Downloaded the iOS build you sent me, is there a specific strategy you need to take or is it completely randomised? So the turn count is how many you have to complete the entire dungeon? (Not just one floor). Shall I be tapping on every single tile on a floor? Or is there a specific pattern to take? Interesting game. I'll play it in my free time and try to get through the first episode!
Floors are randomly generated. The 99 turns is allotted for the entire dungeon/episode, not just one floor. With the later episodes, you'll want to employ some strategies to increase your chance of clearing those episodes. Also, after finding the key for the floor you're on, there's few reasons to explore the entire floor, which we discussed in the previous page. There are certain efficient methods to finding some of the formations. For example, with the Knight's 1x3 vertical line formation and the floor being 5x5, the most efficient way of finding the Knight is exploring the 5 tiles of the middle row of a floor. With the Archer, even though it's a different formation from the Knight's, it's actually quite similar because they share two of the same tiles, and once again exploring the middle row would be the most efficient. There's similar strategies for the other formations as well but I won't go in-depth here. Generally, you have a better chance of finding something by exploring tiles more towards the center since there are more tiles in their perimeter and therefore can support more formations. Tiles farther from the center, such as edge tiles, generally have a lesser chance of containing something; take this into consideration when you want to avoid hitting enemies. Heh, and here I was planning to post before that no one here has a Windows Phone. Nothing against Windows Phone users by the way. Competition drives innovation and that's always better for the consumer.
@jamescam Awesome, glad to hear it! Makes me sad that more developer don't port their stuff to Windows Phone more often; no excuses, I say! @simplemindead: Wow, thanks for that detailed explanation! Took the words out of my mouth; that's pretty much it in every way It's actually pretty cool to read a description/strategy of a game you make written by a player, that really shows that they 'get it'.
Actually, took me a couple plays before I realized the strategies. That is, after being unlucky and dying a few times. But yeah, not something I realized/utilized from the get-go. And this particular aspect of the game is a nice layer of strategy that Dungelot didn't have. Had this idea just now but maybe you could add non-unit formations as well. For example, a 1x2 mausoleum for episode 1. Players wouldn't know about these environmental formations beforehand, unlike unit formations; however, experienced players that have come across and remember the formations can leverage them to find the other formations more easily and mitigate danger. Items could be in formations as well. For example, the HP potion could be on a shelf and beside it is a barrel. After find the barrel, experienced players would know where to go for a quick heal. And lastly, trap formations. As with the other non-unit formations, these aren't revealed to the players so you'll have to remember the formations if you want to avoid these.
Yeah, and I think that's great! As with any good game (in my opinion), it should be relatively easy to 'go through the motions' and understand the mechanics, but coming up with strategies should take a bit longer. TotAC is not a particularly deep game, but I think there are some interesting strategies that emerge as you play longer and unlock additional heroes. Love the idea on non-hero/enemy formations. I'd played with the idea of traps in the initial release, but scrapped it due to time. Hadn't considered doing that with items, but I think that's an amazing idea. I'd planned to just have items show up randomly in a 1x1 square and/or drop from enemies, but I really like the idea of having formations that more experienced players can recognize. It fits better in the design of TotAC, that players should be rewarded for recognizing patterns, not randomly guessing. It also has the bonus effect of making the level art look cooler, with more variation in the things that show up. I'll definitely think about incorporating something like this in one of the content updates
Cool! Yeah, part of the developing cycle is deciding what features to cut, unfortunately. Otherwise your product may never see see the light of day/release. But yeah, there's always the content release after launch, that can house new features. And heck, who knows, maybe down the road the sequel will get a sequel of its own.
Yeah totally, that's the hardest part of development sometimes: ruthlessly cutting 'necessary' features, in order to actually ship something On the flipside, sometimes implementing features blindly completely misses the mark of what the user wants. I think there's definitely value in seeing what users want, after trying your game, and iterating on that. After a minor snafu with the Windows certification process, I've submitted the Windows Phone build to the app store today, slated to go live 5/22 if all goes well. Currently testing and re-testing the iOS and Android builds on a few different devices I have lying around. If all goes well, I'll submit in the next couple weeks. Prior to the expected iOS launch date, I'll probably do a mini-contest to give away a few promo codes, so keep an eye on the thread if you want to score a free copy!
