Mad Barrington's Gyre++

[LordGek]

Pretty neat little diamond in the rough here.

This game is definitely low polish programmer art minimalism, but still a pretty clever build your deck, ala Dominion/Ascension like card play! Also, at the whopping price of FREE, does it really hurt you to take a look?

Beyond he child like graphics and no sound, the interface won't be winning any awards either as there is no hover text in-game explaining anything (you can pull up the rules in-game to figure out what the many different types of card do, but this is kind of kludgey to say the least). There is also no real tutorial but the instructions describe the play of a sample game and there is a sort of slide show you can go through that describes all of the UI elements. One HUGE omission I have a lot harder time just letting by is that if you play a character, all you can see in-game is that character's name but no way in game to refresh your memory on that character's unique ability The only place I saw these descriptions are when selecting a character or some section accessible from the Main Menu, but as there is no way to save your progress in this game, exiting to the Main Menu to check this would abort your current game!

There aren't any ads but the devs are not completely altruistic here. The game has 3 IAPs, all only $1, that unlock a Campaign mode, add an Evil Expansion (a host of nasty cards to screw the opposition), and a Good Expansion (a host of cards that can give your and your opponents new ways to make some major points).

All in all a 5 game in serious need of polish, so much so that I can only give it a 3 at this point but hope to jump that up in time!

[funambulist]

Thank you for posting more about this game Lord Gek and engaging the dev over on the Geek...`Twas brillig!

Downloading now...

[thevagrant]

Saw the game mentionned on Boardgamegeek this morning and downloaded, but I must admit that the screenshot put me off. I'm gonna try it though and hope it gets enough support from the dev (and players) to be refined overtime.

Can't have too many deckbuilding games on my ipad anyway!

[LordGek]

My biggest whine is still that you can't get info on your character other than his name in-game but the dev has not only promised to look into this, he pointed out something kind of obvious I had missed. Since 90% of these abilities are slight modifications to certain items buy/sell prices, just take a close look at all of the prices at the beginning of the game and if at the very start you notice 1 item purchasable for 1 cash less or offering 1 cash more for resale than the other items, that is your special ability in action.

[thevagrant]

Originally Posted by LordGek

My biggest whine is still that you can't get info on your character other than his name in-game but the dev has not only promised to look into this, he pointed out something kind of obvious I had missed. Since 90% of these abilities are slight modifications to certain items buy/sell prices, just take a close look at all of the prices at the beginning of the game and if at the very start you notice 1 item purchasable for 1 cash less or offering 1 cash more for resale than the other items, that is your special ability in action.

That's not as good as having it easily accessible at all time, but good to know. Thanks.

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by thevagrant

That's not as good as having it easily accessible at all time, but good to know. Thanks.

Too true, but actually, once the game is rolling those modifiers are pretty clear, I noticed. Like in the game you're always shown how shares sell for 1 less than what you can currently buy them...when you see that the sale and purchase price are consistently the same for an item with you guy, you clearly have a modifier. Whether it is the purchase price being 1 less for you or the sale price 1 more, that will take a minimum bit of deductive reasoning, but after a game or two where you learn how this pricing system works, such matters will be clear as to which of the 2 is being modified in a given situation (you can also see, on your opponent's turn, which item price he is modifying and plan accordingly).

My "super advanced tactic" () here, whichever is the case, if I see my opponent is getting some special deal buying or selling, say, Gun shares, I will do my darndest to make sure Guns are devalued as much as possible that game!

[rpfennig]

Originally Posted by LordGek

My "super advanced tactic" () here, whichever is the case, if I see my opponent is getting some special deal buying or selling, say, Gun shares, I will do my darndest to make sure Guns are devalued as much as possible that game!

Another neat tactic, and one you'll see the AI do at the normal and hard levels, is to hold onto a stock value cards (say, Guns) and on a turn where you have that card and there are 4 cards in the pile sell it to drive the price down to 1. Then scoop up a bunch of shares but save 1 BC so that you can buy a stock value card from the pile as your last action driving the price back up to 2 for the next player.

I wanted to say thanks for the suggestions on how to improve the game and I should have a chance to put together an update with some improvements (sadly, probably not the artwork).

One correction, the Adventure! mode is part of the free version for the iPad (but not included with the free version of the iPhone version). The two IAP purchases are for the Evil Expansion (along with additional cards you now have an app with an "Evil" toggle option) and the Good Expansion (the less exciting "Play Nice" toggle option) which can be used independently or combined together in games. Neither are required for the main game experience they just add some new twists and a different flavour to game when you play with them.

And I realized... one question, when you say no sound do you mean no ongoing theme music playing in the background or like NO sound? When you tap on the buttons there should be small trigger sounds (for example, tapping on any of the cockroaches on the main page triggers the sound of bugs scuttling across the page). If you aren't hearing any sounds it is probably because they are pushed out using AudioServicesPlaySystemSound as an alert. Under the Settings -> Sounds page there is a Change with Buttons option if it is turned OFF then the volume of the ringer and alerts will not be affected by the volume buttons. Once you switch this to ON the volume will be affected by the volume buttons on your iPad and umm... you can experience the soundsational experience of scuttling bugs, crumbling castle walls and cards being flipped and shuffled as you play the game.

