Powder [FREE with DLC]

Great roguelike. This game is a lot of fun, even though i'm not really a fan of roguelikes, this was the most enjoyable for me out of all the choices. It plays like a roguelike in that each move/action is a turn, but the amount of choice, detail, stats, items, monsters, etc... is more like D&D. Each item and enemy has a well written info card that is almost always interesting to read, kinda like mass effect 2 codex files. The game is easy to learn, Each action has a button or menu making the game deeper than nethack, but with no learning curve (after the short tutorial, not that you will need it.) I bought and played rogue touch about 3-5 deaths, and i've already played over 10 games of powder. for free, there's no reason not to try it if your a fan, and if you're not, you might still enjoy it. I just wish sword of fargoal played like this, cause the graphics there are far superior. sry bout the grammer, typing with one hand.

Maybe some roguelike fans will love it. The price drop US9.99 to FREE because it changed to IAP.

The big boss is at level 25 and you can only access level 15 in this FREE version. That's mean this one is a free / lite version only.

If you want to buy, IAP please. The price is US$9.99.

I think US$9.99 is too much for this game.

Thanks for the warning

$9.99 is a ridiculously high price!

Hmm, I will try it out anyway, although I don't see myself paying $10 for it after just getting Chaos Rings.

Yes. It is good to try. And good to support DEV.

I've enjoyed Powder on the DS for some time and always wondered if an iPhone version would come. Here comes the bit I might get lashed for, but it seems a bit "thrown together"; putting on some big touch button controls and cramming the tilesets into a different resolution (which don't turn out as well as the other Powder versions I've tried). I'm glad it is a matter of IAP and not of paying up front, for I would have been disappointed (and don't get me wrong here, I don't bitch about paying or pricetags. It isn't becoming.) The gameplay is still Powder, which is a great RL that has served me my behind many many times, but I wish a little more love was put into the port. I'll file this under "has potential..." Please don't hate me Mr Lait!

I was very interested to see Powder arrive today. Unfortunately after trying it out I'd have to agree with this assessment. Developing on the iPhone and iPod really require you to think about your interface and controls. Trying to force a control scheme meant for physical buttons just doesn't cut it. If I'd put out a straight port of Rogue complete with mini on-screen keyboard to play it on I'd have been laughed right out of the store.

What are some things I'd do differently?

1) Put your character stats bar at the TOP of the screen, so your hand is not covering it all the time.
2) The two rows of buttons? Bring both of those to the bottom, in portrait and landscape mode.
3) Ditch the GBA/DS pad and A/B buttons, and come up with a more elegant way to get through menus with your finger. This would include an overhaul of your inventory management. Make it multi-view based like RT so you choose the item from a scrolling list and then get the options of what to do with that item in a nice finger-friendly list of buttons.
4) When you rotate the screen, make sure the iPhone status bar rotates with it (or remove it altogether if you want). I like having it for keeping track of time and battery life while dungeon crawling, so of course I would prefer it remain.
5) Speaking of the iPhone status bar, set it to be black/transparent so it is not as jarring against the rest of the scene. Then you can even allow it to overlay the top row of tiles as I do in Rogue Touch.

I could probably go on and on. Jeff, if you're listening, please ask for ideas or more tips here, we'd all be happy to help you make this a better experience

Yeah, I can't say I enjoyed my try-out with it due to the UI. I've been spoiled by Rogue Touch and Fargoal, I suppose.

I always like seeing Roguelikes, but looking at this one, there's no way I'd pay $10 for it. Very slapdash appearance; improperly sized-sprites, ugly-ass buttons, messy UI ... it looks like a crappy Java phone port that took a couple of days and a case of cheap beer. It's not so much that it's ugly; I could deal with that to a certain degree, but rather it shows a sincere lack of effort on the part of the developer to create a truly tailored, well-designed port, and that more than anything fails to impress.

Sorry. Not worth half the sticker price. I'll stick with Rogue Touch, Fargoal and Cavern. At least I know those developers are sincerely interested in making a great game out of the gate.

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Last edited by Mindfield; 04-21-2010 at 09:06 AM.