Why I am Discouraged:

[seraphless]

The Following things are a must have in any RPG/MMO, that are very lacking in Aurora Feint:

My biggest complaint right now is the lack of information. When you put out an update, you should have an ETA of the next one, even if the estimated time is off by a month, at least we know something is coming soon. Keeping the people that pay your wages in the dark is very disheartening. And disappointing.

Story. Yes I know, it's coming... When was the last time you played a game but the story shipped a year late. I am level 68 or something, and I don't have a clue what's going on. How are the developers planning on having us all re-live the ad hock story when we are supposedly 7/10ths done? How do you cram a story in midway?

Difficulty in achieving items, or hell maybe even items themselves. I have 8/8 weapons, and 4/4 multi's, and all level 5 deamons. That's everything you CAN get, hold the rabbit. When was the last time it was that easy to get the best, and have nothing better to get? Also, one of the things that makes a game like this epic is armour, weapons, items, helms, amulets, etc etc. Striving to get the biggest baddest items should be hard, and you should be able to deck out your character. If you're not in love with the character you're not in love with the game, HEAR ME DEVS?

Enemies, random enemies, side quests (the tower had promise, then you tossed it in the corner as a space eater after you get all your multis. What about climbing deamons peak? What about battling a boss monster for items and money? What about trading items and money with other players?

Private chat?

Where is the emotion when I fight?!?!? I am summoning a ghost, that should be dramatic, I should be expending all my energy into one perfect being to do my bidding? Yet I casually walk in and out. And where is the glory in battle? Matching wits against the opponent.

This is only the beginning of a rant, I will rant more as it comes to me, only because I would like to see this game become amazing.

If someone said something in the last ten minutes of a chat, then let us know they signed out so we aren't talking to walls.

---------continuing rant-----------

Also, as it stands right now I have absolutely nothing to spend my crystals on, yet because there is nothing else to do, I am stockpiling them, I have sooo many crystals, and I probably don't even have a 1/4 of what some people have. If and when you do roll out something that requires money, so many of us are going to be able to purchase everything you throw at us right off the bat without *really* working for it. When I see an item that costs 1,000,000 and I only have 10 crystals. I WANT THAT ITEM SO BAD IT HURTS. But when I have 900,000 or so crystals, and that item is rolled out. I really am not going to value it much at all, because I was never working FOR it.

Also, if you guys do have a story line, I sure hope the ending doesn't plop us back into "reality," but perhaps we work to build our own fortress or something to live in the land. Obviously we can't have a million little houses to click on in the map, but when you view a players profile perhaps you can choose a path in to battle that person, take the right side around my fortress and there are traps you have to battle, maybe walls you have to climb through a puzzle, guards, etc All of these things could be purchased with enough crystals, and perhaps you need x amount of honor to be able to purchase some items. Your castle would have the ability to have a hostile state, a and a peaceful state. If you are hostile anyone can attack your castle, defeated defenses need rebuilding, maybe you have a small chance to fix them somehow, then you must buy new ones. Your castle would have a description of where it is, and what it looks like, player created, but with inappropriate (click) flags to keep people in character. If you are hostile you can go to war with another castle. If you are peaceful no one can attack your castle. Give us something to call our own, rpgs and mmos thrive on it.

That's a little more ranting. I will have more soon.


Oh yeah, and please don't turn this game into an idiot box by appealing to all the people who think it is too hard. It should be hard, and if they are complaining they should find a different game, one for children that doesn't require their poor little heads to think to much.

[aquaphire]

d**n i completely agree with you, i want to see this game rise to the #1 paid app slot but there are numerous holes to fill first. i wish the devs would fill us in on what they're working on, i feel like a kid in a waiting room. I've posted a plethora of ideas in the wishlist category. this game has so much potential its a shame to see most of it go unfulfilled.

[seraphless]

bump for edit

[loaki9]

Yikes. I think I got some arterial bleeding all over me while you were spilling your heart out there.

I have a question. Say you create a product. You sell it for say.... $5. 1000 people buy your product! (Yay!) That means you have $5000 Dollars!

Minus the 30% commission the retailer takes (apple) Now you're down to $3500. Now say.... This covers all of the time/effort/labor costs that took just to RELEASE your product.

Now lets say, The vast majority of the people who are interested in your type of product, have bought it. They have paid their ONE TIME payment. But now, people are demanding more from your product. Always wanting more! (more story, more content, more challenges, developments, updates)

But now its been months and months. But there is no more income, and you've supported your product the best you can, yet the mob wants MORE.

What, Sir, exactly are you going to do, since you have to get food on your table.

What, Sir, is the expected return on your $5?

