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[Vire]

Godus is some of the most scummy evil piece of shit software I have ever seen.

First the game lets you build tons of buildings in seconds, (this is great right guys?), then it asks for you to rate the game (sure why not?), suddenly right after, every building now takes a half hour to complete.

I really hate free to play games...

 

[More_Badass]

Godus is some of the most scummy evil piece of shit software I have ever seen.

First the game lets you build tons of buildings in seconds, (this is great right guys?), then it asks for you to rate the game (sure why not?), suddenly right after, every building now takes a half hour to complete.

I really hate free to play games...

Silly, Godus isn't F2P

"There cannot be a term that is less true," Molyneux says of free-to-play. "What we need is a new term. And that term is more like 'invest-to-play.' What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game."

LOL

 

[PFD]

"There cannot be a term that is less true," Molyneux says of free-to-play. "What we need is a new term. And that term is more like 'invest-to-play.' What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game."

 

[toddhunter]

"There cannot be a term that is less true," Molyneux says of free-to-play. "What we need is a new term. And that term is more like 'invest-to-play.' What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game."

He is just being honest. He tempted a heap of PC gamers to invest in paying for their F2P ios abomination.

It worked.

 

[bede-x]

I just can't say enough good things about Deep Loot. The controls are spot on, the graphics are adorable, the music is fantastic - although the transitions between areas can be quite jarring - and I just cannot stop playing it. It's my day off, I have a huge list of chores sitting next to me and I am wasting all of my time digging, digging, digging, digging... Learning that you don't need keys to open locked chests was REVELATORY. Every time I tell myself, "this is the last one," I'll find another piece of bone for my collection or find a ship or a new location. It's just so great.

Just tried this because I sometimes like mining games and I feel quite the opposite: Deep Loot is digital crap. It's feels like the same mobile game that's been released for the who-knows-what-time, you know the one where you start out grinding and grinding, so you can get better equipment, enabling you to grind some more, until equipment becomes so expensive you feel compelled to buy something for real money. There's no failure, always moving forward with the bar filling, with the purpose of getting better at bar filling.

And it does beg for money several times, not least at the end of every level by reminding one that you're not in possession of the coin doubler or maybe by tempting one to buy boosters during a mission.

It doesn't get much worse than this and I'd advise everyone to stay away.

 

[colinp]

Just tried this because I sometimes like mining games and I feel quite the opposite: Deep Loot is digital crap. It's feels like the same mobile game that's been released for the who-knows-what-time, you know the one where you start out grinding and grinding, so you can get better equipment, enabling you to grind some more, until equipment becomes so expensive you feel compelled to buy something for real money. There's no failure, always moving forward with the bar filling, with the purpose of getting better at bar filling.

And it does beg for money several times, not least at the end of every level by reminding one that you're not in possession of the coin doubler or maybe by tempting one to buy boosters during a mission.

It doesn't get much worse than this and I'd advise everyone to stay away.

Haha, yeah it didn't strike my fancy, either. To each there own I guess.

 

[bestpersonevar]

What are some of the best portrait mode ios games. It can be any genre. My favorite is Dragon Quest 8 so far.

 

[thefil]

Hey iOS GAF, I'm looking for a recommendation.

I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow for 5 days, with about 15 hours of flight time. I'm looking for an iOS game that meets the following criteria has a campaign/story mode (i.e. not score attack, tycoon, or Angry Birds style stages to star), is of fairly beefy length (7+ hours expected) and will run on my iPad 3. Pretty much the only kind of game I haven't ever enjoyed is horror. For a point of reference, I'm using Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition as my fallback, but I'm hoping to find something a little less intense.

Thanks for all your expertise.

 

[PFD]

Hey iOS GAF, I'm looking for a recommendation.

I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow for 5 days, with about 15 hours of flight time. I'm looking for an iOS game that meets the following criteria has a campaign/story mode (i.e. not score attack, tycoon, or Angry Birds style stages to star), is of fairly beefy length (7+ hours expected) and will run on my iPad 3. Pretty much the only kind of game I haven't ever enjoyed is horror. For a point of reference, I'm using Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition as my fallback, but I'm hoping to find something a little less intense.

Thanks for all your expertise.

Warhammer Quest
King of Dragon Pass
Frozen Synapse
The Room 1 & 2
Bastion
Sorcery! 1 & 2
FTL (it's technically score attack with a barebones story, but each playthrough can last you hours, and it's sooo good)

 

[More_Badass]

Hey iOS GAF, I'm looking for a recommendation.

