Tag: Rocketcat games »

Wayward Souls by Rocketcat Games has gotten an update of megalithic proportions.

There is a totally new Endless Mode Dungeon where you can pit yourself against ever-changing floors on max difficulty and see how you rank up on the Gamecenter Scoreboards. Rocketcat has even integrated MFi support so that you can hook up your favorite controller. The update also includes more hats, boss health bars, and a Gnome dating simulator (hidden in the Super Secret Credits Level).

Wayward Souls has also received a bunch of quality of life upgrades, like being able to save export/import, a new "Support" section, a more powerful coin magnet, and some class changes for the Rogue and the Adventurer.

Rocketcat has been upping the price by $1 with every update, so pick up Wayward Souls now before it jumps to $6.99 USD on Monday. You can download it for $5.99 on the App Store now.

Exceptional roguelike-inspired action-RPG Wayward Souls has been significantly updated.

The game now offers a new dungeon in the form of The Labyrinth, offering 20 floors of pain, the conclusion of the stories of the current six characters, plus a new boss. There are a bunch of new hats, a new Super Secret Area, some tweaks to the general game, and all-around fixes to anything else that needed correcting.

As is the way with Rocketcat Games's promised pricing structure, Wayward Souls has gone up in price by $1, increasing to $5.99. There'll be another price increase to $6.99 when the next update is released soon. Given, there's already some information about the next update, including MFI controller support and at least two new dungeon modes, it's the ideal time to dive into it and snap up Wayward Souls, before it rises in price once again.

Wayward Souls is available now on the App Store, priced at $5.99.

Update includes:

- Fixes for the zoom-in bug for iPad 1 and iOS 5.1.1.
- Control tweaks for iPad devices, you can set movement and swipe sensitivy separately.
- Health potions are no longer awful.
- Automatic screen flipping.
- Map now also shows your floor number.
- Try to charge up a power attack when low on energy will no longer prevent you from moving.
- You no longer get an energy regeneration bonus for charging up a power attack.
- Hats stay on your head instead of unequipping.
- Match Hat Color moved to the hatbox menu instead of options.
- A bunch of new hats.
- REPEAT STORY: ON/OFF toggle in options menu.
- Gauranteed rare chest after each boss.
- Chests can now be destroyed after being opened, to prevent weird situations where you could get stuck.
- Some fixes to level generation in the first three dungeons.
- Increased gold drop rate in the third and fourth dungeons.
- Rare chests now drop normal hats if you run out of rare hats to find.
- Guard Captains should no longer attack you immediately when they take damage.
- Flame traps should be a bit more forgiving now.
- Tapping during the retry/victory epitaphs now skips the text much faster.
- Reflection damage buffed to triple of what it was.
- Super Secret Area, will YOU survive its enigmatic horrors?
- Various other minor tweaks and fixes.
- Lots of character balance changes, with more coming in Update 2. For more details, check out this address:

http://www.rocketcatgames.com/wayward/WSupdate1.txt

------------------------

Second update plans:

- MFI Controller support
- Further character tweaks, especially to Rogue
- New Cheevos (achievements for the layman)
- At least two new dungeon modes, including Endless
- Saint Statue revamp, including a bugfix to make them actually appear on random floors.
- Boss healthbars
- Looking into some sort of save syncing, not necessarily iCloud
- Other stuff we didn't get to do in the first update

Rocketcat Games joined our Twitch channel late last week to stream Wayward Souls with us. For the first time, see the first boss of the game defeated, and see large chunks of the second area of the game, the Tower, with a couple of the game's characters. The game releases on April 24.

We've shared YouTube videos of some of the highlights, along with a recap of the entire stream, containing information on the process of the game's development and what players can expect when it releases.

See the first area of the game defeated with Renee the Rogue:

Renee the Rogue running through the Tower, the second area of the game:

As well, Blythe the Warrior makes a lengthy run through the Tower, but can it be successful? As well, check out some of Wayward Souls' hats that will be available, including some of the early adopter hats:

[twitchrecorded 520772550,148Apps]

We're getting the 148Apps Live train started back up in a big way this week! At 4:00pm EST (3:00pm CST, 1:00pm CST, 9:00pm GMT), Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games will join 148Apps on Twitch to chat up Wayward Souls - formerly known as Wayward Saga, and as the spiritual successor to Mage Gauntlet. We'll run through a fresh build of the upcoming game, and chat about what's gone into the development of the game. And of course, you can ask your questions as well in the Twitch chat.

