I’ll second the recommendation for Pathos, which works fine on a phone.
And I’ll add these to the list:
HyperRogue - roguelike in a non-Cartesian plane. Even cooler than it sounds
WazHack - sidescrolling turn-based roguelike. Yes, it works
Cardinal Quest II - Streamlined roguelike that nevertheless nails the feeling of class specialization
Brogue - Lots already written about this game here on QT3
The “sequel” of sort Dopplet So Clever, seems to have been released — I got aware of it only because it was mentionned in a bug fixing update to Ganz Schön.
Anybody familiar with it?
Not really, but grabbed it as well. I figure if I enjoyed the first one (even if barely understanding the rules that I don’t believe you can pull up while in a game), I’d give it a spin. From my 2 attempts without reading the new version’s rules, very similar idea with even more wacky spaces to place those dice.
It’s Yahtzee meets Bingo meets abstract mathmatical puzzle.
Now on iOS and Android!
Star Traders: Frontiers by Trese Brothers
I own it on Steam and now on iOS. Great game!
Pocket Tactics liked it:
I’d love it to get into more details.
the UI has been reduced in a way that still leaves the information accessible (more or less).
This is precisely the sort of information I’d like to know, as the game is heavily based on tooltips on the PC. I know the Brothers know their way around iOS (Templar Battleforce is an amazing UI), but I’d really like confirmation.
I’m not positive this is what you mean, but on the mobile version, you get to tooltipped information simply by holding down any button, rather than simply tapping it.
Thanks for the help! What I wanted to know was whether the game plays well with single taps. I remember Templar Battleforce being incredibly intuitive… to the point I don’t remember if it had tooltips anymore.
I guess I’ll just have to try for myself and see if it works for me, but that “more or less” got me worried.
Hello! Author of the review here.
So, apologies for not perhaps expanding on that point - I did think I should have but the deadline was approaching and I forgot to come back to it.
So. the “more or less” from my POV essentially refers to some of the ways they’ve reduced the UI. For example, on the PC version you have an incident log on the right hand side that shows things that happen in real-time, Test Pass/Fails and the like.
On phones, at least, this UI element has been reduced so that it only shows the symbols that accompany incidents. Since I doubt many people know what all the symbols mean off by heart, it basically means that while you know something’s happened, you may not really know ‘what’ has happened until you pause and look at the log.
The only annoying thing about this element is that it’s not expandable like the left hand main menu is. So you need to hold your finger over each icon to get a detailed read-out of what’s happened. On PC you could look at the log at a glance and get the top-line info, which is usually enough. Not a deal-breaker, but as someone who came from playing PC first it was noticeable.
I’ve already spoken to the devs about this though - it’s on the list of things to implement, so hopefully sometimes soon you’ll be able to pop it out to get the PC-style log (which will pause the game).
Ah, thank you for taking the time to explain!
I remember that interface element, which was quite beat on the PC. I will grab the game and see how I fare, as it seems the general interface is spot on.
Bought this last night and started a game. I like it but having never played the pc version it’s pretty complicated. Is there no tutorial in game?
Got it last night too and it felt like if you followed the narrative missions you got a decent tutorial along the way. Only got maybe an hour into it though so I’m not sure how long the tutorial part continues.
Ok I thought that might be what was going on. I only got about 20 minutes with it but a lot of things were happening that we’re not explained, real basic stuff like: is this real-time, turn-bases, real time with pause?, what are all those icons flying by on the side of the screen?, what do all the icons on the map mean?
Yeah personally, follow the ‘main’ quest as far as returning the Arbiter back to the place after she does her thing - that’s pretty much the ‘tutorial’, such as it is.
If you get too deep into that main story though it can get overwhelming, so take a break and explore and learn the game through trial and error. It’s not a great way to learn the game but the more you learn the more fun you’ll have in the long-run.
Ok that’s what I thought. I did bring the arbiter back to the royal planet but now the Prince has stuff for me to do, is that what you’re talking about? I’ll definitely be poking around
Well I was trying to avoid spoilers but yeah, pretty much. The Prince and his family will all offer different routes to take through the next ‘phase’ of the main quest, before something else happens to move the story along.
So ya, sounds like you’re taking a break in the right place. Be warned though, that story will move on with or without you, so don’t feel bad if you come back and it’s all over. I would suggest not bothering with central story lines until you’ve had a couple of playthroughs just flying around picking up the basics.
And as much as it’s not ideal - going to the official wiki for key tips is recommended.
Ok sounds good thanks. Hopefully the first mission isn’t considered a spoiler but if so sorry!
There’s also a button on (mostly?) every screen in the lower-right that, when pressed, explains the UI elements on the current screen.