Okay! One of the reasons I haven’t been posting regular updates about Inaria iPhone is because it’s been changing SO FAST. But this was just too good to pass up.
This update is being guest-written by my friend/graphics programmer/tester, Ryan Clark. I’d tried to solve two problems at once by putting the towns directly on the overworld instead of having separate maps for them. I thought I was Clever Dan…until Ryan got a hold of the new maps. Take it away, Ryan!
I do have to agree on some points. Mainly the smallness. The jaggyness though seems inevitable since its a tile based game. Otherwise, very nice job. I like the new tiles quite a bit but i think giving certain things their own tiles for specialized things (ie, if that building was indeed an outhouse, you might want couple of outhouse specific tiles instead of stealing them from something else (main culprit i noticed was the blacksmith’s lava).
At this point, adding new terrain tiles may be more trouble than they are worth (the format is fixed both in the editor and the game). But using a square or two of lava to represent the blacksmith’s forge is actually a reference to Ultima IV…so it’s staying 🙂
i do see some upsides to the smaller towns. in the original you might click five plus times in a row and see the nearly the same board. i’m impatient and i’m wondering if i’m heading out of town accidently, to the merchant, the blacksmith, or what? after multiple clicks why doesn’t my screen have any “new” information for me. on a smaller board a lot more information can be presented in a single screen. “i’m at the blacksmith, and oh i can see there is merchant in the other room, and ohhh what is that room partially off screen at the top?”
i think this only works for towns. for dungeons and such you don’t want to compact the board as much.
i just wanted to play devil’s advocate. either way looks great!