While I’m still working on those features I want to show you before the release, the story panel illustrations (ok, not the most important part, but they still had to be done) are complete.
Here are a few samples (images 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, and 14).
In GCL, unlike in GC0, you can view both tutorial and story panels again any time, in case you accedentally click them over when you first meet them. There’ll be a “Chronicle pages” and a “Tutorial pages” button in the stage selector (labyrinth map) screen, leading you to the list of already shown panels.
Coming with more as soon as I have anything ready to show.
Some GCL story panel illustrations while you wait
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The first screen (image 2) looks fantastic!
Keep up the good work! 🙂
And as I see, you are almost there. I am so anxious that I cannot wait any longer. I hope that there will be this “beta testing” before you fully release it on flash game sites. Less bugs = more epicness (although I don’t know if it can go any higher than it is now)
P.S.
Will there be any wallpapers for us to download? Because I just WANT that first image full sized on my desktop. Along with “GC:L” or “GemCraft:Labyrinth” and maybe some epic slogan/sentence.
The images are drawn in 1140×440 px size, then shrinked to 570×220 before put into the game. The large production size is to make it more forgiving against small (and large) mistakes and laziness.
Textures (clouds, water, stone) are not drawn by hand, but made with a Photoshop plugin called Filter Forge, then gone through some blending/layering tricks.
We use Photoshop CS4, and Genius MousePen 5×4 drawing tablets.
The aim was to make it fit the mood of the game, and make it just good enough but not waste too much time.
I personally like image 10.
Loved your other games and cant wait for this one.
Keep up the good work!
wow, there’s some good drawing talent in GiaB 😀
Wish you luck and patience with your work, and wish you love to make everything.
Looks great!
sweet 🙂
Looks pretty damn well 🙂
It’s awesome!
(But I’m still VERY anxious fot the ‘whole’ game =] )
Wonderful illustrations, but what about this?
“Next time (it can be 2 weeks or 4, I don’t know) I’ll write about and show the victory panel, the amulets screen, the map of the labyrinth, the battle mode setting selector, and the skill selector. By then the game will be almost complete content-wise, but it will still need lots of playtesting. If we need beta testers, I’ll announce it here in the blog. Again (and again), thanks for your patience!”?
The thing is, as always, I didn’t make it in time, and still working on it. How many times I promised myself not announcing any deadlines… thanks for reminding me to keep that promise to myself.
So, let me put it this way (while I’m really sorry for all the disappoiting past deadline promises not kept, but really couldn’t do it faster, you know, I have a private life to manage, and only 24 hours in a day):
There will be new post when there will be a new post. Same for the release of the game. Period.
Belive me, I want this game out more than you do, because this is what we earn our living from. If there’s no game, we go bankrupt.
For the illustrations, thanks, I’m glad you like them! 🙂
Thanks for informing me. I’m glad you’re moving as fast as you can (a direct opposite to Martin and his “The Song of Ice and Fire”). I hope you’ll find yourself free time you deserve.
Looks great – anticipating the next installment (I’m awfully impatient)!
Really!!!!!!! Two months behind and you are talking about going Bankrupt…..I would hate to be your collector
Don’t worry yet, we have a safe amount of reserves to make it. Many flash game devs live surviving from one game to the next, with the danger of going out of business if a game gets less than terrific reception. This is why we plan to ask money from the players instead of living solely on flat-fee sponsorship deals and ad revenues. If you want to know more about how this whole business works, don’t miss the article Flash Love Letter on lostgarden.com. It opened my eyes, I decided to change our business model right after reading it last year.
the red gem has no effects as i put it in a trap in gc0
but anyway, you are doing great, keep up the good work
The red gem only has an effect if you upgrade it – it can hit multiple targets with at least 15 splash outside the trap.
and you´re not going to tell the story of the Forgotten…even though pic 4 looks like you would…?
Yes, pic 4 (pic 10 in the full image list) shows the reflection of the Forgotten through a water surface. I won’t tell more for now, sorry. 🙂
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! I WANT THAT GAME!!! *laugh*
Great work with first two gemcraft and if you continue making even better game its going to be truly awesome.
I think gemcrafts are best browser games ive ever played.
Great work Peter and wife 🙂
Waiting wery much of Gcl release.
Take as much time as it needs to be perfect!
very nice work!
Peter, I guess you’re probably tired of ansewring our questions, but, a last one: can you say, in %, how complete is the game?
Wish you a good week and good luck with the game.
