrior one too.

A few additions that would be great...
-multiple save slots
-show more stats on your stat page. Example: how much total magic your spells cost to cast, total + to gold, what your mana regen is and how often it regens etc.
-quick health & mana buttons for your pots.
-name your hero and maybe pick robe color.
-a total stats page under the main menu that shows time played, foes killed, highest floor reached.

[Raptisoft]

Umm... I'm having an issue here... It crashes on startup every time for me. It goes to the splash screen, then the loading screen, and once it completely loads the game and the bar is full, it crashes. I've restarted my iPod and uninstalled/reinstalled the game several times. Any help?

Evidently some people have also had success by clearning off some space on their iPods (why does this work? You got me... it suggests insane things about the iPod OS).

The update has a decreased memory footprint via some graphical consolidation and more use of dynamic loads, though, so I'm hoping that nails this problem. (Update still waiting for review, just FYI).

[fantomik]

Umm... I'm having an issue here... It crashes on startup every time for me. It goes to the splash screen, then the loading screen, and once it completely loads the game and the bar is full, it crashes. I've restarted my iPod and uninstalled/reinstalled the game several times. Any help?
Had the same issue. Freeing some space on my device (up to 150mb in my case) solved the issue. Hope it helps!

Cheers,
f.

[rogerchiu]

Had the same issue. Freeing some space on my device (up to 150mb in my case) solved the issue. Hope it helps!

Cheers,
f.

I think the problem is caused by the main (128MB) memory. I can only free-up 40MB FREE memory. For the storage space, I have 10GB+. But the game still crashed randomly.

[fantomik]

I think the problem is caused by the main (128MB) memory. I can only free-up 40MB FREE memory. For the storage space, I have 10GB+. But the game still crashed randomly.
I didn't write about random crashes but particularly about game crashing every time after loading gauge reaches 100% (so before you see the main menu even). I had this issue and it was gone after I freed some storage space. Now from time to time I encounter some random crashes like you mentioned.

Cheers,
f.

[Sqrudy]

It has only crashed a few times for me. Other than that, this game is great! A few suggestions:

1. Have a bar that shows how close you are to leveling up
2. Have the floor number somewhere on the screen because I don't know what floor I am on

If you fix these, it would be awesome!

[Raptisoft]

and the third bug set my wizard dude into no-man's land where I couldn't move or escape with a key. So I restarted my file entirely.

Was this after emerging from the magic door?

[m0bius]

Also, thanks, you guys, for helping get this game into the top 300 apps, which has been a goal of mine since writing for iPod. If it hits top 100, I'll drop everything and do the warrior and archer versions. :)

At present Solomon's Keep has hit #93 in the US top app charts (and #53 in NZ), so looking forward to the warrior & archer versions ;-)

Congrats Raptisoft, very well deserved.

[Gryphon23]

I'm pretty sure this has been mentioned before, but the game goes about 4x faster if I turn my iPod off during the game, and turn it back on. Occasional crashing as well. Its still a great game though, definitely worth it for $1.

[Raptisoft]

At present Solomon's Keep has hit #93 in the US top app charts (and #53 in NZ), so looking forward to the warrior & archer versions ;-)

Congrats Raptisoft, very well deserved.

Absolutely. After 2.0 is out, I'm hoping to have the archer build submitted in a mere two weeks (it helps that I've already got the skill trees mapped out).

[Raptisoft]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?

[jak56]

i'm supporting plus+ this time, mainly based on the fact it has over the web saving and because it's so unobtrusive.

[squarezero]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?
I think that kind of leaderboard implementation would be fun and unobtrusive. By the way, unless someone has not upgraded to OS 3.0, the iPod does have cut and paste device-wide as part of the SDK.

[iVaro]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?

I like that idea :)

[fantomik]

[...]
Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?
I don't think it would be a problem if we could recall this info from inside the game anytime we need -- please also check if you could send an e-mail via the social networking service of choice with the link attached to it (I wonder if any of the social networking services allows such e-mail notification?).

Personally I find Plus+ network a more pleasing experience as an end user, but YMMV.

Cheers,
f.

[Raptisoft]

Personally I find Plus+ network a more pleasing experience as an end user, but YMMV.

Well, I'm hoping to sort of "roll my own" service... because I want to do unorthodox things, like produce a jpeg.

I'm pleased to hear that the new iPods have cut/paste, so I'll just make it so the url gets copied to the clipboard to be used whenever.

[Devilishly Good]

just offering an alternate idea...

If you wanted, you could check out how Bombardier's Guild uses OpenFeint...they have it integrated into their app very unobtrusively...no annoying banner during the game or anything, the graphics are all fitting in with the theme of the game. If you earn an achievement, a little stylized graphic symbol appears and that's it.

What if you just held all achievement notifications until after a player has completed the game...only then does it pop up with your list of achievements so you don't see it during the course of a game at all?

[dandercore]

I have had two freezes on a 3GS where I lost all progress. I also opened a door with the key and instead of going back to the town it put me in some sort of limbo where I couldn't move. I was actually outside of a dungeon instead of in it and couldn't get back through the door. So basically I have lost 3 games so far. I am getting pretty sick of starting over at the beginning.

[your personal robot]

Just because I found Hoggy and Salomon to be 2 fantastic games,
I just purchased Mahjong Blitz... and you nailed it. I like Mahjong,
but I'm more kind of a quick guy for short sessions. So this game
simply is the best Mahjong game, I can think of. So simple, so good.

I'm a Raptisoft fan now! :)

[CzarCastic]

just offering an alternate idea...

If you wanted, you could check out how Bombardier's Guild uses OpenFeint...they have it integrated into their app very unobtrusively...no annoying banner during the game or anything, the graphics are all fitting in with the theme of the game. If you earn an achievement, a little stylized graphic symbol appears and that's it.

What if you just held all achievement notifications until after a player has completed the game...only then does it pop up with your list of achievements so you don't see it during the course of a game at all?

Bombardier's Guild is the best use of social networking that I've seen! Definitely do something like this!

Although, you wouldn't be able to catalog JPEGs, but you could create leaderboards that track each of the various aspects that you want to target.

[DarkeMage]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?

All for that idea :D I think that sounds pretty great!

[Raptisoft]

Just because I found Hoggy and Salomon to be 2 fantastic games,
I just purchased Mahjong Blitz... and you nailed it. I like Mahjong,
but I'm more kind of a quick guy for short sessions. So this game
simply is the best Mahjong game, I can think of. So simple, so good.

I'm a Raptisoft fan now! :)

Oh, thank you very much.
BTW, Mahjong Blitz gets no play whatsoever-- sells even less than Get Lucky sold before I made Get Lucky free!

[Raptisoft]

What if you just held all achievement notifications until after a player has completed the game...only then does it pop up with your list of achievements so you don't see it during the course of a game at all?

We-ell... I can't think of any real SK achievements that wouldn't sound like "you get a trophy for participating!"

Besides, I would like to spend dev time on real core gameplay, like adding character apps, seeing if I can somehow fit back in the boss monster I had to take out for memory considerations, and whatnot.

But I'm interested in making the end-game webbable achievement... I think I'm going to try to pull that off. Whether it goes into 2.0 or 2.5 will remain to be seen. Especially since I can probably do this REALLY easily by simply opening Mobile Safari with the submit and letting Safari handle the rest.

[BazookaTime]

Just want to say that I love this game. I picked it up because Hoggy is such a qualtiy game. After playing Solomon's Keep I went to check out what other games Raptisoft had and I downloaded Get Lucky and bought Mahjong Blitz and love them both as well.

[kennethpetro]

I have an iphone 3gs and the game was playing fine for awhile, but then it began freezing on me again and again. Every time it would freeze, i close out of it, go to sbsettings->processes and free up my memory. I usually have about 155-170MB free every time i go back into the game......It will freeze again and when I go back to sbsetting it says i have between 70-80 MB free!?!?! No wonder it's crashing......what is causing the game to use so much memory?? It a fix in the works? It really getting annoying now.

[squarezero]

I have an iphone 3gs and the game was playing fine for awhile, but then it began freezing on me again and again. Every time it would freeze, i close out of it, go to sbsettings->processes and free up my memory. I usually have about 155-170MB free every time i go back into the game......It will freeze again and when I go back to sbsetting it says i have between 70-80 MB free!?!?! No wonder it's crashing......what is causing the game to use so much memory?? It a fix in the works? It really getting annoying now.
A fix has already been submitted (read a few pages back).

[MarkHerm]

I just downloaded it... and it crashes all the time on my 3G (even after a reboot). Sometimes I manage to get the game to start (but then it crashes after a little while) or it won't start at all.
I have loads of games on my iPhone and all work fine (including some which are way more demanding with respect to graphics) so this is a bummer for me... :mad:

As this seems to be common problem, I cannot understand why there is obviously no working quality assurance by the devs. It seems to be a great game but with such problems the ratings will go down in the App Store and that will hurt sales.

I hope for a quick update!

[poutini]

Was this after emerging from the magic door?

gaaaaah, I honestly can't remember. Either after emerging from the magic door or a staircase. I wish I could help you out more here.

It was in a level shortly after the first outdoor passage. Do you know what I'm talking about? Or at least the roundabout area I'm talking about?

[squarezero]

I just downloaded it... and it crashes all the time on my 3G (even after a reboot). Sometimes I manage to get the game to start (but then it crashes after a little while) or it won't start at all.
I have loads of games on my iPhone and all work fine (including some which are way more demanding with respect to graphics) so this is a bummer for me... :mad:

As this seems to be common problem, I cannot understand why there is obviously no working quality assurance by the devs. It seems to be a great game but with such problems the ratings will go down in the App Store and that will hurt sales.

I hope for a quick update!
Actually, very few persistent crashes at startup seem to have been reported (on this thread, anyway). If you really want to be helpful, you should always note 1) whether your device is jailbroken, and 2) whether you tried to delete and reinstall the game -- especially if you downloaded it directly into the device.

[Gabrien]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?

Bottom line, I think, is go with whatever feels right to you for your game. You'll get mixed feedback from people on something like this, even if all of them have the best intentions. Trust yourself. Clearly you know what you are doing.

For what it's worth: I like your idea.

Also for what it's worth: please, anything but Plus.

[TotallyImba]

This game is absolutely amazing, I really like it but there is one thing that is really bothering me and thats the sound. Its crackley in places on my 3GS, I dont use headphones.

Has a fix been issued for the sound?

[txag2005]

Hi all,
I am soliciting some advice, based on two opposite desires I am seeing on this big thread: the desire for social networking, and the desire for no social networking.

I want to develop something social-networky into Solomon's Keep that is non-intrusive. If have a general idea of something I could throw in without much fuss or invasiveness, but I would like to ask if this is something anyone would even want.

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

Also, iPod I know doesn't have any cut and paste for the URL. I will try to give the url friendly names by using dictionary words instead of a hash, but would a lack of cut/paste be a problem?

I'll add another vote for you deciding on what is best for your game. You did an A+ job with this game and I trust you'll do what you think is best and fits well with the environment you want for your game. Just keep in mind, no matter what decision you make, people will complain. You can't ever make 100% of people happy.

[Xytraguptorh]

First off, I love the game. I enjoyed Catacombs too, but this game is a big step up.

Mine crashes if I try to listen to a podcast while playing the game. Otherwise it seems to work fine, though I've only put about an hour into it so far.

[Raptisoft]

Bottom line, I think, is go with whatever feels right to you for your game. You'll get mixed feedback from people on something like this, even if all of them have the best intentions. Trust yourself. Clearly you know what you are doing.

Well, but my understanding of social gaming is hazy at best. I come from the era when "social gaming" meant "blow up your friends." You know, anti-social gaming.

So I guess I'm mainly feeling out to see if a postable widget is the kind of thing people would use, since you can then post it anywhere, use it on facebook, etc... or if my perception of what people want in that kind of thing is so off the mark that I would go down in Wikipedia history as "that imbecile who thought we wanted a postable jpeg graphic of our stats."

Either way, I am so enthused by the response to this game that I think I'll be tweaking it and perking it up for the foreseeable future. Just need to find a way to fit this extra boss into memory, since I already have him rendered, and the code written....

Also, FYI, update 1.1 is now "in review." Which means it could be available sometime in the next couple days. In the meantime, as a temporary workaround, something I've discovered is that if you aren't connected to the internet (use airplane mode or turn wireless off) you will freeze up less frequently, or possibly even not at all.

[Raptisoft]

This game is absolutely amazing, I really like it but there is one thing that is really bothering me and thats the sound. Its crackley in places on my 3GS, I dont use headphones.

Has a fix been issued for the sound?

I'm working with a sound guy to figure out what to do about this. The only situation that would result in it not being fixed somehow would be if we had to re-record all the voices.

