|
JC Connors
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Hey all, today Griptonite (the developers behind the Reiner Knizia's Poison iPhone app) released an original card game for the iPhone: Dungeon Solitaire.
Dungeon Solitaire challenges players to save a castle by placing heroes, items, and traps into the dungeon chambers before monsters fill it up and destroy the kingdom. It's a medium-light sort of game, somewhere between Poison and Magic in complexity, though like a lot of solitaire-style games, it's not too easy to win!
http://linktoapp.com/dungeon+solitaire
I'm personally excited for this game because it's one of the first boardgame-type game I've designed since my old Avalon Hill days!
And since I spend far too much time here on BGG anyway, I'll give something back to the community. If you download the app, enter the code 033-084-049, and the game will unlock a free mini-expansion designed to be released at GDC this year (it's good through the end of April).
Enjoy!
-
William Collins
United States
San Diego
California
-
Just purchased...I'll let you know how I like it if you wish.
-
-
Interesting... but not enough info to help me buy it. The website says even less about the game than the iTunes listing. How about enough info to let us know how the game plays? How the cards work? How about rules? Would make it much easier to make a decision.
-
Josh "Der Spieler" Spillers
United States
Louisiana
-
After quite a few plays, I can say this game is fun and addicting! Great interface and art. Nice tutorial.
I suggest posting a video demonstration (or submit the game to AppVee.com for review) to boost your sales. I usually like to see a game in action before I buy it, but I trusted that you had designed a winner, and I was not disappointed!
Archmage Exarch with the B.F.A. FTW!
-
Tiger Wiccan
United States
Florida
-
Honestly, this is the type of game I got my iPod Touch for! I bought your game as soon as I saw this message, and I love it! Thanks for the code, too!
For anyone one the fence due to lack of info, I can assure you that if you are into fantasy card games, this has everything you would want in one. Monsters, heros, items, traps, treasure, it's all there!
And I'll second the tutorial being very well done. You'll be ready for the real game by the end of it for sure!
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
Just purchased and read the rules. Seems fun. Purchasable in-app expansion packs? uh oh. I hope this game isn't too addictive.
-
Tiger Wiccan
United States
Florida
-
Now that I have a few more minutes to type, here is a brief rundown of the game for those interested or on the fence about purchasing, even though games like these are instabuys for me.
As shown in the screenshot at the top of this thread, there are two columns, each with five slots in them. Basically, you play the game by drawing one card at a time from the deck, and based on what it is, you decide where to play it. The left side is for monsters, and the right side is for heros. If the monster side is full and you draw a monster, then your castle takes a hit. Three hits and you lose. If your hero side is full and you draw another hero, then you seal the dungeon and you win. It sounds simple enough, but the interplay of the cards keeps the heros and monsters coming, going, and moving pretty frequently.
Combat happens when either a hero is placed adjacent to a monster or a monster is place adjacent to a hero. Each monster and hero has two stats, combat and magic. when combat occurs, they are both compared. If either the hero or the monster has both stats higher than the other, then the one with the lower stats is eliminated. If not, then they both stay there.
Other cards that you can get are traps, where you place on a space that does not yet have a monster or hero on it, and these have different effects like lowering stats or causing cards to shift either up or down in their column. If a monster or hero are shifted of the board, they are placed at the bottom of the deck. Also, there are items that you can place on heros that boost their stats. Lastly (I think), there are treaure cards that you can place on empty monster spaces. They make any monsters you later place there tougher, but worth more gold, which you get whenever you kill a monster and is tallied as your score in the game. You lose a certain amount of gold whenever a hero is killed.
That wraps up the basics of the game in a nutshell for those that wanted a more detailed description.
-
Stephen Beeman
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
-
Here's a quick rules summary and review:
You flip one card from the top of the deck at a time. If it is a Monster, it must go in one of five empty slots on the left; if there are no empty slots it attacks the castle, ending the game if this is the third time that's happened. If it is a Hero, it must go in a slot on the right; if there are no empty Hero slots, all remaining Monsters are defeated and the good guys win, also ending the game.