Hugs from Brazil
How about this: we are over the easier 80%, but still have to climb the toughest 20%. Is it really just 20% then? There are hidden tasks I discover only if I tackle a problem for hours, so, at least in our case, it’s impossible to give a percentage or a release date. Good thing is (for our peace of mind), it’s not only us who are that bad at giving estimates, big companies do that many times too.
Oh, but this is a great estimative. I really wish you good luck and a lot of patience to face possible problems. I need to enter my vacation to be focused on the game, so I can really wait ’till December.
Hugs from Brazil. =)
i’d like a small feature, you enable you to see how many a gem has killed, how much damage it has dome by left clicking on the gem
Gem kill counts will be shown, see this screensot from a previous post.
“Kills” and “Total kills” differ in that total kills remember all kills of the gem’s ancestors, while kills only shows the kills since the last combining. E.g. if you combine two gems, each having 10 kills and 20 total kills, the resulting gem will have 0 kills and 40 total kills. (kills are included in the total kills value)
Showing damage done per gem will be left out for now, maybe in a later chapter.
i alwayed loved the chain hit gems, but is 41% the max it can go? and as you but skills for the gem can and go abouve the limit?
I think that would not make a lot of sense. It is probably just low because the amplifier affects all of the gems in its range, not just one of them.
Idea: you might want to nerf giant waves from the last gemcraft and/or boost swarm waves. Giant waves were easy to slaughter for massive score, while swarm waves were too weak to do much with.
Did my comment just got deleted? Sorry if I spam, but it happened a lot of time ago. By the way, what are the requirements for your comment to be considered spam?
Comments go through an automatic spam filter, which sometimes catches non-spams as well, sorry for that.
I wonder if you’ll keep the same shortcuts of GC0. I played GC0 before GC1, and it really pissed me off (on GC1) having to click on the mana pool button intead of pressing “m”, sending next wave, speeding up…
it would be great to control more stuff from the keyboard 😉
Yes, GC0 shortcuts will stay the same (as far as I remember), with some new ones coming in.
Ideally the game should allow customizing the keyboard settings… maybe in GC2.
Can you please tell us the release date… i’m really, really anxious about this game!
It’s the first of April, The Day of Fools!
Or it’s the first of January if you want (this, or next year I don’t care). Just remember to check this site once a quarter.
Honestly, It’s a “I don’t know” answer.
Give the man the time he needs.. It will be launched when it is ready. Dont let him spill out release dates, when we all know that he can’t keep up with them :).
He has given us 2 very great games before, and GCL will be great as well. We just have to have a bit of patience, but i know he is working on it as much as he can.
yeah… it’ll be great alright but s o anxious i cant wait for it I WANT IT NOW!
Well… THOSE ARE SOME AMAZING ILLUSTRATIONS.
I wonder how much time was spent on each individually.
And now random suggestion to any future Gemcraft:
Slow-motion: Opposite of speed-up. Makes those epic battles all the more epic.
i wonder how many MB the game will be 😀
It will be somewhere between 10 and 15 MB. It mostly depends on the image and sound quality, which will be only adjusted last minute. There will be more sounds, but less images size-wise than in GC0. (the map of the labyrinth will fit on one screen, and there will be no multiple “climates”/ground images, which were size costy in GC0).
I really liked the climates. They gave the game a sensation of aproaching to danger as snow cover the path to the gem of eternity.
Hi, playing chapter 0 again, figured I’d come by and say the feeling the game leaves me with
Level 368, and some 800 skill points I can’t spend. Many hours of wearing out my laptop’s processor fan. Unlockable super-skills (bestowed by the wizard’s becoming possessed maybe?) that cost stupidly huge amounts of skill points would’ve been reason enough to keep playing. Example, if I could’ve had a 200 skill point ability to make a grade 15 gem with a click for the appropriate mana cost, rather than spending 10-15 minutes doing repetitive hotkey motions and getting +500 carpal tunnel points in my wrists to get that grade 15. Or, 1000 skill points to let me add a shrine to a map, ability to choose the color of gems created, something like that. I feel kind of stupid for playing the game as much as I did, after how much it made my wrists hurt. (it’s my fault, not yours, I just don’t know when to quit)
In future games, something to think about, I know the next one is in final stages so I don’t expect you to be thinking about it for this one. Or patch it in later and make it something I give you a couple dollars to unlock. Let me do SOMETHING with that obnoxious amount of skill points, please.
In GCL, you’ll be able to create grade 12 gems with one click, to ease the wrist pain, and the skill system will get many improvements, like some of the skills having no level cap, others going up to 20-30-40 levels (each skill can have its own level limit), so you can spend a huge amount of skill points on them. 🙂
Yes!!! This is AMAZING news (the skills system). Did you change the mana pooling formula? Because with the current system, the enhanced pool skill has a negative value, since mana pool cost is dependent on the max mana, giving you smaller mana gain bonuses. Just wondering? Is a supergemming ability an unlockable skil, or permanently “nerfed”?