[Thorkon]

I would pay a good amount more for more floors,enemies,stats to level, just everything in general! Multiplayer would be amazing! I will throw money at you.

Now that you mentioned the social networking thing about it saying your details of how you won, I was thinking you could do time trials on each floor and if someone beats a certain time it unlocks a item or skill or something of that nature. Just to add a little more life in this awesome game.

[MarkHerm]

so, after a couple of crashes right on start up, I just managed to play 20 mins (before the game froze).
I think it is absolutely great!

@devs: Please, before adding content, social networks and other goodies, please make it stable as many of us have problems with the game!! Otherwise, you will earn lots of bad ratings no matter of the content or OF.

[Delusionaltool]

at least when it does crash it starts you where it crashes, i think once the bugs get worked out this game is a gem it still is for 99 cents fantastic game...

[Whosatm]

so, after a couple of crashes right on start up, I just managed to play 20 mins (before the game froze).
I think it is absolutely great!

@devs: Please, before adding content, social networks and other goodies, please make it stable as many of us have problems with the game!! Otherwise, you will earn lots of bad ratings no matter of the content or OF.

The bugfix update has already been submitted. It is posted on the previous page.

Edit: Just checked the appstore, and apparently the update is out. It isn't showing on my touch though :(

Love the new icon :)

[txag2005]

Wow this game is doing really well!

I just check the App store and it looks like its top 50 for paid games and #2 for paid RPG's (behind Zenonia 2). Awesome job!!

[iVaro]

I wonder if he thought it would have caught on so quickly? :)

[Devilishly Good]

1.1 update is out:

What's new
1. Eliminates the "freeze up" bug
2. Smaller memory footprint
3. Various small bug fixes
4. Selecting "main menu" after being killed will not erase your game
5. An improved icon
6. Secondary skill buttons are easier to press
7. Improved performance and load time

[Ventura]

I would pay a good amount more for more floors,enemies,stats to level, just everything in general! Multiplayer would be amazing! I will throw money at you.

Agreed, if we had some sort of Solomon's Keep Plus, something that was pretty much the same as what we have now but was designed with wifi multiplayer in mind (with difficulty adjusted accordingly and the ability to pick from one of half a dozen different colours for your mage), I would drop $5 on that in a heartbeat.

Edit:

1.1 update is out

Thanks, indeed it is. I'm sync'ing right now. Other developers, I hope you're paying attention, because this is how you support a game. As soon as he discovered the problem, he had it fixed and an update submitted in record time, and he had time to include other fixes too.

Raptisoft are now my favourite developer. Hands down.

[Raptisoft]

I wonder if he thought it would have caught on so quickly? :)

No, heh. I had had some hope it might make it into "what we're playing" from Apple and get a boost from that. But I never expected to break top-100... because it's not Doodle Keep. ;)

But nothing would make me happier than to spend the next couple months adding stuff to Solomon's Keep, instead of starting a new game. It's a very fun world to be in.

[Raptisoft]

Agreed, if we had some sort of Solomon's Keep Plus, something that was pretty much the same as what we have now but was designed with wifi multiplayer in mind (with difficulty adjusted accordingly and the ability to pick from one of half a dozen different colours for your mage), I would drop $5 on that in a heartbeat.

Hm, I could do the mage colors pretty easily... multiplayer syncing is almost always a nightmare, but it's definitely something I'd LIKE to do. I think the main issue would be i would want multiplayer to support the other planned character classes, and boom, there's a memory problem again.

I'll see what will happen. 2.0 is going to add some new stuff, most of it requests from this thread (plus a surprise)... and then I really want to get some other character classes out... but after that? Maybe I'll have to take a couple weeks and see just how impossible to network sync I made this monster code....

[Raptisoft]

Thanks, indeed it is. I'm sync'ing right now. Other developers, I hope you're paying attention, because this is how you support a game. As soon as he discovered the problem, he had it fixed and an update submitted in record time, and he had time to include other fixes too.

Haha, don't put a whammy on me. Now, the freeze-up bug, I'm nearly 100% sure I've got that one fixed, since I actually was able to dump and debug it.

But since I never was able to manifest the "randomly crash on startup" problem, and since people were able to fix it by freeing up memory, I "fixed" that by making the game's memory footprint a lot smaller.

I'll be watching the board with sweat dripping down my face and a slight tremor to see if people still get startup crashes.

[squarezero]

Haha, don't put a whammy on me. Now, the freeze-up bug, I'm nearly 100% sure I've got that one fixed, since I actually was able to dump and debug it.

But since I never was able to manifest the "randomly crash on startup" problem, and since people were able to fix it by freeing up memory, I "fixed" that by making the game's memory footprint a lot smaller.

I'll be watching the board with sweat dripping down my face and a slight tremor to see if people still get startup crashes.
Well, the update works beautifully for me. Those ghosts on level 6 scared the bejesus out of me!

[Seishu]

Bought this just last night, looks like just in time for the update :)

[mariano774]

I bought it today, well worth the money, nice work! :)

[Ventura]

But since I never was able to manifest the "randomly crash on startup" problem, and since people were able to fix it by freeing up memory, I "fixed" that by making the game's memory footprint a lot smaller.

Well, I experienced the video-freeze problem, as I suspect most have, but I have a first-gen Touch and I've never had a problem with it crashing on startup.

I've completed the game twice now with a lightning build, and now I'm going through again with the magic missiles. Then I'll give fireball a go. The first time it said my overall performance was 'poor', the second time 'good'... so I'm getting better :)

I'm going to try going through and doing it without having any deaths atall, just to see what it says then...

[awp69]

Is it me, or is this game a bit difficult to move around in. I come from the likes of Minigore where the movement was flawless and fluid. I find it a bit clunky here and sometimes don't move at all like I want to.

I love the game, just wondered of anyone else felt this way.

[squarezero]

Is it me, or is this game a bit difficult to move around in. I come from the likes of Minigore where the movement was flawless and fluid. I find it a bit clunky here and sometimes don't move at all like I want to.

I love the game, just wondered of anyone else felt this way.
This isn't Minigore; you're playing a magician in robes, not a gun-toting adventurer. The kind of movement you're getting here makes sense to me in that context. You can also upgrade your movement in the game like any other skill.

[Rad]

Fun Game ! No lock ups with the new patch !

This game is way better than catacombs. Great controls worth the money.

I too have noticed the crackle in the sound during lightning other wise all is good.

It almost sounds like the sound was overdriven when recorded or is over driving the speaker in my 3gs.

[Raphie123]

This isn't Minigore; you're playing a magician in robes, not a gun-toting adventurer. The kind of movement you're getting here makes sense to me in that context. You can also upgrade your movement in the game like any other skill.

You see, this is the only thing I don't like in this game ; it's very very slow paced.. The movement are slow and doesn't seem flawless (or maybe it's just me). I don't know how to explain it, but at least, maps are not so big, so it doesn't take to long to walk from one to another :P But as far as I can tell, it's a nice little game, and like everyone else, I'm impatient to see other classes :D

[Raptisoft]

You see, this is the only thing I don't like in this game ; it's very very slow paced.. The movement are slow and doesn't seem flawless (or maybe it's just me). I don't know how to explain it, but at least, maps are not so big, so it doesn't take to long to walk from one to another :P But as far as I can tell, it's a nice little game, and like everyone else, I'm impatient to see other classes :D

It is designed to play slow.

However, I'm curious if part of your problem is that you're trying to treat the thumbsticks like, well, thumbsticks? Basically, don't try to slide the stick itself around (maybe I need to take these out).

Just touch around the circle. The wizard takes his guidance from that, don't try to slide the middle circle around.

[squarezero]

You see, this is the only thing I don't like in this game ; it's very very slow paced.. The movement are slow and doesn't seem flawless (or maybe it's just me). I don't know how to explain it, but at least, maps are not so big, so it doesn't take to long to walk from one to another :P But as far as I can tell, it's a nice little game, and like everyone else, I'm impatient to see other classes :D
As I said, you can upgrade movement speed as a skill -- if that's what you want. But the best strategy for playing the game successfully is to go slowly and avoid walking into a trap unprepared. The only time I've felt a bit of looseness to the controls is when you're surrounded by dozens of enemies, and could very well be a matter of graphics overloading the system.

[JDH22]

This game is awesome! :D:p;)

[Rad]

I'm not sure what the others are talking about; the character is easy to move around and very responsive, might just be processor speed related. I'll try comparing my 3GS to my 1st gen I-touch when I get a chance.

Raptisoft Great job on the game Hoggy looks Great too will eventually pick it up.

I left a review in I-tunes.

Rad

[Cilo]

I have to give my 2 cents - I started playing today and I absolutely love this game! It's everything Catacombs should've been. I can't help but compare it to a shrunken version of Diablo - engaging cinematic intro and story, quick waypoints back to town, npcs to interact with for : quest info, stat/gear upgrades, also boss fights boss fights boss fights!

The sprites, and overall animations are beautiful. Stat choices are great for the platform - enough depth but not overwhelming. Also once I found a rare ring with multiple stats I knew the dev put some care into this gem. However, I might be a bit biased because I'm accustomed to always playing a Mage (thanks for the arcane love here lol).

With that said if you have a buck to spare I wouldn't pass this up! :D

Tip:
1. You can increase walking speed later on.
2. For quick level progression early focus on missiles and mana stats.

Suggestion:
1. I just finished the first boss, wondering if the environment of stone castle rooms change? If they don't, maybe an update sometime down the road with new environments?

[Suneun]

My general idea would be that, on winning the game, you are given the option to create a widget for your character (essentially a jpeg hosted on my server) telling how you won the game (what character, since I'm adding more), how many times you died, how long it took you, etc. The premise would be that when you win, you click submit, it fires off your info to my server, which builds a jpeg, and then Solomon's Keep comes back and gives you the URL to the jpeg, which you can then use in whatever way you want (we'll continue to host them indefinitely).

Worth doing, or not worth doing?

You could model it after RogueTouch Leaderboards. http://BestRogues.ChronoSoft.com/
When you complete the game, you can type in your mage's name and submit to the Leaderboards. You can check on a webpage how you're doing compared to others in terms of speed, # of deaths, gold earned, etc. Rogue Touch also keeps track of most recently killed, but you don't need to sync that frequently if you don't want to.

[iVaro]

Would anyone else like a "Channel Health" Skill? I am kind of missing it :(

[mikeg123]

I'm getting a crash with the latest update. I just got to the final boss fight, and when I use the magic key to create the door portal, the game crashes everytime I try to go through it. I rebooted my iPhone and got the same behavior. I have a 3GS.

Besides that I am having a lot of fun playing this game.

[iVaro]

I beat the game with a lightning build and I am trying a fireball build as I speak but on my 1st try I beat it with a Ring of Fire Area Skill, is Acid Rain better? it looks kind of dull to me ;)

[Gabrien]

Small suggestion: how about a chance for chests to drop a health orb or two? Particularly ones in those "trap rooms," as health is normally low after dispatching the mobs. Possibly at least add this to nightmare/hell difficulties?

[Gabrien]

I beat the game with a lightning build and I am trying a fireball build as I speak but on my 1st try I beat it with a Ring of Fire Area Skill, is Acid Rain better? it looks kind of dull to me ;)

Ring of fire will give you more immediate results, and I would say is more powerful. Acid Rain is fun for the follwing reason: walk into a trap room, wait to get charged. Pop Acid Rain followed by Teleport. Stand back and listen for sounds of popping monsters. :)

[Thorkon]

I want the next update with the harder difficulties right now ha. I want to keep playing but I beat the game with each spell now and need a little more incentive.


The games movement is flawless for me as I can dodge enemy spells with ease. But you need to increase your movement speed to do it. I boost my speed hardcore so I can get around fast.

Oh and I was wondering how you were gonna do the other classes as they don't use mana? Is it going to be like gauntlet where all the characters main attack was a projectile or gonna do melee for the warrior?

[Gabrien]

I'm getting a crash with the latest update. I just got to the final boss fight, and when I use the magic key to create the door portal, the game crashes everytime I try to go through it. I rebooted my iPhone and got the same behavior. I have a 3GS.

Besides that I am having a lot of fun playing this game.

I just got the same problem with the Bone Dragon. Made a portal mid-fight and crashed upon entering. Same thing next two times after logging back in and trying to go through same portal. Fourth time tried making a new portal and it worked fine. Seems like a reproduceable bug though which should get fixed; in the meantime just cast a fresh portal upon resuming game.

EDIT: Same thing now with Solomon. It would appear casting a portal first time and trying to go through it during a boss fight results in a crash every time. Additionally, though I can recast the portal and go through it upon restarting, once I port back to the boss the NEXT time I cast a portal same thing happens again. Very annoying with Solomon, as you are almost constantly swarmed and getting even ONE portal off is a bit of a challenge.

