GemCraft news and things

GCL release date postponed
Let’s start with the bad news: GemCraft Labyrinth will not be ready any time soon, it’s still far from being completed. I don’t know when can we release it, but not before the end of September. Our calendar is full with other things for the next few weeks, so we couldn’t rush anyway. We can say Q4 2010 or say nothing at all, it won’t make things faster. We want this game to be out just as you do, but won’t make if a pile of trash just to be over it. We’ll try to make this game worth the wait.

GemCraft for iPhone
For a long time, I kept saying that it’s unlikely we’ll ever have GC running on iPhone. From time to time I got emails from iPhone devs, but we either didn’t have the trust to hand over the game’s source code, or would have to take all the financial risk. But now, we got the opportunity to work with a skillful developer with released games behind his back, and a publisher who can fuel the project financially and able to promote and distribute the game. For now I can’t tell anything more, but this is serious now, and we’ll only have to support the project with the source materials and design suggestions to tailor the game to the small touch screen, so it won’t take much time away from GCL.

GemCraft Labyrinth graphics not new enough/too pale/too dark
It’s meant to be pale and darkish to add to the athmosphere of the game. The ground doesn’t look new enough, but it’s brand new. The plants are reused. But I don’t think this is what GCl being a good or bad game will depend on.
There will be many new and some reused graphics (old skills will have their old icons, new skills will of course get new ones). There will be new buildings, and hopefully new monsters as well.

GCL battle mode settings
In GC0, there were battle modes like Endurance or Sudden Death. In GCL, you can mix various settings, including number of monsters, number of waves (including endurance), giant monsters only or every sencond wave, or more monster armor.
Each setting gives a multiplier to the final XP you get at the end of the stage (just like the battle amulets you earn). For each stage, the game will store your one highest XP. How you achieve it, is up to you. You can mix an easy mode and earn lots of battle amulets, play it hard and earn a few, or level up and boost your skills, then play a hard mode and still achieve tons of amulets.

Amplifiers
This building type, as everything in GC, will work with gems. Place a gem in it, it woN’t be able to fire, but each surrounding (thus, maximum 8 ) tower and trap will get a percentage of the inserted gem’s attributes. Make bastillons or trapfields, or even a super tower surrounded by 8 amplifiers!

That’s all for now, I hope I’ll have some progress to write about soon!