there isn't really enough metroidvania games on the App store to justify if it's popular or not. I for one love the kind, and got most of them i think so far. Like Demon Hunter and Dark Incursion which i really like.
Not so excited about this anymore once I heard about the freemium pricing dynamic. Requiring users to buy consumable gems if they want to unlock characters sucks in part because you can't restore purchase. It's cool they're advertising that this will be uniquely free to play but the ackward 1-2 character per day without consumable IAP freemium currency seems shady. Honestly, I'm not one to try to get the game for free by expecting high in-game acquisition of gems or just satisfying myself with whatever happens to be free-to-play that day. I would be glad to support with purchase provided there is a fair avenue for paying customers. Maybe I mis-understand the pricing model but what I've heard so far smells sour. I'd hate to "look a gift horse in the mouth" but I doubt developers are grinding to make sure non-paying consumers are satisfied, this is a business about profit and the pricing system reflects that by pushing consumable gem currency. Maybe instead of a $15 "joke" IAP that party room should include all the classes, etc.
Kepa has stated that you can unlock EVERYTHING in the game without spending a 0.01$. You unlock Gems by playing the game normally, and you use those said Gems to unlock the different classes for permanent use.
Warriors are always male, rogues are always female, etc. You're selecting a character with their own story and ending scenes and such. Two genders for each class would mean double the art. Not really. Doing map algorithm stuff. It's a huge undertaking for such a shot in the dark, is the problem. Grinding? I assume you mean "aiming". We're aiming to make sure non-paying people are very satisfied. I'm aware that most implementations of free-to-play are complete shit. We're hoping to be one of the good ones, along the lines of Temple Run/League of Legends. The game will be designed around people that never pay. As an example, for the release classes, it's set up mathematically so that if you beat the game as one of the classes using the free-per-day system, you'll then have enough gems found to outright buy the next class. That's assuming you never die, ever... if you die, you'll have even more gems from retrying. About the "ALL CLASSES" IAP idea, for the purpose of restoring them easily by redownloading: 1. There's enough people that don't know how to restore IAP, that this wouldn't really cut down on the support emails. 2. You'd still lose your equipment/upgrades, unless the UNLOCK ALL IAP gave you everything. At that point, the UNLOCK IAP would completely invalidate both the coin and gem systems. This has some problems. 3. How many classes the game has in the end depends on the success of the game. We could end up with up to 16 classes. It's hard to predict, though, and therefore it'd be hard to decide on a price. Really, we'd rather just put the extra effort in making sure the save backup system was as good as possible.
This is sure sounding good. Ill be happy to send some coinage your way via IAP when it hits the store.
Personally, I feel like this is one of the most reasonable free-to-play schemes on the appstore. Compared to Glu and Gameloft games, it seems like this one is going to be a much more complete experience that isn't constantly grabbing at your wallet. I wouldnt worry about the 1-2 class per day thing. If you think about it, mage gauntlet only gave you one class total, and you paid for it when you purchased it when you bought the app. Here, you get the same amount of characters (1) free, only its a different one everyday, and therefore a much more diverse experience. In addition to this, the maps are randomly generated, so instead of going through the same levels over and over again it will be a new adventure everytime, and all for free. I'm personally going to support with IAP, and I hope others will too.
Being freemium in this sense isn't turning me off. There are a few games that have gotten freemium correct without blatantly demanding piles of cash. Definitely looking forward to this title.
From Rocketcat's Twitter: "New random map generation thing is in, and it's great. Typing up an article on it for Facebook." Rock. Someone who's on Facebook (I'm a Friendster man myself) should post that joint when it's up. And Kepa, are you getting those monster Puzzlejuice scores on an iPad? I'm still finding the iPhone controls a bit unsolid.
I posted details on our map generation to Facebook just now. http://t.co/IC97pY2Y The current generation type still needs to be tweaked to perfection, but it's promising. We're planning on having many different map styles, both in composition, tileset, enemy type, etc. Some will be common map styles, and others will be rare. Yeah I play Puzzlejuice on the iPad. I can't imagine playing it on iPhone, really. Even on iPad I slip up sometimes, just because the game is extremely frantic.
Oh, you know. Slowly. We're taking the time to finally do some stuff we should have done for Mage Gauntlet, like a better sprite importer. Almost done with that, it was a big undertaking. After the sprite importer, we're tweaking the monster generator. That's when the real meat of the game design starts. The map generator is already in and working, with placeholder monsters in it. Just need to do actual monster/loot/etc generation and we have beginnings of the game in its true form. In the meantime, we've been working on two other games. Haven't posted a lot about those, but one of them is an endless runner + Double Dragon sort of game, and the other is based off Dwarf Fortress.
Will I be able to dress exactly like my twin brother, beat him to death and walk away with his whore girlfriend?
Always wondered why nobody ever tried to make beat-em-ups x runner games. Maybe I just missed those. Anyways, looking forward to your other titles. They sound pretty cool.
RocketCat games get me the most excited always. This looks like an amazing idea for a MG spin off. Using the League of Legends IAP model should work great and will cater well to all the cheap App Store shoppers. Thanks for all the great work Kepa.
I LOVE the League of Legends style IAP. Looking like a great title so far, can't wait! Very curious about what you have planned for the Dwarf Fortress-type game.
