Re: Apocalypsi

From: Michael Akinde <michael.yahoo_at_...>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:44:40 +0200


Hi,

David Dunham wrote:
> Just wondering: has anyone gotten the Berserker Apocalypse or Telmori Apocalypse? I think these are both quite difficult to trigger.
>

Neither. I think the Troll, Beastman, and Horsespawn apocalypse are the three I've seen. Is there a Praxian one? May have encountered that too, though I might be confused on that one with the "Slayer" story line.

Thinking back to your earlier queries regarding ways to streamline KODP, may I suggest that you consider toning down the difficulty of the game a bit? I suppose you are pretty much guaranteed good reviews from your long-time fans, but if iPhone users are anything like Android users, the difficulty level of the game even on easy could result in very many bad reviews.

Speaking from my own experience (two games published in the Android Market - "A Brief History of Rome" which is a weird Risk-like/Empire-building game, and "Pirates and Traders" - a turn-based adventure/strategy/role-playing game not entirely uninspired by Sid Meier's famous game), the most common complaint - by a long shot - is that of difficulty. Unlike the PC, where you can expect a certain minimum investment from the users to try and understand the game, many users on a phone are usually looking for 5-10 minutes of quick fun (there is a reason why the top games on both iTunes and Android are simple casual/arcade/action games or the "slot machine"-like Facebook games). Such players are generally not very tolerant of tough challenges but are the more happy to slag the game with low ratings and inane comments.

If you haven't already considered this, I would recommend looking into this. Even on the easiest level, KODP can be a pretty unforgiving game, and I would think that stuff like the Heroquests, for instance, would be like red cloth in front of a bull to many casual players.

I would also recommend that you in the interface provide plenty of hints as to what the player should consider doing (if you are keeping the council, they would be an obvious avenue for friendly suggestions). KODP isn't really a very approachable game in that regard - you have so many options available to you when you start, but what is the smart thing to do? In this respect, you really should consider holding the new player's hand - because very many won't have the patience to figure this stuff out and they certainly won't read the manual (in my games I finally ended up implementing a button with a big question mark in every single screen linking to the relevant portions of the manual. I still get questions/comments on stuff which is clearly explained there).

If you're looking to streamline the game a bit (and I apologize in advance if any long-time fans despair at this suggestion), I would recommend that you consider cutting some of the more obscure/marginal gods from the game. Perhaps scale down the map a bit as well and minimize the impact of some of the smaller factions. New players ho play the game in 10-20 minute snatches while commuting to and from work are not going to spend time researching the mythos (which is almost required) and are unlikely to be able to keep all the different factions, gods, and issues in mind from game session to game session. You want it to be easy to pick up and continue playing a game.

I don't mean this to sound as if mobile gamers are less intelligent or capable than their compatriots on a desktop by any means. That's silly - after all, the demographics basically overlap. But if you want to make KODP a hit on mobile, I think it is important to keep in mind that when people whip out their iPhone/Droid, they are often looking for a different type of entertainment than when they sit down in front of their computer or console.

Regards,

Michael A.

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