So, just in time, here are the screenshots I mentioned in the first post. Many things can and will change before release, so what you see there can look and work different in the final game.
Running through the comments, I decided to answer some of the more common questions here.
What happened to the Arcade Lounge?
The Arcade Lounge was a section in our old site where other developers’ games were hosted. It took too much time to manage so it was laying there with no updates for more than a year. We decided to close it and concentrate on developing more games of our own, so we put a one month notice (at the end of May) on the opening page of the site.
You can find all the games that were there, on newgrounds.com.
GCL release date:
I’m sorry to say, but no need to check the site many times a day, the game will not be released for quite a while, there are tons of things to do before that.
I also can’t tell any exact release dates. We want it to be out in Q3 2010 (e.g. before September 30, 2010), but we can’t promise anything, so if you don’t see the game up and running on the 1st of October, please wait just a bit more, we’ll keep you updated here on the blog.
GCL difficulty:
Some players would like to see a harder game, others an easier one.
Good news for those who got stuck in GC0: GCL will leave the strict player progress mechanism where you had to beat your own highest scores to get any more XP. Now, if you run a stage again and again, you’ll get the XP you earn each time. Of course it won’t be worth beating the first stage on the easiest mode/settings repeatedly because you could get much more XP trying on those stages and difficulty settings that fit your skills.
Hardcore players can test their skills on the more difficult stages and modes, and a new class of amulets (the “challenge amulets”) will be there to be earned – when you get a challenge amulet by meeting the task/condition (like causing 1M HP damage on a given stage in a given mode), you can go on and push your limits, the amulet will remember your best score, so you can show off on Youtube or try to beat your top score.
And last but not least, about the business model we plan to use in GCL:
1, all stages and most skills will be available for free.
2, a one time fee of a few USD (about $5) will unlock all game modes/settings and all skills.
3, extra skill points can be bought if you want a temporary (one stage) boost for your skills (something like 1000 extra skill points for $1). You’ll be awarded with extra skill points when leveling up or gaining a new amulet, so you can try it without paying a cent. With these extra skill points, you can level your skills up further, but each time you play a stage, the extra skill point amount you used is subtracted from your total amount until you run out.
4, No more victory panel ads – if there will be any ad, it will appear when the game starts up.
If you are unfamiliar with payments in online games, check out Bloons TD 4 and other games on NinjaKiwi, or Robokill and Robokill 2 from Rocksolid Arcade.
If you want to know more about how and why flash game developers earn money or go out of business, and why placing ads in games and not asking for payments is a dead end, read the article Flash love letter (a must-read eye opener for every practicing or wannabe developer!) on Lost Garden.
:: Update July 11, 2010 ::
Yesterday I forgot to write about these:
Beta test:
For now we don’t know if a sponsorship/”primary license” agreement will be made for this game, like it was the case with GC1/GC0 and Armor Games. If the game leaks before release, it can ruin our contract. (for example see the StarCraft 2 invitational beta, which was originally tied to Battle.net, is now available on torrent sites, and comes with a login bypass for offline playing. Of course StarCraft 2 and GemCraft are not in the same class, so I don’t think top tier cracker teams would spend their time on making GCL available, but a flash game (a mere .swf file) is a piece of cake even for a novice cracker. So, instead of a pre-release beta, in the first weeks after the official release, many fixes and improvements will be released for the game.
Donations:
Thank you for showing us your support, but we can’t receive donations that easily. Maybe I haven’t dug deep enough in the maze of tax laws, but as far as I know, here in Hungary we can’t just put out a Donation button and receive the payments on Paypal, we should send an invoice to anyone who sends us money. We would have to ask your name and address, and the processing fee of an invoice, and the amount Paypal and our bank subtracts, be more than the money you originally sent.
If you’d like to support us, you can do this by purchasing our future games, so you will get something in return. Handling the payments will be done by third parties, so we won’t have to issue a ton of invoices and ask for your personal data.