EDIT 2: Hmm. Now game crashes every time I log back in, even when going through a fresh portal. I guess Solomon gets to live until the next update.

[Serpentdivine]

I'm really enjoying this one. So far it has run smoothly on my 3rd generation ipod.

The game balance is good (not frustrating) and the controls are the best I have encountered in a dual 'joystick' set up. This is likely because the game isn't too fast and magic missiles also track your enemies. Regardless it is much less frustrating than games like Aerius or Guerrilla Bob.

Definitely worth the buck.

[TheOZ]

How many levels are in the game? I saw that boss Bone dragon thing and I was wondering is he the only boss or are there more like that? Also does the game get repetitve at all?

[fu5e]

How many levels are in the game? I saw that boss Bone dragon thing and I was wondering is he the only boss or are there more like that? Also does the game get repetitve at all?

Spoiler'd:

Ten levels, 2 sub bosses and the main guy on the 10th level. The bone draggy is the first sub boss.

[mikeg123]

I just got the same problem with the Bone Dragon. Made a portal mid-fight and crashed upon entering. Same thing next two times after logging back in and trying to go through same portal. Fourth time tried making a new portal and it worked fine. Seems like a reproduceable bug though which should get fixed; in the meantime just cast a fresh portal upon resuming game.

EDIT: Same thing now with Solomon. It would appear casting a portal first time and trying to go through it during a boss fight results in a crash every time. Additionally, though I can recast the portal and go through it upon restarting, once I port back to the boss the NEXT time I cast a portal same thing happens again. Very annoying with Solomon, as you are almost constantly swarmed and getting even ONE portal off is a bit of a challenge.
Yeah, I had also found that a fresh portal worked. However, I really felt that I had a bad character build, so I started over. I was getting creamed by Solomon. Now I'm working on a lightning build.

And the ring of fire is really cool (and powerful). I didn't get that or acid rain in my previous build. So in addition to the ring of fire, I'm trying to also build up my speed a bit. I really like the random skills to choose from. It really adds to the challenge.

EDIT: Wow, I just beat the game with my new lightning build. I basically got skilled to where I didn't lose any mana. That combined with ring of fire made it quite easy to clear all of the levels and Solomon. Guess I'll try a fireball build next.

This game is truly great fun! I usually don't replay games like this, but I'm already to start again. All I can say is: more, more, more!

[Whosatm]

How many levels are in the game? I saw that boss Bone dragon thing and I was wondering is he the only boss or are there more like that? Also does the game get repetitve at all?

There are 10 floors in the game, and 3 bosses. There are 3 main builds: Magic Missile, Fire, and Lightning. With floor randomization and different skill builds, there is a bit of replayability. The next update is supposed to add harder difficulties to replay with old characters.

It is worth the dollar in my opinion.

[KrakeN72]

Installed the recent update. Rebooted my iPhone. No Airplane mode and running just from battery. Scrapped my character and started a new one. Have been playing SK for the past few hours and haven't had any problems at all. Woohoo!

Thanks Raptisoft!

PS: Also bought Hoggy earlier this evening.

[azurerush]

Some guy brought up the problem of clunky controls a few pages back and I think I know what is the problem. When pressing down on both the movement and firing thumbsticks, then letting go of the firing thumbstick and then holding down on the firing thumbstick again, the movement thumbstick doesn't register any movement anymore.

[TotallyImba]

Some guy brought up the problem of clunky controls a few pages back and I think I know what is the problem. When pressing down on both the movement and firing thumbsticks, then letting go of the firing thumbstick and then holding down on the firing thumbstick again, the movement thumbstick doesn't register any movement anymore.

I have experienced this as well, I thought it was the fact that my character has been poisoned or something lol!

Also the sound in the update is still crackley on iphone 3gs (speaker).

[your personal robot]

Just a minor thing, but I prefer the old icon,
since it was not following the every icon is a square majority.

[Igoo]

Nice job guys! Crashfest seems to be over. Now I'm REALLy enjoying this game...

This really is what I was hoping Catacombs would be!

[Raptisoft]

RE: The walking into the portal crash...

Found it and fixed it, and I'll submit 1.2 to the App store as soon as I make sure nothing else needs to go into a second semi-urgent build.

The workaround to this one if you need to use it in the meanwhile isn't so pleasant... make sure the boss monster is offscreen, and his life-bar has vanished before making a portal.

[Portugeeza]

I also have the sound crackling problem on my 3gs speaker!

[m0bius]

Update seems to fixed the freezing issue for me - huzzah.

v2.x suggestions:

1. The addition of magic scrolls, purchased from town shop, would add another tactical dimension. They could give character a short-term ability boost (resist, damage, speed) beyond their level or have unique one-off effects: invisibility, stun, slow time, repel (a spell that pushes swarming mobs some distance from the player), etc. Provides another incentive to collect gold / explore.

2. Some explicit bonus (XP, gold) for actually clearing a floor / or maybe locked exits for diehards.
While you do, of course, gain XP & gold by virtue of clearing, receiving the message alone doesn't quite deliver the visceral sense of conquest. With random generation, the floor exit can be quite close to the entrance so it is quite possible to entirely avoid large sections of fun & danger.

3. It would be great if the dialog boxes for the town wizards didn't have repeated text - e.g. the Verinus dialog has both options x2 (4 hit areas) - it's a bit confusing, might be a bug, and makes it easier to hit an unintended option.
A problem that I've experienced as a result is that I keep hitting the "Trade All Gold..." option by mistake. Since there is no step 2 / confirmation - hey presto all my gold is unwittingly spent on XP rather than the item I'd been painstakingly saving for :eek:

4. +1 for the suggestion of having a level-up XP progress indicator on-screen.

[minorpane]

I also have the sound crackling problem on my 3gs speaker!

That would be.... footsteps, no?

EDIT: Turns out it wasn't footsteps. =( I have it too then.

[Raptisoft]

I also have the sound crackling problem on my 3gs speaker!

We are working on the crackling! Hopefully will be in 2.0, but I won't hold up 2.0 for it, because there's stuff in 2.0 that will greatly enhance gameplay, so I want to get that out ASAP.

[jak56]

wil there aver be an option to take away the darkness on the edges? i mean, it's cool when playing in bed but in other circumstances, it's too dark (in my opinion)

[lefrisbee]

The game just crashed on me. I was playing against the "Bone Daddy" boss, and since he was generally kicking my tail, I decided to run past and kill all the monsters in the next few rooms first. The only problem with this was that legions of worms kept coming at me. At one point, the whole screen was nearly filled with them. I retreated a little more. There were probably several dozens of worms at this point if not well over a hundred.

I used the magic key to open a portal. I stepped into the portal. Freeze. Game shuts down to home screen. Frustrated, I start the game up. Main menu. I hit PLAY. I see my little wizard standing right at the portal for about three seconds. Still frozen. Games shuts off again. Every time I start the game up this happens again. I'm about to restart my game and play much more carefully around this boss.

By the way, you mentioned going away from the boss and making his health bar go off the screen. I just double-checked: On the screen, there is no health bar, and I'm at least two rooms away from the boss. None of the worms are on the screen but there are bunches just a room away. I'll take a screenshot before I reset my game file; if that would be helpful to you at all, please ask for it.

I hope this was helpful; I really hate to start over, and I really don't want other people to have to suffer this same thing!

Thanks for being attentive and responsive to bug reports!

[Raptisoft]

The game just crashed on me. I was playing against the "Bone Daddy" boss, and since he was generally kicking my tail, I decided to run past and kill all the monsters in the next few rooms first. The only problem with this was that legions of worms kept coming at me. At one point, the whole screen was nearly filled with them. I retreated a little more. There were probably several dozens of worms at this point if not well over a hundred.

I used the magic key to open a portal. I stepped into the portal. Freeze. Game shuts down to home screen. Frustrated, I start the game up. Main menu. I hit PLAY. I see my little wizard standing right at the portal for about three seconds. Still frozen. Games shuts off again. Every time I start the game up this happens again. I'm about to restart my game and play much more carefully around this boss.

By the way, you mentioned going away from the boss and making his health bar go off the screen. I just double-checked: On the screen, there is no health bar, and I'm at least two rooms away from the boss. None of the worms are on the screen but there are bunches just a room away. I'll take a screenshot before I reset my game file; if that would be helpful to you at all, please ask for it.

I hope this was helpful; I really hate to start over, and I really don't want other people to have to suffer this same thing!

Thanks for being attentive and responsive to bug reports!


Actually, I've found and fixed this already, so I won't need any data. I was able to duplicate it immediately. But you were able to recover where you left off nonetheless, right?

I'm going to submit 1.2 as soon as I make sure there's nothing else that need immediate attention. But apple approval being what it is, it'll be a few days before they make it live.

[Raptisoft]

wil there aver be an option to take away the darkness on the edges? i mean, it's cool when playing in bed but in other circumstances, it's too dark (in my opinion)

Well, hm, this is kind of an artistic flourish in the game's look. When it's not there, the game looks very very plain.

I mean, of course it's possible to remove it, but...

[RttaM]

Well, hm, this is kind of an artistic flourish in the game's look. When it's not there, the game looks very very plain.

I mean, of course it's possible to remove it, but...

John, you are probably the most helpful developer that's came along in the Appstore. Your really great. Thanks for all of the help. :D

[lefrisbee]

Actually, I've found and fixed this already, so I won't need any data. I was able to duplicate it immediately. But you were able to recover where you left off nonetheless, right?

I'm going to submit 1.2 as soon as I make sure there's nothing else that need immediate attention. But apple approval being what it is, it'll be a few days before they make it live.

I had to start a fresh character. Every time I started the game, it took me right back to standing on the portal, and the game was already frozen. It's not a complete loss; I'm enjoying my second playthrough a lot more. I like the fireballs a lot more than the magic missiles. I'm actually glad it made me start over. :D

Oh, and I'm really glad you were able to fix the bug. Thanks!

[squarezero]

Well, hm, this is kind of an artistic flourish in the game's look. When it's not there, the game looks very very plain.

I mean, of course it's possible to remove it, but...
The darkness stays, gosh darn it!

[Raptisoft]

The darkness stays, gosh darn it!

Well, I'm thinking I'll add a "daylight" or "bright light" mode in the settings, so that if you check it it will mitigate the darkness by like 50%. I can see where if you're playing it in a really bright place, the whole game might consist of a small circle of visibility around the wizard.

[squarezero]

Well, I'm thinking I'll add a "daylight" or "bright light" mode in the settings, so that if you check it it will mitigate the darkness by like 50%. I can see where if you're playing it in a really bright place, the whole game might consist of a small circle of visibility around the wizard.
Oh, alright... As long as it's optional, I guess I can deal...

[Thaurin]

Woah! The game just commited the worst crime a game can commit: it started me back at the beginning again! All my progress is lost. Has this been reported before? I enjoy the game, but I lost about three hours here.

[iVaro]

Woah! The game just commited the worst crime a game can commit: it started me back at the beginning again! All my progress is lost. Has this been reported before? I enjoy the game, but I lost about three hours here.

How did that happen?

[Thaurin]

How did that happen?

Oh, right. I forgot to include that. :) I died, clicked continue and I appeared back in town. Since there aren't any save game you can load, just the one game, I don't see how my progress could be still there. This is the only time this happened; it's almost like you've got a limited amount of continues! (But then this is not mentioned anywhere.)

[squarezero]

Oh, right. I forgot to include that. :) I died, clicked continue and I appeared back in town. Since there aren't any save game you can load, just the one game, I don't see how my progress could be still there. This is the only time this happened; it's almost like you've got a limited amount of continues! (But then this is not mentioned anywhere.)
Did you upgrade to the most recent version?

[Devilishly Good]

Well, I'm thinking I'll add a "daylight" or "bright light" mode in the settings, so that if you check it it will mitigate the darkness by like 50%. I can see where if you're playing it in a really bright place, the whole game might consist of a small circle of visibility around the wizard.

...lol, the game could automatically adjust the darkness using the iphone's brightness sensor

[lefrisbee]

Oh, right. I forgot to include that. :) I died, clicked continue and I appeared back in town. Since there aren't any save game you can load, just the one game, I don't see how my progress could be still there. This is the only time this happened; it's almost like you've got a limited amount of continues! (But then this is not mentioned anywhere.)

A similar thing has happened to me three times now. Sometimes when I step into a portal back to town, the game will shut off. I reload, and the wizard is back at town, but with no door back to the castle! :eek:
The first time it happened to me, I freaked out, but all of my items/skills were in tact, so I headed back to the castle by route, and I manually walked past four levels. I noticed that the door I had tried to go through, which froze the game, was still there. I did not try to go through it.
The second time this happened, I groaned, but I walked back through the whole castle again (this was right after killing the "Bone Daddy" boss). I passed both of the doors I had made. Since I didn't want to freeze the game again, I didn't try to use them again.
Now it's happened a third time, and I'm getting super frustrated. It takes a while to walk through so many floors, and it's boring with no enemies. What's worst is that now I'm scared to go back to town unless the game makes me walk through the castle again.

