ChronoSoft

I didn't realize the App Approval Folk even work Sunday Evenings, kudos to Apple, I guess!

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UPDATE 8:30 PM EST on 3/5/2009 - Rogue Touch 1.2 is available for download, just updated my phone through the app store!
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Hello everyone, we wanted to announce that verison 1.2 has been in review with Apple for a couple of days already! We're just letting you hardcore fans know in advance! Pre-release posting in the big forums is too much for us to keep up with We had to re-adjust our sights a bit and push the Shop ideas back into another revision... There were several little things that needed more immediate attention so we wanted to make things right before going onward and upward!

The items that are addressed in version 1.2 are small, but definitely of value:
* Altered sensitivity for fast mode double-tap so that it is not triggered unintentionally (tap really fast now!)
* Fast Mode running now stops right at doors, and at hallway intersections. Even easier to play!
* Sorting of inventory. Items are grouped automatically as they are picked up, newest items at the bottom of each group.
* Added Default Zoom level, you can adjust it in settings from 25, 50, 75, 100%
* Searching is now slightly less punishing
* One new weapon: The War Hammer
* One new secret staff!
* Several Bug Fixes (black hallways, x-ray vision problem-thanks Zakia!, app closing between levels, vorpal weapons)

* One new secret character planted

We have also tweaked the gameplay balance just a bit so that superweapons will not make things too easy for you... and may do so again if they continue to prove to be too powerful. Rogue Touch "classic" mode will just not be rogue if it gets too easy


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Down the road there are some major feature milestones we'd like to push for (listed in NO PARTICULAR ORDER ):

A) Detailed Scoring System - More than just your rank and floor and what killed you... Three major stats would be
1) Gold Collected - makes the Gold you get more valuable.
2) Number of Moves - keeps a count of every move you make in a game. I can already see competitions to retrieve the Amulet in the lowest number of moves
3) Number of Kills - show off your real ultimate power!

B) Online Leaderboards - Using the detailed scoring. See how you rank in many categories- Deepest floor reached, Most Gold Coins (maybe you wont want to spend them after all ), Least number of moves to retrieve the Amulet, Largest number of kills...

C) Advanced Mode - With one or more Shops, and possibly a new quest with some other interesting bits and pieces thrown in to up the challenge of the new mode. LordGek and Zakia have been giving out tons of good ideas there to supplement our own bits and pieces. Obviously we welcome any and all suggestions along those lines in the Feature Request thread!

D) Translations/Localizations - We are glad that some people have taken the plunge in countries where english is not their native language, and would like to expand that further by making it easier to play for more people without requiring english. Japanese is first up, as they've been quite supportive, and we can address others in additional updates beyond that.


In addition to these major updates, we have a ton of smaller things that may warrant intermediate updates- bug fixes for example are things that we don't want to hold back (which is why version 1.2 is already pending). We also would like to introduce new secret characters and equipment/items every week or two just to keep people on their toes in between the big changes!


If you think we missed any major item on the Roadmap here let us know. We're going to try to pin down a more orderly schedule of when these things may happen and it what order as soon as we can!

Finally, I'll announce again as soon as I see version 1.2 approval hit!

*discuss*

You sneaky updating dogs, you!

Keep it up.

I love surprise updates like this, and it looks to add quite a few cool features. CD you treat us too good.

I had an idea about an endless mode of sorts - see how far you can descend, though what sorts of monsters would appear in the later levels? Perhaps allow all monsters to appear on all levels, but scale their health/strength by the floor you're on or increase quantity of monsters on higher floors, reduce the beneficial items as you get to higher floors.

I'll leave you to ponder the specifics, just thought I'd throw in a spark of inspiration. Love the game, play it daily, keep up the good work, etc, etc.

Fantastic, 1.2 has taken Rogue Touch to the top and it's now waving at all the small-look-like-ants competition. Well done.
Now give us some SFX like http://www.freewebs.com/drussell/ClassicRogue.htm and I will be snug as bug in a rug.

plaidman wrote:I love surprise updates like this, and it looks to add quite a few cool features. CD you treat us too good.

I had an idea about an endless mode of sorts - see how far you can descend, though what sorts of monsters would appear in the later levels? Perhaps allow all monsters to appear on all levels, but scale their health/strength by the floor you're on or increase quantity of monsters on higher floors, reduce the beneficial items as you get to higher floors.

I'll leave you to ponder the specifics, just thought I'd throw in a spark of inspiration. Love the game, play it daily, keep up the good work, etc, etc.

An endless mode is certainly an option- unofficially you can do it now, if you decide not to pick up the amulet, or drop it again you can keep descending... I haven't tried it past floor 27 yet.. Scary

iphoneappreviews wrote:Fantastic, 1.2 has taken Rogue Touch to the top and it's now waving at all the small-look-like-ants competition. Well done.
Now give us some SFX like http://www.freewebs.com/drussell/ClassicRogue.htm and I will be snug as bug in a rug.

