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[Maph]

Hi all,

This is my first post here from lurking for a while. And I figured, what better way to start of an introduction then by posting the game I've been working on the past 6 months together with a dear friend of mine (Michael Dashow).
Both him and myself are seasoned artists in the game-industry, and we both have day-jobs to attend; but we're very excited about this game none the less!

‘MageMaze’ is a turn-based puzzle adventure game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Play as Norse warrior Svenn the Svaliant to explore the dungeon maze of Yngvarr the Ynvoker and rearrange the maze itself, making the gameplay incredibly dynamic , challenging, and fun!

This game is still a work in progress, but we are closing in on an internal beta build pretty soon.

We have put the game online on it's very own place on the intarwebs at www.mage-maze.com where you can play a couple of levels before reaching an "infinite" level.
We have 30+ levels planned, more tile sets, special mini puzzle levels, loads of new monsters all with a different special ability, the introduction of new mysterious antagonist, and much more!

A devblog can be found by clicking the image below


And last, but certainly not least, here be some screenies.
Click on any of the images to play the game (Unity web player is required)









Art & Design: Michael Dashow
Code & Design: Kristof Minnaert
Sound: Nick Dixon (Output Audio)

Thanks for watching!
Kristof & Michael

[Dom2D]

Looks really great. Let us know when it's available!

[Maph]

Thanks!
We're getting the game ready for IGF mobile submission right now. So loads of bugfixing to do.
I can't say when we'll have the game actually released, but I'm hoping it's in the next few months.

[blackemperor]

That looks beautiful!

[Maph]

Hey all, we've put an update online over at http://www.mage-maze.com where you can play 20+ levels featuring traps, new monsters, tilesets and what not.

blackemperor: thanks.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Looks really interesting! Reminds me, on a superficial level, of Insector Hecti In The Interchange (http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2303). Gonna' go play it now...

[Maph]

Ah neat, gotta check it out myself then.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Just had a quick play. Lovely presentation and graphics. I'd definitely consider letting the player just tap somewhere and have them auto-route to it over the course of several turns for when you're not too fussed about the enemy movements. Likewise unless there's gonna' be specific gameplay with regards to lining up the exit with you, it seems a kinda' pointless demand on the player once they've rid the level of baddies to have to do it. I shall play more, though, and see how it pans out.

[Maph]

Thanks for the feedback!

Tap/Drag path & waypoint navigation is definitely something I would consider doing, but probably not over the course over a couple of turns. That will take a lot of interactivity out of the game I think. You'd be staring at your screen most of the time rather then doing stuff with it.
If we do end up going for tap/drag path & waypoint, it would most likely be in the manner how Fire Emblem and Highborn do navigation (x number of tiles in one move). That method will drastically change how the game will play imho. Which is not a bad thing per se, it might make the game somewhat challenging for a change. However, we've got a pretty small playing field (5*7 tiles), and we'd probably have to limit movement to 2 or 3 tiles max as the monsters will be expected to move in the same manner. If they can basically always reach you in one move, that's going to be one brutal game.

Then again, if we ever make an iPad release (something I'm totally considering if this game makes us any kind of revenue), tap/drag path & waypoints become all the more interesting! Loads more tiles, loads more possibilities.

Anyway, I'm rambling off the top of my head here.
As a quick hack fix, I could always force the exit to be spawned on the tile above you.

On a side note, a gameplay trailer was needed for IGF and Indiepub, so for those interested

[Snakey]

The art is great, but the only thing that bothers me is the number of fingers inconsistency. Some of the images have him with three fingers and a thumb, and others with four fingers and a thumb! One image even has his left hand with three fingers and his right hand with four fingers!

[walrus]

Thanks for the feedback! The finger inconsistency bug has been fixed: The game is now perfect! 

Anyhow, new here myself, but I figured before I post anywhere else, I should post on my own project's thread.

Anyhow, at least we got our demo together for IGF. Right now our biggest concerns, aside from small bugs, are adding a store so that you can do something with all that gold you collect, and fleshing out the story, which gets more complicated and funnier than the demo might indicate. Thank you all for the comments so far, and thanks to those of you who commented on the art too: Glad you like it!

[walrus]

Well, it's been just a little while since we've updated this thread...  

But we have been working away on MageMaze, our turn-based dungeon adventure game, and have made some excellent progress in the last year after an unexpectedly long hiatus post IGF. We're currently shooting for a release of sometime this summer (2012) and will ship with 60+ levels and hopefully 3 gameplay modes. We've redone a lot of the game - the mechanics are now much more smooth, and getting new levels up and running is easier than ever. We have more monsters, an entire working in-game shop and inventory, all sorts of power-ups, a much more fleshed-out story, cleaned-up UI, and things are just in general going really well!

A few random levels of the game are currently playable on our site, http://www.Mage-Maze.com. They aren't the first levels in the game, so in some cases you might be at a loss for what to do. Our next update will include the first 7 levels of the game, which walks you thorough just about everything you need to know in order to play. And we would love to find new beta tasters for that - send up (Maph and/or I) your UDID!

In the meantime, here are some new screenshots:











Cheers!

[DrDerekDoctors]

Um, it's really nice looking and the later screenshots show some interesting stuff, but why does it force me to move a tile at a time instead of letting me tap on a distant tile and then have it play out the turns until I get there for better or worse? It *really* slows the pace of the game down and makes getting anywhere a tedious chore. Especially as you have to wait for all the units to make their move afterwards. Is there any particular reason they could move all at once?

I'd be tempted to get it when it's released if it weren't for these - if I'm brutally honest - REALLY obvious usability issues.

[Kapser]

I always wanted to make a game based on my favorite board game when I was a kid : labyrinth. This is some pretty good execution and production value, well done!

[DrDerekDoctors]

Hey, whadderya' know, turns out I posted the exact same feedback for both builds without realising it.

I guess that means it still bugged me. :\

[Franklin's Ghost]

Great looking game, plays really smoothly and fun gameplay.

why does it force me to move a tile at a time instead of letting me tap on a distant tile and then have it play out the turns until I get there for better or worse?

And agree with this statement.

[walrus]

DrDoctors and Franklins Ghost - Thanks for the suggestions! Your posts (including the earlier ones) have given us a lot to think about and we've certainly been talking a lot  amongst ourselves about solutions, trying to come up with a way to satisfy the desire to move faster  while balancing the fact that MageMaze is still at its heart a turn-based tactical game. We'll keep working on it and share progress as we go!

Kapser - Yep, we definitely took a lot of inspiration from Labyrinth. Thanks, glad you like how it's coming along.

And just so I'm not just posting thank-you notes, here's a new screen from the game, our in-game information about each of the monsters and characters you encounter. The text isn't final - I need to edit it down to be tighter - but at least this gives you an idea of the feature.



I just repainted a lot of the in-game UI buttons over the last two nights so that they all match (including that "back" button in the upper left) so hopefully we'll have some new menu screens to share soon too... Not that that's the most exciting part of the game, it's just all got to be done!

[LuisAnton]

Great game, great idea and superb polishing level!