Mobile Monday (2/25/2019) with Friendly!

Heya! It's a Mobile Monday kind of a day, so let me quickly catch you up on a few of the mobile games I've been playing lately.

Animal Cove

Lately I've just been logging on to participate in club events, collect my gardening treats, and start an oven cooking up a new sweet. I'm super happy that last week was Dezhead's first week ever for collecting all three milestones during the week and getting the final prize. WOOT DEZHEADS! (that's my wife's club in Animal Cove in case you didn't know.)

We are getting ever closer to that Level 4 club goal!

Props to iCurley and Anngee!

I'm currently on level 557 on the live game . . . obviously I've played all the levels multiple times behind the scenes, but I'm a bit behind on live. Gotta get up to Infinity mode!

Wake up sleepy butterflies!

Idle Apocalypse

This is a new idle game I downloaded, and I'm really digging it. Basically, you're an evil wizard bent on bringing about the apocalypse through building an enormous monster-spewing tower of wickedness . . . and you succeed.  When the apocalypse is over, you start the game over again, but with a batch of captured "souls" that you now spend on power ups to go even further in your evil plans before bringing about the apocalypse yet again!

. . . and all the while there are funny bits of dialog going on to really show how cute this game actually is.

Love how this demon is more interested in watching TV than destroying the world.

Yup! The graphics are in a fun 16-bit style as well . . . so that's a win win for me. I don't know how much longer I'll be playing the game, but there are things that I haven't seen yet, and perfecting a "system" to bringing about the apocalypse would be fun.

Overall, it's light. It's fun. It fulfills my need to be an evil wizard. BOOM! APOCALYPSE!

Gunspell 2

In case you forgot, I'm still on the hunt for the perfect Match-3 dungeon game. Me downloading this game was an attempt to scratch that itch that can't be scratched. And to ruin the suspense, no, this isn't the match-3 dungeon game I've been hunting for, but it is pretty fun regardless.

I'm down with destroying a Lich while playing as a naga lady!

So Gunspell 2 is a PvP game that at its heart has you making matches to 1- fill abilities that damage your opponent and 2- do damage to your opponent. I swear I mostly go up against bots and Russians in this game though.

You earn and level up heroes through loot crates, and eventually you amass an army of heroes to choose from when you PvP.

Every four wins in PvP, however, you also have enough keys to embark upon a quest for one of your heroes. At the end of the quest, you earn a loot crate. THIS, is what drew me into the game initially. I was hoping for more dungeon to be found in this quest portion.

There's not much to this. It's usually 3 fights and then a boss.

Anyway, that's the game basically.

Some games you can have a really lucky streak of matches and basically destroy your opponent without even trying, but there is that moment of OH YES I'M THE GREATEST! The addition of the abilities plays into skill a bit I suppose.  It is match-3, however, so a bit of randomness is bound to happen. The worst of it is when your match sets up your opponent since you're playing on the same board.

They even have a few smack talk buttons in the game much like Hearthstone. No one ever seems to use them though (also what makes me convinced I'm playing against mostly bots)

Dungeon Raid

I haven't actually played this game . . . why? It's iOS only, it's out of date (meaning it can't be played on the latest OS), and it's 99 cents.  I actually do happen to have an old iphone sitting around the house, so I might actually be able to eventually play this game, but from a 1000-miles view, this looks to actually be the closest to the Match-3 dungeon game I've been hoping for!!

Screenshots from the app store . . . check it out

I'll work on getting this game downloaded over the week and let you know how it goes.

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Thanks for reading and as always . . .

Happy Dueling!

OINK!

It's that time of the week again where from Tuesday through Thursday in Animal Cove you can play the baby animal event and earn yourself A SUPER CUTIE!  This week I was working towards the baby piglet. It's rescuin' time!

Is that a Trevor Wrecks easter egg on the left hand side?

It was a pretty awesome set of six levels that gave a good challenge and, yup, I spent coins and boosters on this one, but Oinkster is completely worth it.

4 stars and 8 tikis? ON IT!

He has possibly the craziest backstory of them all.  Especially, um, this part, "That's why I didn't really like the Baby Animal Shelter. All the humans kept their distance and when they did come see me, they wore funny rubber yellow suits with windows in the hoods."

Is that a pig stink joke or a radiation joke?

