next »

[Rebusmind]

Hi everyone,

I'm still implementing the last bits of the game before I can start the beta test in the beginning of October.

The last two days I worked on a single effect that is displayed whenever your character changes his/her class - this happens twice in the game, once at level 8 and once at level 16. It's very colorful and flashy and I'd love to hear your opinion about it.

(This is not the newest version of it, you can ignore the white ball displayed behind of the character and the leaves still visible during the effect)

So, what do you think?

[koiwai]

The game looks very interesting! Very lovely concept. Particularly, I like that the levels have their own unique and clever challenges. Also it seems that the controls are simple and intuitive, so they should work great on a phone!

I cannot say that I like this last effect too much, it's ok, but it looks a bit too arbitrary and abstract. Do you have a more concerete concept for this effect? Even if you ask kids, when they play the game, some of them would like to know what is going on, what is happening when they level up.

Also, btw, if it is a programmed effect, you may add variations to it: Let the spheres rotate differently, or even use the touch input to add some variety to it, for example, it can be even an easy mini-game. You also may consider more mathematical approach to generating it. In this case, you can get some inspiration (and maybe even implementation ideas) from Forth Haikus. These are small pieces of code (in Forth, but it does not matter) that produce impressive dynamic or static visuals, examples. These are just random ideas, not sure if anything of these applies to what you do The thing is already pretty awesome actually!

[King Tetiro]

If you are still need Beta Testers (and Android ones at that), I am happy to oblige! :D

[Rebusmind]

@koiwai
Thanks for your comment.
The effect for the class change only appears twice in the game, when you reach level 8 and level 16, so I wanted it to look very special. The concept was to show that the character is going through a transformation and that his powers increase greatly through it. The balls symbolize this energy and the bright colors emphasize that the energy is very powerful and special.
The effect was inspired by a spell in Seiken Densetsu 3, one of my all-time favorite games. You can see the spell here: Holy Ball
I'm not sure how the effect would benefit from making it interactive, though. It might not occur to the player to interact with the effect in the first place, as it comes out of nowhere and doesn't look like normal gameplay, more like a reward. I could add more variation to it, but as you see it only twice in the game, the player will probably not become bored by it. There are also already a few parameters that are random, like the color the effect starts with.

@King Tetiro
Yes, I'm still looking for people, as the beta test got delayed to the beginning of October due to some personal matters I had to take care of. You can sign up here (or click the image).

[Rebusmind]

Today I finished implementing all the abilities. That took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I think it was worth the effort.
To give you an idea, each character class has one specific skill in the beginning of the game and learns two of four additional skills throughout the game. This means every class has 5 different skills and there are 25 skills in total.

The good thing is that each class finally feels different and it's fun to acquire new abilities. As every ability can be trained and made more powerful, character customization is quite complex.

As a little preview I want to show you two of my favorite skills. They are part of the Trickster class and can be learned when the Trickster turns into the Mage.

The first is the Fireball:



The second is the Ice Lance:



I hope you like them!

Next up is the last part of the game, which includes a new cutscene and the ending sequence (and some surprises ).

Have a great weekend, everyone!


 

[Rebusmind]

Hey everyone,

i've been working on completing everything for the beta and I'm almost finished.

Yesterday I finally implemented a saving system, which was easier and more fun than it sounds. Here's how it looks.





So if everything goes according to plan, the beta will start later this week or early next week. I'm already looking forward to your feedback!

Have a great week, everyone!

[Rebusmind]

The beta test started today and I hope everyone that signed up for it got my mails and access to the game on either iOS or Android.

You can also post feedback here if you want.

Have fun with SwapQuest!

 

[bombjack]

Hi, I've just tested the game
I really liked the idea of switching tiles to move foward.
The only point that annoyed me was the fact that the player goes back when reaching a dead end instead of asking where to go as it does on crossroads.
I found it adding me a lot of 'bad' stress reducing the fun aspect of the game.
That's my opinion and probably other persons won't feel the same.

[Rebusmind]

Hi bombjack,

thanks for participating in the beta!
Yeah, what to do at a dead end really has been a controversial subject. Some like the challenge when the player walks back, others think it's too much. I lean towards how it is right now, because you can always tap on the hero to halt him/her or block the way back by putting a tile there that doesn't connect.
I mean, I could put an option in the game where you can choose what should happen, but that feels a bit like lazy game design to me.