Payments (continued):
I understand your point when you say you wouldn’t pay for a simple online game. On a game that is so simplistic and short that I can play it to the end in an hour, and purchasing an “ultimate laser cannon” would just make it even shorter, I wouldn’t spend aynthing either. If you enjoyed our past games, give our next one a try, and if you think it’s reasonable to buy all the features, go on and enjoy the full experience, otherwise have fun with the basic (but still huge) version.
Wow! Looking at those screens it seems like you’ve got a whole lot of great TD elements covered. I for one would be more than happy to part with a lot more than $5 for a game of the quality of GC0, so if you ever have a donation option…
I don’t know who complained about the victory panel ads. If those are an actual source of revenue I’d say keep them in.
I’m curious as to how many skills will be available when you say “most skills for free”, depending on what exactly the locked skills will be, it would be worthwhile spending 5 dollars (or more) to get hundreds of hours of playtime.
The screenshots look very nice. I like the 10 million mana value, however that can be a placeholder or different than GC0 was but it means more spending mana and more chaos going on during the game.
The wall/path building concept sounds (and looks) incredibly fun. I hope the last stages/secret stages make us utilize building a path for the waves a big part of success.
The 10 million-ish mana was in the GC0 trailer as well… It’s a way to show off features without having to worry about monsters getting to your tower and killing you.
I too would be more than willing to pay $5 for the extra skills if it translates into much more playtime. If they’re all obtainable through gameplay, maybe not, since it’s much more fun to unlock them normally…
It’s a real shame the game is switching to payments for content/skills. I didn’t mind the ads, but I won’t pay for a non-retail game. I suspect it may hurt more than help developers, especially since you don’t really release many games.
99% of the developers produce free games just as good as Gemcraft and in a more timely manner.
Again, I would be happy to pay for a retail game with all the bells and whistles.
Where do we pay for these skills.Thats confusing me.
I have been anxiously waiting for the arrival of a new gemcraft since I finished playing the last one nearly a year ago. It is, in my opinion, the best flash game on the internet and better than most console or pc retail games that I have played. This is why I find it so unfortunate that the payment structure detailed here will be implemented for the next chapter.
The issue for me is not money. Gemcraft has, at least for me, established itself as a title with the first two games. I understand that there is a certain standard of quality that comes with it. I would gladly pay a single upfront fee (and more than 5 dollars) for access to the entire game. for that matter I would be more than willing to donate money for the dozens of hours of enjoyment i have had using this product.
But backdoor “premium” content charges always detract from the immersive gameplay quality to me. Purchasing upgrades does not yield the same experience as earning them. In the past I have always felt like I am being held hostage by these kinds of purchases and afterwards feel a great deal of buyer’s remorse. I believe that this is a fundamental stumbling block that cannot be overcome.
I am sure that this new model will create a more robust revenue stream for the people involved with the games creation. And while I wish the developers behind gemcraft all the best, I will not be playing the next installment.
I would hold it this way: If you have payed the 5 dollars, you should still have to unlock the bonus content. So you still have to get enough XP to use the skills, and you still have to finish the levels on the way, to reach the premium levels.
Then i would love to pay for the game!
Yes, that would be the plan – unlocking the whole game won’t grant all the high level skills, nor give an XP/level boost, it will only make all the game features available, but you would still have to earn them. It’s not the kind of “pay $2 to have a grade 10 gem starting each stage” – that would perfectly ruin the game.
Alright! Time to stop looking at this site everyday then 🙂
Sorry to hear about your business strategy etc. can’t really say I vouch for that (all skill and content for all or retail imo) but what can you do
Also even though i understand where it comes from, i really liked the xp-cap that you couldn’t re-do it for a constant xp flow. Atleast I will always take the easiest way available, what i liked about GC is that it provided a challenge in finding that way.
Much love and good luck!
You could make a payed beta 😀
I would for sure pay a lot to play the game one month earlier 😛
Taking away the XP Cap per Level… hm… i am curious if that will make the game worse or better!
The ablillity to build towers in the maze, blocking the way of the spawn is definatly great…. looking forward to it 🙂
I would have to agree with what rscw3 is saying.
also having to pay to have every feature in the game just doesn’t appeal that much.
