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[Rebusmind]

Today I've got a new screenshot of the world map for you. Jussi has done a great job so far. You can almost see 5 different locations on this image (the Meadows, the Light Forest, the Dark Forest, the Crystal Cave and the Ruins, which still look like a nice and peaceful village right now).

Hope you like it!

[ryansumo]

Wow, this looks really promising. If you have room in your beta team I'd love to testflight this game!

Good luck on release, mobile can be really tough!

[oodavid]

Looks excellent, I especially love the random events with the piles of leaves, I could imagine that the bear is really rare but terrifying to encounter!

That last screenshot makes me think of Settlers of Catan - always a good thing!

[TurboGun]

Saw this one quite a while back, was excited so I'm glad to see more progress! The gameplay looks fun and the art is awesome!

I'm assuming the score screen is a WIP, so I won't comment on it too much, but it would be cool if the character sprite had a celebration animation there! And if it's on a mobile device, I think everything would need to display a lot quicker, so the player can look at it and get to the next level without spending too much time.

Looking forward to playing this one!

[Rebusmind]

Wow, this looks really promising. If you have room in your beta team I'd love to testflight this game!

Thanks! We are still a few months away from the beta, but I'll announce it here first when it starts.

Looks excellent, I especially love the random events with the piles of leaves, I could imagine that the bear is really rare but terrifying to encounter!

That last screenshot makes me think of Settlers of Catan - always a good thing!

There will be a lot of different things to interact with during the levels to keep things entertaining. Glad you like it.

Saw this one quite a while back, was excited so I'm glad to see more progress! The gameplay looks fun and the art is awesome!

I'm assuming the score screen is a WIP, so I won't comment on it too much, but it would be cool if the character sprite had a celebration animation there! And if it's on a mobile device, I think everything would need to display a lot quicker, so the player can look at it and get to the next level without spending too much time.

Looking forward to playing this one!

Thanks a lot!
The score screen is WIP, yes. It will get some proper graphics later. If you touch the screen while it is still in the process of displaying the different stats, then it shows everything at once (for those who want to waste no time).

Btw. I love your game Master Spy! Voted for it on Greenlight.

[Rebusmind]

Our wonderful composer Andi finished another track for the game. It plays in the third level, the Crystal Cave. We hope you like it.

[CobraMode]

I really love this concept. I don't know if you're experimenting with the pacing of the game, but something that came to mind for me was that it looked a bit plodding, or slow moving. It might be possible to do the map movement slightly differently. If the map moved one whole tile at a time at set intervals, it could change the feeling. You could speed up the travel time between tiles, and possibly introduce more enemies/obstacles as the primary source of slowing the character down. You could then also introduce a button to advance the map one tile at a time, in case they reach the top.

Have you considered puzzles? like maybe you have to grab a key on one side of the screen, and then use it to open a gate on the other side. I guess it's not so much of a puzzle, but a different type of obstacle to overcome.

Anyway, very cool, keep it up!

[Rebusmind]

@CobraCode
That's actually a cool idea. I don't think it will work well in the main adventure, as it should feel like an epic journey, but it might work for a puzzle or challenge mode.
Concerning the puzzles, there will be later levels that have things like levers, gates and other tricky stuff.
Thanks a lot for your feedback, it's very appreciated!

[Rebusmind]

A little update on the world map. Jussi was nice enough to add some more detail to the innocent village, which in fact is under attack by the evil Horde.

I will submit the game to the Amaze Berlin Award in two weeks. Until then, there will be a first demo version that features the first few levels, the world map and the character selection.

[Rebusmind]

There's been a lot of progress in this week.
Below you see the new character selection screen with nice artworks by Jussi.
As always, please excuse the bad quality.

More will follow soon!

[Rebusmind]

Another addition is a short tutorial that shows you the very basics of swapping tiles and interacting with your environment. It's happening right after the castle got attacked by the mysterious 'Horde' and shows the king as he tries to save his children.

I also changed the way the swapping works and now you see the new path as an overlay before putting it down.

[Rebusmind]

Finally implemented the world map and I really like it so far, even without the mode7 effect I've shown earlier. What do you think?

[oodavid]

Loving the world Map; especially the path being drawn ahead of the player :-)

[mrBlack]

Finally implemented the world map and I really like it so far, even without the mode7 effect I've shown earlier. What do you think?

I think it looks awesome.

It's nice to see how the game has been progressing.  I really like where it's going.

[Rebusmind]

Loving the world Map; especially the path being drawn ahead of the player :-)

Thanks, I thought it would be cool to build up a little tension by drawing the path first and then move there. Later there will sometimes be two paths and you get to decide where you want to go next.

I think it looks awesome.

It's nice to see how the game has been progressing.  I really like where it's going.

Thanks a lot, mrBlack!
And to show you some more progress, here are the latest gifs!

I thought the title screen really lacked the polish that other parts of the game got, so all the graphics got a make over.

Jussi also did a cool new level up effect.

We are only a few days away from submitting the game to the Amaze Berlin and I'm pretty excited. Wish us luck in the competition.

[oodavid]

Looks better, but the rotation of the sword looks a bit forced, maybe it should just go off screen at the bottom, then return sideways?

[Rebusmind]

@oodavid
Tried to make it fly more natural, but it only got worse. Will leave that for another day. ^^

@all
Happy Valentine's Day!

[Rebusmind]

Yesterday was the submission deadline for the Amaze Berlin Awards and I finished the demo version for it just in time. It's not an official demo, but maybe I will give it to some people so that they can test it, I'm still indecisive about that.

Along with the demo I also created a new trailer that shows all the new stuff. Check it out and please leave feedback.

The next steps are basically:

• Create new levels
• Finish all the classes
• Bring the caravan to life
• Make the intro and endings
• Balance the hell out of everything!

So there's still a lot to do before this game can finally be released. So stay with us!

[Rebusmind]

A slow week has past that I spent mostly with working on a new landing page for SwapQuest (still not finished though) and improving the world map.

But I also got a Windows Phone testing device, which makes the trio complete. What a nice little family we have here.

[oodavid]

Are you having any difficulties developing to all 3 in parallel? Looks sweet on all 3 and I can see that you've spent a great deal of time on rendering / scaling to any resolution - the iPad clipping the sea makes it quite obvious...