Although it certainly is a testament to the quality of your game; I'm willing to go through the monotony of empty floors so I can finish it. :D

EDIT: Also wanted to add that it's an intermittent problem; usually I can get to town and back normally. I'd say it happens 1 in 5 visits.

[Thaurin]

Did you upgrade to the most recent version?

No, didn't know there was a new version! But I doubt it will bring back my character.

EDIT: I noticed the update notes say that pressing "main menu" after you die doesn't delete your progress anymore. Well, I'm pretty sure I tapped "continue" but this sounds extremely similar, doesn't it.

[iVaro]

No, didn't know there was a new version! But I doubt it will bring back my character.

It can't but I doubt that bug will happen again!

[Thaurin]

It can't but I doubt that bug will happen again!

Yep, got the update. Oh well, I guess I'll have to start over. :( And just when I got that rare extra bolt for magic missile! It took so long for that to come up with level up. :/

Any suggestions for a new build that is not magic missile specced?

[mikeg123]

Yep, got the update. Oh well, I guess I'll have to start over. :( And just when I got that rare extra bolt for magic missile! It took so long for that to come up with level up. :/

Any suggestions for a new build that is not magic missile specced?
You should try a lightening build. I had a lot of fun with that last night, and I enjoyed it more than the magic missiles. That combined with the ring of fire (secondary attack), I was able to storm through all of the levels and defeat Solomon.

[Raptisoft]

Woah! The game just commited the worst crime a game can commit: it started me back at the beginning again! All my progress is lost. Has this been reported before? I enjoy the game, but I lost about three hours here.

Keep me posted on whether this happens to you again, if you please. Right now I'll assume you hit main menu (this is the behavior that Main Menu used to do, in v1.0), since a lot-- a lot-- of people were doing that by accident. But if it happens again, I'll look into it, since right now, theoretically, the only way to restart your game is to go into setup and press "Reset."

[Raptisoft]

A similar thing has happened to me three times now. Sometimes when I step into a portal back to town, the game will shut off. I reload, and the wizard is back at town, but with no door back to the castle!

So it sounds like the game saved your dungeon floor, warped you back to town, but crashed before it could save the state of the town with the doorway on it.

Is this happening with V1.1? If I had to guess, I'd say the game suddenly ate too much memory, and crashed you, but 1.1 has a smaller footprint.

[KrakeN72]

Well, I'm thinking I'll add a "daylight" or "bright light" mode in the settings, so that if you check it it will mitigate the darkness by like 50%. I can see where if you're playing it in a really bright place, the whole game might consist of a small circle of visibility around the wizard.

This would be an excellent option to have.

Example scenario: Yesterday I was sitting in the mall waiting for my dinner group to arrive, playing some SK to kill time. The sunlight coming in through the windows was washing out my iPhone's screen. To compensate I went into the phone settings and cranked up the brightness (I usually have it set to about 1/3 or a tad more, to help extend battery life a bit).


Raptisoft - Is this something that could be tweaked somehow -- the double-touching to use items in the inventory screen? Many many times I've accidentally used/wasted a potion when what I was really trying to do was scroll a long row of items left or right. Not sure what could be done there, maybe a "Drink potion?" confirmation? Possibly make the confirm prompt an option in the settings screen for players that can get along without an extra button press, but I wouldn't mind having it. Or someone else might have a better suggestion.

Edit: fixed a typo

[Raptisoft]

Raptisoft - Is this something that could be tweaked somehow -- the double-touching to use items in the inventory screen? Many many times I've accidentally used/wasted a potion when what I was really trying to do was scroll a long row of items left or right. Not sure what could be done there, maybe a "Drink potion?" confirmation? Possibly make the confirm prompt an option in the settings screen for players that can get along without an extra button press, but I wouldn't mind having it. Or someone else might have a better suggestion.

Hm... let me think about it. I'm a little loathe to mess with this part of the code because I think anything I do will suddenly cause one group or another of people to demand my head.

Let me see if I can come up with a solution that doesn't involve messing with the taps. Now that I know it's an issue with some people, a solution might present itself.

[iVaro]

Hm... let me think about it. I'm a little loathe to mess with this part of the code because I think anything I do will suddenly cause one group or another of people to demand my head.

Let me see if I can come up with a solution that doesn't involve messing with the taps. Now that I know it's an issue with some people, a solution might present itself.

How about scrolling vertically instead of horizontally?

[KrakeN72]

Hm... let me think about it. I'm a little loathe to mess with this part of the code because I think anything I do will suddenly cause one group or another of people to demand my head.

Let me see if I can come up with a solution that doesn't involve messing with the taps. Now that I know it's an issue with some people, a solution might present itself.

Cool. I can understand if that part of the game could be touchy to mess with. It's just something I thought I'd mention. The potions aren't terribly expensive (thank you!). When I do end up wasting one, I roll my eyes and grunt an "Oh well..." and just continue on.

Thinking out loud... would it be possible to bookend the row of items with left and right arrow buttons? The row could be scrolled without touching the items themselves.

Edit: Second thought out loud... How about some logic that goes something like this: (A) touch item first time and release it = select the item, (B) touch item second time and release it = use the item, (C) touch item second time and slide the row = don't use the item.

[Thaurin]

Right now I'll assume you hit main menu (this is the behavior that Main Menu used to do, in v1.0), since a lot-- a lot-- of people were doing that by accident. But if it happens again, I'll look into it, since right now, theoretically, the only way to restart your game is to go into setup and press "Reset."

Seems likely, doesn't it? But the main menu button is on the other end of the screen and I'm sure I hit the left button. But I'll keep you posted. :)

[lefrisbee]

So it sounds like the game saved your dungeon floor, warped you back to town, but crashed before it could save the state of the town with the doorway on it.

Is this happening with V1.1? If I had to guess, I'd say the game suddenly ate too much memory, and crashed you, but 1.1 has a smaller footprint.

Sorry, I should've specified. I upgraded to 1.1 as soon as it came out, so this did occur in 1.1.

[starmonkey101]

AHHHHHH!!! omg!!! just exited the game. opened it up again and all progress lost! :mad:

[ENERTRON]

first off, i think this game is awesome - great leveling & perks setup, cool magics and atmosphere

but

whenever i pause the game by hitting the magic select menu or options menu, then go back into the game, everything is sped up like 2x or 3x the speed

also it crashes (once when i died and once when i killed the first boss)

also your name is way too close to rapistsoft. i mean would you name it murdresoft or sodoymsoft hahah

[iamseamonster]

loving the game, especially now that the main menu button doesnt delete your progress anymore. the rest of the bugs dont bother me much.

can we get an option to show little enemy lifebars above their heads or something? and i'm not sure if its been said, but the pack and magic select and secondary skill buttons often seem unresponsive, especially in the middle of rooms full of enemies. sometimes it seems like i hit ring of fire's icon three or four times before it works, and by then i have usually taken a lot of hits.. same goes for pack, trying to get to a potion before dieing in the middle of a swarm of enemies.

oh! also, i agree that we should be able to replay the game with the same character after winning, and should be able to revisit a floor after a while and have the enemies respawned for grinding!

[windyflight]

This could be a bug.
For some reason after level seven if i go upstairs, instead of arriving at level eight i go to an "endless" mode where if i go back down it isnt level 7 any more and down or up the floors are continually being generated, is this meant to happen?

[Videotape]

This could be a bug.
For some reason after level seven if i go upstairs, instead of arriving at level eight i go to an "endless" mode where if i go back down it isnt level 7 any more and down or up the floors are continually being generated, is this meant to happen?

happened to me too, i got to level 21 on floor 4... just restarted

[windyflight]

happened to me too, i got to level 21 on floor 4... just restarted

-___- i don't want to restart, i hope an update can fix the problem.....did you get swarms of skeletons as the only monsters?

[awp69]

Love the game, but seem to have trouble moving left
(and a bit sluggish overall) If the controls worked 100 percent -- a la Miigore, which to me has the best dual stick shooter controls -- this would be my within my top 5 ipod touch games.

[tadad1]

Started it, finished it, loved it, would be more than happy to buy additional chapters via DLC.

[Raptisoft]

Hey all,
Just wanted to let you know I won't be replying too much for a bit... I am reading avidly and am making notes of any bugs or problems or requests. I'm working on the 2.0 update right now, and it's a lot of heavy work, so I'm sort of cutting myself off from "internet pleasures" until it's done.

:)

--John

P.S. If you are getting a persistent, reproducible crash and are interested in helping me get through it, please PM me. I will need your iPhone/iPod's UUID, and depending on the crash and your willingness, I might want to send you a test version to see if it eradicates the problem.

For instance, if you're a person who can never play a full game without it crashing, I'd want to give you any experimental low-memory build to see if that ameliorates the problem.

[jak56]

Well, hm, this is kind of an artistic flourish in the game's look. When it's not there, the game looks very very plain.

I mean, of course it's possible to remove it, but...
i perfectly understand your choice, but as you described later, the game does consist of just me using lightning in daylight due to the fact it bends to the enemies
perhaps add a slider to change theconsentration of the darkness ring, which goes from default down to transparent. then you could please everyone!

edit: one bug i found was if i managed to get a key door on one of the upwards staircases, the door would lead me into a wall, rendering me trapped, having to restart the game. i'll try to reproduce this.

[Shumby]

Hey all,
Just wanted to let you know I won't be replying too much for a bit... I am reading avidly and am making notes of any bugs or problems or requests. I'm working on the 2.0 update right now, and it's a lot of heavy work, so I'm sort of cutting myself off from "internet pleasures" until it's done.

:)

--John

P.S. If you are getting a persistent, reproducible crash and are interested in helping me get through it, please PM me. I will need your iPhone/iPod's UUID, and depending on the crash and your willingness, I might want to send you a test version to see if it eradicates the problem.

For instance, if you're a person who can never play a full game without it crashing, I'd want to give you any experimental low-memory build to see if that ameliorates the problem.

2.0!? :D

more content please
this is one of the best adventure games on the touch!

[Thaurin]

more content please
this is one of the best adventure games on the touch!

Please don't change the meaning of the word "adventure game" like all the millions of reviewers out there!! Adventure games are Sam & Max and Monkey Island, etc. But yes to more content, of course! :D

[Jay-Jay]

This game looks really nice. I can't wait to go home and download it... hehehe!

[Shumby]

Please don't change the meaning of the word "adventure game" like all the millions of reviewers out there!! Adventure games are Sam & Max and Monkey Island, etc. But yes to more content, of course! :D

I'd have a very hard time changing the meaning of any word - my street cred IS impressive but I don't hold enough sway with Webster to make it stick

does anyone remember when I tried to change the word "lord" into an adjective meaning "cool"? .......... no? that's cuz I can't really change words like that.
(in case you're curious it's because I thought it sounded funny to say "Jesus is Lord" ... which I've heard a lot. you wouldn't say "Bill is Manager". so I figure it's also an adjective)

however - try using the word like that, it's wholesome family fun!

"I just ate some totally lord french fries."
"What a lord new car, Biff!"


In all seriousness I'm sorta retarded and maybe misspoke. Thanks for tolerating my embarrassing post! Have fun playing this lord game!

[lefrisbee]

New request: Can we have a main menu button from the options screen during game play?

Along with that, one observation: Whenever you start the game and go to the castle for the first time, you can unsynch the audio of Solomon. If you pause at any time during the "Stay awhile... Stay forever!!!" 'speech,' then the audio will continue, and when you unpause you have to stare at solomon for a while before he actually disappears. Not a major bug or anything; just pointing it out!

Also, gameplay questions: What do y'all think of Lightning? It seems kinda pointless to me. I've played through (or mostly through) with all three kinds of builds, and I think Fire is by far the best. Then I'd probably say that Magic Missle is better than Lightning. Although, to be fair, I haven't been able to make a Lightning build that has heavy upgrades to Lightning and Mana Recovery, which I think would be a good combination. What kind of abilities do y'all upgrade when you're using Lightning? How about fire?

[Crazy_Possum]

I have sort of a noob question but still I feel it has to be asked: How do I equip items? In this case a ring I found. I have tried double-tapping and dragging to the appropriate spot but nothing is working.

[lefrisbee]

I have sort of a noob question but still I feel it has to be asked: How do I equip items? In this case a ring I found. I have tried double-tapping and dragging to the appropriate spot but nothing is working.

Click once on the item, then click once on the slot you want it to occupy.

[Crazy_Possum]

Click once on the item, then click once on the slot you want it to occupy.

:o Please excuse my stupidity. Simple problems are somehow the most confusing for me.