In my opinion, someone creating a game like gemcraft should earn so much money for it, he should never have to work again.. gemcraft is art, it should be worth as much as a bestseller, at least 😉
So i dont have anything against paying the 5 dollars! (Will we be able to pay with paypal?)
The common third party payment handler services we plan to cooperate with (MochiCoins, GamerSafe, HeyZap) allow PayPal as well as credit/debit cards and even sms. When purchasing online, I personally prefer PayPal because I don’t have to give all my personal data (card number etc) every time I buy something.
Paying $5 for something as awesome as GC is a no-brainer – I still go back and play the other two GC games because they are still fun, over a year after beating them.
I’m sick of this attitude I see on here where people are pushing for new GC games, but unwilling to pay $5 to show their support.
I do hope the new GC will be published on Kongregate, and that we’ll be able to purchase the extra skills and such through that channel.
I can’t talk on Kongregate’s behalf, but I think we can work together with them just as we did in the past, publishing the game on their site as well. They now also have their own Kreds system to handle payments.
Florian, Dayle, and everyone who think it can be worth spending $5 on a casual/indie game, thanks for supporting the independent game scene! 🙂
Didn’t care about the advertisements, but gimping the game experience for cash is going to do more bad than good.
What will happen is this, people who don’t feel like paying will get a warez version, which means they won’t even give you money through adds and they’ll potentially get a virus.
If you need money, put up donation buttons and a developpers blog. Every 100 dollars, people get 2 days worth of coding. 3 if you’re generous, with updates on what you updated. That way, users you’ve collected through gemcraft 0 and 1 will determine if they want a new game.
That way, you get add revenue and paid for the days you spend on the game without screwing people over.
And give people who paid the game 1 month in advance, together with a developpers sandbox mode to further test and exploit the game as much as they want, whereas normal people only get the normal game. But the full game none the less.
Good luck.
I don’t think we should care about those who download warez if they get a virus or not.
$100 for 2-3 day, taxes are around 53% here + Paypal’s commission, so let’s say $40, $13-$20 a day. That’s what I would earn if I worked at McDonalds here (although I heard that in the US you can earn it with 2 hours working at McDonalds, ok, maybe before taxes, but still). But the Donate button is nowhere near that lucrative.
In the very beggining, when we didn’t have our company yet, only the site, I put a Donate button on the site, and it brought in $50 in about 3 months.
And again, being a company and trying to obey the laws, we can’t collect donations without overkilling and costy administration.
We have walked the path trying this and that, we can’t earn a living relying on ads, so we decided to make the game this way. You don’t have to buy it, really.
If these skills are not a “must have” to beat the game then there are no objections against them. I am looking forward to see the new chapter and i am willingly pay the small fee.
No, the premium skills are not required to complete the game. All stages will be playable, including beating the game, in free mode.
here is my opinion:
Make a free game that have (just an expamle) 80 Levels und 20 Skills. All players will be happy.
If someone buying this game for 5$ he have 140 Levels and 35 Skills. Maybe with a special ending or something else.
Make a landmap thats like “super mario bros”. Maybe a different map, beautifuller map and so on.
Maybe you should not put these 2 options in one swf. Make a free game swf and a purchased verion swf. If possible.
hope you like my hints.
greets
look at the Game “Azgard Defence”.
It comes with a free flash game with some stages and a purchase game (.exe) with lots of stages, better sfx and so on.
I’m ready to pay $5 but there are two things that disappoint me:
1) Will I actually be able to pay? PayPal doesn’t work with my country and I don’t have a credit card.
2) Payment will make the game experience worse:
it will make the game easier – more skills, more choices…
it will shorten the amount of players who got the same gaming experience as me.
I don’t think it will make the game easier because the new skills are only available after you reach a certain point in the game.
Quote from Peter
” unlocking the whole game won’t grant all the high level skills, nor give an XP/level boost, it will only make all the game features available, but you would still have to earn them”
In my opinion the game experience will even last longer for the people who have paid the fee.
Isotop, your reply appeared while I was still typing mine below 🙂
Yes, that’s the point, switching to premium would open up a new layer of gameplay, giving the player more goals (the challenge amulets) to pursue, more choices (skills) and more ways (game modes) to reach a high player (wizard) level.
