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[Chris Pavia]

Get em while they're hot!

507RW-6KPNG-CEFWM
2MPNP-HK4XG-PXKHH
VLITD-06G9H-VMYK4
EBZTB-JLJFH-FY98I
JF8ND-L460Q-2I428
I0FF3-KZ32I-63EZW

Note that the achievement and leaderboard buttons in the main menu will just take you to your profile page until the game goes live.

[pluckyporcupine]

Grabbed JF8ND-L460Q-2I428. Going to leave some feedback later. Thanks.

EDIT: Okay, played for about half an hour. I've concluded that I'll need to play longer before I'm any good at it haha. I often find myself looking for runes to put together as the strikers I've already put together are falling off-screen.

It feels a bit like the mouse (playing on a Mac right now) will drop runes occasionally if I move them around too fast, making it difficult to move things a sizable distance, even over empty space, quickly.

I really like the different abilities for each enemy.

I also really like the fact that you can save. I thought I was going to be stuck finishing the game I'd started or quitting haha.

Oh, if you still wanted a bit of performance feedback, I get a little bit of slowdown on this rig:

- Mac OS X 10.6.7
- 3.06 GHz i3 processor
- 4 GB RAM
- ATi Radeon HD 4670
- 1920x1080 desktop resolution.

Not a lot of slowdown. Just periodical drops. Runs like a charm most of the time.

[Chris Pavia]

Thanks for the feedback!

It feels a bit like the mouse (playing on a Mac right now) will drop runes occasionally if I move them around too fast, making it difficult to move things a sizable distance, even over empty space, quickly.

Yeah I agree this is an issue, trying to smooth it out now.

EDIT: Okay, played for about half an hour. I've concluded that I'll need to play longer before I'm any good at it haha. I often find myself looking for runes to put together as the strikers I've already put together are falling off-screen.

Something to be aware of that I see a lot of new players do (i don't know if you're doing it, just bringing it up), is trying to create more than 1 of the same color striker when it isn't needed. If you already have a red striker (for example), making another red one is often not a good idea because the 3 chargers used to make it will provide a bigger bonus to your multiplier (3 extra runes as opposed to one). Making an additional striker of the same color is good sometimes, either when you need an extra hit on a multi-hit rune, or you need to extend the combo range to a striker above or below. All depends on the current situation. Strikers = good for multi-hits and getting more heroes in the combo, Chargers = good for beefing up the multiplier.

[pluckyporcupine]

If you already have a red striker (for example), making another red one is often not a good idea because the 3 chargers used to make it will provide a bigger bonus to your multiplier (3 extra runes as opposed to one).

Ah. I've done that a few times, yeah but sometimes I spend time struggling to get two strikers at all and it's definitely my fault, as opposed to the game's. Primarily, it's been since the square runes and the enemy's gray circular runes were introduced. Just not quite quick enough on the draw to move them around in time just yet.

EDIT: Also, I've noticed that I'll spend a significant amount of time creating single strikers just to clear out the enemy strikers, rather than to attack the enemy. And I've noticed that, since hexes were introduced, I'll often have trouble remembering to take care of the hexes, as opposed to the strikers. I couldn't say why but they slip by me a lot more than they should.

Also, just a nitpick but it was a little odd to see the Tutorial placed under the Options menu. I'm not sure if that's the only way to access it or if, by accessing it that way, I then cancelled it starting up on the first playthrough but it just felt odd that it was there.

Oh, and to follow up on the slowdown thing, it seems I get the most slowdown in the main menu.

[Venomjack]

Just took I0FF3-KZ32I-63EZW, I was surprised that it wasn't taken already. I've just played through a couple of the levels and I'm definitely not regretting rushing myself to get this game. Excellent job. I also love how there's multiple soundtracks; my personal favorite so far is Chippy Hearts

[Chris Pavia]

Also, just a nitpick but it was a little odd to see the Tutorial placed under the Options menu. I'm not sure if that's the only way to access it or if, by accessing it that way, I then cancelled it starting up on the first playthrough but it just felt odd that it was there.

There is a tutorial prompt the first time you hit Play if you haven't already been through the tutorial (and it informs you that it is also accessible from the options menu as well).

[Chris Pavia]

Just took I0FF3-KZ32I-63EZW, I was surprised that it wasn't taken already. I've just played through a couple of the levels and I'm definitely not regretting rushing myself to get this game. Excellent job. I also love how there's multiple soundtracks; my personal favorite so far is Chippy Hearts

Thanks! I love hearing which soundtracks everyone likes the most

[deathtotheweird]

I took (EBZTB-JLJFH-FY98I). Installing now, I'll edit this post when I play it.

edit:

it's fun, though I'm bad at it. really like the graphics and music and other sound effects. feels quite polished.

only real gripe is that clicking and dragging so much tires out my hand fast. I bet it's much more comfortable to play on ipad. don't think there's much you could do about that though.

separate sliders for music/sound effects would be nice. oh, and the ability to change the resolution. very important that is.