[Raptisoft]

Also, gameplay questions: What do y'all think of Lightning? It seems kinda pointless to me. I've played through (or mostly through) with all three kinds of builds, and I think Fire is by far the best. Then I'd probably say that Magic Missle is better than Lightning. Although, to be fair, I haven't been able to make a Lightning build that has heavy upgrades to Lightning and Mana Recovery, which I think would be a good combination. What kind of abilities do y'all upgrade when you're using Lightning?

Lightning starts out weak, but is devastating if you upgrade it. It can hold all enemies in place, and arc through an entire group. The downside is, to get it that strong, you need some extremely potent manage recovery or battle mage stats. Lacking that, you could get mana recovery equipment.

Wearing a "bonus casting speed" item will cause the lightning to that much extra damage (and cost that much extra mana) when casting, as well.

But it's intended to be weaker in the beginning, because it's a constant effect spell.

[superultra]

A similar thing has happened to me three times now. Sometimes when I step into a portal back to town, the game will shut off. I reload, and the wizard is back at town, but with no door back to the castle! :eek:
The first time it happened to me, I freaked out, but all of my items/skills were in tact, so I headed back to the castle by route, and I manually walked past four levels. I noticed that the door I had tried to go through, which froze the game, was still there. I did not try to go through it.
The second time this happened, I groaned, but I walked back through the whole castle again (this was right after killing the "Bone Daddy" boss). I passed both of the doors I had made. Since I didn't want to freeze the game again, I didn't try to use them again.
Now it's happened a third time, and I'm getting super frustrated. It takes a while to walk through so many floors, and it's boring with no enemies. What's worst is that now I'm scared to go back to town unless the game makes me walk through the castle again.

Although it certainly is a testament to the quality of your game; I'm willing to go through the monotony of empty floors so I can finish it. :D

EDIT: Also wanted to add that it's an intermittent problem; usually I can get to town and back normally. I'd say it happens 1 in 5 visits.
I'm having the same show-stopping bug where the magical door disappears and I have to walk through empty levels. The weird thing is that the new enemies are all low-level skeletons, so it's pretty boring now.

This game is terrific, but there are some significant bugs that seem pretty obvious. Why someone wouldn't want to run this through the ringer first - it seems early reviews in the app store can really hurt a game.

[Aurora]

I don't get this game's skill system. The skill you upgrade at level-up seem to be completely random... my character died and had to restart the level, and the upgrade at level-up this time was totally different from last time. Also how do you check your character's stats and experience level?
The game lacks a working interface, otherwise it's pretty fun.

[Whosatm]

I don't get this game's skill system. The skill you upgrade at level-up seem to be completely random... my character died and had to restart the level, and the upgrade at level-up this time was totally different from last time. Also how do you check your character's stats and experience level?
The game lacks a working interface, otherwise it's pretty fun.

The skills are like that on purpose, it adds variety. To check stats and experience, go to inventory and tap "stats" at the top.

[writingsama]

Bug:

First I beat the install on magic missile twice, then on lightning.

So I was opening the game, seeing what skills/items could be bought, closing it, reopening, resetting and then starting again. I did it about 3 times. I got one I liked, chose fireball as my spell.

Every level all I got was the 3 magic missile upgrade options (magic missile, more missiles, and potent missiles)...every level...I picked 'potent' each time because I hoped it would stop. I gave up after 3 because the game was ruined - I didn't have any other skills and I wanted fireball darnit!

So then I start again...it started giving me magic missile and lightning...no fireball upgrades...went up like 5 levels to check.

one more game, similar problems. This was the first time I had tried fireball since the last time I deleted it to fix bugs (like this one).

Delete, re-install, working fine now. I did the restart thing like 3 times on this one, it didn't cause the bug I don't think. I'm getting a disproportionate number of magic missile skills, but I can still upgrade the other ones.

Also in at least 12 games I've never gotten mage shield...only gotten it from a staff...is it supposed to be that way? it's offered as an upgrade you can pay for, you should take it out of that if its item-only.

[Shumby]

Bug:

First I beat the install on magic missile twice, then on lightning.

So I was opening the game, seeing what skills/items could be bought, closing it, reopening, resetting and then starting again. I did it about 3 times. I got one I liked, chose fireball as my spell.

Every level all I got was the 3 magic missile upgrade options (magic missile, more missiles, and potent missiles)...every level...I picked 'potent' each time because I hoped it would stop. I gave up after 3 because the game was ruined - I didn't have any other skills and I wanted fireball darnit!

So then I start again...it started giving me magic missile and lightning...no fireball upgrades...went up like 5 levels to check.

one more game, similar problems. This was the first time I had tried fireball since the last time I deleted it to fix bugs (like this one).

Delete, re-install, working fine now. I did the restart thing like 3 times on this one, it didn't cause the bug I don't think. I'm getting a disproportionate number of magic missile skills, but I can still upgrade the other ones.

Also in at least 12 games I've never gotten mage shield...only gotten it from a staff...is it supposed to be that way? it's offered as an upgrade you can pay for, you should take it out of that if its item-only.


I just saw mage shield the spell earlier today. It's not item only - just rare.

[Artfoundry]

The skills are like that on purpose, it adds variety. To check stats and experience, go to inventory and tap "stats" at the top.

The system reminds me a lot of iDracula - I kind of think this is what iDracula should have been. If Moregames had added the RPG/dungeon crawl aspects that this game has, it would have been awesome. Not that I don't like this game's graphics/gameplay, but I'm more of a fan of the realistic style that iDracula uses (though I like using the spells in this game more than the guns in iDracula).

[johnny_cashola]

i got to the 8th floor and couldnt find the key to get past it. went through the whole castle twice...

[jak56]

I don't get this game's skill system. The skill you upgrade at level-up seem to be completely random... my character died and had to restart the level, and the upgrade at level-up this time was totally different from last time. Also how do you check your character's stats and experience level?
yes, it is random! the dev did this on purpose to keep gameplay varied!

[Squeaker]

I don't get this game's skill system. The skill you upgrade at level-up seem to be completely random... my character died and had to restart the level, and the upgrade at level-up this time was totally different from last time. Also how do you check your character's stats and experience level?
The game lacks a working interface, otherwise it's pretty fun.

The random skill system is the fun part - you get to reshape your character every time you start a new game or restart a level, the random factor makes you really think hard before making a decision.

It's not that clearly stated, but you can check your stats, skills and inventory in the top left bag icon. They are all there.

[deadclown]

Found a maddening, game-breaking bug.

Having a good time playing the game. I finally got to level 10 last night. But I didn't realize it until I was in the room with the boss. My health was low, so I opened a portal back to town, but when I stepped into the door, (from the boss room), the game crashed.

I relaunched it. When I go to continue my game, it shows a few frames of my character stepping through the door....then the app crashes again.

I tried restarting my phone; tried letting my character die (but before anythign starts moving on the game screen, it crashes), and whatever else I could think of. But it appears to be crashing consistently, no matter what I do.

Any ideas?

[Artfoundry]

Found a maddening, game-breaking bug.

Having a good time playing the game. I finally got to level 10 last night. But I didn't realize it until I was in the room with the boss. My health was low, so I opened a portal back to town, but when I stepped into the door, (from the boss room), the game crashed.

I relaunched it. When I go to continue my game, it shows a few frames of my character stepping through the door....then the app crashes again.

I tried restarting my phone; tried letting my character die (but before anythign starts moving on the game screen, it crashes), and whatever else I could think of. But it appears to be crashing consistently, no matter what I do.

Any ideas?

I had a similar issue, but after a couple crashes, I tried moving away from the door and that worked (and then I went elsewhere to open a new door) - have you tried that?

[Raptisoft]

Found a maddening, game-breaking bug.

Having a good time playing the game. I finally got to level 10 last night. But I didn't realize it until I was in the room with the boss. My health was low, so I opened a portal back to town, but when I stepped into the door, (from the boss room), the game crashed.

I relaunched it. When I go to continue my game, it shows a few frames of my character stepping through the door....then the app crashes again.

I tried restarting my phone; tried letting my character die (but before anythign starts moving on the game screen, it crashes), and whatever else I could think of. But it appears to be crashing consistently, no matter what I do.

Any ideas?

This is fixed in 1.2, which is submitted and is awaiting review. If you move far enough away from the boss so that his health bar vanishes from the screen, you will be able to get around this bug and open a door.

[ENERTRON]

how come when i walk into a room i have enough mana to take out only ~1/4 of the enemies, then i have to do laps around the perimeter, build up mana, take out another 1/4, laps, 1/4, laps, 1/4, then repeat for each room per level?

the game has a lot of potential but it seems like the mana usage was boosted a lil much

[Raptisoft]

how come when i walk into a room i have enough mana to take out only ~1/4 of the enemies, then i have to do laps around the perimeter, build up mana, take out another 1/4, laps, 1/4, laps, 1/4, then repeat for each room per level?

the game has a lot of potential but it seems like the mana usage was boosted a lil much

Probably what you've done is overpowered yourself... you don't need super-high damage, especially on the lower levels, and buying higher damage makes the mana more expensive. Add in area effect to your spells also really pumps up your mana costs.

So you should try to find a balance where you do *enough* damage. And then try to buy mana-providing items, or invest points in Channel Mana or Battle Mage to improve your mana usage.

[kennethpetro]

I agree about Mana usage being tweaked a little too high. I've gone back and replayed this game many many times, and I understand the importance of finding a balance when upgrading your weapons but I still run out a little too fast (in my opinion). It does make the game more challenging but it borders on sheer frustration sometimes. Other than that, this is a GREAT GAME! Can we look forward to more levels in future updates???

[jak56]

i find mana usage to be perfect. it takes thought to balance out upgrades between damage and mana. this game requires much more thought than many would think at first.

[Shumby]

i find mana usage to be perfect. it takes thought to balance out upgrades between damage and mana. this game requires much more thought than many would think at first.

the problem is that sometimes your skill choices really limit you to ONLY boosting your consumption - making the "thought" portion a little more difficult.

[Aurora]

the problem is that sometimes your skill choices really limit you to ONLY boosting your consumption - making the "thought" portion a little more difficult.

Yeah the skills are completely random, most of the time you'll get 3 choices that all boost mana usage, and 2 of them are completely useless skills such as magic skills when you've already went into the fire skill tree (why in the world do other branches still appear??).

[gemineye62]

If you want to really have more control in choosing upgrade
skills. Just check your stats to see when you are just about to level up.
Use the town portal door to go back to town and then enter back to
where you left off. When you level up.....if you don't like the choices,
just die and you will restart at the portal door again. Repeat until
you like the upgrade skills offered to you on leveling up.

[Aurora]

That's a waste of time. If you're supposed to have "control" over your skills then they should have just simply made it a skill tree like Zenonia. Having random skills to upgrade takes much less "planning" like they suggested than having a skill tree where you can see where you're going.

[tornacl]

I had to create an account here just to comment on this game. (normally I just lurk)

Aside from the crashes (door to close to boss - update comming) I love this game. This radomization of skill choices is what gives this game replay value.
I have played though several times and yes it can be frustrating not getting the skill choices your hoping for at first, but soon you see the beauty of it.

The game forces you to make the most of what you find. With most games this means the items you find. In this game its the skills and the items you find and must make the most of them. Sometimes your lucky and can become unstoppable. Other times you struggle. Its great!

If you like games with replay value, this one has it. Think of each level up as though you found a new item and shape your character accordingly and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I am.

[your personal robot]

I need this update, since I'm at the end boss. Please hurry.

[Boardumb]

That's a waste of time. If you're supposed to have "control" over your skills then they should have just simply made it a skill tree like Zenonia. Having random skills to upgrade takes much less "planning" like they suggested than having a skill tree where you can see where you're going.

You're not supposed to have control over your skills, really. What the above poster described is just a way to "cheat" the random upgrade system if you want to. This game isn't supposed to be like Zenonia, where you can spend days or weeks building a character in the direction you choose. This is more of an arcade type experience. It's roguelike in that you're supposed to make the best of what's given to you, including what random upgrades are given to you.

If you want Zenonia go play Zenonia. Solomon's Keep is actually fun and unique the way it's designed, and I don't want people to expect it be changed into something it's not meant to be.

[jak56]

That's a waste of time. If you're supposed to have "control" over your skills then they should have just simply made it a skill tree like Zenonia. Having random skills to upgrade takes much less "planning" like they suggested than having a skill tree where you can see where you're going.
EDIT:nvm just read the above post

[Artfoundry]

You're not supposed to have control over your skills, really. What the above poster described is just a way to "cheat" the random upgrade system if you want to. This game isn't supposed to be like Zenonia, where you can spend days or weeks building a character in the direction you choose. This is more of an arcade type experience. It's roguelike in that you're supposed to make the best of what's given to you, including what random upgrades are given to you.