Because I expect- a caramel coated Venti Iced coffee with Whip cream. That I will drink up and be satisfied with over the next couple minutes. I'm not going to keep asking for MORE Caramel!
No , Sir, I believe I have gotten my monies worth, and beyond, from this game.

Thank you goes out to the developers, You've done excellent work in my eyes.

[burtosis]

Obviously you haven't thought through the business side of this enterprise.

You have a very large customer base who paid $5 for your product. It was so good, they are using it alot and demanding more! Oh, noes!!! Obviously you put together an expansion and let them pay $5 more! This is what arena (now dameons) is. And actually I paid $7.99 more because I bought early.

Not to mention the whole shamless commercialism bunny. They need to put in a 'level up ur bunny' additions into the app store, just like imob and epic pet wars. There are a ton of ways to milk the customer base rather than leaving them with the discomfort of overfilled udders.

So what is happening is a ton of new concepts is going into AF3. I think that the developers take the time to listen to the ideas and seriously consider them. We will all have our chance to toss a few more dimes to those indie devs clothed in rags in thier studio hovel next to the trains, stealing thier wifi from the McDonalds across the street.

Seriously! I don't see how cheeky naysaying will do more than get a few laughs. I for one will definately buy expansion material for a game that I know is good rather than spend it on something that has a good chance of turing out to be a poor value for hours of enjoyment/$$$

[arwen]

Burtosis = Brave.Heart.

Wonderful post. I hope the devs will read what you wrote down here, I fully agree with you.

[Danielle Cassley]

Hi All,

Thanks for the well thought out posts on our direction and timelines.

We work very hard as the small team that we are to get the highest quality game out. We have chosen a niche market on the iPhone and are sticking to it trying to offer the best experience we can. Every idea mentioned in this thread has been though of and added to a long list of things we could and would like to build.

With Daemons we added additional levels and reason for people to continue battling in the Arena. We felt that additional content was more important at this time then adding the story elements. We really do have a story outlined for AF and are looking for the best time to put it in.

As we are a small startup our timelines change frequently and so we don't write a whole lot about what we are releasing when until we really have a time and date. I will try to give a better idea of what we are working on from here on out.

[seraphless]

Apr 20, 2009 3:13:05 GMT -5 loaki9 said:

Yikes. I think I got some arterial bleeding all over me while you were spilling your heart out there.

I have a question. Say you create a product. You sell it for say.... $5. 1000 people buy your product! (Yay!) That means you have $5000 Dollars!

Minus the 30% commission the retailer takes (apple) Now you're down to $3500. Now say.... This covers all of the time/effort/labor costs that took just to RELEASE your product.

Now lets say, The vast majority of the people who are interested in your type of product, have bought it. They have paid their ONE TIME payment. But now, people are demanding more from your product. Always wanting more! (more story, more content, more challenges, developments, updates)

But now its been months and months. But there is no more income, and you've supported your product the best you can, yet the mob wants MORE.

What, Sir, exactly are you going to do, since you have to get food on your table.

What, Sir, is the expected return on your $5?

Because I expect- a caramel coated Venti Iced coffee with Whip cream. That I will drink up and be satisfied with over the next couple minutes. I'm not going to keep asking for MORE Caramel!
No , Sir, I believe I have gotten my monies worth, and beyond, from this game.

Thank you goes out to the developers, You've done excellent work in my eyes.

I expect them to man up and charge for expansions. I pay 50 dollars a game. You guys have 35 or so dollars to leech, so leech it. The bottom line is we have less than half a game, and that's not cool. If you got blood on you I think you read it wrong.

[seraphless]

Apr 20, 2009 10:54:30 GMT -5 burtosis said:

Obviously you haven't thought through the business side of this enterprise.

You have a very large customer base who paid $5 for your product. It was so good, they are using it alot and demanding more! Oh, noes!!! Obviously you put together an expansion and let them pay $5 more! This is what arena (now dameons) is. And actually I paid $7.99 more because I bought early.

Not to mention the whole shamless commercialism bunny. They need to put in a 'level up ur bunny' additions into the app store, just like imob and epic pet wars. There are a ton of ways to milk the customer base rather than leaving them with the discomfort of overfilled udders.

So what is happening is a ton of new concepts is going into AF3. I think that the developers take the time to listen to the ideas and seriously consider them. We will all have our chance to toss a few more dimes to those indie devs clothed in rags in thier studio hovel next to the trains, stealing thier wifi from the McDonalds across the street.

