The Rocketcat pet is DLC (or just automatically given to you if you get it near day 1. The other pets are unlocked for getting star rewards. You get one star per level for just getting to the exit, two for clearing all non-hidden enemies, and three for doing a full clear without dying once. We have a lives system in the default game mode, you always get three tries to do a level. You simply get the option of just getting back up, where you fell, at full life. Master Mode takes away that really generous safety net while remixing the levels a little, adding in almost double the enemies and new nightmare variants. Master Mode also has its own star system: one star for surviving, two for a full clear, three if you wear optional equipment that reduces your life to one heart max (while also giving you huge critical bonuses). The more stars you get the more pets you unlock, and you can just switch them out in the equipment menu. I think what we're going to do is have a few different colors for each pet, and have the colors give different stats. Mostly doing that because I could never figure out what pet should have what stat. The stats are VIGOR (energy regen, how often you can dash and charge), MAGIC (how hard magic hits a boss, how big magic explosions are, big critical bonus), and LUCK (moderate magic and melee critical bonus, bigger chance of getting really powerful random spells). Didn't do strength this time around.
Game really does look cool, looking forward to this. Is there any first day/week exclusive items like the previous 2 Rocketcat games, or will all early adopter items be in the DLC pack?
Can't wait!!! This looks awesome! Almost like zelda! Any news on a release date or like time period like fall or winter?
Looks like we'll still make an August release, but it'll be late August. And maybe just barely... any rejection on Apple's part would probably shove us into early the month afterwards. How we're doing it this time is that there are no truly exclusive items, it's just that early adopters get the 2 dollar DLC pack for free, along with the discount.
I was curious how this will be done exactly. (Not that it's really relevant to anything, but just wondering.) Is there a way for devs to set an IAP's price to $0, allowing the early buyers to grab it for free, or will it just be programmed into the first version of the game so that the player has the items. I guess I was wondering what happens if someone uninstalls the game (or loses their iDevice+saves) and then later re-installs Mage Gauntlet when the bonus period is over.
We were just going to handle it the way we handled it for our last two games, where the news server also tracks your first date of install. If something went wrong, we could also just reassign it manually via the news server. Though, the IAP price to 0 idea should be something we look into, because that might be more elegant. Regardless of what we do, we'll make sure to have a way to manually fix it if something goes wrong and an email is sent to support.
I want to do another trailer to show what's new now that it's August, just haven't had time yet... taking a short break and then tackling the last things I have to do. Until new trailers, I can answer pretty much any question. What do you want to know about?
Hmm, just wanted to throw in my support- i really like the look of Mage Gauntlet; for some reason it reminds me of the genesis/ megadrive game, Story of Thor/ Beyond Oasis (which is a good thing!) I haven't bought any of Rocketcat's other games, since the hook mechanic isn't to my taste, but will be day-one picking up MG. I love the idea of master mode- something i think a lot of RPGs don't really get is that while trying to make a massively long quest, then putting in different classes to add 'replayability', they forget that it's still essentially playing the same thing over. For me, an additional mode that's tougher and remixed is more entertaining, so kudos to you guys! Kepa; a quick question i have is regarding NPCs- we've seen a few from the trailer, but what level of interaction are we going to see- will there be any hidden guys hanging out in the dungeons that we can find who might give quests for new equipment etc? (OK, this might have been answered earlier in the thread- apologies if it's redundant!)
The NPCs are all generally guys that show up, talk to you for a bit, then go away. They exist solely to add to and further the story. We didn't do a lot of NPC interaction stuff for the first game, but it's something I'd like to expand on in the future. We do have hidden books/notes you can find and read, hidden chests with secret loot, and the occasional hidden out-of-depth monster arena, though. Not sure if I'd ever make an NPC that gave a quest in the modern-day sense. I hate how "quest" in an RPG for the most part now means "go to this area and kill 20 things so they drop 10 firewood". Maybe something like "go to this hidden dungeon I'll point out on your map, get to the bottom, and come back" would be fine, though.
Ah, brilliant! I hate those 'quests' where it's merely a way to make you do meaningless grinding. In my head, it was like an NPC could be found somewhere in a dungeon, then say something along the lines of "holy crap, don't go to the cave of [insert fear-inspiring name here; add map marker] i barely made it out alive. That's the last time i take on a quest for outrageous fortune and uniquely powerful hats...", leading to an entirely optional sidequest. But of course, in many of the rpgs currently on the app store, it just ends up being completely arbitrary, and doesn't really feel like it fits into the game world. Here's hoping that Mage Gauntlet is the first real 'evolved' action-RPG to properly nail it! Best of luck!
@Kepa Is there going to be an iPad version of Magic Gauntlet? Will the game support the 2nd generation iPod Touch? You told me that items will show up when you equip them, but in the trailer the character is always with the same gear so im confused now.
We need to do a new trailer, back then we didn't have loot in the game yet. When we do the new trailer, I'll make sure there's a good variety of worn items in it. No iPad version planned, though we're going to try to put some universal support stuff in the iPhone version. At least proper pixel scaling, and probably a control setting for iPad. The game has to support a 2nd generation iPod Touch, because that's what I use for all my testing.