1, I hope that PayPal will expand to more and more countries (it took years for them to make it available in Hungary, I don’t know why, but they move very slowly), or a PayPal alternative rises to fill the market they missed.
There might be different choices per country, maybe sms is the most widespread, but also the most expensive, as cellphone providers take a huge toll.
Paying with bank cards (no need for a “credit” card (a card allowing you to spend the bank’s money), a normal bank (“debit”) card with a 3-digit security code on its back side will allow you to use it online) is relatively cheap, you only have to have a bank account (recurring monthly fee) and the bank card connected to your account (might be part of the monthly fee, or the bank might charge an additional yearly fee, varies by bank and the card you pick).
2, To activate the unlocked premium skills you will still have to spend skill points on them, they won’t come granted. The game might get easier or harder, depending how challenging stages and modes you select, more skills indeed give you more choices but it won’t force your game experience to be easy, it’s just one of many factors.
Indeed only a part of all players will switch to premium, but I hope it will still mean a large group of players you can share your gaming experience with.
im mexican so i hope you understand my question…
1.- i can play all the game normal i dont hace to pay to have more levels or skill right??
2.- if a pay the only diference is that i will hace more skills for exemple no but no more levels and especials atributs??
3 is not a question, felicidades for the game and next ones.
1, You can play all the stages and so finish the game beating the final stage, use most skills, level up without limit, acquire most amulets, and play some of the stage modes/mode settings (the mode selector will work different than in GC0, more about it later in the blog, after we finalize it). No time limit, you can play the free version for free forever.
2, If you go premium, you will unlock all the skills (but still have to spend skill points to get them), all the game modes, and all the amulets.
3, ¡Gracias! 🙂
I have a few questions that I would like to ask;
1) Would the premium version allow access to any more/new gems/colours and their associated effects and masteries, in addition to the eight main gems?
2) Will gems be able to “level up” when they reach a specific level threshold, depending on the gem’s effect(s)? If so, what aspects of gems improve when they level up? And what would happen when two gems of different levels are combined?
3) Will players be able to backup their saves as text files, similar to the feature in GemCraft Chapter Zero?
1, No.
2, No, kill counts (for all ancestors and since last combine) will be displayed for each gem, but it won’t make the games stronger.
3, This feature was introduced because locally stored save data is very vulnerable (a privacy sweep you run on your pc can erase all local data stored by swf files). Now it will depend on how third parties will support server-side save data hosting. We’ll try to avoid data loss while making it simple for players to access their save data everywhere, and also try to prevent save data share cheating if possible. So for now I can’t tell a yes or no for sure.
a few problems:
even know it is no where near it’s realease the grapics are still quite simplei mean it has no life, for the monsters they can just be one boring colour, gems: nice job but we need to have difrent gems to shoot out diffrent types of bullets not just that plain glowing flying smudge, also as gems get stronger so should the impact effect
layout: i have 1 thing bear it in mind if you see that the monsters are always walking on stone…wow exiting (not really) really i just want a nice improovement on the grapics good job too
i have a challenge for you: 3D GEMS! try to make the gems 3d, it’s will greatly improove the game
3d gems, eh? 🙂
Ok, right after I implement the pink pony, the laser satellite strike and the fire breathing zombies, I’ll be on it! 😉
Seriously, thanks Everyone for your ideas, but if I kept all your suggestions, this game would never got released. It’s still a long time to make a mediocre tower defense.
If you liked the two other GCs, you will probably like this one as well.
But, if you want an AAA class game with realistic 3d rendering, fully customizable to meet all your needs, and of course available on your favorite cellphone and pc and console at the same time, and in 30 languages, with award winning voice actors reading the in-game texts for you, plus cinematic cut scenes, and all this only to give you more stuff to complain about and justify why you would never ever pay 5 dollars for it, then you are on the wrong site.
