Wow, excellent. Really excellent. Captures that old school D&D feel better than ANY other game I have played (including games with a D&D logo on them). I am impressed. I only played for about 45 minutes. The only gripe I had was in customizing the look of my initial party. I would have liked a few more options. You want to OWN your first party, and being able to pick your appearance out of say three models for each race would have gone a long way toward making me feel like my party was hand selected by me. Perhaps I will unlock more figures later. If I have to pay for every figure besides the starting nine that would turn me off. Yes, have premium figures, but don't make every single figure premium (aka have to pay).
I'll just throw the feedback from my first play tonight in here as well. First comment - login screen. I was a little confused if I was supposed to enter my character name or my email account in that first window. Figured it out quickly though! Cards were easy to understand. Tooltips are clear and very handy. The dice roll mechanic is a little confusing. I understand some rolls are success and some are not. A quick explanation? I'm a rules guy and I don't mind a little reading when I'm learning a new game. The style of this game is very fun! I like a storytelling experience. What is the point of the stars that drop when the monsters die? I keep wanting to click on them. Is there any way to look at the card details for an item without equipping it? (Or buying it from the armory) That was a very enjoyable first play. I got all 3 characters to level 3 and equipped a few items on them. I seem to be drawing more armor/movement cards on my warrior than I would like. I still need to figure out how to better adjust the draws for my characters.
Check the lower left corner of the card. For example this card has a die icon with a 3+ on it, meaning the card will block the damage if the roll is 3 or more. They signify victory points. Check the top left of the battle screen. In most fights there are as many stars (victory points) as there are figures so winning means killing all the enemies. In some fights there are also victory squares and you can gather victory points by having more guys in the victory squares than the enemy by the end of each round. Some enemies are worth two or more victory points and there's currently one adventure where some enemies don't give any victory points. Right-click on the item. That problem will be reduced once you go up a few levels and unlock more slots.
Good news - there are more models to choose from so you can select your look. Bad news - you have to pay for them. In a free game, which tries to avoid the Pay to Win trap, cosmetics is highly likely to be the key revenue stream for the developers. (And I believe they like eating and having houses and such - so they have to earn money somehow). Gray
Ah, shoot Gray. I do understand that cosmetics are a major revenue stream, it has to be that way. But maybe give us 18 models to start with instead of nine? One for each race and gender per class (3 per class x 3 per race x 2 per gender = 18). I'd be happy with even 18. 9 is just a little low, and makes me feel forced to buy pizza. Don't get me wrong, I WILL buy pizza anyway (check out my name if you doubt it). But I do not want to feel forced to do. LoL did it the right way. I never felt obligated to buy anything, but I did anyway cause I enjoyed the game. Now being railroaded into purchasing pizza so early in our quest will be a major sticking point if people feel like that is being done. The key to a successful freemium model is to rope people in by making them feel like they never have to buy anything! Then when they get nice and addicted the revenue will flow naturally. People will spend money on things they love without a second thought. However, if you hit them over the head with pizza thing too early (e.g. creating your first party) they may be turned off to the game BEFORE they can fall in love with it. Rope them in first. Give them everything they want/need for the first few days. Then, and only then, should you hang the carrot of fancy pay-based upgrades in front of them. I for one would love just a few more free character models. Don't force me to purchase new character models within my first 10 minutes of playing the game.
I also want to reiterate from my original post how utterly impressed I am with this game. This is the next morning and I am already thinking about playing again. The interface is intuitive and easy to use, even to the point of perhaps anticipating your actions a bit TOO much (e.g. auto-attacking without clicking an enemy). The art style is gorgeous. Simple and beautiful. The game mechanics, again, simple and beautiful. And the table top touchs, such as the quest descriptions, the world map, the dice, and your opponent Gary - genuinely inspired. Touches like that go a long, long way in capturing that old-school feel. The game invokes a sense of nostalgia, and that is a powerful force in gaming. I really genuinely think you guys have a hit on your hands, and this is coming from life-long gamer. The fact that it is browser based, well, I can play in my office right now while at work! Uh oh... I don't know if this is a niche market, so I cannot predict how big the user base may eventually become. I personally love RPGs, card games, and turn-based combat. For me this game is literally a dream come true. I've waited for a game just like this for a long time. And what I am most impressed with is the execution of it all. You took a vision that I think a lot of old-school table top gamers had in their head and executed it to perfection. I am sure I will find flaws and comment on such in the coming days. But my initial impression was this: They knocked it out of the park.
Thanks for the answers Zalminen. I was mostly posting all the thoughts and questions that came into my mind as a literal example of my new player experience. Hopefully that helps the developers understand how I looked at the game with fresh eyes Further reflections: I chose all elves for my first party (elf bias!). The elf warrior feels a bit weak at this point because of his lowered HP (not a problem, just how it feels.) I think his job is to mix it up and get close to the enemies, but he melts after a few rounds. I think he has died consecutively for the last 3 battles now. The paladin feels slightly useful, but I would consider switching him out for another sorcerer at this point. My elf socerer is super fun with her ranged attacks and high movement each round. I visited the treasure chest shop as part of the campaign and the narrator (DM) gives you a few pizza so you can buy a chest. Most of the items in the chest were unusable by my characters ebcause they were lvl10+ items with requirements that I don't understand. I found that a little confusing. I think I would have been more excited about that feature if it awarded items that were only slightly better (and usable!) than what I was using on my party. Is the lvl range on those chests too great? (1-18?) I really liked having boss-type monsters and minion type monsters to fight against. I'm interested to see what other kind of creatures I will encounter.