If you want Zenonia go play Zenonia. Solomon's Keep is actually fun and unique the way it's designed, and I don't want people to expect it be changed into something it's not meant to be.

I agree - I like the randomness of the skills at leveling - adds a sense of suspense and makes the character development a bit more of a challenge. Generally though, at least one of the three skills is something that will benefit my character. Only once or twice have I had no choices that fit my character.

[Raptisoft]

If you want to really have more control in choosing upgrade
skills. Just check your stats to see when you are just about to level up.
Use the town portal door to go back to town and then enter back to
where you left off. When you level up.....if you don't like the choices,
just die and you will restart at the portal door again. Repeat until
you like the upgrade skills offered to you on leveling up.

There's an even easier way... when you levelup, if you don't like what you see, just push the iPod button to shut the game down. When you come back, the levelup will immediately reappear, with new random choices.

But then girls will laugh at you.

[Aurora]

You can either have randomness or you can have elements of planning. You can't have both as they're opposites. The developer said a few pages back that you're supposed to "plan which skills to invest in". If you're only given 3 random skills, with 2 of them being completely useless skills like skills in different trees, what kind of "planning" was s/he talking about? You might as well just invest in any skill in your own skill tree that either does splash damage or increases HP/MP or something.

[Raptisoft]

You can either have randomness or you can have elements of planning. You can't have both as they're opposites. The developer said a few pages back that you're supposed to "plan which skills to invest in". If you're only given 3 random skills, with 2 of them being completely useless skills like skills in different trees, what kind of "planning" was s/he talking about? You might as well just invest in any skill in your own skill tree that either does splash damage or increases HP/MP or something.

It's a game design. Lots of RPGs exist that test your ability to pre-plan your character. I wanted to make one that tests your ability to react and work with what you got.

And the items/skills are there so that when you do get a levelup, you can measure your choices against your known strengths (i.e. what's available in the store and the upgrade mage) and react accordingly.

Besides, it's designed to be a short, quickie game that you can play and beat in a half-hour!

[tornacl]

For me the planning comes at the beginning of the game. I look at what items are for sale and what skills can be upgraded for $$. Then I head out and hope for the best.

Its not that complicated really. I still don't see why radom skill choices are worse than random item drops. Build around them.

[Artfoundry]

You can either have randomness or you can have elements of planning. You can't have both as they're opposites. The developer said a few pages back that you're supposed to "plan which skills to invest in". If you're only given 3 random skills, with 2 of them being completely useless skills like skills in different trees, what kind of "planning" was s/he talking about? You might as well just invest in any skill in your own skill tree that either does splash damage or increases HP/MP or something.

This isn't COMPLETE randomness. You generally know what the range of choices are (once you've been playing for a bit), so you can choose a certain skill path (magic missile vs. lightning vs. fireball). Then choose main skills or sub skills that fit that path. Yes, skills related to those paths may not always appear, but usually you'll find at least one that does (or if not, you'll still get at least one that's beneficial to you even if it doesn't match your main skill - like expanded HP/MP or something). Often though you'll get a choice of two that could benefit you. Most of the planning though comes early on - you need to choose one of the three skill paths early to try to maximize the choices you're given later. If you wait too long to decide and split your choices between two or three paths, they may not be strong enough later.

Really, I have yet to find this to be a problem - I'm on my 2nd time through the game now, and I've yet to have a big issue making choices or getting a poor character build (first time was lightning, this time fireball).

[iamseamonster]

It's a game design. Lots of RPGs exist that test your ability to pre-plan your character. I wanted to make one that tests your ability to react and work with what you got.

And the items/skills are there so that when you do get a levelup, you can measure your choices against your known strengths (i.e. what's available in the store and the upgrade mage) and react accordingly.

I like the concept but i think it could be implemented better, so as to not force players to potentially have to choose between 3 skills they wont use. I havent had too much problem with the skill system but i do recall one level up where i was given the choice of potent missiles, magic shield, and i think more missiles was the third, but i was using a lightning build with ring of fire as my secondary skill. The two missile skills were obviously useless to me, so I chose magic shield and never used it, except once on accident when i tried to use ring of fire.

I have an idea that i think could work better to give players useful choices but still be randomized to a degree. I think its similar to how it works now, but more uh.. structured?

First off, players could choose their main skill at the start of the game - Talk to the green wizard, he tells you to visit the other two as usual, but then says to come back to him after. So you could talk to the other two and have an opportunity to see what items and skill improvements are available, and then go back to the green wizard who will have you choose between magic missile, lightning, or fire ball as your base skill. Players would have to be kept from entering the tower until after their main skill was chosen, of course..

After that, have each level up contain 3 separately randomized choices:
1) upgrade for the main skill (randomized between a basic upgrade of the skill or an enhancement for the chosen skill, i.e. chaining for lightning, embers for fire, etc.)
2) a secondary skill choice (ring of fire, magic shield.. i think there are more?)
3) a stat/passive skill choice (hp+,mana+, walking speed, casting speed, all those things..)

I think this would satisfy all the folks complaining about level up choices, while still retaining the aspect of randomization and decision making.

Besides, it's designed to be a short, quickie game that you can play and beat in a half-hour!

And about this, again, I like this aspect but this game could be so much greater if there were more of it. Have a quickie mode set up like the current game, and then perhaps once the player finishes the game on that mode, unlock an endless dungeon where we can continue with the character we beat the game with and continue building and leveling.. Perhaps more bosses could be found here, or even 'miniboss' versions of regular enemies, and chances to find new items, etc..

Finishing up, I will say again how much i love this game, its completely worth the price and more, and its full of potential. I just hope that the potential isnt wasted, because as great as the game is, it will get boring after a few playthroughs unless more replay value is added. Later!

[lefrisbee]

Quick question to those of you who have gotten magic shield: what exactly does it do?

[Raptisoft]

Finishing up, I will say again how much i love this game, its completely worth the price and more, and its full of potential. I just hope that the potential isnt wasted, because as great as the game is, it will get boring after a few playthroughs unless more replay value is added. Later!

Thank you...
2.0 should have a lot you can use in it... you can continue to play on two different difficulty levels (like Diablo) after winning.

Also, as for skill structuring-- it works similarly to that now. What it does is check which skill you seem to be specializing in (based on your first choice, when it gives you the choice of MM/Lightning/Fireball) and it tries to give you one of your prime skills (or a child of that skill) each time, except sometimes randomly it won't (for randomness).

The other skill choices are just filled in randomly.

There is a reason why it still offers you the other skills... it didn't make it into version 1.0, but I'm trying to get it into 2.0

[Raptisoft]

Quick question to those of you who have gotten magic shield: what exactly does it do?

Blocks damage, until the shield is popped.

[blebhertz]

i got to level 16 and I can't get any more exp

[Raptisoft]

The two missile skills were obviously useless to me, so I chose magic shield and never used it, except once on accident when i tried to use ring of fire.

Oh, well, that's a pretty bad random roll to get two missile skills. But Magic Shield you should have taken-- it's a pure defense skill that effectively increases your hit points.

[lefrisbee]

There is a reason why it still offers you the other skills... it didn't make it into version 1.0, but I'm trying to get it into 2.0

Does this have to do with the surprise in 2.0?? :D:D

[Raptisoft]

Does this have to do with the surprise in 2.0?? :D:D

Technically yes, if it turns out to be viable to put it in (it might upset balance pretty horribly).

If I can make it work, it's something you've never seen in a Diablo-esque game before!

[MisterDrgn]

i got to level 16 and I can't get any more exp

Really? I think I was in the early 20s in my last game...

[ENERTRON]

i find mana usage to be perfect. it takes thought to balance out upgrades between damage and mana. this game requires much more thought than many would think at first.

no i don't think that's accurate.

for example, it takes 90% of my mana bar to kill some of the tougher enemies (the fiery wizard things) and 75% to kill a slow-moving poison brute.

so by your logic i should have invested LESS into magic damage? yeah, maybe the bar would deplete slower but wouldn't it take more mana for each kill, thus being a wash?

[Raptisoft]

no i don't think that's accurate.

for example, it takes 90% of my mana bar to kill some of the tougher enemies (the fiery wizard things) and 75% to kill a slow-moving poison brute.

so by your logic i should have invested LESS into magic damage? yeah, maybe the bar would deplete slower but wouldn't it take more mana for each kill, thus being a wash?

Oh no, it doesn't work that way. Upgrading damage takes more mana, because that balances the convenience/survival ability of quick-kill vs. save-mana. It's the same way you can run a lightbulb off a AA battery, but a real car would require like some lithium ion uber-battery and couldn't be run off a bank of AA's.

So yeah, you don't want to overpower yourself unnecessarily. For instance, as well as fighting the big demons with your ultra-damage, you have to waste ultra-damage on the little tiny ones that have only one hit point.

I'm guessing you invested heavily into area-effect (explode, more missiles, chaining), which costs even more for the convenience of hitting more than one thing at once.

Plus, your mana-recovery factors into all this, so if you're expending big chunks of mana, you'll end up with a longer and inconvenient recovery period, while if you're using smaller bits of mana, it'll be longer before you hit zero and can't fire. So yeah, there's not any kind of pure 1 mana = 1 damage curve, because what you're paying for is to not have the risk that you'll get swarmed.

So it's balanced. Basically, if you're killing stuff, and not getting swarmed, you don't need to get all damage-greedy and pump yourself up into the guy who can kill an entire room by walking into it.

But, of course, if you're pumped up with Battle Mage and Channel Mana, you CAN make this kind of build.

If that's the kind of mage you want to play, then keep restarting your game until the you get a random roll that has the yellow mage offering to improve channel mana and battlemage. That way you can just collect money and have him buff those skills while you concentrate on damage.

Oh, and wear any item that boosts mana recovery, if you don't have any mana skills invested!

[blebhertz]

Really? I think I was in the early 20s in my last game...

i'm stuck for sure.... I can't get pass lvl 16. To add insult to injury. I try buying exp from one of the wizards at camp. He took my money and didn't level me up!... Any clues, anyone? i'm using 1.1 and about to reset this game

[Raptisoft]

i'm stuck for sure.... I can't get pass lvl 16. To add insult to injury. I try buying exp from one of the wizards at camp. He took my money and didn't level me up!... Any clues, anyone? i'm using 1.1 and about to reset this game

That's... really strange. And the first I've heard of it. If you had a way of getting the save file off the iPod, I'd want you to send it to me!

[KYoung4]

i'm stuck at lvl 18 (0/60,000 points). i can't get anymore exp points.

[Boardumb]

I'm showing the new 1.2 update live in the US store.

1. Magic door crash fixes
2. Improved load time
3. Reduced memory footprint
4. Various bug fixes

[Suneun]

I don't understand what you mean by stuck at lvl 16. Did you clear every monster in the 10 floors? What floor are you on? If, for example, you're at the last boss (floor 10) and can't defeat him (or leave) then you can choose to turn on "Kid's Mode" through the option menu and defeat Solomon. Then start a new game. If you're not on floor 10, then you can go through the earlier floors and clean up for more exp. Giving gold to the skills guy only turns your gold into exp. If it's not enough (I think 1 gold for 1 exp) to meet the level requirement then you won't gain a level from it.

I've played through about... 5 times. Twice I had to give up and use 'kid mode' to defeat Solomon. Both times lightning was my primary weapon. I don't like it :P
I've finished with a level between 19-26 or so. It's hard to get much higher than 26... I got +100% exp ring around floor 4 in that game and exp req ramped up quite a bit by the mid 20s. I guess you could grind the bosses that spawn mobs for a higher level but that would get pretty boring after a while.

I find Teleport or Rush to be really valuable to surviving Solomon.

[Artfoundry]

Thanks for the update! It fixed the crash issue with the boss that was preventing me from finishing the game. So I finished it for the 2nd time last night with the fireball skill - man that was tough - lol, my HP bar looked like it had 0 health left and was flashing when I fired the last shot that killed Solomon (and I had no more HP potions or any more money to buy more) - talk about a close call.

There's something definitely satisfying by shooting out a fireball or chain lightning bolt to destroy a ton of those little minions that create the yellow explosions/vertical beams when they die.

Oh yeah, and I love the ending scores and credits - too funny.

[lefrisbee]

I can report that since I got 1.2, I haven't had any bugs, and I've played through it about three times. Also, Lightning is amazing. Especially when you get really lucky and find two "Damage +2" items at the store.

Also I was wondering something - how is the rating you get at the end determined? Excellent, poor, etc. Is it solely based on the number of deaths you have?

[lefrisbee]

Thanks for the update! It fixed the crash issue with the boss that was preventing me from finishing the game. So I finished it for the 2nd time last night with the fireball skill - man that was tough - lol, my HP bar looked like it had 0 health left and was flashing when I fired the last shot that killed Solomon (and I had no more HP potions or any more money to buy more) - talk about a close call.