So feel free to join us! Watch live below in the embedded viewer below, or join us on Twitch to chat with us.

[twitchlive 148apps]

If you miss the show, keep an eye on this page as we will upload the archived broadcast and embedded highlights as well. Be sure to follow us on Twitch to know precisely when we go live next!

[twitchrecorded 508018858,148apps]

Watch the footage of the Spellsword in action, and the first boss:

[twitchhighlight 3825029,148apps]

Rocketcat Games' titles have been a unique presence on the App Store. While many pixel art games exist on iOS, theirs have had a special look and feel to them that just hasn't been matched by others.

Also, gnomes. Lots of gnomes.

I spoke to Kepa Auwae, who is in charge of "Planning, Business Stuff, Design" and is the public voice for Rocketcat Games, and was previously a registered nurse before Hook Champ allowed the him and the studio to make games full-time. We discuss why their titles remain so unique, the future of the studio, and just why we don't hear from the other two members of Rocketcat.

148Apps: There are a lot of pixel art games on the App Store, but Rocketcat Games seems to have a voice and style all its own with games that have attracted a loyal fan base. What do you attribute this to?

Kepa Auwae: Our games have a pretty clear voice, probably because there's so few people working on them and everyone contributes. I think it's also easier to build a fan base when you're working on a small niche that others don't really touch. There's not a lot of people making our sorts of games on iOS, with our level of difficulty and scope.

148Apps: Your grappling hook games (Hook Champ, Super QuickHook, and Hook Worlds) are actually only a few titles using the grappling hook mechanic at all on mobile. Is this due to the challenge of using the mechanic well?

Auwae: It turns out that level design was really difficult for our grappling hook games. The placement of every bit of ceiling was important to the flow of the level. It's kind of like designing a level for a platformer, except imagine you control each leg and you'll trip if you don't step on the floor exactly right.

As for how few games use the genre, I think it's mostly just how genres work for videogames. You need a huge hit to really provide incentive to cloners on a big scale.

148Apps: Reminisce back to the time of Hook Champ and its cosmetic IAP. How did the response and reaction from people then compare to the reaction you got for the IAP in Punch Quest? How have your fans responded to your evolution in titles you've released?

Auwae: We get as many complaints about Hook series IAP, still, as we get complaints about Punch Quest IAP. And because the Hook games are out longer, we have a bigger amount of complaints total. It's bizarre, since the Hook IAP was almost entirely cosmetic, hats and such.

That said, we didn't get many complaints about the Punch Quest IAP at all. I think fans knew that we were trying to do things right. Trying to anyway, I'm not happy with how the design in Punch Quest turned out. In the future, I'd like to completely avoid the concept of people paying to skip in-game progression.

148Apps: Your games have largely been core-gamer-friendly genres; do you see your future mobile titles going down this path, if you even have a future on mobile at all?

Auwae: It would make a lot more sense to make casual-friendly games, as the "core-gamer" type of games we make take big amounts of time to work on. This next one we're releasing, our randomly-generated action-adventure game, is getting to the 2-year mark. These are the types of games we're interested in making, even if it doesn't add up from a business standpoint.

Our plan for the future is to release on multiple platforms, especially PC. The big differences are that there's a much bigger audience for such games there, and you can feasibly charge more than $5 per copy. Definitely not leaving mobile, any game that makes sense on iOS will be developed simultaneously for it. As an example, I'm starting work on a project with the Punch Quest developer (Paul "Madgarden" Pridham), and that's being worked on for both PC and iOS so we can make sure the controls and graphics are perfect on both platforms.

148Apps: You, Kepa Auwae, have served largely as the public voice of the company. Who are the other members of Rocketcat, and why do you keep their voices silent? Do they even exist?! Or are they actually gnomes?

Auwae: There's Jeremy Orlando (Programmer) and Brandon Rhodes (Artist). All three of us are incredibly shy. We had to pick which one of us would have to interact with everyone. I'm not better equipped to talk to anyone, it's just that I lost when we drew straws. After a few years I'm now ok at the whole "public voice" thing. Also they're gnomes and I'm really ashamed of that.

