Hehe, imagine a shoggoth disguised as an instrument, biting your hands of as you try to play it... What's your favourite Lovecraft story, if I may ask?
Hope you're right. I have the same problem, just don't get a chance to play games with people like I used to (I miss Talisman). I was really interested in Arkham Horror but couldn't find a copy (when I was younger the re-release hadn't come out yet and the original was a collectors item). I think the iDevice is a great place for board games. There is no set up or mess to clear up and you can play on your own. I'm excited for this, hope it's approved soon.
I think that is the main problem with board games, finding enough other people to play with you and take it seriously enough to be fun. Nothing worse than starting a game and then people getting bored because they are not into it! Game center could be the answer with synchronous and asynchronous multiplayer options for board game geeks!
ok, I'll try to answer on "multiplayer" theme in most true way. I am the person, who live in Ukraine, we have similar things to Lovecraft's stories, but in some different way. I haven't such Necronomicon's feel like you people have as far I was reading the book and as far my english reading skills are not good enough - Im understanding about 70% of the text. But I believe all people have fun in this stories, and no metter - it is a book or game - it is a culture! so if I've gone deep into this - I can't stop. Btw at wikipedia I read that Lovecraft had a wife with ukraine's parents/grandparents : ) (Vovin - is that the answer for you how I meet Dustin? : )) All that I want to ask you - is to make the producer - Dustin - happy with the release, I know he is not someone interested just to make money from it, I saw video of his working place, his room he is living in - he putted all his life into this game, he "is in this culture" - he is not like most of us - 15-30 years old, he is "a little" more... : ) he just want to community all old school players and new players into one nice thing - "Necronomicon". I haven't saw Necronomicon-games on appstore yet, and I believe after this release a lot of people will try to make clones of it. So what I was wanting to say - I am human person, I have few programmers working for me in small office in ukraine, and as far I've started working with this - I can support it much more, to satisfy any thoughts of players - like multiplayer version etc. As far - programming is my work - everyone has work, althought it is also +fun, we need to get succes on release, so we can support it more. even more I want to tell you about dev process: I have always few games in progress, and actually Dustin is little shy, he was always writing me detailed descriptions about all game's features, was sending me awesome art - and at some point I got - "...man.. what I am doing... I should leave all my work and complete the necronomicon game asap - it is really cool thing" and I've switched to this game for full force, untile 3-4 AM every day... Most part of this game - is art and storyline, and programming is something like 1/4 of the game. I just really think that Dustin deserve even to make some good money of the game, for life-things, I got my full payments for "as programmer", so I can't ask even $0.01 of the revenus, but I am really interested to do my best to support the game as much as possible and change/add any things in the game. So after release I wait all comments about the game, and be sure I'll do anything possible from myself and will not wait anything about money from anyone.
Agreed. In my opinion asynchronous multiplayer is a must have for board game stuff. It's a feature that is sorely missing from a lot of games out there already. The reason I purchased Carcassonne (twice, one for me one as a gift for a friend) was because it included this feature.
I know why I really like you Ukrainian people: You are humble and generous, friendly, devoted and honest.
But sadly, if he works too long on this project he'll surely have his mind consumed by the ancient ones like all the others have before him!
Man, every crummy doodle jump clone/junk app that gets released before this one is like a dagger through my heart. Hoping we don't have to wait too much longer. I'm really excited about this one.
Open Feint game review team pretty much likes Necronomicon! Hello Everyone! There's probably nobody here who hasn't heard of Open Feint, being the largest social gaming network on the iOS platform. Over the last week the team behind OF has had an opportunity to play Necronomicon before it's release, and the tone of their feedback suggests they had a pretty good time playing it all in all, and it sounds like it may end up on their "recommended games" list - albeit with a few caveats (which I pretty much agree with). There's a few issues they raised that I wanted to point out here, to give you all fair warning... One of their comments was the game was very complicated, that there was a lot going on at every level, and you must read the tutorial. In this I'd have to agree. This is not really a pick-up-and-play game for the casual player like Doodle Jump. So be prepared for somewhat of a learning curve before you purchase the game. If you don't like traditional role-playing, trading card, and board games then you'll probably be dismayed with a lot of the stuff you'll find in Necronomicon. So I agree with them that this is definitely a game for hardcore players. Later I'll post a more detailed tutorial both here and on my website to introduce players to the mechanics of the game after it's released. Another concern they raised was that the game was TOO connected to Lovecraft's Mythos, adding that while fans of his will LOVE it, others who do not especially like horror or are not familiar with his writings may feel alienated by it (no pun intended). Again I'd have to agree. This is not really a game which would appeal to the aesthetics of people who like cutesy-monster and zombie games. (But hey, in all fairness, us Lovecraft fans are not totally humorless and stoic, we still have 'lil' Cthulhu and Goomi's Unspeakable Vault of Doom!) So the game is DEFINITELY for hardcore players. And its going to appeal most to Lovecraft and horror fans. Oh yeah, they said the soundtrack was FREAKY scary too! I can't wait to hear what the rest of you think of it. You have to be a little fed up with the world to really get into Lovecraft, who was more than a little fed up with the world himself during his time. I think that's why his stories speak to our generation more than they did the generation of his day. Anyway, I have a hunch a lot of people will be polarized by the game.
