GCL: 3 weeks until release…

Happy new year Everyone!

We put all the effort we can to make GemCraft Labyrinth out this month, so I won’t write long now and can’t keep an eye on your comments for the next few weeks. Not so when the game will be out – we’ll process all the feedback and try to fix all the errors you find. For now, just please let us work on it, we’re getting there.

GC for iPhone is also going well, although there’s no release date yet. This GC will look different (an artist redraws all the images), and will not be connected to the classic GC chapters in any way, apart from the core concepts (gems, towers, traps, mana). In a few words, it will be tailored for the iPhone (some of the game rules were removed), and will have a cartoony look, instead of the dark theme of GC0 and GCL.

Back to GCL, it will be released first on Armor Games, and will be available exclusively there for a few weeks, but then it will also come to Kongregate and other sites.

A few answers to the things you mentioned in your comments in the last few weeks:

Exact release date:
Let’s say January 31. It’s a Monday, so sounds ideal. (we’ll still have a long weekend to take care of last minute problems.)

What happens if we can’t make it in January?
If it seems that the game won’t be ready, we’ll cut some things from v. 1.0 and add them a week or two later in v. 1.1. (Editing new sounds is left to the end.) If that doesn’t help too, then a few days’ delay is possible, but we’ll do everything to avoid that. We have to draw the line somewhere. If I said February, then we would be struggling at the end of Feb, and so on, so let’s try to keep January at (almost) all costs.

Monsters’ sizes:
In GCL, swarm monsters are much smaller, runners are somewhat smaller, armored monsters are larger, and giants are much larger than a normal monster.

Black monsters in the trailer:
The more you anger a wave, the darker the monsters will be.

Monster movement:
Normal and runner monsters move hopping, swarm monsters move just like all monsters in GC0 (but they are small and fast, so they look like if they were running), armored and giant monsters have a crawling motion.

GCL on Steam:
It was a great surprise to read on Steam that they actually consider even flash games to be included into their store. I thought flash games are totally out of their interest, but fortunately not, so there might be some GemCraft on Steam some day. Maybe GCL, maybe GC2, or something else.

Merchandise (coffee mug, t-shirt, etc):
Yes, there will be. There are some great sites out there who take care of everything, we’ll just have to make some cool art for the items, and you can have anything you want, in any color and size, they will produce the things you want and ship it to your door, to almost any country on the planet.

A zip file with all our old games:
Yes, there is one, here: http://gameinabottle.com/games/games.zip

Juggling:
Making a long path for the monsters to walk, and removing a wall at its beginning and closing the path at its end, forcing the monsters to go backwards, thus back and forth with repeated wall adding-removing, a.k.a. juggling, is an exciting, but too powerful trick. To avoid it breaking the game, there is a limit to how much of your own buildings you can demolish. The base limit is 3, and it can be upgraded with a skill to 13, giving you some juggling fun, and the possibility to reap a much higher XP from many stages, but you can’t do it indefinitely.

Mochicoins:
Yes, we plan to release a Mochi version as well, so if you have MochiCoins, you can use them to purchase the Unleashed version. It will cost the same, just in MochiCoins (USD5 equivalent at first, USD8 or 10 later, but maybe it will stay at 5). Please note that for the first 6-8 weeks the game will only be available at Armor Games, with PayPal support only.

NewGrounds version:
Haven’t looked at what kind of payment options they offer, or if they allow third party payment systems on their site, but I’m pretty sure that if there’s a way, we’ll put the game up on NG as well.

What about other sites?
As long as they provide a payment method or allow any third party payment systems, the game has a change to get there.

Android version of GCL:
Not in the next 1-2 months. There are many thing that should be changed in the game to make it playable on a small touchscreen. I will read more on this topic later, can’t say anything exact for now.

Beacon types in GCL:
There are some changes here from GC0. The types are:
Healer beacon: just like in GC0, it heals a part of the damage of nearby monsters.
Shield beacon: gives invulnerability for a small time.
Speed beacon: Increases the speed permanently, stackable (more beacon hits -> turbo speed, so beware)
Wiping beacon: Removes all negative effects from nearby foes.
Binding beacon: Temporary effect – the monster doesn’t give any mana when killed.

Ok, this post became longer than I planned. From now on, I’ll be focusing on finishing the game, I hope I can bring you the good news by the end of these 3 weeks! 🙂