For those who are still here, thanks for staying with us, I promise you that I’ll read all your comments, and if you mention an idea we agree with, maybe we’ll include it in the game (or maybe the next one, we really don’t want to extend the development time endlessly so we have to limit the feature list), but I can’t reply everyone in person and talk over all the tiny details, so from now on I’ll mostly stay mute, but I’ll still be here and listening to you.
maybe you should choose the 3 best idears, so we are not trying to kill you with idears
Peter,
You are incredibly articulate for a person from a non-English-speaking country. Do you have adequate staff that know English fluently, or do you need help with proofreading and writing up the storyline?
Thanks, if you find any text in the game that sounds weird to a native English speaker, feel free to write me and I’ll correct it.
Gemcraft like previously stated IS an art. The game’s machanics are soo amazing that its imo THE BEST flash game i’ve ever played when it comes to TD. If the developer ever could or would, they should definatly go for making Gemcraft a app of the Iphone/Ipod Touch/Ipad or something like that, since its such an amazing game to play, why not allow play on the go? and I’m pretty sure tons of people would love to pay about $5 just to get more hours of gameplay, and if you made it an app for portables, then you could get sales from that, which im sure people would love!
I can’t wait for GCL! Good Luck on everything, I’m REALLY looking forward to it!
when gemcraft 2 and gemcraft labyrinth will be launched?
Release: when its done
Use your brain, there only two people working on it in their spare time. If you really want help the developersyou, you should shut up your brainless questions.
@Peter
Make the game fine, like the other releases. Then the game will be very good.
PS: It should be possible to convert a .swf file to functionally .exe file. Maybe there are possibilities to make an mobile app, but i dont know.
i cant think that they can make a game like GC becouse the icons will be realy small, so like in a ipad it could be but in a iphone or something like that i dont belive.
well, there is a way to wrap an swf into an exe, look for Motherload for example, they have a premium version out. But with exe (flash player+swf) the devs will have to either make them pay for downloading, or make some copyprotection stuff along with it, which, I am afraid, is already a dead choice – there are teams of hackers still in action from late 80s, and a new exe-gamedev will surely be beaten by them, and then there are torrents, which spell “pwned”. So only a very honest person will ever pay for this, all others will just get the torrent.
“Now, if you run a stage again and again, you’ll get the XP you earn each time.”
I would like to see two options, one for an easier play where you get xp each time, and harder option where you need to beat your own score.
I say this because I lose a sense of direction and storyline in a game where I can play levels all over again for same xp.
Hi
so you are going with mochi coins as btd4 does?
Would be great so we could use single sign on and highscore charts easily 🙂
Nothing’s sure yet, but I think we will launch a Mochi coins version as well as others, so you’ll be able to use your existing login and coins.
hnm nice gem shapes…i just hope they are easy to understand wish one is a highter level…i mean the first games had gems wish where pretty much intuitive, more sides bigger level, i just hope you guys make sure the new gems make it so we know which level it is fast and with no need of looking on its stats.
and man you don’t need to take the final level ads, also i thing flash games are moslty not worth paying, but i do like to give money to the artists becouse i think you deserve it, so yeah it would be cool to be able to donane, here on my country its actually easer to donate the taxes are even smaller than normal , it suck there :<
oh and i didn’t like the keep runing the level for more exp thing…is something quitte lame to do on games…griding sucks
On a second thought, now it seems the new game will use the same system as GC0 did, so owning the first stage a thousand times won’t lead anywhere. There are many ways to help the player level up and get through the early levels, so just making the difficulty ramp a bit less steep might help casual players enjoy the game too, and I agree that the old system is must more suitable for harcdore players.
More about this in the next post! 🙂
wow, there is a lot more than I thought there will be – not only a mazing system, but a limited space one as well. And traps!
About difficulty – there can be a choice in the beginning, whether to use old way of getting exp or the new way, the old way being harder. There can also be challenges like “no more than one play of each mode”, being harder. So every person will get his share of fun. I myself have tried a normal only play of GC0, however failed to do it with one time per level, but found it easy after a certain point. Hope there will be a challenge in the later levels of this game…
About gems – wow a triangle gem, finally! 🙂
About extra content paying – you know what, you’d better have an account data published, so people could use interbank transfers as well as other internet-based options to make their payment for this stuff, this way you could get some more money per transfer if the payer knows how to do it properly. But the account data is NOT full credit card number, but the associated account number (20-digit IIRC) and its currency. With this data available, one can only send money TO the account, and cannot get money FROM it, so you aren’t risking much. Perhaps you will need to first consult someone more experienced if there are any disadvantages to having your account data published.