I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow for 5 days, with about 15 hours of flight time. I'm looking for an iOS game that meets the following criteria has a campaign/story mode (i.e. not score attack, tycoon, or Angry Birds style stages to star), is of fairly beefy length (7+ hours expected) and will run on my iPad 3. Pretty much the only kind of game I haven't ever enjoyed is horror. For a point of reference, I'm using Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition as my fallback, but I'm hoping to find something a little less intense.

Thanks for all your expertise.

Pray For Death mentioned a lot of good ones. Warhammer Quest, King of Dragon Pass, Bastion will last you for hours. Sorcery! 1 & 2 combo is easily five, six hours, and 80 Days is just as good and engrossing. XCOM is fantastic.

FTL may not have that much of a "story", but the best stories are emergent, come from the gameplay and your desperate battles and tough decisions.

The Quest is an old school RPG with a scope and scale on par with classic PC RPGs

 

[PFD]

One small note about XCOM is it may not run very well on the iPad 3

 

[Katori]

Hey iOS GAF, I'm looking for a recommendation.

How about Shadowrun Returns? Great campaign-based RPG (though no loot), not sure if it runs on iPad 3.

 

[thefil]

How about Shadowrun Returns? Great campaign-based RPG (though no loot), not sure if it runs on iPad 3.

I heard the story was hokey in the base game and that you need the expansion. Is that true?

Thanks for the recs everyone. So far I got Sorcery! and King of Dragon Pass. I already own FTL and Bastion on PC and have played the heck out of them, and even so I'm tempted to pick them up too.

 

[Clunker]

What are some of the best portrait mode ios games. It can be any genre. My favorite is Dragon Quest 8 so far.

DQIV just was released and is my favorite in the series, but I can understand wanting to not double up. There's also Hoplite (strategy/quasi-rogue like) and recently 80 days has been really sinking its hooks into me (interactive fiction).

 

[Minsc]

Just tried this because I sometimes like mining games and I feel quite the opposite: Deep Loot is digital crap. It's feels like the same mobile game that's been released for the who-knows-what-time, you know the one where you start out grinding and grinding, so you can get better equipment, enabling you to grind some more, until equipment becomes so expensive you feel compelled to buy something for real money. There's no failure, always moving forward with the bar filling, with the purpose of getting better at bar filling.

And it does beg for money several times, not least at the end of every level by reminding one that you're not in possession of the coin doubler or maybe by tempting one to buy boosters during a mission.

It doesn't get much worse than this and I'd advise everyone to stay away.

Sounds to me like you didn't get it, the game practically throws money at you. You're supposed to use the boosters, 9x every mission, no exceptions. They cost 750g for 9x air boosters, and you'll get around 10x that back, or more (yes, you should actually get around 500-1000+ gold per air booster of time, and they cost under 100g each). To me it sounds like you just didn't play it very much, but I've only played it a little bit too, and I don't find it at all like you describe. I've gotten 15,000+ gold in a single dive (not doubled, or anything, and each dive tends to net slightly more that the last, so I'm sure it's possible to hit 30-50k+ per dive, maybe 100k+ doubled), and I'm barely upgraded (only 1-2 upgrades of dive equipment and no expensive boats or suits).

 

[More_Badass]

I heard the story was hokey in the base game and that you need the expansion. Is that true?

Thanks for the recs everyone. So far I got Sorcery! and King of Dragon Pass. I already own FTL and Bastion on PC and have played the heck out of them, and even so I'm tempted to pick them up too.

Personally I'd say get Sorcery 2 as well, because the first one ends kind of abruptly and the second game is bigger and better than the first

 

[thefil]

Finished up with Sorcery! 1&2, KoDP, and ended up getting Baldur's Gate as well thanks to Minsc's avatar. That should do it!

 

[PFD]

Enjoy your flight

 

[GDJustin]

It makes me SO HAPPY to see Inkle experiencing so much success with 80 Days.

Sorcery 1, as crazy as it sounds, is one of my favorite gaming experiences of the last few years on any platform. It was just so polished and imaginative and well put together. Felt almost impossibly expansive. I didn't like 2 as much, but that's more a fault with the source material than it is with Inkle itself.

I genuinely believe that there's a huge opportunity to push interactive fiction farther, and that it has potential to be one of the next "big things" in tablet/mobile gaming. Especially if companies like Inkle keep figuring out how to make the experience more RPG-like.

 

[More_Badass]

It makes me SO HAPPY to see Inkle experiencing so much success with 80 Days.

Sorcery 1, as crazy as it sounds, is one of my favorite gaming experiences of the last few years on any platform. It was just so polished and imaginative and well put together. Felt almost impossibly expansive. I didn't like 2 as much, but that's more a fault with the source material than it is with Inkle itself.

