Desktop Dungeons hits Android and iOS on May 28!

[smile]

Feature request?

On Android (and perhaps iOS) minimizing / losing focus of the game completely wipes out the state. Since Desktop Dungeon is turned-based and basically keeps all of the state information at hand, could we have session auto-saving? Or does that conflict with the cloud-sync?

Thanks!

[berpdreyfuss]

I'm on android and I can go to the home screen/other apps and then go back in the middle of a run, is that what you are asking for?

[smile]

Wait, really? I was pretty sure I was losing my runs when I moved to other apps...

I'll check again. Thanks for the notice!

[dislekcia]

You lose progress when the game gets nuked from memory by the OS. On different devices that happens at different memory loads, so if you're not stressing out your tablet too hard it'll be fine.

Saving the state of a DD game and re-initialising that state from a saved file is not a simple process. We didn't feel we could have that feature be reliable in anything less than 5-6 months, so we didn't work on it after the initial tests.

Also, this sort of thing opens the game up to scumming in ways that we really didn't want to be possible.

[Seegtease]

[dislekcia]

Okay. What if the game simply doesn't work on phones because you can't physically select a single area of the dungeon? Every time you tap, you might select the wrong enemy, not go to the altar you wanted to, accidentally over-explore or even pick up a potion or item you meant to leave on the ground?

How much fun would that be as an experience out and about with your phone, playing this unforgiving game on a jouncing train?

[Jelligeth]

[Seegtease]

If it's truly as dramatic as you say, then I'd say it needs to have a pan or zoom functionality activated for phone users.

I'm not saying there aren't hurdles to overcome in the process, I just think it's odd that you're disappointed with low android sales when you charge a price that's way above the majority of games on the market, but the game itself is limited to the minority of android users.

You may be able to get people to buy it at that price if it worked on all devices, or you may be able to sell it being limited to tablet if it were cheaper, but to expect good sales with both of those hurdles is insane. You limited yourself to such a small audience (those willing to pay that much and those willing to use tablet only) that I feel really bad that you spent 1.5 years on development. You're right, from that standpoint, it was absolutely not worth the time to develop.

You probably could have put it out on the Wii U store in that time frame, which would have almost certainly been more lucrative, because all Wii U owners automatically have a tablet, and it's right up there in price with many other Wii U games, and there's much less competition on the market. Of course, the development would be entirely different, but you see my point. Truly consider the size of your audience and you'll understand why sales are like they are. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the game.

[chandl34]

[Seegtease]