Realy good game Except!
This would have been a really good game but you can not win. Am I wrong? I killed the Devil 7 times and he kept coming back and I noticed that you have a "Relentless" Achievement for reaching stage 50. I felt cheated in the end because I could not win. You should read the book "The art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell. It talks about the issues of Fairness and Challenge. I am halfway though and I think it will help me to build a good next game.
Yes you can win - you have to drill the devil 6 times to defeat him. I can't really see how that's unfair; he's just tougher than the other enemies as you'd expect of the end of game boss. Wouldn't you be surprised if you could defeat him with just one attack? If you can think of a better way of extending the fight against the devil then I would love to hear it. Between the three of us we've had over 30 years of experience in the video games industry so we know a bit about game design, fairness and challenge, but thanks for the review. ;-)
good and new
the concept of the game was great, there was a logical plotline, the graphics were nice and smooth, and the audio was not bad at all.
it was surprisingly fun to click on squares, and turn around a map, watching a knight fall.
really good game, keep up the good work.
sweeet
Not what i was expecting but i loved it, it did get hard on stage 3 but it was still really cool
A Really Good Concept...
There were some frustrating aspects about the game, like when you get pigeon-holed into taking gradual damage over the course of the maps, then wind up in a situation where you have 5 HP left and the key is literally surrounded by Mandrakes (after the 20th attempt at taking no damage in this sort of scenario, one develops a sour disposition toward the game itself).
I also feel that there should be an undo or reset function of some kind in the game that allows you to make a few mistakes (maybe give someone 5 undo's the entire game or something). Hell, I'd make that into an item, as there's no sense in giving it for free.
I also had a few minor nags with some of the enemy attacks. A few times I wound up in a situation where I could be hit by enemies with indefinite range (Beholders, mostly) right off the bat and had no alternative but to flip the board to try and get out of its path, but would get hit in doing so. This, coupled with the annoyance that I discussed above about the game dwindling my health down can make for a series of needless deaths. It didn't affect my experience too much, but perhaps the random generation function could be altered so that an enemy can't attack within a certain number of turns, or maybe make it so the map can't generate a combat situation right off the bat.
I also felt the armor didn't scale very well with the damage. After getting hit for 8 - 10 damage a pop, I go and purchase the armor. However, the next stage has enemies that begin hitting me for 8 - 10 damage as well, with some hitting for even more than the previous stage's enemies after the armor upgrade. Makes the armor feel less like an upgrade and more of a tourniquet.
Again I love the game and the concept. These are just some minor gripes I had with it.
Perhaps for the sequel, you could incorporate movement upgrades or different weapons that allow a variety of attack paths. Just a thought.
Thanks for the great game!
For fans of old-skool classic gaming - awesome
Having played numerous arcade and console games over the years, I was really pleased to see so many of the cooler elements of these appearing in Knightfall. There is a lot of strategy involved, with planning moves to avoid the bad guys (including zombies, warlocks, dragons, beholders, dark knights and the devil himself) while striving to collect keys, potions and spells. The two gaming modes, Story and Pergatory make for a greater variety, with five levels, each with five sub-stages. The designers have obviously got a love of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston books, as each beast encounter is rewarded with experience points, gold, or if you are unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end, a loss of health points. Like RPG without the silly costumes. One particularly nifty idea is the shop at the end of each stage - you can pick up potions, spells, even armour, to help you with the forthcoming battles. So many good ideas, so much time to spend gaining "achievements". Once again, awesome - give it a go!