The rules are as follows: you get +1/-1 for a match-3 of what you like/dislike. For your character, it goes up to +/-2 when it's a match-4 and +/-3 when it's a match-5. But for monsters it's always +/-1, so you almost always have interest in doing a match-4 or match-5. And I bet you saw that match-4/5 trigger traps on their lane wich destroys items and hurts people. Also note that some characters have extra bonuses on some matches: warrior gets bonus from first sword match per turn and druid from all trees matches on a turn he used his power. Stringing matches has no effect yet, but I can add quests (or maybe even a whole character power?) based on this easily, I'll think about it. Sorry again for the crashes, the update is still waiting for review on Apple side, and as it's the week end, I fear it won't be available before monday.
Swoc is mostly stable but I've had 2-3 crashes but have been playing it pretty heavy. I wouldn't discourage any purchases based on stability, generally good, but rarely the bugger will give up out on my iPod Touch 5G running iOS 7.0.2.
Good with the potential to be great. It has a number of things going for it. Some suggestions: It's sort of tricky to use the druid's ability. It's too easy to lose him when you're dragging him. I'm not really clear on how to deal damage. The Mage has a direct damage fireball, but what am I supposed to do with the Druid? Do I just chip away at enemies with the tiles they don't like? I know I'm supposed to swap tiles with enemies to damage them, but sometimes we're at a stalemate because there are bad tiles in the way. Could there be a mechanic to destroy bad tiles without them hurting you? But here's the good news: the game is fun. It has a good sense of humor that needs to be built on. It's simple and easy to lose the evening playing. Improve it and you could justify charging double to download.
I'll try to improve that. Right now if you leave its lane or column, you lose him. You're just supposed to go into melee after being buffed by its power (remember to match trees when you use eagle form => big bonus!). Only the mage and warrior can damage from distance. Thief and paladin can count on their skill to lower the melee dammage they get, but Druid and Spirit have to count on their mobility and ability to get high power bonus from quests and then chose the fights they pick. Speaking about balance, I knew paladin was a bit over-the-top but I always had better results with druid during tests. After a few days of release, according to data, I will have to nerf paladin slightly and buff up mage and druid. Try match 4 and match 5 to clean part of the board. But don't forget that sometimes getting -1 power opens an escape way or a quest, so it might be worth it. Thank you, all positive feedbacks give me higher motivation! I'll try to work more on the humor. But I won't charge more, even when adding content. The graphics are really poor, it's driving users away from the game, and that might be worse with higher price. I can tell that because I did all graphics and I can't draw anything decent with a pen.
I wouldn't say they're poor by a long shot - I was really interested at first sight because I saw a lot of potential and I'm a sucker for retro visuals; first impressions without playing the game for me are roughly 60% visual. It's definitely a "marmite" aesthetic but I don't think it has anything to do with the quality; just purely that some people dislike pixel art. I haven't had a free second to buy the game/get an itunes voucher yet but with the heaps of praise the game has received, I'm definitely looking forward to it! Edit: Thank you for the code, going to have to gift a copy or two to some friends to relieve my guilt lol. Cannot wait to spend more time with it, I'm predicting GotW for me!
Don't sell yourself short. This is a nice game, and there is nothing wrong with the graphics. I like how you have to strategize differently with each hero. The only thing so far I don't like is that crash bug, which Im hoping will be resolved with the update you mentioned. It seems to happen when you make a big move that clears rows of blocks, rather than just a regular move.
Yep, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the graphics. Playing on Android and loving it. Also, Pocket Gamer seems to be high on the game with both an article and the trailer posted in the last couple of days. You'll be fine...don't worry. The one thing I'd suggest "tampering with" would just be the app title, but maybe that's just me. There's something off about it with "Swoc" and "of". Why not just have it be "SWOC: Of Swords and Blocks". I'll be honest and say that's why I originally didn't check the game out...but then again, maybe it's just me.
Yeah, I'm crossing fingers for a complete review, even if it's negative. I'll know what I should change. That's somewhat ... unexpected! After working for years in a facebook "casual-heavy" game company, I can tell you I really hate caps in game names... so I'll add an upper case O to Of, but not to the full Swoc as it's not an acronym, it's more a short fusion of a sword and a block.
The crude graphics and the apparently rough implementation made me hesitate, but based on the game style and the strong recommendation from some highly respected forum members I pulled the trigger. I must say, the game play makes up for the flaws. This is a very interesting game and a happy purchase to me. Edit: The bad news is I am seeing the GameMaker fatal error screens about one of every 2 or 3 games. Hopefully the next update will fix these.
A friend just had a 1 week long review on his update, so I guess, as I submitted the crash fix on thursday, it'll be out on thursday. Keep an eye on the updater!
Despite the occasional crashes (the frequency has dropped much lower for me now), I continue to play and enjoy the game. I have jumped from playing the Mage to the Paladin and I absolutely love how the character attribute leads to a much different play style. By the way, I scored over 500 points with the Mage and it failed to unlock the fifth character. The games even shows my best score of 609 on the title screen. SWOC got my vote for game of the week.
Yep, another bug... it unlocks at 1000 in current version, but it will be lowered back at 500 in next update, so you'll have to do 500 again. Sorry for letting those issues go through (it's even more shamefull that I've been working as QA tester and manager for years...). Good news: the update is in review by Apple right now. PS: thanks for the votes guys!
The update has been approved by Apple, it should be available very shortly for everyone. Let me know if you still have technical troubles after this patch.