There's something definitely satisfying by shooting out a fireball or chain lightning bolt to destroy a ton of those little minions that create the yellow explosions/vertical beams when they die.

Yes! I love zapping them all in a split second, then my Telekinesis goes out and grabs all the health/mana they left me. :D

I do HATE those when I use a Magic Missile build or a pre-Explosion Fireball build. All the more satisfying to crush them I suppose.

[Artfoundry]

Yes! I love zapping them all in a split second, then my Telekinesis goes out and grabs all the health/mana they left me. :D

I do HATE those when I use a Magic Missile build or a pre-Explosion Fireball build. All the more satisfying to crush them I suppose.

yeah, telekenesis or a ring that pulls in HP/MP drops is essential IMO - one of the most important skills/items to get.

[deadclown]

I can report that since I got 1.2, I haven't had any bugs, and I've played through it about three times. Also, Lightning is amazing. Especially when you get really lucky and find two "Damage +2" items at the store.

Also I was wondering something - how is the rating you get at the end determined? Excellent, poor, etc. Is it solely based on the number of deaths you have?

I'm curious why you think lightning is so good. I'm playing through with it for the second time. And I'm dying a TON, just like the first time.

I thought I would balance out the mana regen and be okay. But right now, I am level 20, on floor 9, with 8 'points' in mana skills and 8 in lightning skills. But I still blaze through mana so fast it's ridiculous. It takes nearly half a bar to kill one of those poison zombie dudes.

In fact, I'm finding that the only way to clear rooms consistently (sometimes a lightning-only approach works) is by running in, dropping a Ring of Fire, and mopping up with lightning. Which, of course, entails a lot of donuts and empty mana bars.

I can see lightning being strong with several +dmg items...but otherwise, I can't think how my build could be better....(not to say it can't, of course)

Edit to clarify: 5 points in lightning, 2 in Arcing, 1 in Stun....(which seems pretty close to optimal mana efficiency)

[iVaro]

I'm curious why you think lightning is so good. I'm playing through with it for the second time. And I'm dying a TON, just like the first time.

I thought I would balance out the mana regen and be okay. But right now, I am level 20, on floor 9, with 8 'points' in mana skills and 8 in lightning skills. But I still blaze through mana so fast it's ridiculous. It takes nearly half a bar to kill one of those poison zombie dudes.

In fact, I'm finding that the only way to clear rooms consistently (sometimes a lightning-only approach works) is by running in, dropping a Ring of Fire, and mopping up with lightning. Which, of course, entails a lot of donuts and empty mana bars.

I can see lightning being strong with several +dmg items...but otherwise, I can't think how my build could be better....(not to say it can't, of course)

Edit to clarify: 5 points in lightning, 2 in Arcing, 1 in Stun....(which seems pretty close to optimal mana efficiency)

Up your arcing some more and you will see why :)

[writingsama]

Up your arcing some more and you will see why :)

agreed. that half bar in mana killing that one zombie could be killing the whole room and all the other zmbies at the same time.

just don't up your arcing too early on...

[deadclown]

agreed. that half bar in mana killing that one zombie could be killing the whole room and all the other zmbies at the same time.

just don't up your arcing too early on...


My first playthrough with lightning I had 5 points in Arcing. It seemed pretty good for groups, but my mana went like hotcakes at fat camp.

What do you think is the right ratio, by the end, of Lightning, Arcing, and Stun?

Stun seems kinda worthless, though....that might have been a problem in my first go-'round....I had like 3-4 points in Stun.

[iVaro]

My first playthrough with lightning I had 5 points in Arcing. It seemed pretty good for groups, but my mana went like hotcakes at fat camp.

What do you think is the right ratio, by the end, of Lightning, Arcing, and Stun?

Stun seems kinda worthless, though....that might have been a problem in my first go-'round....I had like 3-4 points in Stun.

I realized it too so I started to increase the strength of lightning

[lefrisbee]

Stun is useless. Usually what I do is only choose Lightning if I start out with a good set-up for it; maybe the ability to buy upgrades to Battle Mage and a Damage +2 ring at the shop. The Damage +2 will decimate everything for a couple of levels after you get it. Usually, in a Lightning run, by floor 7 or 8 I can walk into a room and clear it out before I really get hit. No pausing, running away. By the way, Lightning is powerful enough that you should spend much more time on mana recovery (in this case, having Battle Mage as a purchasable upgrade from the start is almost mandatory). One playthrough, I got a "+2 Channel Mana, +100% Mana Recovery" staff from the first boss. The game was extremely easy from that point on. Also, something I always try to do is if there's a gold-increasing item at the start, I buy it immediately. Those help immensely.

As for how to optimize the Lightning, I would say spend your level ups between Lightning and Chaining, and you should choose whichever one adds less mana to your casting. That is, if Chaining adds .5 Mana and Lightning adds .3, pick Lightning. You'll usually end up with numbers similar to what y'all have already mentioned in this thread. That being said, due to the random nature of the game, you often don't get to choose what you get. In that case, don't get greedy with the damage. A couple of times, I've wasted level-ups on stuff that I knew I wouldn't use because personally I don't like to have to do laps to kill everything or to have to run out, wait, then run back in. With a Lightning build I try to manage it so my mana either doesn't drop or drops very slowly.

Another thought: What do y'all think of Ember? I tried it once but I only got to level 2 with it until some bug made me restart the game (this was back in 1.0 days :D ). Have y'all experimented with Ember and found it worthwhile?

[Raptisoft]

Stun isn't useless... Use it to hold enemies back. Stun and chaining together can replace increased damage... Especially in the upcoming 2.0, where stun prevents ranged critters from firing.

[iVaro]

Stun isn't useless... Use it to hold enemies back. Stun and chaining together can replace increased damage... Especially in the upcoming 2.0, where stun prevents ranged critters from firing.

That gives stun some potential, But holding enemies back won't kill them will it? If it pushed them back a bit now so that we could get a bit of breathing space now then it would be great :)

[azurerush]

I felt that ember wasn't really useful at all. The damage never seemed that great, and better area of effect damage can be achieved more efficiently through a higher explode level than a level of ember. I feel that maybe fire needs a new secondary skill, since both ember and explode serves the same purpose.

[fantomik]

I felt that ember wasn't really useful at all. The damage never seemed that great, and better area of effect damage can be achieved more efficiently through a higher explode level than a level of ember. I feel that maybe fire needs a new secondary skill, since both ember and explode serves the same purpose.
In my experience ember was mostly useful when you killed a fire daemon with a firebolt -- then those small fire minions (those dying with the ray of light) in most cases ware killed by the ember particles.

Cheers,
f.

[iVaro]

In my experience ember was mostly useful when you killed a fire daemon with a firebolt -- then those small fire minions (those dying with the ray of light) in most cases ware killed by the ember particles.

Cheers,
f.

+1 to that

[lefrisbee]

Stun isn't useless... Use it to hold enemies back. Stun and chaining together can replace increased damage... Especially in the upcoming 2.0, where stun prevents ranged critters from firing.

That sounds like it will make stun much more useful. When I said useless, I meant relative to the other options for a level-up; for example, I'd buy Rush over Stun any second, especially because Rush doesn't require mana. Usually in a game I get to about level 19, so spending 3 or so levels on Stun doesn't seem like a good enough investment. I'm sure other players will disagree. And I'm not saying that having Stun in the game is a poor design choice. I'm just saying that as an individual player, I have not found Stun to be compatible with the way that I play the game.

[lefrisbee]

In my experience ember was mostly useful when you killed a fire daemon with a firebolt -- then those small fire minions (those dying with the ray of light) in most cases ware killed by the ember particles.

Cheers,
f.

Did you have to level Ember up any past level 1? Was Ember 1 sufficient to kill the little minions?

[GDSage]

Hi all, so what's the end game like for this game?

(more towards the dev, if they're here) Will this game be updated with additonal content in future?

I wish the demo was out already so I could attain a better idea about the game. If any of you could spare your time, could those that have played this 'sell' the game to me? I have a vague interest in it but I need something more (hype, convincing) to make me want to buy it.

[fantomik]

Did you have to level Ember up any past level 1? Was Ember 1 sufficient to kill the little minions?
It was fully sufficient for me (the first level if I remember correctly gives you 5 particles, the second gives 7 or so). Actually today I finished the game with my fireball build (level 5 fireball, level 1 ember and level 2 explosion if I remember correctly; with items and abilities to lower the mana usage and fasten its recovery, magic shield on 2nd level and ring of fire on 3rd; Battle with Solomon was quite easy).

edit: and btw. the ending lines of all other wizards (and credits) are marvelous!

Cheers,
f.

[iVaro]

Hi all, so what's the end game like for this game?

(more towards the dev, if they're here) Will this game be updated with additonal content in future?

I wish the demo was out already so I could attain a better idea about the game. If any of you could spare your time, could those that have played this 'sell' the game to me? I have a vague interest in it but I need something more (hype, convincing) to make me want to buy it.


Ok well if you don't know by now this game is a dual stick dungeon crawler. You are a wizard who has been sent to defeat an evil wizard. You can choose between 3 main elements as you go through the game lightning, fire and magic missiles.

As you go through the game you kill skeletons and other creatures as you make your way up the castle.

It's a nice little game and if you pick it up you won't be disappointed

[Raptisoft]

(more towards the dev, if they're here) Will this game be updated with additonal content in future?

Yes. 2.0 will have new stuff, and after 2.0 we're working on in-app purchasing of additional character classes. The only reason to buy it before 2.0 is that before 2.0 it's only 99 cents, afterwards a lite version will be released and the price is going up.

[lefrisbee]

Hi all, so what's the end game like for this game?

(more towards the dev, if they're here) Will this game be updated with additonal content in future?

I wish the demo was out already so I could attain a better idea about the game. If any of you could spare your time, could those that have played this 'sell' the game to me? I have a vague interest in it but I need something more (hype, convincing) to make me want to buy it.

I've spent several hours already playing this game. Like others have said, it's a fairly short dual-stick game where the goal is to clear 10 levels full of baddies (skeletons, flaming skeletons, archer skeletons, etc.). The gameplay is fun, but where this game really wins is with the ability to customize your character. There are countless items in this game (after playing through at least ten times, I still find items I've never seen before), countless abilities, and so many ways to put them all together. There are three main builds you can choose, and from there it's limitless. This game has more replayability than any other iPhone game I've played. The developer is really active in this thread, and he's already given us some hints at what will be in 2.0, and it sounds like there will be even more stuff to give you playtime hours.

If you had asked a week ago, I would've told you that this was a promising game that was worth buying and spending time on despite the constant crashes. This is no longer the case. As of the current version (1.2), I haven't experienced a single crash - so if you look through this thread or at the iTunes reviews that warn about crashing, ignore them.

Now for the potentially bad stuff. I am getting a little bored with the game. There should be much more content in 2.0, which will hopefully be here soon, but right now it gets repetitive after 10 hours or so despite the large number of items and abilities.

Some other random thoughts about the game: There is a lot of randomness involved with the game. Every level-up, you are shown three semi-random skills and you choose one to level up. That's how level-ups work. There aren't any stats in the traditional RPG (Final Fantasy) sense. Also, there is a store in the game; the items available at the store are determined at the very beginning of the game. The items available here have a huge impact on how you go through each level. Also, there is an option to spend gold to level up abilities, similar but separate from the leveling-up system. There are only four abilities that can be leveled up in each separate playthrough, so that also significantly changes the game. All in all, the randomness gives this game a huge amount of replayability.

I could probably keep talking, but instead of that, I'll say that I highly recommend this game, especially with a developer that's active on this forum and with 2.0 already in the works. If you have any specific questions about certain aspects of the game before you buy it, post them and me or someone else will give you a reply.

[iVaro]

yes. 2.0 will have new stuff, and after 2.0 we're working on in-app purchasing of additional character classes.

dlc? :(

[Aurora]

I really love the graphics, however I think DLC is a bad idea as well. It's an extremely short arcade game, DLC won't work well at all. The icon is a wizard, so how different can other characters be? I think the game should raise the price to $1.99 or something and then add free new content.

[fantomik]

dlc? :(
I think additional character classes as paid DLC is fair for a game we got for one buck.

Cheers,
f.

[iVaro]

I think additional character classes as paid DLC is fair for a game we got for one buck.

Cheers,
f.

I think he should just raise the price to like 1.99 or 2.99 and add them..

[fantomik]

I think he should just raise the price to like 1.99 or 2.99 and add them..
But this way he:
a. rises the "entry barrier" for new players.
b. is not making profit from the current user base he has.

Cheers,
f.

[iVaro]

But this way he:
a. rises the "entry barrier" for new players.
b. is not making profit from the current user base he has.