Did you know you can buy one of those suits if you have $1,310.99? LOL!  I love that they put the 99 cents on there because let me tell you . . . $1,311 would be just OVER THE LINE for me.

 I now need this Winston outfit . . . thanks Oinkster for pointing that out to me.

Just one more baby animal and I'll have all five! (until, you know, we release a few more baby animals that is . . .)

Happy Dueling!

The week in review 9/22/2018

Hey all,

I haven't blogged in a week, and I'm not sure if anyone really missed that or not, but hey! A lot happened over the week, so let's take a moment to review.

TellTale Games Layoffs

Quite sad to see this happen to any games company. To be honest, I hadn't played many Telltale games aside from Minecraft Story Mode with my kids, but I did play a lot of LucasArts games back in the 90's, and from what I understand, TellTale was a break off of LucasArts.

Anyway, it was big news and you could hear people talking about it all over the KingsIsle offices expressing that "hushed tone of sadness" for the fine people now out of work. I've heard that same reaction every time a new bout of layoffs was announced somewhere. You always hope the best and know that it could happen to anyone. It happens too often in this industry. The worst part was hearing that a staff of 250 was brought down to a staff of 25 and no severance package was given to the employees. 

Super sad news.

Animal Cove's next 100 levels

On a totally different topic . . . whew, we worked super hard last week finishing up the final touches on our batch of 100 levels that hit the streets on Friday! I know that some of you may be a bit disappointed no story came along with those 100 levels, but not to worry, more to the story is on its way while the level design team keeps chugging out new puzzles for you. :)  I really hope you enjoy them.  We're already hard at work on more levels  . . . and other surprises!

A week of limited gaming

So, there are several reasons why I haven't been playing many games this week, but the major reason is my son took over my computer so he could play A Hat in Time. My computer is the only one in the house where the game isn't a complete lag fest.

This game looks really fun though and he's been having a blast with it.

I'm still logging in to Paladins every day and at least grabbing my daily reward, which was extra amazing this week with a 2x bonus.  It was pretty awesome on the Crystal days. Gotta love that x2 rewards!

Of other news, I re-downloaded Elder Scrolls Online . . . why? I miss my scaley boys!  This is my "Stingite" creation.

I gotta do something about that awful hat though

He's a sorcerer focusing on Summoning and using big weapon attacks. I logged on, re-familiarized myself with the game's controls and even completed a quest chain where I saved the King of a place called Daggerfall?

Nice goatee my dude!

I may get back into leveling a bit in this game, so more blog posts about ESO are on their way I suppose?

Nintendo Switch Online

Other big news this week was about the new subscription service for Nintendo. Polygon had a great FAQ article about it here if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Picture compliments of Polygon's Article here.

OH THE COMPLAINTS FROM MY DAUGHTER about this new online service. I spent the majority of two mornings (the time we get to talk most together) hearing all about the injustice of this new fee for online game play.

OH THE MOCKING I heard from around the net (careful with that link . . . it goes to reddit) about how silly it was an how it doesn't provide any value.

Well . . . we're now subscribed as a family . . . so . . . complain and mock all ya want, my dudes. I can't wait to check out the extents of the sub plan and also, I'm just glad my daughter can play the online portions of Splatoon again. She's all about this game, and I hate to see her not be able to play with her buds.

I suppose you can hear more about that here too. :)

Wizard101

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of episode 32? 33?  32.5? of my Wizard101 walkthrough with The Art of Warlord. Morgrim hasn't uploaded it to YouTube just yet . . . but we're busy questing through Polaris together at the pace of one hour every couple of weeks. BLINDINGLY FAST SPEED RUN!

If you haven't caught the series, or just need to see our wrap up of Dragonspyre, you can check it out here.

ALSO, don't forget to tune in to Morgrim's stream of us playing Jackbox TV with a few KI Devs this week. Sure to be a lot of fun. :)

And that's all the catch-up news I've got in me this morning! WHEW!  Thanks for reading and as always . . .

Happy Dueling!

New Animal Cove Content and Another Baby Animal Gauntlet

It was a big day for KingsIsle yesterday!  Not only did we release Wizard101 on Steam (and shoot way up the free to play charts immediately), we also launched 100 new levels and more story content for Animal Cove! So excited to get the 301-400 batch of levels out the door. We hope you really love our latest update.

On a personal note, I played through another Baby Animal event and earned my new wide-eyed deer animal named "Dawn." CUTE!  A fawn named Dawn.