Thanks to Kepa Auwae for his time; it's truly appreciated.

I love grappling hooks in games. There's nothing more pleasant than swinging around to get from place to place, because running is for chumps. Who wouldn't want to swing around to get places? If Tarzan ran around everywhere, would he be as cool? No, he would not be. As such, I have collected 4 of the best games on iOS that feature this mechanic prominently in different ways.

Super QuickHook: Rocketcat Games has made three absolutely brilliant grappling hook games in its time on iOS, and they're all brilliant, but this one gets the nod for featuring a great selection of endless swinging modes, where learning the optimal paths and coin locations is handy. This is along with its fixed levels, where trying to get fast times and collecting all the secret items becomes a challenge. But Hook Champ and Hook Worlds are both well worth a download.

Super Knights: Initially released under the far cooler Knights of the Round Cable title, this game features 360 degree swinging in an open arena. Collecting all the gems in their increasingly-complex patterns becomes the goal, and it becomes a challenge to try and do this while navigating all the hazards. The game also features plenty of upgrades and things to unlock while playing the game, enabling long-time players to get higher and higher scores. I have lost countless hours to this one.

Gravity Hook: Here's one that's less about swinging horizontally with some vertical action, and more about grappling upward. The goal is to latch on to floating orbs, using them to launch upward without falling off the screen. Some of the orbs function as mines that activate when latched on to, or even if just contacted, and some orbs fall when latched on to! The game has a definite learning curve, one that takes a while to get down, but when it's mastered, it's absurdly satisfying.

Rope 'n Fly 3: From Dusk Till Dawn: Who doesn't want ot swing around a city like Spider-Man, latching from rooftop to rooftop, flying through the air without a care? Well, perhaps there's a care whenever one's face hits the ground, but it's a pretty sweet ride up until that point. That's this game in a nutshell, a long-time iOS franchise that has multiple ways to grapple throughout the city. It's not a looker but it's a ton of fun.

Punch everything.

On This Episode:

Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games and Paul Pridham of Madgarden discuss their collaborative effort, Punch Quest. This includes an over-the-top-yet-accurate description of a normal game session, the simple story of how the two developers started working together, and why gnomes keep appearing in Rocketcat Games. Also, other important discussions on whether hot peppers are meat, what rhyming followup should come next, and everyone speculates on the hotly-anticipated-and-maybe-not-real Big Runner 2 from Matt Rix.

Episode Cast:

Host: Carter Dotson

Guest: Kepa Auwae, Rocketcat Games

Guest: Paul Pridham, Madgarden

Music:

• "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

  



• "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

• Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:



• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.


• Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps Mentioned in this Episode:

Rocketcat Games and Madgarden has released the first trailer for its upcoming game, Punch Quest. For those who haven't followed the game's development on Rocketcat Games’ Twitter and Facebook pages, Punch Quest is a hybrid of a Final Fight or Double Dragon beat ’em up with an endless runner game. It will also have plenty of action-packed craziness, shown off in the first preview trailer for the game. It’s hard not to be interested in a game that includes punching giant dinosaur eggs, which then pop out the protagonist riding a dinosaur that shoots lasers. Oh, and Gnomey from previous Rocketcat games is also playable.

And yes, the game is both a quest about punching, and punching stuff while on a quest. There will be lots and lots of punching. The game is set to hit this fall, and those who can’t get enough of the launch trailer can also check out various other snippets of early gameplay on this YouTube playlist. It will be free to play with IAP for coins. This isn’t the only thing to look forward to from Rocketcat Games, as they are also working on a free-to-play roguelike Mage Gauntlet spinoff.

Now with gnomes!

On This Episode:

Host Carter Dotson and this week's guest, Mage Gauntlet developer Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games, discuss Mage Gauntlet. They discuss the current state of the game, along with the trials and tribulations it took to get to its current point, along with plans for future installments, including an upcoming rougelike free-to-play installment. As well, they discuss various issues in the iOS world, including price points, getting games noticed, free-to-play ethics, and more.

