Daily iPhone App: Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion

Heya squishband,

Ian here, from witching hour studios. I've replied your email and addressed everything you've mentioned here. Cheers for all the constructive feedback, it's much appreciated. =)

Ian

OK, there's something I should add.

If I'd bothered to follow the link to Turn Based Strategy games in the app store, I might have saved myself from having my expectations toyed with ;-) If this is the competition then Ravensmark is in the top 20%. That notwithstanding, I still think I have a valid point Mike.

I don't agree. I think Ravenmark has a number of issues. Personally I could have done without the 'alright already' language; it makes it a great deal harder to engage with the 'epic' story-world. Clearly a deal of work has been done on the back story to this game and in its own way it's witty and amusing, as well as having the possibility of motivating the game-play. Ensuring engagement with that content is important if you want a game, rather than a toy.

The real fault however, for me, is the lack of logic within the game play, which makes it very hard to use existing knowledge to get anywhere. Like most things in life; if ones expectations aren't met, one feels annoyed. I'm not sure how Mike defines 'turn-based strategy warfare', but given the picture as well as the description, I had assumed that it would be something like playing a tabletop game, or one of those Napoleonic or Civil War games that are based on the tabletop games. All of those games depend for their gameplay on the basic realities of warfare, one of which, is that if you engage your enemy in hand to hand combat, you cannot simply run away to do something else, without it exacting a cost. In this game one's opponents can do just that, so the pleasure of using the tactical knowledge one has to plan something and then have it executed, is undermined when one's opponent doesn't play by the rules (that one expects them to play by). There are also issues with the interface which are frustrating.

Now, this may just sound like sour grapes. I have plenty of $2.99s to spend and quite a few Sunday mornings with nothing better to do on, so why bother to write? Well, first of all because I'd like to see a little more discernment in the reviewing of games and apps, and that's not just because then I might not have 'wasted' my money or time, but also because criticism has a purpose, part of which is the ability for companies to get a sense of what their product 'feels' like to people who may have a great deal more experience than they do of what exists on the market. As it is Ravensmark will probably just piss off or alienate what might have been it's core audience.

If we take the attitude, 'well, it's only the price of a beer' and therefore we don't have to be particularly exacting in our review or our product, then the harmony of the universe is upset and that matters. It matters to me personally because I think this could be a really good game and I think it's a pity to see all of that time and energy go to waste.

Actually it matters to me because there are things in my life that I could do better...

Thanks for listening. I guess I'll go off and get some of the done.