I love how they all have that I've-never-seen-a-camera-before look

Dawn's gauntlet was an interesting one.

I like how this level looks like a very excited bunny

It started off with a collect starfish and collect flowers level that had some good pinch points at the bottom, and ultimately you're going to have to work pretty hard to get those 50 flowers. Whew!

There were a couple really fun collect mushroom levels as well. Unfortunately I didn't capture screenshots of every level, and I typically get excited and use boosters on levels 3 and 6 so that I don't fail my final checkpoints. In fact, I beat level 3 so fast that I ended up screen capping it after the fact and took my BEST SCREENSHOT EVER!

Yup . . . need to frame this one . . . 

Anyway, Dawn the fawn is now happily wandering around and looking out for trouble.

Dawn is allergic to excitement, danger, and healthy foods.

Feel free to leave any feedback on levels 300-400! I'm always interested in hearing or passing along your thoughts.

Happy Dueling!

Look at the Puppers!

While we were in the Beta phase of Animal Cove, I managed to score Stripes the Zebra, which I believe is everyone's first pet. Yesterday, I was able to unlock this little cutie named "Scruffy!"

 I miss that about dogs

In real life our family owns a cat and a bird (no they are not named Sylvester and Tweety . . . they're named Zoodles and Sweety.) Unfortunately our real life dog was killed by the neighbor's dog several months ago. But that's another story for another time . . .

The only thing cuter than Scruffy

Well if you can't have a real dog, virtual dog it is! (IMHO It's a much better option than dropping $3000 on a robot dog.) To unlock Scruffy you had to complete a gauntlet of six levels. Fail one, and you go back to a checkpoint and try again.

Running the baby puppy gauntlet is CUTECORE!

Finish all six levels and you'll have unlocked a new baby animal!

What would happen if you never tapped to continue? What kind of monster would do that?

After this you're rewarded with a fun, new friend who wanders the island and interacts with its denizens.

I feel you, Winston. I feel you.

Pets are now slowly rolled out each week. Most likely all the players who earned Stripes are going to be seeing Scruffy next week. It's great to have something new to do in Animal Cove, week after week, even if you've finished all 300 levels.

I hope everyone is really enjoying playing Animal Cove. The team has worked hard and is still working hard on new stuff to add to the game! Thanks for playing. :)

Happy Dueling!

Animal Cove has arrived: Friend me!

It's here! It's finally here!

We've been working on this game for a long time, and I've had my hand in its development for quite some time. This is the first game I've ever had my name mentioned in the credits three times: once for Marketing, once for Writing, and once for Design. So what does that mean? Here's a quick laundry list for my involvement to date:

• Initial Social Media setup and posts during early beta
• Early responses to initial app store reviews and our beta forums
• Sending pre-release gifts to players through the in-game inbox
• News announcements on KI Live from Soft Launch until now
• Working with the "early" Writing team up through the Park Entrance
• Working with the "late" Design team creating Animal Cove levels (my first starts on level 151 and then they're scattered throughout the rest of the game)

Because of Animal Cove, I now have my current job, and I'm getting a chance to get my feet wet with Unity! Woohoo! I couldn't be happier that it's out now on the app stores, and best yet . . . It's been FEATURED in both the iOS and Android app stores. That's never happened for a KingsIsle mobile game before!  I couldn't be happier. Someone reported to me yesterday that we had hit the Number One Trending spot for casual games. YES!

The first thing you need to know, is where to download it. It's a mobile game, so download from here:
-iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/animal-cove-match-3-adventure/id1217914031?mt=8
-Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.KingsIsle.RES&hl=en_US

The second thing you need to know is how to make friends.  You can find out how to do this on this Facebook post, and here's the graphic that details how to do it.

Third, Add me as a friend!  I'm "DeathUnicorn" in game . . . 'cause you know . . . death unicorns win . . . duh . . .

Fourth, Vanessa Mythdust has already been writing up some stellar break downs of the story. If you're the kind that likes to read ahead, follow this link for some great reads.

The fifth thing you need to know is that we are currently making more levels, when you hit level 300, don't worry . . . more are on the way.  After you finish, just log in daily and keep collecting your powerups so that when those new levels are released, you'll be ready to go.

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Let me know if you have any questions about the game!  I'll be happy to answer what I can (leave your questions in the comments).

Happy Dueling!