This is looking like a very cool game. I just saw the art and knew I wanted it On your art evolution I'd say the bottom ones look the best but the art you settled on is quite adorable.
Thanks for the support! I'm so stoked that you guys love the art! I'm glad that I was finally able to settle into a style that works for me. In other news, general announcement of release dates. I decided to move Android up one week, so that I'll have a staggered release of one platform per week. Barring any major issues, the release dates are as follows: Windows Phone: May 22 Android: May 29 iOS: June 5 On an iOS centric forum, I know it's blashphemy to launch on iOS last That said, it's also the most important platform (from a business standpoint) and it gives me additional time to make sure things are perfect. It also helps me ramp marketing/press efforts, so that when it does launch on iOS, reviewers will be more likely to have heard of it. Lastly, it gives me adequate time to rush any emergency fixes that might be required as a result of launching on the other platforms. I appreciate your guys' patience! Won't be long now!
I'd like to handle all the press/marketing myself so that I can build some expertise in the area, but I appreciate your offer
Less than a week to the Windows release, with Android and iOS sooner after! I'm already hard at work on the first update, which will add a new episode (Episode VI) and potions. What I'm most excited about though is that I'm also hammering out localization, to bring the game to more people. Initially, I'm aiming to support Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Mandarin). Besides the actual localization which I'll be outsourcing to the professionals, it's also quite a lot of work to prepare your game for it. I've spent most of my free time the past few days getting things prepared. Japan is particularly interesting, on both iOS/Android in terms of dollars spent on apps. China is also fairly well represented on iOS, while South Korea is dominating force on Android. These three markets will help to reach a broader audience, and help me to fund continued development = more stuff! If the localization proves helpful, I'll expand to cover major European markets like Germany and France. Yeah, it's a not sexy/flashy new feature but on a crowded app market, it's important to reach as many users as possible! Right now, the translations are just using Google Translate, to help me identify any issues with the rendering, but I can't wait to get the real translations in!
Official translations are nice. When I did support for an English-only game, we frequently got non-English emails. Basically if you're game's good enough, the international players will find you regardless. Official translations can be better than fan-made ones, not to mention accessible. Tales doesn't have much text and without IAPs, ads, just a flat price, I agree it makes sense to have localized versions. One thing I wonder about though is support for international players. I presume you'll mention in the app description for international markets that support is only available in English. As I'm sure you've already been advised by now, or just previously aware, that Google Translate is not something that can be used in a commercial capacity. ..though I still included a Google Translate version along with my English reply, for non-English emails; along with a disclaimer that it was translated using Google Translate—though the disclaimer was translated by Google Translate, which may in itself be poorly translated in the first place and incomprehensible Just figured it was better than nothing; is my assumption.
That's a good point. I've added 'email support provided in English only' as a disclaimer to the app store description for those countries. Hadn't really thought of that! And yeah -- Google Translate was just to help me figure out how to render Asian characters and to approximate any issues that might result. The real translations are currently being scoped by a professional L10N team, that specializes in games.
Not of interest to most of you, but in case any of you are on Windows Phone, just wanted to let you know that the game is now live on the Windows Phone store! http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/tales-of-the-adventure-company/c08a2b27-5e34-4828-9c0c-a5deb8e4a1be Android follows next Thursday (May 29) and iOS the week after (June 5)
Two for iOS. One for Android. ..z-zero for Windows Phone. DAMN YOU WINDOWS PHONES!!! Man.. those guys have it all!
..is that shark giving me a thumbs up? Certainly looks like it. And probably right before he's about to sharpen his teeth with the help of some unwilling adventurers, that is. And for those that don't check @slothwerks, here's another sneak preview of episode 6 contenta part of the first update following release. Keen players may have noticed the potion in that screenshot; that's another thing that'll be coming with the update.