I myself will first consider payment’s worth after the game will be released. I’m usually not inclined to do any payments for the internet games, but there might be some really tasty stuff hidden to make me change this opinion…))
unmute yourself and use this idear:
idear is to have one “main” gem in the game one where you woreship it, it’s the gem that’s diffrent from all but weak at first……then you level it up while playing….this gem will take a very big time to level it, it’s a gem to start with in every level BUT monsters can shoot and destoy this gem so you can drop gems on it to heal it the mouse can act as a shield for the monsters bullet i really really really hope this idear is used by the most best game creator ever peter! please use it, we will have soooo much fuin with it please!!! i’m begging you….or simply reply and say no and why
oh and this is a gem you carry around on your journey if it is destroyed then you have to buy it back with skill points or exp or somehow earn it back but starting from lvl1 again this idear will increace game time spent why? when the gem is destroyed then he will or most likly not be able to beat that super hard level, so he has to go back think about it
If you destroy the precious gem the player catered for maybe weeks, they will go away with anger and frustration and never come back. Applying all these wild suggestions would meke this game something totally different, and I think not in a good way, so no, I won’t use your idea, sorry.
oh yeah make it diffrent, use you imagination, your creating it, so you don’t have to use every single detail i have posted, change it to blend with the game please?
can we make it so we won’t have to play on armor games to get some upgrades
Some questions about GemCraft in general;
1) How are the variations of minimum and maximum damage between gems of specific colours and grades, typically calculated in the GemCraft games?
2) Will there be a level editor as a free/premium feature in GemCraft Lost Chapter: Labyrinth? If so, what aspects or parameters of custom levels can be adjusted? And how would players publish their custom levels into the game?
3) Why are caps set on range, firing speed, and most gem effects necessary? How does playtesting influence the level of which the range, firing speed, and effect are capped at? What do you think might be the consequences of placing gems with uncapped effects, range and firing speeds, into towers and traps?
4) Why is the poison damage applied over five seconds, rather than per second for five seconds?
5) Will players be able to set attack target priorities for each gem in play? If so, what different target priorities will players be able to choose from, for each of the gems in play?
1, Please don’t make me list all the math formulae here, there are many sites whose authors studied the GC games for a long time and put their quite accurate findings up. The damage variation between gem types isn’t a matter of winning or losing anyway.
2, For now there won’t be a stage editor.
3, Range and firing speed don’t have caps, just increase very slowly as the gem goes to higher grades. On special effects, imagine a gem with 100% change of triple damage or bounce (infinitely bouncing shots), or 100% shock, which would stop the toughest boss monster and make the game pointless.
4, Poison damage occurs linearry, so writing “10 damage over 5 seconds” or “2 damage per sec for 5 seconds” means the same. The former is more easy to read imo.
5, Yes, shift-clicking a gem (when not in any mode, like batch gem creating) will cycle through the target priority settings. It be shown in the rollover info panel for each gem. Settings will be: nearest to orb (formerly wizard tower), farthest from orb, less hit points, most hit points. Towers will pick from all monsters in range for each shot, instead of locking on to a target.
“5, Yes, shift-clicking a gem (when not in any mode, like batch gem creating) will cycle through the target priority settings. It be shown in the rollover info panel for each gem. Settings will be: nearest to orb (formerly wizard tower), farthest from orb, less hit points, most hit points. Towers will pick from all monsters in range for each shot, instead of locking on to a target.”
Could you add a “fastest enemy on range” too? That way your slowing gems will distribute their shots more evenly. Or will this be default for slowing gems?
qeustions:
1.will you allpy any idears? if yes who’s if no why?