Dustin, I might be selfish but: HANG ON TO YOUR DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don´t let ANYBODY spoil the NECRONOMICON . DO NOT LISTEN TO OF!!!!! Making a tutorial website would be great! If you don´t make everything hardcore, you ARE GOING to lose both customers types the casual, because the don´t get it and are not interested to and the HPL and Horror fans for sure! If you make it cute it will just be another cutie zombie horror game in the AppStore. If you make it hardcore it will be unique! Also I would PAY MORE to see a unique game. And if you sacrifice the integrity of HPL for a few bucks you will never be forgiven! Honestly, you doing great, don´t let anybody get in your way (aside from HPL, or I will personally make sure your brain ends up in a glass cylinder which gets lost on it´s journey to a far faraway planet, so you can enjoy the emptyness in space for a looooooong time)! PS: have $5 price tag and a 17+ rating to sort out the whimps from day one.
I'm actualy interested and know nothing about this game ....or history. That said I think a lot of games are complicated at first so just provide a good tutorial and playthroughs and I think first timers will be ok. A high price would separate the hardcore players for sure. I'm buying it more bc I'm interested in this more so than I fit the "general" characteristics for a fan. I love the world and am ok. But I really like it when things take themselves seriously and this seems to be in that alley. So I guess I'll be providing some feedback from a non-fan. Either way expect an instant buy from me.
if you want to know more about the HPL stories check the "H.P.Lovecraft Collection" from Ubiklabs, it´s the ONYL complete collection on the Appstore for $3 (and the best IMHO). for starters the "H.P.Lovecraft Collection" from Loudreader is worth a look. It´s not complete but with 50 of HPL works it´s ok for $2 Reading this will make you enjoy the game a whole lot more.
Hey thanks for the support, but no worries - I wouldn't change a thing! I was approached by big publishers early on and this is exactly why I decided not to go that route, is I didn't want to be put in the position of you have to change this or that, or this is too weird, or whatever. But all in all OF liked it, and the ones who raised those criticisms I can only assume are casual gamers, or they're not into horror, and they only like to play games like Doodle Jump and what-not. Nothing wrong with those games, they make a ton of money, but they're just not something I want to make. I've always been a little ambivalent about how the game will be perceived by people unfamiliar with Lovecraft's Mythos, I hope it will introduce him to a whole new generation of fans -- and if it doesn't, well, I'm pretty sure the upcoming, James Cameron produced 3D "Mountains of Madness" movie, which Guillermo del Toro left THE HOBBIT to start on, will -- but in the meantime, I think I've done HP Lovecraft proud with this game. Whenever I start it up, and the title screen comes on and the eerie piping organ music begins to play, I literally get chills down my spine...and I'm hoping you will too!
I am really glad to hear this! The last thing I want is another Cthulhu Jump, Angry Cthulhu (Yay - shooting Shoggoths around!) or Cthulhu Doodle blah blahblah. Reading your post, my expectations continued growing - and I bet, this game will meet them all. I am happy that the game seems to be a complex work of both art and gameplay.
thanks, Vovin ; ) needs tutorial first... haha, its not so. It is the game, where you're learning strategy, not "how to click, what to click etc" - gameplay is easy in use - you're placing your investigators/heros in rooms dedicated for them, and spawns of Cthulhu in their positions and you need to use luck/hazard/ability/weapons on the all characters in way to win - to kill all "bad ones" - so its first scene of the game. So "to play" is easy, hard to unlock all free content, which is available by getting university's degress/achievements - for first 3 unlocked cards it is pretty possible, but to unlock all of them you need to show pretty great gameplay, to use the luck/hazard in smart way, to give gold/treasure to monsters but hold their strength/sanity and dice roll chance in way that you'll be able to kill them later... so its like with a girl... em lol.. I mean you need to hold all your force - to not win "before it need" - to make monsters thinking they have win - and then boom! boost your most cool investigator and just eat monsters+gold like a meat (some treasure will x5 mythos scores) - find the best monster for this - don't use "very easy" monster for it - as far he has around 700 mythos points, but not place very strong - as far you'll get like 6k from him, but you'll be not able to fight with him... then you have the university area, you need to roll dice to define how much steps you will be able to do in current turn and search hidden items, their empty slots are indicated on player-menu (you can see from video of gameplay). on your way there will be helpers(e.g.doctor) and bad-events (e.g.got lost) - when you'll play I advise to go from library to upper places and then by circle - if you'll visit all places by random - you will getting events, which will step back your char or place into Asylum, so shortly saying you need to go to nearest locations asap and as much as possible visit at first time - will be good luck if you'll find doctor and allies asap on your way. and after you will find/restore all items you'll get a surprize - final battle, which sum everything you earned before for your lifeforce + definetly you need some luck... ; ) You'll never get lost in gameplay "what to do next" - storyline is exellent: hints and messages/events (btw Dustin is writer, not only a game developer, so you can imagine what kind of quality/smart texts you will find in the game, not like ukrainian man like I am writing "hello world, my name is Slava.." : ))) only one thing, that is killing me... (sorry, Dustin, I'll open this secret - probably I am one that opening secrets in the game beforehands ))) tits.. correct word ?) to be sure apple will not reject game because that - Dustin has faded more to black some tits in the game - it is disputed thing - one monster has it - its hard to say the monster is definetly a woman... and statue... : ) as for OpenFeint - I showed exellence of integration it: everything that OF has - supported in the game: there are leaderboards/achievements, will be dev-blog and I hope fun-club - what else they need to highlight some such great game? : )