Cheers,
f.

However by rising the price the new customers would then be paying for those who already have the game basically.

Also because of the higher price less units can be sold while still making a profit

[bobz56]

@ivaro
stop being a stingy ass

[fantomik]

However by rising the price the new customers would then be paying for those who already have the game basically.
Also because of the higher price less units can be sold while still making a profit
I think it is more likely that someone who would love the original game would pay another .99$ for the expansion than someone who don't know anything about how the game play would pay 1.99$ for the entire game. And new players (who would like the game and I think most would) would still buy the DLC paying those extra .99$ and additionally current users would also pay for the DLC. It is actually a matter of starting assumptions and math but I think the assumptions I made are fairly safe and they take into account the .99$ app-store-madness we all see in most of the threads (ie. as a new player why I should pay 1.99$ for this particular dual stick shooter when I can pay .99$ for Guerilla Bob or another dual stick shooter? and those famous "I'll buy it when it will be on .99$ sale" claims)

Cheers,
f.

[iVaro]

I think it is more likely that someone who would love the original game would pay another .99$ for the expansion than someone who don't know anything about how the game play would pay 1.99$ for the entire game. And new players (who would like the game and I think most would) would still buy the DLC paying those extra .99$ and additionally current users would also pay for the DLC. It is actually a matter of starting assumptions and math but I think the assumptions I made are fairly safe and they take into account the .99$ app-store-madness we all see in most of the threads (ie. as a new player why I should pay 1.99$ for this particular dual stick shooter when I can pay .99$ for Guerilla Bob or another dual stick shooter? and those famous "I'll buy it when it will be on .99$ sale" claims)

Cheers,
f.

I know you were using it as an example but Guerilla Bob is $2.99. As you said you are going off assumptions however I am not the dev and he is doing what he needs to do. It's just not the way I want it. Either way I can't wait for 2.0!

[Aurora]

There's a glitch with the first boss. Apparently his position in the room does not reset if you get pushed and enter the new level. When you come back he's still right at the door blocking you, so how in the world do you kill him? He KOs you in 1-2 hits and you can't even move since he's right at the door. O_o

[Raptisoft]

There's a glitch with the first boss. Apparently his position in the room does not reset if you get pushed and enter the new level. When you come back he's still right at the door blocking you, so how in the world do you kill him? He KOs you in 1-2 hits and you can't even move since he's right at the door. O_o

Well, that's not so much a glitch as it is as the game acting as designed in a way that needs to be tweaked a little.

* * *

What's with all the howling over in-app purchases? Earlier in the thread, I thought I was going to have to make the other character classes unique apps in their own right, and it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

I did manage to move memory around enough that I could make the archer and warlord character classes simply in-app purchases. I would *rather* make them apps in their own right, that's easier, however the outcry was so vehement that I reconsidered.

[iVaro]

Well, that's not so much a glitch as it is as the game acting as designed in a way that needs to be tweaked a little.

* * *

What's with all the howling over in-app purchases? Earlier in the thread, I thought I was going to have to make the other character classes unique apps in their own right, and it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

I did manage to move memory around enough that I could make the archer and warlord character classes simply in-app purchases. I would *rather* make them apps in their own right, that's easier, however the outcry was so vehement that I reconsidered.

Maybe you should reconsider reconsidering? :)

On a serious note however you should go with the majority when it comes to these things so I support the DLC. I take it that though these new characters will come with their new set of skills. Also how will this affect the story?( Particularly the introduction?)

[DemonIced]

Well, that's not so much a glitch as it is as the game acting as designed in a way that needs to be tweaked a little.

* * *

What's with all the howling over in-app purchases? Earlier in the thread, I thought I was going to have to make the other character classes unique apps in their own right, and it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

I did manage to move memory around enough that I could make the archer and warlord character classes simply in-app purchases. I would *rather* make them apps in their own right, that's easier, however the outcry was so vehement that I reconsidered.

Anyway, I will still get the new characters, in-app or in another app, if it's only 0.99$ either way...

I'd go with what will run the smoothest and what makes it better for the game's gameplay (item sharing, class-specific items, etc.)

[TheSporkWithin]

Well, that's not so much a glitch as it is as the game acting as designed in a way that needs to be tweaked a little.

* * *

What's with all the howling over in-app purchases? Earlier in the thread, I thought I was going to have to make the other character classes unique apps in their own right, and it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

I did manage to move memory around enough that I could make the archer and warlord character classes simply in-app purchases. I would *rather* make them apps in their own right, that's easier, however the outcry was so vehement that I reconsidered.
It won't be so bad in 4.0 with folders, but for the time being we're limited in the number of apps visible on the device at once. I'd hate to have to find stuff to delete or hide in order to make room for multiple versions of the same game. I'll be buying them either way though. :P

[golob]

Bought this game a couple days ago, and I have played through it two and a half times so far, and I love it. I can see it getting boring soon, but great value for $1, and it looks like there will be good updates.

I was reading back a few pages and there was a discussion about lightning as your main skill and also about running out of mana and stuff. My second time through I used lightning, and although at the beginning it was kind of hard, but after that it was easy. The guy at the beginning let me increase Battle Mage and Channel Mana, and the bosses gave me decent equips, so I spent most of my money upgrading those. I struggled in the beginning with running out of mana before I got enough point in those. I can't remember exactly, but I ended up with my skills as like 7 in lightning, 2 arcing, 1 stun, and I also wore a +1 damage ring, so I did a lot of damage. Even though I only had 2 arcing, since I did so much damage mobs were no problem. By the end of the game also, it costs no MP for my to use lightning, due to my high Channel Mana and Battle Mage levels (I don't know exactly what they were). So yeah, defeating Solomon was super easy.

The first time through, I used Magic Missiles, and it was a lot harder, but I don't know if that's because it was my first time through or the skills/items. Now I'm using Fireball and it's working pretty well. My only problem is that when I first put my finger down to shoot, it is hard to aim (just that first shot).

Also, I don't know if this was mention before, but I didn't see it in the last couple pages, but the second boss (the dragon thing) is really easy. You can just stand off to the side and it can't hit you. Seems like a mistake to me so I thought I would point it out.

[Raptisoft]

On a serious note however you should go with the majority when it comes to these things so I support the DLC. I take it that though these new characters will come with their new set of skills. Also how will this affect the story?( Particularly the introduction?)

Yes, they'll each have their own skill tree. It's not as likely that the non-magic guys (Rogue and Warlord) will have quite as fleshed out skill trees as the mage, though, since magic is, well, magic, and offers infinite possibilities. So, the rogue will have a fair amount of usable skills, but the warlord's skills so far are mostly passive, since he's just a musclehead.

I don't want to go the Diablo 2 route of making every non-magical character basically a "battle mage." Non magical characters will have non-magical skills.

And they'll each have a story of their own. For instance, the rogue will be told that the wizards lost one of their students in the tower, and would he like a contract to remove Solomon Dark.

The best part is, you'll have to fight undead versions of the other characters at some point. Solomon doesn't leave dead bodies just laying around! And my current plan is to make you have to fight whatever state your, say, mage character was when he first died. So if you play Sirius and you die for the first time on floor 4, with skill level 10, then if you later go and play the rogue, you will encounter, on floor 4, undead Sirius with all the mage skills he had at time of death.

Should be kinda interesting.

[iVaro]

The best part is, you'll have to fight undead versions of the other characters at some point. Solomon doesn't leave dead bodies just laying around! And my current plan is to make you have to fight whatever state your, say, mage character was when he first died. So if you play Sirius and you die for the first time on floor 4, with skill level 10, then if you later go and play the rogue, you will encounter, on floor 4, undead Sirius with all the mage skills he had at time of death.

Should be kinda interesting.

Zombie corpse for the win :)

[golob]

Will the Warlord and Rogue have mana? If you don't want them to sound like mages then you can call it stamina. Also, I hope you can think of attack skills, as they make it a lot more fun. Does the Warlord use a sword? You can have him do a large swing or something as a mobbing move. Stuff like that.

[lefrisbee]

Honestly, I agree with iVaro somewhat and I also disagree. First off, I want to say that whenever you provide additional content, I'd love to be able to buy it instead of riding in on it for free if you raised the app price. That's not fair to you in my opinion.

That being said, I think that by far the cleanest method is to have it all located in one app. Also, DLC components in an interface drive me crazy. It feels like the whole game is suddenly cheap and trying to steal my money. If there were some way to make the DLC button either completely disappear after you have bought all available DLC, or to make it extremely unobtrusive, I'd be fine with DLC. Also, separate apps is not a very good idea at all in my opinion.

[Raptisoft]

That being said, I think that by far the cleanest method is to have it all located in one app. Also, DLC components in an interface drive me crazy. It feels like the whole game is suddenly cheap and trying to steal my money. If there were some way to make the DLC button either completely disappear after you have bought all available DLC, or to make it extremely unobtrusive, I'd be fine with DLC. Also, separate apps is not a very good idea at all in my opinion.

The current theory is to simply have a "choose your character" screen, indicating which ones you have bought or haven't. Selecting one you don't own will invoke in-app purchasing. Meanwhile we just update the app with new characters whenever we want to, and hook them up to purchasing.

I'd like it to be as noninvasive as possible, both in code and in operation.

Gonna try the concept with Hoggy's Lost Levels first, after SK 2.0 is out.

[TheSporkWithin]

The current theory is to simply have a "choose your character" screen, indicating which ones you have bought or haven't. Selecting one you don't own will invoke in-app purchasing. Meanwhile we just update the app with new characters whenever we want to, and hook them up to purchasing.

I'd like it to be as noninvasive as possible, both in code and in operation.

Gonna try the concept with Hoggy's Lost Levels first, after SK 2.0 is out.
That's essentially how Hook Champ does it, and I agree it's definitely the best method.

[lefrisbee]

The current theory is to simply have a "choose your character" screen, indicating which ones you have bought or haven't. Selecting one you don't own will invoke in-app purchasing. Meanwhile we just update the app with new characters whenever we want to, and hook them up to purchasing.

I'd like it to be as noninvasive as possible, both in code and in operation.

Gonna try the concept with Hoggy's Lost Levels first, after SK 2.0 is out.

That's a beautiful solution. If it means anything, I wholeheartedly support that method of doing it.

[Untamed]

This game rocks! I personally think that each different char should have it's own game, like was originally planned. Things are more organized that way. And the chars are going to have different worlds right? If so, then yea, different games ftw ^^

[czarro77]

I love this game! I find myself playing it over and over again. I'll definitely support any dlc you guys put out. Congrats on making an incredibly entertaining game.

[antispin]

I haven't given SK any time since I got my iPad. I miss it :( @Raptisoft - I bet you've been asked this before and maybe there is an answer in these pages but could you tell me if there are any plans for an iPad version? Going back to my tiny 3G screen and processor/RAM is hard to do.

[Rad]

Raptisoft just remember a good chunk of people that give you advise on these forums are other game developers, I'm sure they want you to be successful ;) choose your path wisely.

[Teh_Ninja]

I love this game, and I will support DLC, but I do not like the idea of a seperate app, I have around 200 apps or so, but I only keep around 16 or so at a time, and TBH you would lose my fanbase if you added seperate apps for DLC, I wouldent mind buying it from the app (of course)

How many characters are you adding?

Also will you be adding new weapons?

[deadclown]

I have a few questions about game mechanics:

1) When you continue to use a main spell while out of mana, what abilities or items are affecting them? (ex: how much damage does lightning do when out of mana? And does a +1 dmg item add to it?)

2) What advantage does Acid Rain have over Ring of Fire?

3) Is it my imagination, or does Mana Shield rarely show up?

4) Does increased casting speed affect all three main spells? Does it affect other spells in any way?

5) Why is there a delay on getting off a Ring of Fire in a crowded room?

6) Is there an in-game way to reset your current saved game? Or do you have to restart the game to get to that button in the settings menu?

7) Does getting lvl 1 more missiles or chaining double the cost of the spell, in addition to the stated +mana from the skill? (that is, are you paying for each missile fired, plus the skill premium, or just the skill premium?)

[jerry hunter]

Thx, and i have a crush on this!:)

[Raptisoft]

I haven't given SK any time since I got my iPad. I miss it :( @Raptisoft - I bet you've been asked this before and maybe there is an answer in these pages but could you tell me if there are any plans for an iPad version? Going back to my tiny 3G screen and processor/RAM is hard to do.

Yes, but it'll be a while. What I'm essentially going to do is a Windows/Mac/iPad version which is greatly expanded, and more like a larger RPG. SK is only 10 floors because it's supposed to be portable. The expanded one will have quests and things, and give you a chance to explore the nearby countryside and grind and all that good stuff.

BTW, the iPhone one really works pretty well on the iPad, I've got one here.