I genuinely believe that there's a huge opportunity to push interactive fiction farther, and that it has potential to be one of the next "big things" in tablet/mobile gaming. Especially if companies like Inkle keep figuring out how to make the experience more RPG-like.

Would love to see a game in the style of Sorcery but with a cyberpunk or sci-fi setting. Is there anything like that on IOS?

 

[Zeth]

Hey iOS GAF, I'm looking for a recommendation.

I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow for 5 days, with about 15 hours of flight time. I'm looking for an iOS game that meets the following criteria has a campaign/story mode (i.e. not score attack, tycoon, or Angry Birds style stages to star), is of fairly beefy length (7+ hours expected) and will run on my iPad 3. Pretty much the only kind of game I haven't ever enjoyed is horror. For a point of reference, I'm using Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition as my fallback, but I'm hoping to find something a little less intense.

Thanks for all your expertise.

Oldie but goodie: Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. [Awesome]Turn based strategy/puzzle gameplay with a meaty story campaign.

Edit: safe travels friend!

 

[Stumpokapow]

Made an OT for 80 Days:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=871577

 

[More_Badass]

Made an OT for 80 Days:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=871577

Not too nitpick or tell you how to make your threads, but I feel the title could be more "flashy". I mean, the goal is to draw people into the thread, hook and entice them

Personal I'd have titled it something like

80 Days |OT| Circumnavigate an 1800s steampunk world in this sprawling text adventure

Hope this doesn't come across as insulting, apologies if it does

 

[toddhunter]

Not too nitpick or tell you how to make your threads, but I feel the title could be more "flashy".

His title is way better. Learn from the master.

But yeah, a link to the game would be cool

 

[bede-x]

To me it sounds like you just didn't play it very much, but I've only played it a little bit too, and I don't find it at all like you describe.

I played it around three hours and there's nothing in your description that sounds different from my experience of the game, the difference is just that you accept the premise - grind (through time or money) to get better at grinding - as worthwhile, whereas I don't.

 

[More_Badass]

Anyone here play Devil Shard, worth getting? How does it compare to 1000000 (if you've played that)?

 

[colinp]

Nevermind, all set!

 

[Sid]

Silly, Godus isn't F2P


LOL

Fee to pay just rolls off the tongue.

 

[Minsc]

I played it around three hours and there's nothing in your description that sounds different from my experience of the game, the difference is just that you accept the premise - grind (through time or money) to get better at grinding - as worthwhile, whereas I don't.

I think the difference is I find it fun to explore the environments and collect the objects in the water and upgrade yourself, without any need at all to throw money at the game to unlock stuff, which is very different from your description. I just didn't find it any where near as horrible as you described, and for a free game, it can provide quite a bit of fun imo, if you like the hooks, which you clearly don't. But imo, you fail to recognize there is still value in it, as you attempt to steer everyone away from the game on what I find to be a false premise - that it's a horrible grind. Granted, that's your take... but your take is simply such the polar opposite from mine, I felt obligated to comment I found it to be nothing of the sort - as I pointed out how much money the game throws at you, and how I found myself in no ways short of money to have fun. I don't see the point of the game to upgrade your collection to max in 2 hours or anything... it's a fun and simple diversion for 5-10 mins at a time.

 

[okno]

I've made a ton of money and unlocked a lot of items in Deep Loot without ever feeling like I had to spend a single dime on the game. I'm compelled to buy the doubler just to give the developers a few bucks, but other than that I feel the game is more than fair. I gain over 20,000 coins every single run. Buy 9x air packs and a super/turbo boost before each run. Almost made it to 400km the other day, but got attacked by some crazy weird angler fish.

 

[More_Badass]

Excellent article from Gamasutra:
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/ThomasHe...Ive_Said_Goodbye_to_Mobile_in_Favor_of_PC.php

I am fed up with the whole mobile/tablet gaming market. I’ve worked hard for three years and released two games to almost every mobile device you can think of. Never again. From now on I am focusing all my development resources on the PC. Frankly, I should have started there to begin with.

This is an excellent article that explores how difficult and unfair IOS development can be, and touches on some quite personal consequences for the developer

 

[Matt Frost]

I did it! Finished 80 Days... felt quite good, I managed to do it even while losing my master after being forced to take drugs, ended up working on a circus, loosing hope, and made good money and found my master again and in time at Honolulu (, everything left on schedule, only had to wait a few days once and lent some money so it was perfect. I went from Washington to Lisbon an made it at 5 PM of the 79th day. Awesome experience. Lets see where I go now...