Who We Are:

Host: Carter Dotson

Guest: Kepa Auwae, Rocketcat Games

Music:

"Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

"Nanocarp" by The Eternal

How to Listen:

Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:

Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.

Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps Mentioned on This Episode:

Rocketcat Games has launched a game that is quite revolutionary for them: it's not based around swinging on a grappling hook! Instead, their latest, Mage Gauntlet, is an action RPG. Well, it's an action game with RPG elements, anyway. The only real RPG elements are that the main character, Lexi, a graduate of the school of snarky, self-aware heroines, can level up her stats, and items can affect certain attributes. The bulk of the combat is action-based, running around hacking at enemies, and trying to dodge their attacks. The physical combat is based off a rechargeable meter, that when filled can be used to fuel a charge attack that can do more damage to multiple enemies along with stunning them. It can also be used for a dodge move that can avoid enemy attacks and roll through magic attacks. The player lacks any kind of permanent magic, instead getting spells from containers strewn throughout the environment. The items the player equips can affect the drop rates of certain spells, but this is mostly a game about survival.

It works very well as a deconstruction of the action-RPG genre. This is an action game, and while the combat is largely simple, learning how to avoid enemies and to be patient, rather than just rushing through levels from encounter to encounter is the key. The game can be challenging, but it never feels like it's wasting any time at all. There are no fetch quests, or grinding for money or experience (level up bonuses provide minor advantages), and even one level satirizes the whole "kill x number of enemies" and "collect y number of item z" that perpetuates through many of these RPGs. The typical Rocketcat Games elements are here as well. The 16-bit-inspired graphics are great, and the soundtrack is amazing as well. The game isn't afraid to get silly, either; from the aforementioned fetch quest satire to pigs turning into bacon and ham when killed to even just the snarky dialogue from protagonist Lexi, this is a game that thankfully doesn't take itself too seriously. Oh, and there are hats to wear. Lots and lots of hats.

Mage Gauntlet uses a variety of control schemes, including a unique "swipe and hold" movement scheme, but none of them ever feel completely comfortable. While I think I understand why there's not much in the way of random items, it still just feels empty having all these destructible objects and having nothing even trivial to collect with them. The star system feels kind of abstract, as well; it's never really clear why a certain level only merits one star and another merits two or three.

Mage Gauntlet was quite different from what I expected, which was particularly more of an "RPG" experience, but getting past that, what's here is a game that dares to be different from its brethren on iOS. From the difficulty to the combat, to even just the way the game feels like it was yanked straight out of a SNES, there is a lot to love here.

Hook Champ, Super QuickHook, Hook Worlds. Three games with more than a few similarities. Each one is retro-themed, predominantly features swinging on hooks, contains an absolutely fabulous selection of hats and are loads of fun. And they're all made by the one and only Rocketcat Games.

It appears that after four games, the developer has decided to try something new. Mage Gauntlet is an action RPG inspired by a number of classic 90's games in the same genre. Gone are the hooks and rope-swinging antics in favor of a whole lot of "hitting jerks with a sword," and "blowing them up with spells." It's more than a bit of a departure, but I'm fairly certain Rocketcat is up to the task.

Players can enjoy the "festivities" over the course of a 42-level (and humorous) story mode, and then again in another 42-level Master Mode with new secrets and greater enemy numbers. Over the course of these levels, they can find and equip different gear (all of which can effect stats and abilities) and even utilize bonus-granting pets. Oh, and lots and lots of hats. 110 to be exact.

Mage Gauntlet will be hitting the App Store this Thursday, the 20th, at a discounted price of $1.99 (it'll go up to $2.99 later). Early adopters will get the sale price as well as 8 hats from previous Rocketcat titles and a special Rocketcat pet, so long as they nab it by Sunday night.

No more doodling about!

On This Episode:

Carter and guest Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games discuss Hook Worlds, and how the whole Hook series circularly evolved into this game design. As well, Kepa talks about how the cluster of holiday releases affected the game and their plans for future releases, and he talks about some of Rocketcat Games' upcoming projects.

Who We Are:

Host: Carter Dotson

Guest: Kepa Auwae, Rocketcat Games

Music:

"Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:

How to Listen:

Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:

Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.

Listen on WRGT Radio every Friday at 4pm Central

Listen Here: [powerpress]

Apps Mentioned in this Episode: