Summoners greed

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

I must sadly call the contest dead now. No one stepped up to claim the prize and now it is off the table. I have no future plans to do any more contests since this one flopped badly.

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Today the summoners of steam summon up: Summoners greed

Today we summon up a Tower Defense game with a gotcha game system. You get to summon a random creature from the basic list. It appears as you progress you can choose to summon premium creatures using the in-game premium currency. A last stage is locked that you must clear the first main story to open so I have no idea what that stage requires.

The first summon you get is a basic slime. It has decent attack speed but a very limited range. The slime is the most common trope and meme in the RPG world and this game sticks with it as there are different forms of slime you can summon, among other creatures as well.

This game has 3 basic currencies and a 4th one I will cover later that is much rarer. The Green orbs you obtain from completing levels for the first time. The purple stone is the main premium currency and this takes a bit more work to earn. You get the purple gem from daily logins and then from achievements. The last currency is gold coins which are used to upgrade a monster's level permently or buy upgrades that I will cover in the next screenshot.

On the main map screen, you get a button that brings up player skills. These upgrades are permanent throughout all the games and restarts. I seem to be missing a screenshot of the enemy page. On that page you can view all the enemies you have defeated and get information of the abilities each enemy has.

When you click on the monster tab, you can see all the monsters you have summoned and their rarity. As you get multiple copies of the same monster it can be powered up and gain more attack power and speed.

When you click on a monster you can see the stats and skills the monster has, and you can see how many cards you need to upgrade the monster. Some monsters can be evolved using a rainbow gem but it takes a lot of these to do so, and the only way to get these stones is to buy them or successfully knock out an enemy that is very difficult to beat for a chance to get only a couple of these gems.

There is an invite a friend system that you have to invite 20 friends to unlock a free legendary monster. I feel this is a very hard to stretch that you have you invite so many people just to get some decent rewards.

Here are the achievements. As far as I can tell every one of them are infintently reatainable. This is by far the best way to gain purple gems. This is one of the most generious games I've seen with the amount of premium currency you can earn.

Here is the option/settings screen. The odd part is to switch maps you have to come here. This is a hidden things that you have to find just to advance to a new map once you completed the firest one. I find this is an odd place to hide such a key feature to the game.

Here is the list of maps and special challenges. If you click on the locks they tell you what you have to do to unlock them. Same for the challenges. It seems the firest milestone is to reach wave 50 in the basic map. Each map has a small amount of story based on the enemies you face.

When you first start a map, you can move around the monsters as you see fit. Once you start the game you can not move them around anymore, but you can click on a monster to bring up the upgrade screen here. Each level up costs gold coins. Some of the statues seem to have a maximum level where-as some of the other monsters do not appear to have a max. 

If you fail to defeat an enemy and it reaches the bottom of the screen they steal away your chest of treasure. You can restart the same level but generally you have to watch a video to do so most times. The first time you can restart the same level for free. It is generally better to use timewarp to start from an earlier level to gain more gold coins to upgrade your monsters.

As this screen shows you also have the option to buy a retry on the same level using the purple gems. It seems once every 24 hours you are allowed a free retry as well.

Every so often you can summon special monsters using the rainbow gems. These gems are very hard to obtain and it doesn't feel fair that you have to try getting them in such a short amount of time just to gain a very rare monster. I do not know if these open on as that third summon option later on in the game.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This game has an interesting twist on the classic tower defense game style and makes it less stressful. This system is very generous and relaxed to other tower defense games I've played in the past. Though to really progress to the later levels does seem to require a whole team of special monsters. 

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

There is a little bit of story inbetween when you fight a new boss. There isn't a deep story to this game with a start and finish, it mostly has just small snippits and mostly that is infered by the type of enemes you face and the information you read about them later on.

Amount of ads:

 

Optional only.

The game has only optional ads and there are no forced pop-up video ads that slow down gameplay. This game allows you to play as much as you want without being bothered constalty to buy something.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I do not recall seeing any videos ads for this game. The screenshots in the google shop are accurate and shows you what to expect while you play.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are simple and for the most part are cohesive. The art does seem a bit on the cartoony side and has a bit of humorous look to it. I feel the art adds a bit of comedy into the actual game.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The game handels the T.D. aspect in a unique way. The creatures you summon are completely immune to any kind of damage even though some bosses can temporairly freeze them. The only things that can be damaged is the rocks on the field and those can be upgraded much later in the game. The only way to restore the rocks is to use purple gems to reset them. I did not have time to discover what the other maps are like sadly before I had to write this blog.

Free play:

💯%

This game is very generious for purple gems as you need a lot of them to upgrade various things in the game. Though it seems to be extremely hard to earn the rainbow gems in a timely manner.