Love you, Matt Frost

Thanks, feels good to know that I am not the only one playing and enjoying it a lot. And I like it more the more I play which is an excellent sign. I heard that if you complete both difficulty unlocks a true endless mode, so I cant wait for that.

Man, Adventure Time: Time Tangle is frustrating. It might be my favorite AT game (not that it's a high bar) if the goddamn buttons worked more than 60% of the time. I've only had one death that wasn't directly caused by a jump or a punch not registering.

I haven't games much on iOS lately so maybe it's been a thing for a while but I'm really liking these quest- or track-based endless runners like this and Crazy Taxi.

I had some problems in the first minutes with it until I stopped and inhaled, taking a deep breath while internalizing the location of the button. After that, never missed a beat again. But some re-sizing and some placement options for the controls would be more appreciated.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Just tried Godus and agree with what a lot of others said. It starts off pretty great for a little while, I like the look, and the upgrade hooks seemed like they'd keep me interested, but very quickly it started taking forever to do anything.

Are there any Populous type or other world building games that are a similar high quality without any of the timers or dual currency's? Godus really scratched that itch for about 30 min, and I like more but I don't intend to support that game any more.

 

[Tunesmith]

Revamped the design of the OP a bit!

Also added some new games:

These threads are now also added in OP post #2







---

Heads-up for next week, I will be at Gamescom so I won't be able to add any updates again until at least Saturday.

 

[FiraB]

Words do not even...

 

[Kiriku]

Revamped the design of the OP a bit!

Hmm, seems like the new design is made for the white NeoGAF theme, the text becomes a bit hard to read when using the dark theme. :/

 

[Mario]

Excellent article from Gamasutra:
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/ThomasHe...Ive_Said_Goodbye_to_Mobile_in_Favor_of_PC.php

This is an excellent article that explores how difficult and unfair IOS development can be, and touches on some quite personal consequences for the developer

I thought it was a terrible article insomuch as he spends most of it talking about problems he doesn't even address in his conclusions, instead laying the blame for failure almost entirely on the challenges of mobile. There are legitimate problems with mobile as a market, but he has more fundamental issues to resolve first or he'll fail again.

There is a thread on the article here http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=871505 which I chipped in with my thoughts, but my sentiments were most succinctly put in this post by another user

Most of the problems he describes in that article are more about the approach he took to game development than with the platform he released the game one.

Bad budgeting, bad relations with the publisher, not making the game he wants but what he thinks will sell (and he also didn't know that) it's what, according to the article, killed his company instead of "mobile gamers aren't real gamers like PC ones".

Mobile is just a platform and it has a large amount of people with different tastes. Not everything is going to be Candy Crush but that's the same as saying that not every indie pc game is Minecraft. Doesn't mean you can't live in the middle.

There are obvious problems with the platform and monetization practices in it (he doesn't touch on that) but dismissing an entire platform isn't going to help solve this problems or help take advantage of the huge user base they have.

I think there's a lot to learn about this story but not so much about mobile game development in specific. Some of his problems can happen when he moves to PC too. It's not like every game released on Steam sells a lot.

If I search of "A is for App" or "Catch The Monkey" on my phone his games don't appear, why is that? That's something that it would be interesting to talk about.

Also, in his Archmage page he says he might release the game on tablets so, clearly, he hasn't given up completely on the platform.

 

[Tunesmith]

Hmm, seems like the new design is made for the white NeoGAF theme, the text becomes a bit hard to read when using the dark theme. :/

Ack, didn't realise the mobile version of the dark theme is completely black. Hrm.. the desktop version uses greys.

I'll revisit the design.

 

[Kiriku]

Ack, didn't realise the mobile version of the dark theme is completely black. Hrm.. the desktop version uses greys.

I'll revisit the design.

Thanks, really appreciate the effort you put into it!

 

[Jedeye Sniv]

I love me some DQ and fancy playing it on my phone. Can anyone tell me if it overrides the music/podcasts? Square strike me as a company that would be dicks about this.

 

[sibarraz]

One also has to consider that mobile has a way bigger userbase, but yeah, I could how hs app was lost in the market

 

[krYlon]

Anyone here know how playable XCOM is on the original ipad mini?

Seems to be mixed experiences on the user reviews. I'm still tempted...

 

[More_Badass]

Nimian Legends: BrightRidge
Trailer

Relax and enter BrightRidge - a virtual safari for iPhone, Android, Mac and PC. Explore a world where violence is optional and exploration is the key. Experience total freedom as you run, swim and even fly anywhere in a large 3d world, unlocking new abilities and learning the legends and lore of BrightRidge. Discover BrightRidge and its beautiful forests, raging rivers and mountain peaks.