Seriously! I don't see how cheeky naysaying will do more than get a few laughs. I for one will definately buy expansion material for a game that I know is good rather than spend it on something that has a good chance of turing out to be a poor value for hours of enjoyment/$$$

Actually I have thought about the business side, and you basically echoed my sentiments:

From another thread:
How about making it so you can just pay 5 bucks to upgrade your bunny each time. The only people I know that have iPod touches or phones put my name in wrong, and robbed me twice of my rabbit! It really is not a fair way to go about things, we are not all rich enough to afford apple. There should always be another route to gaining special things like this, even if the alternative is very difficult, i.e. gameplay hours as suggested above. In the end though, it's about the money, and if you want it, plenty of people will drop 5 dollars on point to the rabbit.

Also, everyone that has an iPod/iPhone and has friends with the same already boast and brag about the latest app they downloaded. Everyone I knew that had not downloaded it yet, I got to download it, where's my reward?

Maybe if you max out your weapons and multipliers you can unlock the first rabbit level, and successive levels may then be unlocked by referral. Maybe it takes 500,000 crystals to purchase the first level, and then refer from there on.

I guess my overall feeling is there has to be a better way that gets you, the developers, what you want, but doesn't implement an unfair advantage to others (people that in some cases are more loyal to your game than those who get their reward)

I feel that it was not very well thought out. Like I said before, if it's money your after, which it is, maybe make each significant update a dollar or two (and people that would whine about it, skip your morning starbucks, or maybe put those eight quarters stashed in your desk in your bank account) Two dollars is nothing, even to a homeless person. The people who are loyal to your game and excited about the future won't balk, and they won't be left behind by an unfair advantage.
-------------
I live and breath computer programming, every second of every day. I know full well what it takes, how much it costs, and how scary deadlines are. But I also know a poor launch, and a half done app that could have been much better when I see it. The same amount of time could have produced a far more fully functional game, one where players don't come to a forum and post "dur, am I done?"

Also, not be sound cruel, but indie development is all about starting from nothing. It costs absolutely NOTHING to write a program for yourself -art/music.
You think they have to pay for ASCII commodities?

I am sorry, we can't finish that if/else statement until we buy another array? Come on. Also, if the game was a true passion, which it seems to be, then writing the code shouldn't have to be rewarded by money. If you guys want donations, open a paypal account, until then, money doesn't mean a d*** thing.

[theconfuzed1]

I wish I were in a position to say that money doesn't mean a d**n thing!

Fortunately, I do, at least, have some discretionary income, and I have no problem supporting the devs for the apps that use and love on a frequent basis.

[seraphless]

Apr 21, 2009 0:20:39 GMT -5 theconfuzed1 said:

I wish I were in a position to say that money doesn't mean a d**n thing!

Fortunately, I do, at least, have some discretionary income, and I have no problem supporting the devs for the apps that use and love on a frequent basis.

That's what I am talking about! Passion is all the money anyone needs! Now set up a paypal donation account!

[theconfuzed1]

Actually, what I meant is that I wouldn't mind paying for expansion.

You hear that devs? Get crackin'!

[loaki9]

Seraphless: I think you misunderstood Burtosis. He was directing his comment at me.

Burtosis:I do understand the business side. The discrepancy between our arguments is simple, neither of us know the true quantity of product sold, and were taking opposite sides of the spectrum. I base my choice on the fact of the specific niche of fantasy/RPG/puzzle games is relatively small. Considering how many 14yr old girls out there with Iphones are twittering and texting; not seeking to level up their Daemon Bunny. Also, I'm not just taking the counterpoint to bust some chops. I've made some suggestions myself. Just not in this thread, or tone.

To both above: My point of my original post, more plainly is: "Have you, As the game is right now, gotten your monies worth?" ask yourself that. I feel I have. Let that define whether you use the expressive seeping tone of disappointment (seraphless) or just a suggestion. That's why I was being pithy, burtosis.

To Danielle and Jason: You can see from these guys, and I'm sure the majority of your player's desires echo what we type here, that we are totally comfortable paying money for the extra content you guy will put out. So, I hope you do charge for your next release.

The content that is released right now excels beyond the $5 that I've paid you so far.

Thanks

[arwen]

I am a girl and I'm 18 years old.
Why did you think only girls are impatient to unlock the bunny? Maybe because it' PINK? Muahahahahahha!

Ps: I like the deamon bunny because I think is the powerful deamon.

Bye loaki9

[loaki9]

There's an exception to every rule, Miss. You are in that few % of females that do play video games. Specially, fantasy/RPG/ Puzzle types.

I'm sure I could dig up some statistical data of gender/ age comparison of video game players. Here is a really thorough report about 2 surveys of gender preference.

jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/hartmann.html

Although it does note that there are increasing number of female players. The types of games played require very specific dynamics. Such as low competitiveness, high social function, and little sexual bias.

But I'll stop on this tangent. I don't want to hi-jack the thread.