Legends of Yore

Featured Games
#61

Keep it low-res as it is now 8) It’s part of the game is it not? :yawn:

#62

New version up to http://www.legendsofyore.com
Android Market isn’t updated just yet.
iPhone App Store is back “In Review”

There’s a lot of new content in this release, if not much expanded mechanics as yet. There’s a bigger over world map and two more dungeons to find and complete. You may find a few dungeons that are just entrances at the moment, they shouldn’t break, you’ll just get advised not to go in. The game should be considerably harder now and hopefully has more fun and game play to take in :slight_smile:

As always I’m interested in bugs, problems, failures and feedback on the general feel of the game. Basically anything you’ve got :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Kev

Change Log: 01/04/2011

  • Minor Sound FX
  • Music
  • Options for cursors
  • Slow rage cool off
  • Confirm dialogs
  • Slow monsters
  • Speedup for player
  • Scripting framework added
  • Expanded overland map
  • Add a bunch of new items
  • Add a bunch of new monsters
  • Two new dungeons
  • Exception logging framework
  • Monster “type” - undead etc
  • Made it a bit harder
  • Mutli-turn monsters
  • Loads of bug fixing and expanding of the framework (not that you’d see)
  • OGG support into cross platform API
  • Performance improvements on iPhone 4
#63

In other news, an older version of the game has just gone live on iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/legends-of-yore/id434205569?mt=8&ls=1

Anyone with an iPhone/iPad should now be able to try it out.

Kev

#64

I played through to the second (graveyard) dungeon with the archer.

Some more candidates for your to-do list:

  • Personal taste perhaps, but I’d like it if the buttons at the start (new game, choose character, etc.) gave a bit more feedback when clicked, say by lighting-up briefly.
  • On the main game screen, it feels like I should be able to click on the bottom-right tile (where the ‘stop’ button used to be) to move there. (I guess that conflicts with the ‘cursor’ buttons though, if they’re enabled.)
  • The shop-keepers like to sit behind tables. It’s a bit annoying that you have to walk all the way around the table to chat to them.
  • The cyclops won’t walk through water. I found that he was rather easy to kill with the archer because of this. (He stood still while I pin-cushioned him.) If that’s a deliberate feature then it’s a sneaky one, but I thought I’d better mention it just in case it’s a bug. :wink:
  • When the cyclops bust through a wall, it left a floor tile next to a ‘void’ tile (both on the main screen and the map screen). I tried to crash the game by walking into the void, but it wouldn’t let me. :stuck_out_tongue: The void tile should probably become a wall tile in such situations.
  • When I use the portal spell from the item screen, it surprised me that the game didn’t immediately switch back to the main screen. It didn’t feel like the spell had done anything.
  • Should there be something to find on the lowest dungeon level? (A treasure chest and a portal back to town at least.) I spent a confused couple of minutes hunting around to see if I’d missed anything.
  • Is this the first RPG game ever not to have an inn? It doesn’t feel right having to buy lots of apples to replenish your health after a dungeon. Maybe you could get all your health back automatically when you return to town?
  • When you enter a dungeon for the first time, the “Game Saved” text seems inappropriate (more bug than feature). There’s no need to reassure me that the game’s saved so early on.
  • How about making the “Use Item” button on the item screen change according to the selected item? Greyed-out if the item cannot be used, appropriate text for different items (“Equip”, “Unequip”, “Eat”, etc.).
  • Does the ‘Zen’ system do anything yet? I found myself completely ignoring it (which is a pity if it does do something because giving the player a little more in the way of tactical decision-making wouldn’t hurt).

It’s not my favourite genre, but I do like playing this. My heart tells me to keep exploring to see what’s new in the next dungeon, even though my head tells me that that content probably hasn’t been written yet. :wink:

Simon

#65

Thanks for all the feedback dishmoth, awesome. I’ve tried to apply most of it (or log it at least for the next update).

Just updated the site, android market, itunes (this may take some time) with the next version. There are details and change log are here:

http://blog.legendsofyore.com/?p=65

There’s a lot of fixes and suggested new content, along with a rebalance of the game and some completely new features. The scripting system is starting to get used and hopefully it’s generally more approachable now. I’ve also done quite a bit of work to get the game working on low end iOS devices (I’m testing against a iPod 2G atm).