Just discovered this game today. This isn't an RPG or an action game. This is pure exploration and discovery in a sprawling open world that encompasses mountains and forests, ruins and temples, and more. If you're hoping for something action-heavy, you won't find that here. You can hunt and fight the animals and ecosystem that exists in the world, but there are no quests.

But if you find enjoyment in new vistas, in just going out and exploring and discovering what lies ahead, you should definitely give Nimian Legends a try

 

[OccamsBlender]

Sounds to me like you didn't get it, the game practically throws money at you. You're supposed to use the boosters, 9x every mission, no exceptions. They cost 750g for 9x air boosters, and you'll get around 10x that back, or more (yes, you should actually get around 500-1000+ gold per air booster of time, and they cost under 100g each). To me it sounds like you just didn't play it very much, but I've only played it a little bit too, and I don't find it at all like you describe. I've gotten 15,000+ gold in a single dive (not doubled, or anything, and each dive tends to net slightly more that the last, so I'm sure it's possible to hit 30-50k+ per dive, maybe 100k+ doubled), and I'm barely upgraded (only 1-2 upgrades of dive equipment and no expensive boats or suits).

I'm someone who always uses items sparingly so this is big news to me. Sure the game gives me a few items here and there but I never felt comfortable using them all.
I'm definitely going to start stocking on air boosters and use my mega diving bell thing. It seems to restock itself but I'm not sure what the timing is.
Using every air booster is good to know though it's easy to forget about them when you're in an exploration groove.

Made an OT for 80 Days:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=871577

Gawd this game is brilliant. Thank you iOS GAF for letting me know about this!

 

[Hellers]

Dive Loot is ace. It's taken the Pocket Mine formula and turned it into a roguelite and made it f2p but without all the usual f2p bull. In fact if you buy the coin doubler it might as well just be a regular game.

I'm pleased Minsc mentioned buying the boosters as often as possible. It really makes the game. Your first set of games you'll think "Is this it?" because they're quite short. Once you earn a bit of gold (A surprisingly fast process) and get your first set of upgrades and start buying boosts (Don't forget chest keys) the money flows in very quickly. Once you add in the rather large set of collectables, missions and areas to discover it rapidly becomes quite a nice little time waster.

 

[Dorimukyasuto]

Just got an iPhone 5S after not having a smartphone for 5 years. What do you guys recommend for me?

I have Megaman X, which is awesome and The Simpsons Tapped Out, which is alright.
What else should I have? Micromon looks cool.

 

[one_kill]

Just got an iPhone 5S after not having a smartphone for 5 years. What do you guys recommend for me?

I have Megaman X, which is awesome and The Simpsons Tapped Out, which is alright.
What else should I have? Micromon looks cool.

I recently got back to iOS gaming and the games I'm enjoying atm are
Punch Quest
Ridiculous Fishing
Hitman Go

Other games I recommend include:
Battleheart
Cut the Rope
Plants vs Zombies
Game Dev Story (most Kairosoft games are awesome)

 

[Gartikker]

Can anyone recommend more games like Traps N' Gemstones on IOS? That style of game play and not so focused on boss fights.

 

[gofreak]

Excellent article from Gamasutra:
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/ThomasHe...Ive_Said_Goodbye_to_Mobile_in_Favor_of_PC.php

This is an excellent article that explores how difficult and unfair IOS development can be, and touches on some quite personal consequences for the developer

The biggest problem I saw there was launching a business with a monthly burn rate of $16,667. A problem he doesn't highlight in his takeaways at the end.

There's plenty of people working part-time on their own projects. That's a better route to go I think. It might also make you less attached to your own ideas so you could iterate quickly on lots of different ideas to see what works and what doesn't. Ideas can become throwaway rather than 'omg this has to work or we'll sink'.

There are good caveats in there too, but the business approach was a major problem I think. The appstore definitely does now feel casino-esque, like a lottery, but I think there are things you can do to improve your odds. Like not making the cost of your ticket be a monthly 16k starting out...

 

[Matt Frost]

Can anyone recommend more games like Traps N' Gemstones on IOS? That style of game play and not so focused on boss fights.

Traps N´ Gemstones is sort of unique on iOS, but we have similar ones like Mines of Mars, very similar gameplay but more focused on mining (to upgrade your gear you have to find specific minerals that are scattered on a huge map, motroidvania style) and discovering the secrets or Mars. Its about 5-7 hours long and its pretty good. I loved it.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mines-of-mars/id670407610?mt=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2XCsCieFz0