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Rocketcat goes deeper into the Mage Dungeon with Wayward
Kepa Auwae's Rocketcat Games is one of my favorite iOS developers: Auwae himself is full to the brim with creative ideas about gaming, and all of Rocketcat's releases, from Hook Champ to Mage Gauntlet to Punch Quest, are extremely polished and well-designed. I got to meet with Auwae in person last week at GDC, and he not only showed me what the company is working on next, but got my head spinning with all of the crazy ideas he's thinking about creating in the future. First up, Wayward is Rocketcat's next title. It's a free-to-play action RPG game, and they're "hoping May" for a release, says Auwae. Mage Gauntlet was a terrific game the company released last year, which featured a young sorceress hacking away through a series of linear dungeons armed with a variety of swords and spells. Wayward is a followup to that game that Auwae was calling "Mage Dungeon" for a long time, because it expands on the Mage Gauntlet gameplay, adding six other different characters to play with, each with their own spells and abilities. One will come with the game for free, and the others will be available via in-app purchase. Wayward also takes the hand-designed levels from Mage Gauntlet and replaces them with procedurally generated dungeons, which means there will be no end of content to play through. Each character will have their own cutscenes and story, and just like Blizzard's Diablo series, there will be various tilesets to play through in sequence, from a mine to a castle to catacombs and so on. But the dungeons are all put together every time you start up a game, which means that every time you go in, you'll play through a brand-new level. The gameplay is just as tight as Mage Gauntlet, though there is one big change. Each character can equip two spells at a time, and to use them, you just swipe left or right on the right side of the screen, left for one spell and right for another. This does give you instant access to your spells right away (in Mage Gauntlet, you had to first choose one and then target it), but it can be a little confusing to pick up, especially when you want to fire a fireball left but have to swipe right to cast it. Talking with Auwae about future plans can be confusing as well: The guy is so full of really good ideas that it's hard to tell what he's just thinking about doing and what he's actually working on putting together. I believe he is actually working on a "daily dungeon" idea for Wayward, where players will be able to jump in and play through a new specific dungeon every day, which will then have a leaderboard to compete on. And there should also be an endless mode, which will just be one long dungeon that you can try to get as far as possible with. After that, things are less clear. Auwae told me that Wayward is also a testing ground for another couple of games he wants to put together. One would be a more casual puzzle/action game, similar to the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening title, that would emphasize dungeon exploration rather than the action-based combat. And he also said Wayward is a test for a much larger multiplayer game, where different players would go through a dungeon together, fighting both versus and co-op for XP and loot. That game, Auwae told me, would have up to 40 different classes to play with, and work much like League of Legends does, where each character class has its own abilities, strengths and weaknesses. It's hard to tell just how solid that idea is with Auwae, but the concept certainly sounds interesting. So Auwae has no shortage of ideas about what to do with Wayward and his other games for sure. In addition to an upcoming iOS release, Auwae is thinking about bringing the game to desktops as well, and maybe even trying to work with Steam on a release there, or taking it through the Greenlight program. The game was definitely a lot of fun to play -- it's similar to Mage Gauntlet, and that's definitely not a bad thing. We'll look for the iOS release later on next month.
Punch Quest now costs a dollar, Bastion is universal
Here are two big updates to really great games on iOS. First, Punch Quest (which is one of my favorite iOS games this year so far) started out as a freemium title, given away for free with a number of in-app purchases to support it financially. But developers Rocketcat Games have said in the past that the in-app purchases just aren't making enough money to continue development, so they've taken the hazardous step of raising the app's price to US$0.99. Punch Quest is a terrific title that's well worth a buck or more, so hopefully it'll do better for the devs at the higher price. Second, Bastion, the XBLA hit that made its way to the iPad a little while ago, has released an update that makes the game universal. In fact, not only does the game now work on both iPhone and iPad, but it's also been updated to work with the iPhone 5's wider screen. iCloud syncing has been included as well, so all of your progress from the iPad should move over. Bastion is another terrific title, and it's available on the App Store right now for $4.99.
Daily iPhone App: Punch Quest smashes faces on the App Store
Here's the thing: It's Friday. You already know about Punch Quest, because you saw our preview video the other day. It's completely free as a universal version on both iPhone and iPad, and available right now, which makes this the easiest recommendation I've made on this site all year long: Go get this game. Period. It's great fun, well-designed and has tons and tons of replayability, all for the low price of exactly zero dollars. I made yet another video of me playing the game below, not really because we needed it, but just because I wanted to play the game yet again. So yes: Do yourself a favor, and go download Punch Quest. Enjoy your weekend!
Punch Quest coming next week from Rocketcat and Madgarden
Rocketcat Games is the great company behind terrific iPhone games like Mage Gauntlet and the very popular Hook Worlds. Its latest title is called Punch Quest, built in conjunction with developer Madgarden. Punch Quest won't be released until October 25th, but Rocketcat kindly sent TUAW an early copy. You'll find a quick video preview of what the finished title looks like down below. Punch Quest will be available for iOS next Thursday, for the low, low price of completely free. Look for a full review here on TUAW when the game arrives later on next week!
Daily iPhone App: Mage Gauntlet
I'll be straightforward on this one: Mage Gauntlet is one of the best iOS games of the year. It's a throwback RPG to the 16-bit days of Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, put together by Rocketcat Games, the folks responsible for the great Hook Champ and subsequent Hook Worlds titles. You play as a girl in a world of magic, who just happens to be nonmagical, and while the story is cute and fun, the gameplay here is the real draw -- this is old school action RPG all the way. The look is extremely polished and well done, the music of the game is some of the best I've heard on a handheld title in a long time, and the game offers up plenty of addictive action, whether you're slicing through foes with a charge-and-slash mechanic, or casting spells across the touchscreen with your finger. If there's a problem with the game at all, it's probably a slightly sharp difficulty curve (especially on a specific level), but the dev has already stated on Twitter that there's an updated planned to tweak that section's difficulty, and let you do more of what's really fun in this one: finding and casting great spells to level up your character. There's also tons of great gear to collect to customize your character, and if you buy the game right away at the launch price of $1.99, you can get some special gear from other Rocketcat titles, along with a special pet that grants some nice bonuses to your attributes. Unfortunately, this one's iPhone only, but even blown up on the iPad, it still looks great. Mage Gauntlet is one of my favorite games on iOS this year -- definitely don't miss out.
TUAW's Daily App: Super QuickHook
Hook Champ is a popular title on the iPhone, a game in which you use a little hook to drive a little guy through a series of haunted ruin stages. Super QuickHook is basically a sequel to the first game -- it's done by the same developers, but the gameplay has been tweaked a little bit to offer up a different kind of challenge. While Hook Champ is a little more like a platformer, with designed levels, Super QuickHook has your hero swinging through randomly generated levels, in a Canabalt-style setup mixed with the hook-swinging gameplay. As you can probably imagine, it's great fun. The app is on sale right now for an intro price of $1.99, though the normal price is $2.99, still a quality deal for a very nice app. And updates are coming soon, with new levels, new items, and new achievements. Even if you missed grappling through Hook Champ, be sure to give this one a look.