Thanks for pointing that out! I’ll fix it somehow. 🙂
For now supergemming will be nerfed, to at least make other strategies worth thinking of – maybe this way hardcore supergemmers will find new glitches, so that the game mechanics can be further polished in the later coming GC2.
I am a little bit sad to hear about supergemming, but I definitely understand why it is a little bit of a needed nerf. It became something that just made it too easy almost. Although in the tougher waves it is something that definitely helps a lot because for instance, some of the levels on arcane guardian were very difficult, if not nearly impossible.
Will combining gems be a linear mechanism like the original gemcraft, if so, supergemming is still “worth it,” just not exponential like GC0, since the function for total damage combines firing speed and damage.
One more thing – there is a semi-bug in GC0 where if you are trying to select a monster with a trap with a gem underneath it, it selects the gem and you are unable to select the monster. Unfortunately, you don’t want to block access to the gem either, so the best way would be to have a separate keyboard function for accessing monster data.
One last thing – when you have modes with (for example) 100% more # of monsters, the score is decreased by 50% to compensate for this. Not reducing the score for Beyond Corruption or similar modes would make the score bonuses more “worth it.”
Yes so sorry to bug you, but a status update would be greatly appreciated. I check this blog daily in hopes for news or even perhaps the new game itself. Sorry for being impatient, but I so love your gemcraft games and am anxious for the new one.
There will be a new post in a few days, around wednesday next week.
Thanks so much Peter!
I am excited to hear that you haven’t forgotten us, and I will wait as long as need be to see the GemCraft that I’ve come to know and love. And once again if you need beta testers I think many people here on the blog would be willing to help, myself include. Looking forward to the next post.
I am _SO_ jonesing for this game. I want it NOW. I totally understand the need/reasons for delaying it…and unfortunately, I understand that the easy 80% takes 50% of the time, and the hard 20% takes the other 50% of the time.
That doesn’t change the fact that the GemCraft games are some of the best flash games out there, and I can’t wait to see the next one 🙂
Keep up the killer work, Peter! 🙂 Thanks!
Currently, ehh, so “Supergemming” is the term? the last level of chapter 0. (for the lulz… already beat the game, have all skillz (except for mana pool max of course!!).. havent found all the hidden levels/amulets yet.) Taking a wrist break.
I just wanted to say how excited I am that a sequel is *close* to being completed. I am sure it will be worth the 5 bucks for the premium stuff. (which, is crazy cheap compared to say… plants vs zombies >_<.)
New story = sweet. hopefully (spoiler alert!) the game wont be like: "congrats! you won the last level! *STAB* *Plot twist* You just made things oh so much worse. Maybe next game you might actually do something right." Heh.
I am also excited to hear that we will be able to 1 click higher level gems. OIE!!1
I cant wait to see the new balance, cause its a bit odd atm… heh. I am sure you know about all the little (and big) things… like how every possible gem combo is pathetic compared to duel red-orange traps… (though a couple of red-purp can be nice to eat at armor, and blue/cyan-red to keep them over your red-oranges longer)… i need to stop rambling.
Anyway, I cant wait for the next one. I am sure with all the new features there will be new and exciting ways to twist the game far beyond what you intended. hehehe.
Thanks for making such awesome game.
I check back here at least twice a day for new info. Id just like to say, to the poster above, that red/green comboes in traps can do serious aoe dmg. You can keep combing the red/green combo with more greens for increased poison dmg. Last level I put them every 5 or 6 trap slots.
Also if you released cool expansion material beyond the beginning material for this coming gemcraft, I’d be willing to pay for that too-provided you didnt “hold back” on the beginning material.
The red/green are nice… in the beginning, but when you start facing the 1,000,000+ hp monsters… that poison damage starts to seem a bit on the weak side… expecially due to the lack of poison stack. (if poison did stack, ya, redgreen would be highest dps in the game)
Besides, you want the monsters to survive as long as possible to get the most manna out of em, expecially the swarm monsters… though, actually, using red/greens and doing the math to make say, a 200 armor swarm wave go around your maze exactly a certain number of times… herm… /ramble
it does not have to be a feature for gc but what about multiplayer? online, able to be a attacker, or defender lol, just wondering if it’s possible
I do like that idea. It would be fun to be able to send crazy waves at other people, but I have a feeling that it would be somewhat difficult to implement and that it would take even more time to finish the game.