2.can you please put lot’s of secret levels in, i would love that and all of us would too
3.can we have spiecal magic dust that increaces a effect or damage on the gem
4.i can wait ultill you finish gemcraft :p
I’m not sure why people wouldn’t want to support developers but GC & GC0 have been some of the few games that have kept my attention (and quite a bit of time LOL) over the last few months.
A ‘mere .swf” or not, it’s a brilliant and fun game. I will gladly pay to have a new one out.
In these days of “bigger and better fluff” games, the GC series have stayed relatively true to the roots and ideals of awesome casual (is it casual when I’m playing GC marathons???) gaming.
Keep up the amazing work guys. I love the series and will support it how I can. Those who “won’t pay for a game that isn’t retail”: it’s a shame.
Not all retail games are good or worthy of the money spent. The GC series is.
I would be happy to spend $5 even if it did not unlock anything. These games are extremely well designed and fairly well balanced. My only concern is that once I have spent that money that I will always have the ability to unlock those skills… Especially considering how this game ends up being hosted from several different places.
If you unlock the game on a site or being logged in to a third party system (like MochiCoins), you’ll be able to play the unlocked version on that site or bunch of sites (like all sites hosting the Mochi version) with no time limit. Some sites will insist on using their own payment system, so if you buy the unlcok there, if will be available only on that site, but I don’t think it’s a problem, as long as the hosting site lives, you can play the game there indefinitely. Pick your favorite site or system, unlock the game there, and have a great time playing! 🙂
This “no ubiquious license” problem exists with retail games as well. I bought Torchlight on the developers’ site, then saw that there were achievements for it on Steam, but I wasn’t eligible for them because of the wrong version. Similar happened with Mirror’s Edge, I bought it on Steam, so I didn’t get the time trial level pack only available for the EA version (or at least that was I read, anyway, I didn’t get the extension).
We’ll try to get as close as possible to making all published version offer the same content, for the same price. With sites having their own achievements system, others using local currencies or sms payments, we can’t reach this, so we encourage everyone to look around, ask other players, then pick a site or system that looks fine.
I have $5 USD that will eventually belong to you.
Thanks! 🙂 Please try the game first, then if you think it’s worth to upgrade, do so and have fun!
I’m not sure if I like this “beat the stage again and you gain the exp anyway” thing. What was great about GC0 is that, you couldn’t quite level up as fast as you wished did, and as a result, the level was just right. If you sucked, you could replay annoying modes again. But at least you did, and there WAS a limit to it. Now, if you earn the exp as much as you want, I’m afraid for potential game-breaking or something. Even GC0 wasn’t perfectly balanced, especially in the end (obviously).
We’ve rethought this feature, it will stay the way it was in GC0. More about the reasons, and on how GCL will work, in the next blog post!
Some more questions;
1) What kinds of shrine projectiles would be emitted from the shrines in the game? Are the effect(s) of gems being placed onto the shrines applied to the actual projectiles? Does the recharge time depend on the grade of gem inserted in the shrines?
2) If someone chooses to pay for premium content with hard cash or a credit/debit card of a different currency, will there be a system in place to convert “foreign” currencies into the “native” currency?
3) What kinds of amplifiers would be featured in the game?
4) When the player gets to choose what colour gem s/he wants to create, is this option only available for a certain number of times a gem is created?
why dont you stay cool?
keep they working, they cant create a game that meets all your wishes of every single person
if you want a game that fulfill all your wishes, create one…
let them do the great work, we all have seen that they can make good games, so stay cool
I thought that the shrines were a great addition in the GemCraft Chapter 0 game. They added fantastic depth and abilities that were quite useful.
