Mana Maker

 

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Gather your forces as we mine for: Mana Maker

Mana Maker does not have a title screen. When you start up the game it throws you straight into this screen. You choose your gender and you are throwing into the game with no real tutorials. As you progress, you get a few text boxes that tell you how to do things, but instead, there is a help manual that is included in the game to help you along. The creator of this game does not appear to be a native English speaker so translations may be off.

This is the first of the two main screens you will see most of the time. This is where you collect mana to sell to the wizards of the world. The first button with the plus in a red box will be things to update your idle mana collection. The green box with the arrow allows you to upgrade manual clicks and mana storage. The diamond is videos you must watch to earn special mana crystals used to buy some things in the store you manage to collect gold. Lastly, the grey button takes you to our storefront where you sell mana to random wizards. At least there are no microtransactions in this game.

The first tab gives you options to buy workers and other upgrades that increase your idle collection. Each item is capped based on the store level and adds many walls you have to overcome. Each one of these upgrades uses only the mana you collect.

Here is the second tab. You can customize your character here also with the gems you get from watching optional ads. Here are all the upgrades for the things you purchased in the previous screenshot. These are multipliers that grow as you buy them. They are subject to the same upgrade walls based on the store level.

Now onto the second screen. The red box here takes you to all the fixtures you can put into your shop. These all items can be leveled up and require an upkeep of mana and gold. The gold can be negated with the hiring of a repairman. The green box takes you to upgrades for the shop to increase the size of the building or hold more gold in your safe. Also at the start of the year, you get shown a tax amount. You must make sure you have that much gold by the end of the game year. You can also click on a customer, (which is very hard to do), and they will tell you what kind of object they want to see in the shop if they have a red exclimation part. The problem is, you have to click the blue lock and then kick out all the customers just to put out a new item.

The fixtures are divided into several subsections here. Employees require a lot of mana crystals to employ but the do a lot to keep your store running for you.

Lastly is the upgrades for the shop sise and a few other items. Everything in the shop requires both mana and gold to be able to purchase.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game is a very middle of the road game. It is a complete game loaded with some easter eggs but there isn't anything that really keeps you playing. You could potentially play through in one sitting and make it to the new game plus. The game is mostly stable but it does suffer from a few odd design choices

Story:

 2 of 5 cogs.

There is only a very small part of a story in this game. Most of it is just advancing along and buying more expensive machines to get more customers in. This game really forces you to have at least 1 of eachc individual item to make everyone happy.

Amount of ads:

  None except for optional ads

There are optional videos you can watch to unlock mana gems but other than that there are no other ads at all. This game is mostly ad free.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

This game is completely straight-forward and isn't doing any silly things. This is a very transparent game.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are kind of a tall and skiny sort of pixel art. This game reminds me of very early 90s computer games with simplistic graphics.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Again this game has very middle of the road gameplay for the tap mechanic. That being said, the shop aspect is an interesting to the game. Though it is a very simplified game and it looses depth real fast. I feel this game doesn't have enough in it to keep people playing for too long. 

Free play:

💯%

There are no microtransactions in this game at all. This is truly a game you can play without breaking open the wallet at all.

Fun factor:

😶 average.

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.

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Infinitode 2

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Today you must defend you base: Infinitode 2

Today I bring you a game with a light sci-fi tower defense game. This game is simple tower defense game but every tower can be upgraded and there are several other small aspects you can research. This game also has an interesting feature where you can replay any music from any level you have played. You can cycle through any of these songs to play on the main menu screen.

There are many daily missions you can do that come from a random mission on levels you have previously completed. It appears to use the next new goal from the level list. This is an interesting way to add replayability to each level so you can progressively unlock everything. Once you research the proper tile, you can prestige a level once you complete all these random missions.

You click on the research button and you get a very expansive list of things to upgrade. This base node hear here has main branching technologies you must try to focus on starting off. As you progress along you will unlock mining devices that give you minerals used to upgrade later technologies. While I am here there are a few basic currencies. The first one is dollars. This is the main componet that you need to unlock researches. You also have 4 different minerals you get from mining. Lastly there are several items that you collect from levels and chests that are also required for some researches.

Here is a quick screenshot of the music player. There are many different songs you unlock as you play through. 

That platform in the middle of the main screen is where all your trophies are. Some levels have a wave requirement to beat to unlock these permanet buffs to all your towers. As far as I can tell you only get each bonus once as you can not obtain multiple trophies.

Next we move on to the level select. You have 5 tutorials to complete. As you see there are three stars that you can get for each level. These stars are used on special researches on the far left of the techtree.