Could be sending extra monsters to the other player based on how many you have killed.
Looking forward to this game!
Haven’t heard from you for a while.. What’s the status on game?
Keep up the good work! Greetings from Norway!
I just found this site; two days ago I finally beat the final battle in GC0. Now retrieving all the amulets.
I am so stoked for the new one! It looks amazing and the ability to see what amulets you can get is great. I can’t wait to play it and would gladly beta test it *sheepish grin*
Looks great, bud. Cannot wait for it to be released =)
yay
you deserve to get rich with this shit!
this is – by far! – the best TD ever!
only thing I miss a customgem that you level up without respeccing and take to all the levels. of course it should level slowly and should be mainly a support-gem, but this would be awesome 🙂
i was thinking about something like that to a gem that levels as you do and you keep throught the game cant be fused with other gems
That can be a pretty cool idea. It would need to be done well, so that it was not too powerful and unbalancing…The choices that you make with the gem should be permanent…(as in, you can’t redo it like you can re-choose all your skills).
Hows it going Peter, and how are things going with the game? Looking forward to more updates, good work on Gemcraft0 🙂
Hey Peter! Awesome work with your games!!
(I’m impressed with the few amount of hours you took in order to create Reelz!)
Can you kindly give us something more on the current status of the game? That would be great!! 😀
(Sorry for asking a lot, we players are a greedy lot! ^^)
Loving your work,
Dan
Time for the next “date postponed” post…?
I absolutely love your games – thank you! Do you have any plans to port GCL to the iPad?
Maybe there’ll be an iPad version some day, we have an iPhone/iPod project running, first we’ll see how successful it will be.
And, of course, no thoughts of an iPad (or any) version until we get GC Labyrinth finally out.
WHile I would not play an ipad/ipod version, I certainly love playing gemcraft using my notebook’s stylis. It almost makes up for the lack of gem bombing mode for chapter 1.
I think alot of the other smart phones are getting around to supporting flash natively, so you might not need to port if its hard. Personally, new games > ports I will never use. heh.
Just a suggestion, maybe you should make a choice to choose your gem color or just choose random but choosing costs more. Also, maybe some new gems like:
black-instant death (low percentage and bosses are immune + cost more)
white- percentage of health e.g. 20% of health=damage(bosses are immune + cost more
rainbow-all special eff
Just a suggestion, maybe you should make a choice to choose your gem color or just choose random but choosing costs more. Also, maybe some new gems like:
black-instant death (low percentage and bosses are immune + cost more
white- percentage of health e.g. 20% of health=damage(bosses are immune + cost more)
rainbow-all special effects but lower percentage of happening (bosses are immune + cost more)
brown-higher min and max damage but cannot target flying enemies
Also some other suggestions, maybe you could enable a feature that instantly kill all enemies(bosses are immune, has to recharge and cost mana). Maybe flying enemies as mentioned earlier.
Well that’s it!
I can’t wait AT ALL!
There already is that “rainbow” gem you mentioned. Just combine every single type of gem.
The ability to copy a gem might be intresting,(and wrist-saving) say, you can clone a gem for 1.5x the cost to origionally make it. (the same cost as what would be required if you were forced to gem transmute to create the gem… aka, the worst case scenario. (assuming things work the same way as GC0)
but why can’t you just buy it
Ok, I understand the game isn’t ready yet. But we need a new update post to tie us over!
will gemcraft 2 be long? and fun even after completing? 🙂
Oh yes, just what I would have asked! One of the things that I liked the most about the games, and particularly GCO was that it took so long. I know some folks hated that, but I started with Gemcraft Chapter O as a novice gamer, and it took me 6 months to complete – (I did go back to The Forgotten in the middle of it)
I just love the idea of getting completely submerged in a game for that long, and the Gemcraft games are without a doubt the best TD games ever – I think the best games ever, in fact! I haven’t found anything that comes close, for my particular taste in games.
Love illustration 10 the most, and look forward to the other stuff you promised to post to keep our appetites whetted while we wait.
Oh yeah, forgot to ask this – will it be released here first?
He mentioned something about an (unlikly, but still possible) beta, that would be announced here.
So yeah, it makes sense to check this site frequently… 😉
Actually I think he mentions that there will not be a beta because it is a flash application and they are somewhat easily pirated. So if there was a beta, someone would probably steal the code and then they wouldn’t get any money from it.
Last blog entry he said:
By then the game will be almost complete content-wise, but it will still need lots of playtesting. If we need beta testers, I’ll announce it here in the blog.