I also loved the giant monsters. A cool mode for the game might be all waves as giant monsters. They actually made it a lot easier most of the time for me, but it was fun as well because targets were worth so much more score/mana. It is just a suggestion, but I think it would be a great addition.
listen, not that many people will really want to play it again if you have the same graphics people will groan and say GREAT, the same old boring gc0 graphic (loved it at first) i would upgrade this if i controlled, but i don’t so i hope you do, because it will make me soooo happy playing it with attractive graphics anywayz
i was thinking somthing you could collect, maybe mini gems or gold (money) to unlock special/secrets levels
how would this be earned?
the are dozens of ways
1.when a monster is destroyed mouse picks them up
2.bulidings
3.other
@recycle
gold collect (or some minigems etc) would be a good enrichment
i think, you should collect it with your mouse, because you can miss gold/item, you just have to keep your eyes open for it, it would distract from the creeps/monsters too
My opinion? Peter has said that ideas are welcome, but I think that putting too many different features would make ‘new gem Craft’ very different from the first ones. Another thing to see is that if it’s real possible. Like a guy that asked for 3D gems – Peter had to be ironic cause he works with his wife only and I guess it’s dificult. Sorry for any misunderstood on writing, Im brazillian and my english is just for the basics =)
And I’m very VERY VERY³ anxious for new posts from Peter, Im just crazy about this game.
@doug
lol i have though alot of idears and i was the one who asked for 3d gems and he doesn’t seem to like any idear, he seems to have it the way that is right for him not others, but oh well
@.txt
Actually, I don’t agree with ANY of your ideas, they’re all pretty much terrible and unfeasible, so it’s less that peter isn’t building a game that’s great for others and more peter not building a game that’s “great” for you specifically.
@monstrum
then you make a idear please becuase i am sure you can make a better one
@.txt
Actually, I don’t particularly care to change what peter has so far revealed as I happen to quite like and trust his design capabilities, nor do I feel particularly inclined to have an idea “contest” just because someone else has a hurt ego over having all of his own shot down and summarily denied.
Wow.
I remember emailing you a long time ago about a sequel and you sending me a response about your plans to redesign the site, as well as your micropayments system.
I’ve been checking the site periodically and had almost given up hope, glad to see a sequel is in the works.
Game would be nice, but if you want to secure your flash from hacking (free skills which need money) you should remember 2 things:
-saved data (.sol file) can be copy with free skills,
-sniffing of data and replace (such as “nopay” to “valid”)
This both things work with robokill.
If you need beta tester I can tell you what is hackable in game. I can decompile encrypted flash games secured with SWF encrypt 5&6, Secure SWF, DOSWF.
I am from Poland ad I don’t speak english very well. My e-mail is correct.
I have just skimmed the previous comments, so what I write, is probably already written by someone else, but I will write it anyway:
1. Payment-model.
To pay to get an easier game or to ‘cheat’ is not attractive for me and I feel that goes for many more serious gamers. What I would pay for is a centralized saved game and scoreboard free of any kind of cheating. I could also consider sponsoring further development, or content/upgrades to the game. What you choose to take money for is up to you, but consider this: God-mode, helpers, boosts or other ‘cheats’ make the game boring really fast. Casual players might be too casual to bother with paying. And those that will pay the most are us who have become addicted to GC and are hitting this blog everyday…
To cover all bases you could go for:
Micropayments for casual players on Kongregate and Armorgames, and buy game(Savegames&Scores on online account) for us who chase highscores and play our life away.
2. Art and graphics.
The screenshots does not scream new game. I don’t work with action-script, so I don’t know the limitations, but making the game pop more should be doable. It is particularly the ground and path-tiles that seem gray and grainy, almost depressing. Good, if that’s what you are going for, but not if its more or less re-use from the previous games. It should be possible to refresh the ground textures without redoing everything or going totally bubble-gum…
3. Forum
You need it. Just look how long this post is. And you have 168 comments more or less like this.
PS: I have previously posted as ‘Another Daniel’.
i agree on numbe 2 +100
ok i have visited you site 2-3 times a week now and now it is august i am sure you are close to being done, of course please take sokme idears into consideration once you have done with making the levels and all the other things, you have done soooo much work but yes update the grapics alittle because it will make it sooo attractive, but it’s your game and you choose what you want to impres us with and soon 5$ will be yours and i may even donate 30$ if you updated the grapics (woops….bribing the developer is not good) but seriously great work soo far, i hope to see new screenshot to see what you have changed! many thanks from me and the world, to me you are the kink of games!
yours faithfully
.txt (read me, keep reading me, recycle contents:readme.txt)