When you click onto a level, you get a rundown of everything you need to do. The type of enemy is dispayed here and any missions you have. Later levels will show a bar that tells you how far you have to survive to unlock everything.

Here is the first level you play. The record player is a decoration you can click on to see what is playing in the level. You may also change the music you hear if you like a specific song. There is a path that enemys move along. The pruple swirl is a portal where enemies exit and heads to your base. You base starts with 20 hp which means 20 seperate enemies much reach the base before the level ends. Each level has a set number of waves that you must survive. You base hp can be increased with research.

Here is one of the inventory screens. This page holds all the tiles you unlock for creating your own level. There are many tiles that can do many different things and some of these are different than the main game.

There is also a crafting portion as well. Some of the tiles you find can be upgraded to stronger things or bonuses for some of these tiles. You can also craft loot crates or other small things that help with creating your own level.

Lastly you can collect keys and find boxes that give you a mix of dollars, materials or stuff for researching. At the time of this screenshot, you had to take time to decrypt boxes, but a recent update had removed this from the game and no longer do you have to wait for the goods.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game has a lot going for it despite the simple graphics. There is a lot of depth in the mechanics that you can't find in any other tower defense game. There is a lot of grind to this game and you will have to replay many of the same levels over and over again.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

There is some actual story to this game. Each level has a small expansion of story that you only get a tiny slice of. Thankfully there is only a total of 5 areas to go through.

Amount of ads:

 no extra ads, only optional ones.

There are ads you can watch to earn free dollars to research with but you have a long timer between videos. Sometimes you get other things you need as well to complete research with.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

The screenshots are not misleading at all and you won't find click bait here. You can rest asured you see what you get.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are mostly simple geometric shapes. The Hud items have a lot more detail than the basic enemies or towers you run into.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Clean and simple gameplay. You can even pause the action to make upgrades to your towers as you play. This game has a lot of hours you can put into it without too much stress.

Free play:

💯%

Yup, you can play this game easily without paying for anything. There are microtransactions but you can unlock everything without ever hitting a paywal.

Fun factor:

🔧 Keep building until you clear it!

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.

Stone Miner

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Today the steam-rollers are loaded up with: Stone Miner

Today I have a fast and quick blog for you. Today is a very simple game where you control a steam-roller and have to chop away rocks. There is no title screen as this game sends you straight into the game. You have to clear away most of the level to get 3 stars. The further away the stones are from the dock, the harder it is to break the rock. Overall, this game is very chill and relaxing.

Once your cart is full you have to drive back and sell the stones. You use these coins to upgrade the vehicle to be stronger or faster. If you want you could potentially upgrade everything with out actually playing the game by watching videos. I wouldn't recommend doing this as this game is so easy. At some points on the map you will find a mine cart that you can load up and it sells for you but you must use emeralds to buy it or watch a video. As you progress you unlock more buildings. A pet shop allows you to buy and upgrade pets that give you some buffs. These pets use emeralds to upgrade as well. Lastly is a factory which I have not open up yet.

There are about 20 some maps right now. You can work to get 3 stars and these will be used later on. There are rarely some events as well that show up, currently is halloween and it has a time-limit of how long you can play in the levels to earn pumpkins. (No screenshots for this event, sorry.)

Now you may be wondering what all these stars do; They allow you to buy buildings on your own personal island. You can then earn emeralds that are used to buy cosmetics for your vehicle. These are a premium currency but it's nice to see its farmable. Oh and you can choose a color for your building after you place it. You can only change the color of the last building placed though.

Lastly, a quick shot of the shop. Daily you get 3 free emeralds for just playing. This game is very generous for being a F2P with microtransactions. This is a nice game that removes a lot of the toxicity around this genre of game.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a nice and relaxing game where there is no pressure at all. Once you get everything completed in the main game it looks like the events are pushovers. This is a great F2P game that you can easily play anytime you have a few minutes. It can be played offline but progress doesn't save properly.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

Your story is on another island.

Amount of ads:

 many

The one downside is the number of ads you see or have to view. There is a banner ad on the bottom of the screen that displays all the time. You have many optional ads you can watch and sometimes you get a forced video ad during certain parts of the game. Other than that, the ads are fairly tame compared to most games like this. It is chill about trying to force you to spend money and it is refreshing to see that.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

Yup, the videos for this game is straightforward and no clickbait here. 

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are very simplistic and only flat colored 3d objects. Some of the cosmetics are better looking than other games in this genra.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

A simple game that anyone can easily play and complete. This game is relaxing to play at any pace.

Free play:

💯%

No need to throw your hard earned cogs around for this one. The game is very generous to you and you can earn everything in a fairly short time of play.

Fun factor:

🏭 contstuctful.

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.