no game made is "easy"

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Was fun reading on indiegamer forums the usual newbie talking about the game made with RPG Maker XP, Aveyond, defining it as “easy money”.
I think that is one of the biggest offenses you can do to a developer. I know, before I was like him when first I saw the various casual games “bah crap games” I thought.
“I can make one in 1 month” and so on. I know because I was thinking that myself too.
THEN when I started trying seriously to make them… oh well! even if you use a middleware solution, is still quite HARD to come up with an interesting story, and bugs can be present even using a script system (like plot holes or worse blocks so you are stuck and can’t go on anymore).
So only because someone used a toolkit or a gamemaker tool, don’t think is “EASY”. Nothing is easy as it seems 🙂

New european server

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I’ve recently replaced my old hosting for .net domain with a new (faster) european server, so all people from europe will be able to download faster!
I’m think of adding a ip detection on download page so it automatically download from this one if you come from a european country…

Ice Queen expansion officially released

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So finally this weekend was able to release the Ice Queen expansion for Magic Stones. The amount of help I got from testers and users was enourmous and wouldn’t have been able to finish it so shortly (yes, such updates takes lot of time, since basically I changed completely the fight system).
Anyway if you’re curious to see the new changes, head to the game page right now!

Major change in Magic Stones gameplay

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Talking with the testers today in my forums, I decided to change the way the experience level of avatars works. Instead of having a “multiplier effect”, which was causing avatars too powerful, I opted for a simple “addition”.
Each level will add +1 on attack and defence, and +5 on hitpoints.
As you can see in this screenshot, even the most basic and “harmless” avatar can turn into a deadly opponent once it reaches higher levels. Sure reaching level 5 means collecting 50 stones and that should take a while!

Getting close to release the new Magic Stones expansion…!

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Yes finally after quite some time I am very close to its release, or at least a beta by next week.
The fact is that I got distracted by a nice game made by some friends at Sakura Games, called Mythic Adventure.
Nothing complex, just a simple plain inlay with some nice effect and a word game every 5-6 levels or so, but quite addictive. I wish them good luck!

Back on topic, I have made a major change in the Magic Stones battle system: I have “mitigated damage”. What it means? it means that now avatar will hit more often, but their overall damage will be lower.
Yes, if an avatar has attack 10 and the target defence 1, you’ll still see 30 damage or so, but if the gap between attack and defence is lower, there will be less chances that this will happen.
This way I think the game changes radically, together with the new limitation to Mannaz spell, that will replenish UP to 25% of total druid mana (not cumulative). I think the game is much more strategic now!