Each Hero and Monster has two stats. If a card is higher than its opponent in both stats, the opponent dies. Otherwise, it's a tie and both cards stay in place... though many cards have "tie abilities" that trigger in this case. If a Hero defeats a Monster, you gain the Monster's gold value, and at game end your final score is the total gold you've collected.
Other cards may either be placed in the field or onto a tableau stack for later use. These are Traps (can only be placed in an empty slot in the field, on either side, and will apply a stat modifier to whatever card winds up in that slot later), Treasures (like Traps, but may only be placed in empty Monster slots, and multiply the gold value of the Monster in addition to any stat changes) and Items (stat modifiers that may be placed only on a Hero who doesn't already have one).
The expansion pack I played introduced Potions (random stat modifiers that can be placed on any Hero), and new card types like that are what I'd expect from future expansions. The in-app store currently has two packs available for 99 cents each.
Like Solitaire, you're largely at the mercy of the cards and you should expect to do poorly most of the time, and yet it plays quickly and satisfyingly. There's significantly more thinking to do than just "red 5 on black 6," but I wouldn't call it strategic thinking--just like Solitaire, oftentimes even if there's a winning move at all, making that move requires advance knowledge you don't have.
Technically, the art is well done (though too dark for my taste), the music is unobtrusive, the sound effects are nice and the app is quick, full-featured and mostly stable.
On the BGG scale, I give it a 7/10. On the App Store scale, I'll be rating it 5/5--4/5 would be closer to my true opinion, but the App Store's rating process exerts a heavy downward bias on scores, and the game definitely deserves a high average rating.
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
1 loss, 1 win, 1 draw, so far. The draw was with the potions expansion. Fun little app!
-
Tiger Wiccan
United States
Florida
-
I have 12 games played so far, and it has crashed in the middle of a game about 3 times now. Anyone else having it crash on them at all?
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
only played 4 times (Another win, w00t!) no crashes yet.
-
Kamu
Mexico
Toluca
Estado de México
-
I'm very, very tempted to buy this. I usually don't play in my iPhone (I bought Battle for Wesnoth and still haven't opened it), but this seems like a good game and, if addictive enough, can have hooked day and night.
-
Chaddyboy
United States
Olathe
Kansas
Bloooooop.
Bluuuuuurp.
-
I like the game, but have one suggestion for an update. The "Card Shop" button needs to be the "Go" button. Since it's set apart from the other buttons, I always just assume it's the most important button and hit it when I'm ready to play! Then I have to back up to get to the actual Go button again.
-
Sean Todd
United States
Bloomington
Minnesota
-
chaddyboy_2000 wrote: I like the game, but have one suggestion for an update. The "Card Shop" button needs to be the "Go" button. Since it's set apart from the other buttons, I always just assume it's the most important button and hit it when I'm ready to play! Then I have to back up to get to the actual Go button again.
Agreed. The Card Shop button is way too big and should be switched with Go.
Fun game though, addictive and actually kinda Knizia like. If your score were somehow based on the lowest of something I might be suspicious.
-
Chaddyboy
United States
Olathe
Kansas
Bloooooop.
Bluuuuuurp.
-
After 20 or so games, it seems like there is a high dependency on finding the card that kills your opponent if you tie him. Is anyone experiencing this this as well?
-
JC Connors
United States
Redmond
Washington
-
Hey everyone, thanks for your support! These kinds of games don't usually get a lot of love in the AppStore, so it's always nice to see genuine feedback and appreciation. I'd encourage you to post a review in the store if you like it, as that helps a lot, and I'll also be monitoring this thread for any suggestions and ideas as we continue to refine and expand the game.
We're going to get a gameplay video up pretty soon to demonstrate the game, that's a great suggestion.
Also, we're going to announce a Dungeon Solitaire card design contest as well, which will give players the chance to get their own card ideas into the game. I'll let everyone know as soon as that's ready to go. In the meantime, Twitter followers can subscribe to our Twitter feed (Dungeon_Sol) as we'll be announcing a new free mini-expansion code in the next 30 days or so.
Thanks again!
-J.C.
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
I got stuck in an endless loop.
Here's the situation: The monster side was full. The hero side had only the bottom slot open. There are two cards left in the deck, both heroes. The bottom monster has the "down arrow" tie-breaker ability. Both heroes tie the bottom monster.