[pluckyporcupine]

Okay, slowly getting better at it. The reaper type creature is deadly though. I was on a slow road to defeat the whole time and once I was down to my last character, I almost had no control due to consistent blindness and frozen-ness. It was a depressingly slow defeat but, despite that, I kept hoping that maybe, just maybe I'd be able to survive.

[Chris Pavia]

I took (EBZTB-JLJFH-FY98I). Installing now, I'll edit this post when I play it.

edit:

it's fun, though I'm bad at it. really like the graphics and music and other sound effects. feels quite polished.

only real gripe is that clicking and dragging so much tires out my hand fast. I bet it's much more comfortable to play on ipad. don't think there's much you could do about that though.

separate sliders for music/sound effects would be nice. oh, and the ability to change the resolution. very important that is.

Heh, I was expecting something much harsher!  

I agree about the music/sound/resolution sliders, i probably won't have time to get to that by the 28th (will be out of town at PAX/GDC right up until ship day) but I'll try to get it into an update.

You may be already be aware because it is (briefly) mentioned in the tutorial, but when making a striker you don't HAVE to click and drag across all 3, you can just click one of them to create the striker (but yeah even then there's still a lot of dragging).

[Chris Pavia]

Okay, slowly getting better at it. The reaper type creature is deadly though. I was on a slow road to defeat the whole time and once I was down to my last character, I almost had no control due to consistent blindness and frozen-ness. It was a depressingly slow defeat but, despite that, I kept hoping that maybe, just maybe I'd be able to survive.

One trick is using the heros' Skills, all of them (except for the Mage's) clear all the runes off the board, so in addition to their normal effects they can be used as a "save" when things go bonkers. Also, the Healer's first Skill cures Hexes in addition to healing. You can find out the effects of everyone's Skills in the Bestiary.

[pluckyporcupine]

One trick is using the heros' Skills, all of them (except for the Mage's) clear all the runes off the board, so in addition to their normal effects they can be used as a "save" when things go bonkers.

That is a helpful tip. I'll try doing that when I'm headed on a downward slope to failure.

Oh and I encountered a bug:

- Defeated a monster rat creature and, instead of going to the board where I level up the characters, the game just sat there at the end of the battle. Saving, exiting, and resuming fixed it.

[deathtotheweird]

You may be already be aware because it is (briefly) mentioned in the tutorial, but when making a striker you don't HAVE to click and drag across all 3, you can just click one of them to create the striker (but yeah even then there's still a lot of dragging).

ahh that makes things 10x better. must have missed that part, thanks for letting me know.

[Chris Pavia]

The click and dragging was the first thing my testers brought up when I initially moved it over to Mac/PC so I added that in there, but I liked how quick it made things so I added it in the iOS version as well.

[deathtotheweird]

I came across a boss thing (t-rex looking thing that has those critical strikes) and it seemed pretty impossible, there were a ton of those unmovable blocks.

wish I took screenshots or a video because I was utterly confused how anyone was supposed to beat that. I was having a decent run up until that point. kinda felt cheated.

[Chris Pavia]

Hmm, I'll check out its spawn values.

[Venomjack]

I do have to say, that I actually like the interesting take on having to restart from the start when dying in the game. sort reminds me of some classic games. It's a nice way of making the game that more challenging.

[Chris Pavia]

I would have liked to implement some systems that persist across playthroughs (currently it's just the unlocking of enemies in the Bestiary), but unfortunately they had to be cut for time. Hopefully the next Dungeon Hearts game will be a bit bigger.

Oh, the soundtracks will all be locked in the 1.0 release (except for the first of course), and you'll have to beat the game to unlock each one.

[deathtotheweird]

tried four times to beat the first boss and I can't.

I seem to breeze through the battles before the first boss but can't seem to beat him. I know bosses are supposed to be hard but I think that first one is a bit too hard.

[pluckyporcupine]

Sheesh. After three tries, I can't even get the reaper down to cracked tiles. That thing is tough!

It kind of bothers me that Life Drain lasts until the character dies.

EDIT: Finally beat him. Man that was tough. Though I can't help feeling I just got lucky.

The battles after that get really complex really quickly. I got overwhelmed by the new tiles and the increased amount of gray bricks and lost, I think, 3 battles later.