[Rebusmind]

The beta is officially over and I've started implementing some of the excellent suggestions I got. Before I show you a few, here is a little Achievement Unlocked effect I've been working on.

Okay, on to the beta. One complaint I often got over the course of the development is that you can't tell the character to turn around and go the other direction (you can only choose a path when you reach a fork). I was a little afraid, that this might make the player too powerful and that the game would become super easy. But now that I've played it for over 20 hours, I think the difficulty lies (and should lie) elsewhere and not in the controls. To get to the point, you can now change directions whenever you stop your character, as you can see below.
Another thing that has been requested multiple times has been added: tapping instead of swiping to choose a direction. Now both works.

The next changes all affect the world map. You can now play the level you have completed before again to get some extra jewels or level your character up some more, should the next level be too difficult. Also bosses now have their own separate level, you don't have to fight them right after you have finished the level, which should lower the difficulty considerably.

Last, but not least there are now damage numbers when you fight. This might not seem necessary at first, but I think it's really nice to see how much damage you actually do, especially when you got a new weapon and want to see its effects. What do you think?

[Rebusmind]

It's been a while, but I finally have something new to show.

I've been working on the Arcade Mode of SwapQuest really hard and though it's not finished yet, I wanted to share a preview video with you so get an idea what it's about. Hope you like it and feedback is welcome as always.

Click to view the video on Youtube

[Rebusmind]

Before I disappear into the holiday madness I wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas! Enjoy the festive days and relax from work/school!

I will post a new SwapQuest video soon. I also have some very exciting news coming up and the release is approaching as well, so the beginning of 2015 will be awesome! :D

[Rebusmind]

In the last few weeks I've been working a lot on polishing the game and finding bugs. There are also some smaller, not that exciting additions like an options menu and difficulty settings.
The good news is that everything is progressing nicely and I'm very confident that the game will be released in February. There, I said it.

Here's a little depiction of a day at work. :D

[Rebusmind]

Good news, everyone: SwapQuest has been invited to the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Europe in Amsterdam next week! I will be showing the game there for three days, hopefully talking to a lot of people from the press to promote the release, which will be at the end of February. If you should be at the venue, make sure to come over and say hello.

I've been very busy with the localization (french and spanish are still missing, but the translators are working on that). Exporting all the text into an excel table was definitely a good decision, as it makes the whole process so much easier. I think I can never go back to hard-coded text in a game. :D
Another new addition to the game is the Game Center integration. Really not a big deal, as I had achievements planned for months, but still it's great to finally see them in the game. Also the Arcade Mode now has a working leaderboard.
From now on my days will be filled with marketing preparations and bug fixing. Wish me luck that everything goes according to plan.

 

[gambrinous]

I'll see you in Amsterdam - also there as part of the Indie Prize!

[Rebusmind]

Hopefully I'll get a chance to try Guild of Dungeoneering there.

[Rebusmind]

- Casual Connect -

I'm back from the Casual Connect in Amsterdam and I really had a great time there. Lots of nice people, cool games and weird lunch boxes (I've never seen a raisin sandwich with cheese before).

Here's how the SwapQuest booth looked like.

- IMGA Nomination -

I also learned during the show that SwapQuest has been nominated for the IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards) in the category Best Upcoming Game, which was a real surprise. I won't be able to attend the award ceremony as it is in San Francisco, but still I'm very excited for this.

- New Icon -

One last thing. Jussi has been working on a new icon, as the first one was not entirely what I was looking for. I'd really like to hear your feedback on the new version.

That's it for today, I'll be doing mostly marketing preparations next week and hope Apple will approve the game very soon. Thanks for reading and please leave some feedback.

 
 

[tanis]

I can't wait for it to be available on the App Store. Kudos for a definitely brilliant gameplay!

[Rebusmind]

SwapQuest has been approved by Apple today!

While this is super awesome, there's a little detail that keeps me worrying: I still have to upload the final release version, the one that is approved has some nasty bugs in it. As I'm still aiming for a February release I have to be quick and upload the current version soon. But... there's still things missing like the icon.

This is especially bad since I have to contact press soon. If you've been in a similar situation, I'd be grateful for every piece of advice.

[oodavid]

How nasty are the bugs? Unless they stop the player from progressing don't worry toooooo much about them, just get them patched in due course.