> Wrong – we mean the mana farm idea in itself – he’s gotten rid of these things that increased scalability: Maybe Labyrinth will break through those perception barriers, and get that recognition. Settlers of Catan (rightly) gets so much praise and glory from strategy game geeks, while Gemcraft zero equals it for design genius, but hasn’t been properly recognised as a great classic game – no doubt because it’s on Flash. If Hargitai is about to reveal a different combination of his talents in Labyrinth, then I’m fascinated to see what that will be.Īlso, I think Gemcraft zero deserves attention from a wider range of gamers. I could go on and on, but hopefully I’ve made my point. The things I love about it – and find surprising that people don’t seem to mention very much – are that (1) every map presents a uniquely interesting _natural_ challenge in terms of gem/beacon/wave combination, (2) there are so many different possible styles of gameplay, (3) fast progress demands continuous strategic adaptation, (4) the natural timing and dynamics are exceptionally enjoyable, (5) the dilemmas presented by diminishing returns in skill point investment, both at the level of individual skills and overall skill point accumulation, (6) the absolutely stunning artwork, (7) the subtle atmospheric aesthetic touches like the soundtrack of bleak wind and rain. If he has been disappointed, I would speculate that it’s been to see a relative lack of enthusiasm shown for other aspects of the game. I haven’t seen the evidence that Peter Hargitai is disappointed at Gemcraft zero’s scalability, by which I assume you mean the ability to generate massive scores if you apply a speed hack so that you have time to maximise the number of mana traps and monsters, but I seriously doubt there’s any aspect of the mathematical model which disappoints or surprises the designer himself. I have no doubt it’s going to be a phenomenal game… I just have doubts that it’s going to be a continuation of everything I loved about GC:0. > But we won’t know for sure until it’s released. I think this functionality will be drastically curtailed, which makes me sad. > The bad: He’s always been dissapointed with how scalable GC:0 was, in terms of firepower, angering, and mana collection – mana traps in particular. > The good: You can now do stuff while the game is _paused_ in Labyrinth. I think this functionality will be drastically curtailed, which makes me sad.īut we won’t know for sure until it’s released. The bad: He’s always been dissapointed with how scalable GC:0 was, in terms of firepower, angering, and mana collection – mana traps in particular. The good: You can now do stuff while the game is _paused_ in Labyrinth. I would be fascinated to hear about how they design and develop their games.
I wish that someone would do an interview with Game in a Bottle. If Labyrinth turns out to be even _nearly_ as good, then I will be extremely happy.
> Gemcraft chapter zero is a masterpiece. Imagine the uproar if it wasn’t properly playable or saveable for two days after it was released. If he releases on a Friday and there’s a critical error, there will be noone available at Armor Games to upload the fix to their server. > Peter Hargitai explained his reason in his blog. I’m a little concerned the game may be a quick and easy crowd-pleaser rather than a strong sequel. You’d be able to max out all your skills in a couple hours pretty easily. Imagine chapter zero if you could play the first couple maps with all giant waves, and you could do that as many times as you want for cumulative rather than total experience.
And they’re incorporating some standard tower defense concepts: towers that enhance nearby towers, and you can build your own walls which introduces juggling mechanics. Waves will be configurable: if you want more xp you can play with a bunch of giant monster waves. Also, looks like they’re breaking with the gemcraft tradition of only highest scores counting towards experience: you can play maps over for cumulative experience. As I understand it, labyrinth will _not_ be “gemcraft 2” but rather, something of a filler game because they’re having difficulty finishing one of their other projects on schedule and they hope labyrinth will bring in a little extra income in the meantime. It’s going to be difficult to make a game better than gemcraft zero. I’ll play it whether or not it’s here, but I’m trying to not get my hopes up.
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