I just registered to say that I've discovered Descend in the last few minutes, thanks to Touch Arcade's front-page posting. I ADORE FIRST PERSON RPGs and dungeon crawlers - particularly Ultima Underworld and King's Field. This will be a day-one purchase for me, as likely will any other first person RPG games you make, Steve. (Personally, I like the character art, I feel it mixes a vaguely anime style with western fantasy but also looks fairly mature. Stick with it, Steve!)
Dragons Bane II is very much the same as the classic Bard's Tale games, including ancient graphics! (It looked fabulous on my Visor Handspring Prism...)
Steve, two questions: 1) Will it be possible to free-look by finger-dragging across the screen? This is something Deadly Dungeons implements, and is useful when at an odd angle to a chest or item etc. 2) Need any music done in future?
Geppetto: Any plans to make something similar to Bloodwych, I always preferred Bloodwych to Dungeon Master and the two player mode on 2x iPhones/iPads would be amazing Any ways good luck with the games this looks really good, will there be a iPad version?
That sounds fair enough, no *need* for backtracking but the option's there. Thinking about it, one of my favourite FPSRPG games ever was Xenomorph and although that allowed backtracking (as levels would branch off to several others), the actual amount of it I did wasn't much. I miss that game... Lotsa' secrets sounds nice. So, does it have an automap? In the old days I'd have used graph paper and done my own, but I've not the patience nowadays. Graham
1) No. I was thinking about having look up/look down controls originally, but I didn't like the idea of that. I wanted to go very traditional on the controls. 2) Almost definitely. If you have a site, portfolio, etc send me a message with the URL so I can check it out. I hope this doesn't ruin my street-cred, but I don't remember Bloodwych. I looked it up, and I definitely know the cover-art, but I can't remember if I ever played it. I find it hard to believe that I wouldn't have, but who knows... There is no automap. But hear me out I originally had this system in place where the camera would sweep up above the level and show you the areas you'd been through. There were some bugs in it though that I just couldnt' get ironed out, and I ended up removing it with the plan to redo something later on. As things evolved though, I've become less convinced that having the map was a good thing. I think I've done an alright job in not making the levels purposefully convoluted, and I think people will be okay with exploring and then mentally navigating their way around. We'll see if the decision turns out to be the correct one, but I believe the game actually plays better without the crutch of the automap.
NO! That's fair enough. As I say, I made my own ones for Xenomorph and coped easily enough without them for ages. It was more my love of ludocartography (no, it's not a real word, but I don't care ) which drove me to make them. I suppose one of the luxuries of using proper 3D graphics is that you can tint areas to different colours and use that to give an indication of where the player is "Oh, I'm in the cold blue barracks, I know where that is..." to get around the necessity of repeated geometry. Still. I *really* like maps.
I really like them too. Trust me. I had an incredibly fun time building all the levels for Descend on graph paper, sitting on the couch with a pencil and eraser. I've already bought myself a fresh graph book to start toying with levels for another game. It's very therapeutic. I've been thinking about this today actually and I think I've come up with something. You know I was saying that I felt the game just didn't need the map in the end? I think the reason for that is, oddly enough, "Furnishings". I think one of the things that made it more difficult to find your way around in the early RPGs of this type like Dungeon Master, was the fact that the rooms and corridors were mostly empty, so they all kinda looked the same. Descend is pretty much furnished throughout, and I think on some subconscious level, your brain is more easily able to remember which room was which because of the room's contents. Anyway, it's just something that's played on my mind today so I thought I'd mention it
chalk one up for the love of little square boxes/maps something about being able to explore every little 'box' in a game
You could, depending on the depth of the game and how many maps there are, implement a nice cartographer mechanic. If you've played Etrian Odyssey, you'd know what I mean. As a player, we'd be able to draw our own map in game and add little embellishments, too. Something even as simple as a big x by x grid with the option to fill that grid with different colored blocks would add a dimension of mapping and dungeoneering! Just putting that on the table, haha. I can't imagine it would be too hard to add, either - couple of arrays and *poof!* map feature.
I never jotted down any maps playing Dungeon Master, EOB etc..i just remembered the routes after playing the area a while. Hope there's plenty of puzzles in this one
these look meh The new screen shots with new characters are better, imo. Maybe just some lighting adjustments and background changes are needed.
+1 - I'd rather get blind sided and have to slash them to bits or retreat. Try deadly dungeons on android. Good real-time fun, it just needs a bit more animation during the fights.
My Top 10 RPG's are: 1. Dungeon Master 2. Dungeon Master Expansion (Chaos strikes back) 3. Black Crypt 4. Dungeon Master II (lLegend of Skullkeep) 5. Bloodwych 6. Eye of the Beholder Series 7. Might & Magic Series 8. Lands of Lore Series 9. Wizardry Series 10. Ultima Underworld
Yep, near enough exactly the same list from me too. 1 Dungeon Master 2 Dungeon Master Chaos Strikes Back 3 Black Crypt 4 Knightmare (Amiga DM game). 5 Lands Of Lore 1&2 (3 was rubbish..lol) 6 Eye Of Beholder Series 7 Ultima Underworld 1&2 8 Wizardry 7 9 Bloodwych 10 M&M series etc, etc.. Fave games on the app store 1 The Quest & all expansions 2 Undercroft Hopefully this and Grimrock too BTW, did you know there's plenty of Dungeon Master fan made addons?
It's been a few weeks since we've last heard anything on this game. Do you happen to have any new screenshots or gameplay videos to share? Thanks!