So, I play the hero, tie, he gets put to the bottom of the deck, I play the next hero, tie, bottom of deck, the first hero comes up again, repeat. Game never ends.
It seems like the game should end in a stalemate in this situation.
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
chaddyboy_2000 wrote: After 20 or so games, it seems like there is a high dependency on finding the card that kills your opponent if you tie him. Is anyone experiencing this this as well?
That seems to be the best way to win. I was in one situation where I got the 4/4 guy and bumped his magic stats by 2 with a potion, then his fight stats by 2 with a potion. Luck was on my side and he ended up a 6/6. Then I got the tie-breaker kill card and used it on that hero. Now he's a 5/5 with that ability and can kill almost every monster (except the 6/6) Now the question is do I risk the adjacent monster slot loading it up with treasure, trying to get more bang for the buck; or do I play it safe and discard the treasure and just go for the easy kills?
It seems that many times a stalemate is better than a win, because you can go through more cards and gain more treasure. A win could come too quick and you don't have much treasure. That said, losses come pretty quick, much of the time. It's all in the shuffle.
-
Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
-
If you exit in the middle of a game, does it autosave?
-
Dave Seidner
United States
Willow Grove
Pennsylvania
In another time's forgotten space, your eyes looked through your mother's face. Wildflower seed on the sand and stone, may the four winds blow you safely home.
-
galfridus wrote: If you exit in the middle of a game, does it autosave?
Yes, it does.
-
Geoff Speare
United States
Bedford
Massachusetts
tee hee, that tickles!!!
-
chaddyboy_2000 wrote: After 20 or so games, it seems like there is a high dependency on finding the card that kills your opponent if you tie him. Is anyone experiencing this this as well?
I noticed this after 5 games but haven't played enough to see if it's becoming a necessity. Since your heroes seem to be worse on average than the monsters, and there are few items that boost both stats, the "tie killer" card seems inordinately useful.
As an overall review, this seems good for what it is -- success seems to be largely luck-based, but there's some strategy. I'll post an iTunes review after a few more plays.
-
Sean Todd
United States
Bloomington
Minnesota
-
chaddyboy_2000 wrote: After 20 or so games, it seems like there is a high dependency on finding the card that kills your opponent if you tie him. Is anyone experiencing this this as well?
Agreed. I haven't played with either of the expansions yet, I'm trying to save them for when I get bored with the original set. With just the original cards, the tie/kill card seems to be the key to the game. Obviously it's best on the 2/6 wizard with the 3/5 elf and the 1/5 wizard runners up. With the original set of cards you can't add any more than one item to a character, so I hate to put the tie/kill card on anyone else. It's a bummer when it comes up early and gets buried under crappy swords and stuff.
remus wrote: I got stuck in an endless loop.
Here's the situation: The monster side was full. The hero side had only the bottom slot open. There are two cards left in the deck, both heroes. The bottom monster has the "down arrow" tie-breaker ability. Both heroes tie the bottom monster.
So, I play the hero, tie, he gets put to the bottom of the deck, I play the next hero, tie, bottom of deck, the first hero comes up again, repeat. Game never ends.
It seems like the game should end in a stalemate in this situation.
I got stuck in this loop or a similar one. I also had another loop where one of my heroes had the displacement staff and I could endlessly put the remaining monsters on the bottom of the deck. I had no way to win with the cards left so I just had to quit that game.
-
Suzan
Netherlands
Enschede
-
I played a few times and got stuck once. Couldn't draw from the pile anymore, had to quit the game.
Really like the game so far.
-
Tiger Wiccan
United States
Florida
-
This game is completely addictive. I lost 6 in a row, then I won once with 46200 gold and then again with 16300 gold. The design is really well done IMO, and the artwork is pure eye candy for a fantasy art fan like myself. (Maybe more sexy chicks would be great, though, lol.)
Anyway, I haven't jumped on the Open Feint bandwagon yet, but I'm thinking about it for this game.
-
todd sanders
United States
pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
-
when you cant draw from the draw pile it means the card must be placed on the board somewhere before it will let you continue
-
|
|