I’d be really interested in any feedback,

Thanks,

Kev

#66

I couple of suggestions for game balancing. Take 'em or leave 'em. :wink:

Compared with other RPGs (in my experience), your character has a high Max Health and only regains a small amount when using items. If the situation were reversed (small Max Health but items heal 50% or 100%) then it would make the choice as to whether to use an item now or save it till later a bit more tactical. (But maybe it works better for a ‘casual’ audience the way it is.)

At the moment combat is literally one-sided - monsters only come at you from one direction. How about adding some monsters that sneak up behind you? Or make some of those piles of bones turn into skeletons when you walk past them? Or have trapped chests that make four monsters suddenly appear around you?

Simon

#67

Both great ideas, thanks! :slight_smile:

I particularly like the ideas of traps that cause monsters to appear all around, I’ll be adding that for sure :slight_smile:

Kev

#68

Spent some time today supporting a bigger window size in the stand alone app (and on iPad and Android Tablets). It’s a bit of different experience playing it with a bigger view but I hope it still works out. You’d need to download the game to try it at the higher resolution and change the property in the run.properties to “game.big true”.

Pretty happy with the outcome so far:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1668516/shots/TouchQuest/bigscreen.png

I’ve also just made the SVN repository I’m using have a change log visible to RSS, which you can access here:

http://www.legendsofyore.com/svnrss.php

If anyone has any comments on the new format or anything else in the game I’d love to hear them.

Kev

PS. Fresh link since it’s so far up now: http://www.legendsofyore.com

#69

Pretty cool game, worked fine on galaxy s.

Is it possible to move the saved games between platforms, or are they incompatible?

#70

Yep, if you hit login on the main screen and create yourself a save account you can then use that to share games between the platforms.

Any games you currently have on the game are put into your account when you create it.

Kev

#71

Awesome!

#72

Much like! You need some ‘specials’ though, I played for a while but didn’t get those ‘OK, I guess I’ll need that/can sell that’ monemts…

#73

Yes. I’d say:

  • Many many more items (as in, have some variety at all right away).
  • Some kind of spells or special abilities.
  • Secret rooms and big rewards that actually encourage me to explore the entirety of a dungeon.
  • Some kind of storyline and a “why.”
#74

Thanks for the input Eli.

Kev

#75

Personally I rather like the game’s story the way it is.
“You know why you’re here. There’s the dungeon. Get to work.”
:wink:

#76

Still working away on this. I’m currently building the quest system, so that should be in a release any time soon.

The latest release has all the big monsters enabled and reasonably large area to explore.

I’m getting reports of some saving issues so I’d really appreciate any feedback in that area. In addition I’ve added big screen mode for the download version which should make it more enjoyable for those who like to have more of their screen filled up :slight_smile:

Kev

#77

Yes, I’d say just some sort of cursory storyline around it all.

My favorite game as a kid, Taskmaker, was a roguelike where some king guy gave you tasks to do. As you do them, you learn he’s evil and then the final task is to kill him. You don’t have to read much text at all and for the most part can go wherever you want, but there are all kinds of little signs and things, characters you can talk to, etc. that give you little hints about the storyline and the like. Some of that is beyond Legends of Yore, I’m just saying having some kind of simple frame of story wrapped around it all really really helps to give the player a drive. Basically, they need to know what the end is so that they can want to get there.

For me, the gameplay in Legends of Yore is very fun, it’s just missing features that make me want to keep playing for a long period of time. There’s nothing really to indicate that things are going to get much different if I play much more, so I don’t have any incentive to really do it. Even if I don’t necessarily want a carrot in front of my face, I at least want to be able to smell the slight sent of a carrot somewhere in the distance. :slight_smile:

#78

i really love (not just like) (sometimes) big pixels
but mechanics and not even turning the hero to the left made me leave the game since some 6th second

#79

It’s sort of the tradition with roguelikes that the graphics don’t turn left/right/up/down, but thanks for trying it anyway :slight_smile:

Kev

#80

The new iOS version is on the AppStore. It contains a lot of new fixes and a support for the old iOS handsets (I tested on iPod Touch 2nd Gen). Looks like its about a week lag time to get it up there, so the iOS version will lag about a week behind the releases I make to the web, android and desktop version.

If you think thats not fair (I do), don’t hesitate in letting Apple know!

iTunes link:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/legends-of-yore/id434205569?mt=8

You may need to wait for the various worldwide appstores to update.

Kev