[LordGek]

Originally Posted by rpfennig

Another neat tactic, and one you'll see the AI do at the normal and hard levels, is to hold onto a stock value cards (say, Guns) and on a turn where you have that card and there are 4 cards in the pile sell it to drive the price down to 1. Then scoop up a bunch of shares but save 1 BC so that you can buy a stock value card from the pile as your last action driving the price back up to 2 for the next player.

I wanted to say thanks for the suggestions on how to improve the game and I should have a chance to put together an update with some improvements (sadly, probably not the artwork).

One correction, the Adventure! mode is part of the free version for the iPad (but not included with the free version of the iPhone version). The two IAP purchases are for the Evil Expansion (along with additional cards you now have an app with an "Evil" toggle option) and the Good Expansion (the less exciting "Play Nice" toggle option) which can be used independently or combined together in games. Neither are required for the main game experience they just add some new twists and a different flavour to game when you play with them.

And I realized... one question, when you say no sound do you mean no ongoing theme music playing in the background or like NO sound? When you tap on the buttons there should be small trigger sounds (for example, tapping on any of the cockroaches on the main page triggers the sound of bugs scuttling across the page). If you aren't hearing any sounds it is probably because they are pushed out using AudioServicesPlaySystemSound as an alert. Under the Settings -> Sounds page there is a Change with Buttons option if it is turned OFF then the volume of the ringer and alerts will not be affected by the volume buttons. Once you switch this to ON the volume will be affected by the volume buttons on your iPad and umm... you can experience the soundsational experience of scuttling bugs, crumbling castle walls and cards being flipped and shuffled as you play the game.

Both statements were made in error on my part, there is definitely sound and, right, there are only 2 optional IAPs for the 2 expansions which I had to snag ASAP as what they add is too cool to be passed up!

I've also found out some other weird tactics I wouldn't have initially thought viable.

I had both a big nasty rumor and a very beneficial rumor for a stock. I got the nice one early but made a point NOT to play it, just let it get tossed out unplayed a time or two, and then grabbed the nasty rumor as soon as it came up. I played the nasty rumor, crashing the price to a $1 a share, but up all I could, and a turn or two before the game ended (I saw there were only a few cards left in one of the key draw piles) saw I was able to play that positive rumor to jack the price way back up! Since there can only be on rumor card played on a give n stock at a time, playing this positive one didn't simply cancel out the negative card, it was as if the negative card was never played as the stock instantly shot up to $5 a share!

[rpfennig]

Originally Posted by LordGek

Both statements were made in error on my part, there is definitely sound and, right, there are only 2 optional IAPs for the 2 expansions which I had to snag ASAP as what they add is too cool to be passed up!

I've also found out some other weird tactics I wouldn't have initially thought viable.

I had both a big nasty rumor and a very beneficial rumor for a stock. I got the nice one early but made a point NOT to play it, just let it get tossed out unplayed a time or two, and then grabbed the nasty rumor as soon as it came up. I played the nasty rumor, crashing the price to a $1 a share, but up all I could, and a turn or two before the game ended (I saw there were only a few cards left in one of the key draw piles) saw I was able to play that positive rumor to jack the price way back up! Since there can only be on rumor card played on a give n stock at a time, playing this positive one didn't simply cancel out the negative card, it was as if the negative card was never played as the stock instantly shot up to $5 a share!

That works the other way around as well. If you play a positive rumour on a stock that the other player wants it will make it harder for them to pick up shares and in the case of the AI make it more likely to pick up Bank cards because it sees some high value stocks in play. Then if you time it right you can play the negative card close to the end of the game. Of course, the key piece there is timing because things could go horribly wrong...

The rumour cards can really swing the stock values particularily on -3 to +3 switch but there's a certain amount of risk involved and against a human player (and the AI has the potential to do this as well) picking up a back up rumour to play is a good strategy. "I see your -3 to +3 Ammo switch and play a -1 Ammo. A volatile stock market indeed".

[rpfennig]

Originally Posted by LordGek

My biggest whine is still that you can't get info on your character other than his name in-game but the dev has not only promised to look into this, he pointed out something kind of obvious I had missed. Since 90% of these abilities are slight modifications to certain items buy/sell prices, just take a close look at all of the prices at the beginning of the game and if at the very start you notice 1 item purchasable for 1 cash less or offering 1 cash more for resale than the other items, that is your special ability in action.

I've submitted an update to the app store for the iPad version of "Mad Barrington's Gyre" covering the following:

UI improvements
*Added display of character ability under player and character name.
*Added access to Cast! information in game (Black cockroach on name/ability lines).
*Card Info toggle added. When active, tapping on cards provides pop up information on the cost and impact of the cards.
*Help information added for Card Info toggle.
*Added Adventure Not Completed/Completed status for Adventure! games.
*Help opened to page 6 (card types) from in game help.

Bug fixes
*Fix for issue where leaving game (Home) and returning caused card presses not to trigger for player cards.
*Fix for issue where player's Castle (Broken and Sky Castle) card count is displayed while Game Status displayed (Good Expansion).

I'm not sure what the current turnaround time on submissions is but hopefully the update will go through smoothly and in a timely manner.

However, as part of trying to get an update out as quickly as possible I cut one corner (the tutorial screens still use the 1.0 screens with a note at the beginning) and held back on adding in achievements for completing Adventure! games. So, there will be an additional update at an unspecified future date to address that along with room to make changes based on any feedback.