Thank you so much! We've got even more planned in 1.3... The Hall Of Fame statistics will be one of the prominent features in it I think if all goes well here We do need to make a classic tileset too, maybe that will make the cut soon
Edit- Wow, you even updated your review already! We're very grateful for your support, please PM me if you need anything at all!

Hello Rogue Touch team,

I just wanted to congratulate you guys for delivering such a fine pocket version of Rogue. I am impressed how you managed to make the game so incredibly easy to play on the iPhone. It truly works great, and is fun and rewarding to play (even though I find my character dying a lot - but that's a very common part of this game indeed!).

It is great to see work is still being done to further improve on the game. I can't wait to experience what you guys have in store for us Rogue-fans next.

I pretty much consider myself a casual player, so I'm looking forward to some additional atmospheric soundeffects. Second, I'd *really* like to see the original ASCII tile set to be available as an option. It will be really fun (in a cool retro-way) to be able to experience the game like it appeared before pretty graphical tiles became available.

Thanks again, and keep up the great work!

There's been some late nights here due to day jobs keeping us from doing any work before 5PM lately! Sorry that we haven't been keeping you all updated better. The next couple of evenings will be focused on answering any and all questions plus getting the FAQ ready to coincide with the release of version 1.3, which was placed in Apple's hands last night (3/11) at about 10PM.


A number of small tweaks suggested by members of this forum and touchArcade were included, as well as quite a few bugfixes and new features. So here's the list as it's been given to Apple...


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WARNING
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Any game in progress and your old Hall of Fame info will be removed to make way for the amazing changes listed below. We apologize for the inconvenience


Version 1.3 contains many new features!
* Hall of Fame: The new and improved HOF now stores detailed data on your games played including number of moves made in the game, number of kills, and amount of gold collected! Compare against your friends... version 1.4 will allow score uploading to internet leaderboads!
* Hallway Path-Finding: Now when playing fast-mode, double tap will cause your character to run and follow all twists and turns in a hallway until reaching an intersection or the next room!
* D-Pad Control: Option to play using classic touch mode, or a new D-Pad at the bottom of the screen! The new D-Pad can be used like the "touch" control, including double taps for fast-mode run and hallway following, or you can keep your thumb/finger down and slide it around. Default is classic touch, go to settings app to enable D-Pad control if desired.
* 8 new secret characters!
* New weapon: Battle Axe
* New potion: Potion of Blessing
* New ring: Ring of Kings
* New Staff/Wand: Staff of Chaos
* Increased challenge when ascending with the Amulet of Yendor
* Tweaks: Turned off auto-correction on name entry, added "X" in center to denote touch point for cancelling throw/shoot/zap, adjusted power of secret characters and equipment a bit
* Bug-Fixes: a handful of small bugs reported were fixed (Hulk aggravation, asleep and frozen at the same time, quitting and starting a new game after retrieving the Amulet, weapon stacking and losing enchantments)
* Version number on title screen and change log in info!


The D-pad is definitely interesting. HOWEVER, keep in mind this is our first attempt at making one so if the feel doesn't live up to expectations we should be able to tweak it a bit. During testing, I preferred to use the D-pad as a smaller version of the main touch scheme- meaning I would keep my thumb off it and just tap or double tap a direction for the most part. You can keep your thumb/finger mashed down on it and move around in a more "gameboy"-ish mode, but that seems a bit inaccurate for my strategic tastes. YMMV


I'm sorry about the hall of fame deletion, but this should be the only time we ever need to do anything like that. The old data file is just not compatible with all of the new stuff we're storing and needs to be tossed. Once you get to see measurable details I think you'll be pleased. Even more so once online leaderboards are ready (we'll talk more about that next week).


I know some of you were hoping to see the advanced mode and shops arrive by now. We haven't forgotten or abandoned the ideas, there's just a lot more stuff that needed to be addressed prior to that than we'd originally anticipated!


Oh yeah, I've "obfuscated" all secret characters old and new in the code now that'll slow you guys down a bit! That killed an extra day of my time too... but it was worth it I think. Unless someone cracks it too quickly... then I'll just take up drinking (heavier)


Finally- we're out on site for day jobs today- We'll return to answer questions later tonight and post a few screen shots.... feel free to discuss in the meantime!

Good job! That was fast!

I can't wait =D

Commander,

Fantastic news, looking forward to 1.3, and definately the shops in 1.x. I know that I will be waking up to check whether the update is ready...

Give us a clue about the Potion of Blessing. Can it be used to bless normal items or is it to give the character a boost? I'd love to see an option to enhance normal items like food, scrolls etc to create Blessed Food or Blessed Scroll of Identify which allow more of the standard item to happen (identify all items, keep you fully for longer etc)

Thanks in advance for the hard work being put into this, it is definately one of the killer apps on my Touch and does take me back years and years and years.

BigDave