Fun factor:

🌌 Magical.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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Forest Island

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Giveaway: I will be running a contest. If this blog post can gain 50 views I will give away $5 dollars USD to a single person. To enter this giveaway you must leave a comment here and try to refer a friend. If by some odd magic this post reaches 100 views, the giveaway will be boosted to $10. Rewards will be through Paypal for instant payout or Cash app for a delayed payout. I will announce the winner next blog IF we reach this goal and from there the winner can contact me via Email, discord,FB, or Twitter. If the goal is not reached by next week, the giveaway for this post will end. Please leave your preferred method of contact in the comment as well.

Take a relaxing cruise on the steamboats to: Forest Island

Today I bring to you a simple game full of animals. You start with a tiny island and you grow it by collecting light and hearts. As you expand the island you unlock more animals the rate of collection increases. There are many different objectives that pop up that give you bonuses but some of these require you to watch Ads to collect.

There is a daily log in full of bonuses. The tickets give you a time skip to gain a time skip for collecting light or hearts. The chests are the main way you get more cards of the animals you already have or have a chance to get special alternate colored animals that give you massive boost to light or heart production.

This is the main island you start off with. As far as I can tell this island is a set design and there is no randomness to its design There are several things going on here and I will break down what I can on this screen. At the top, you see several currencies. The first number with the paw is the total number of animals you have. The second is the hearts given by clicking on animals. Hearts are used to upgrade the level of your animals to make them collect more light. The box in the middle is the light you collected and this is what you use to upgrade the island. The hexagonal button on the bottom of the screen you can quickly upgrade by clicking on the red button or you can click the double up arrow to upgrade any part you want if you have enough light. Next are these green egg-like objects is used to upgrade special upgrades that I will cover later in this blog, which you can get these from the quest button under the trophy. The Trophy is a list of achievements. The last two buttons are the shop icon and a mail system which will sometimes send you updates about the game. Lastly is a rainbow gem that is used to buy extra chests from the shop menu. This is a premium currency that has very limited uses.

These tasks are the main way you gain rainbow gems for free. This game is very generous in earning premium currency.

Lastly, quests are ever-green and are the main way you collect the green eggs. These quests you can only have one at a time but this is the only way you can get these eggs.

The shop has many different things you can purchase or you can gain free chests as well here once a day. You can also buy gems as well under the next tab. 

There is an egg that shows up. Once a day you can hatch the egg for a chance to unlock a special bird that gives you very big boosts for every bird you own.

There are many birds you can collect but there is a very low chance of getting one when you hatch an egg. You do have a chance to get free chests or other rewards. You have the option to watch videos to reduce the timer until another egg appears but there seems to be a daily limit of eggs as well.

I now return to the big button at the bottom of the screen. As you progress along it takes a large amount of light to unlock a new part of the island.

When you click on the growth tab, you come to a list of very big upgrades that affect everything about your progress. These upgrades are ones you need to focus on for the most progress in this game.

When you buy a new island you get a small cutscene for each animal you unlock. This also brings you back to 'meditate' mode where you can sit back and watch the animals play and just listen to the music.

One of the quests you get from time to time is to enter into picture mode. You gain bonus light for taking pictures of the animals on the island. It doesn't seem to matter what you capture, it gives the same amount of light every time.

You access this menu by clicking on the paw button hidden at the bottom of the screen. As you level up the animals they boost the light each part of the island produces. Sadly at this time, it is very difficult to gain up hearts to level up all the animals.

The rare animal tab shows you all the cards you have collected to unlock them. Every level of the rare animal adds an extra animal that acts as the base animal per island. The more animals you have the more times the multiplier counts towards light collection.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a chill game that claims to be relaxing. A lot of the time you're waiting offline to collect light or hearts. Other than waiting, there isn't much you can do but watch the screen. Sometimes you can collect coins from cleaning up bits of corruption on the islands.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

This is the story you are looking for.

Amount of ads:

 optional only.

There are no ads that pop up except for the optional ads you can watch for the various rewards or advancement.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I've seen this game advertised many times and the ads never really show much, but from what is shown exact screenshots from this game.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Graphics are very simple and follow a simple shading style like many indy games I have seen lately. The animations for the animals are well designed and look fairly realistic.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The game consists of simple tap controls. There isn't much you can really do in this game but try to make the numbers grow and idle as you watch animals moving around their small sections of the island. I considered giving this game a much lower ranting for gameplay but it has some simple charms to it. I doubt anyone will play this one for too long sadly.

Free play:

💯%

This game is very generous to those that play for free. You can collect rainbow gems just by playing and completing objectives and working to unlock everything. There are some balance issues that do make the game feel bogged down a lot as you progress and soon will become stuck waiting for enough light to continue on.

Fun factor:

☃ Chilly.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

Throw a cog(tip using PayPal) to your blogger.

Or you can donate with CashApp at:  #HakuzoSionnach.