Knighturn - Fantasy Strategy RPG

[Peewhy]

why didnt you guys speak up earlier?

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by Peewhy

why didnt you guys speak up earlier?

Speak up for what? Against it being removed before people knew it was going to be removed?

[undeadcow]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

Speak up for what? Against it being removed before people knew it was going to be removed?

I think Peewhy means; speak up to support the awesomeness that is/was Knighturn when there was still a chance the developer would see App Store as a financially viable market. I was surprised to see so much reaction to the email I posted when this thread was silent when Knighturn was up for grabs. Knighturn and Sw&Ear rules and I suspect many of those commenters missed their opportunity.

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

Well, I tried Star Traders RPG and I didn't like it.

Star Traders RPG isn't for everyone; and certainly isn't in the same league as Knighturn or Sw&Ear... but it's another example of an apparently prosperous game on Android that is shunned on iOS. I'm surprised by the apparent difference in consumer outlooks on both markets.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by undeadcow

Star Traders RPG isn't for everyone; and certainly isn't in the same league as Knighturn or Sw&Ear... but it's another example of an apparently prosperous game on Android that is shunned on iOS. I'm surprised by the apparent difference in consumer outlooks on both markets.

I don't know for sure, but one possible explanation would be less competition on Android.

[undeadcow]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

I don't know for sure, but one possible explanation would be less competition on Android.

Perhaps but I wouldn't say Knighturn was crushed by the weight of superior competing SRPGs on iOS. The SRPG genre is sparse on iOS (FF Tactics, Ravenmark, Tactical Soldier, Alien Vs Humans, I know... but still not that many quality titles overall) and Knighturn was a real gem.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by undeadcow

Perhaps but I wouldn't say Knighturn was crushed by the weight of superior competing SRPGs on iOS.

Well, that's not quite the point. The SRPG genre itself might have more opportunity on Android because there are fewer "big titles" to compete with.

[FRS]

It's interesting, because I actually picked up Star Traders RPG recently and love it. Then I saw this thread pop up in the forum list, started reading from the beginning and was said, whoa, why hadn't I heard about this before? Only to find out that it's now gone from the appstore... what a shame.

I think the amount of competition from big-name titles is certainly at play here. But also, I think there's a lower tolerance for lack of polish among iOS gamers. Star Traders being a great example, as the core game mechanics, the level of detail and sophistication of the story behind the scenes is truly wonderful, but the graphics, interface and level of polish nowhere near the standard that your less hard-core iOS gamer is used to. I think that really turns some people off, and I see Android gamers more highly tolerant of lack of polish.

[DaviddesJ]

I agree that more polish in the interface could be a significant factor for both Star Trader and Knighturn. In the same way that I couldn't play more than an hour of Shining Force---I would love to play the underlying game, but not through that interface.

[undeadcow]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

I agree that more polish in the interface could be a significant factor for both Star Trader and Knighturn. In the same way that I couldn't play more than an hour of Shining Force---I would love to play the underlying game, but not through that interface.

Ironically in the case of Knighturn this is essentially why they took the existing version off the market, it seems Mangobile is in agreement with you. By the way, this would be the second total overhaul for Sw&Ear since that initial interface also got retooled once before. Unfortunately here the avenue for interface update is incompatible with iOS.

Although one of my favorite things about mobile gaming is that there has not been this race for the more realistic uber detailed graphics possible that you see on console gaming. In cases like Knighturn and many iOS games it's refreshing to see an emphasis on quality content instead of tech demo cinematics devoid of gameplay quality; I am a bit disappointed to perceive that shifting (and perhaps contributing to Mangobile's failure on iOS). When there's a game as rich and deep as Knighturn et al I'd hope for more fanfare (and that if Kingturn comes to iOS it is well received).

Newer Knighturn (Kingturn Underworlds) infer face:

[DaviddesJ]

I don't care (much) about more detailed graphics, but I do care about a well-designed UI in which I spend more of my time playing the game and less of my time just manipulating the interface to get it to do what I want. I found way too much of the latter in Shining Force and in Star Traders RPG, and somewhat too much in Knighturn. Admittedly, part of that is that higher resolution graphics do let you display more information, so there's less switching between screens or modes as you can see more things at once, but it's an issue of functionality, not aesthetics.

I will try Kingturn on my Galaxy Nexus. I play almost no games on my phone, compared to iPad, because of screen real estate. But this looks like a game where the phone version with the better interface could be more playable than the tablet version with the inferior interface.