Twilight Forums

Okay, it's not completely different, but it is something new.

After being hooked on TH and KoL over the past couple of years, a friend and I got together to create our own. The conversation at my house-warming party went a little something like this...

"... and that's why TH and KoL are so awesome!" I said.
"Cool. We should do something like that," Phil said.
"Yes. We SHOULD do something like that," I said.

Nearly two years later, our creation, called "Urban Legions", has progressed into a public beta.

We have taken the concept of browser-based RPGs (like TH and KoL) and combined it with a card game I could never make feasible, and the result is something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike either TH or KoL. The mechanics have elements of RPGs, strategy games, multi-path fiction, puzzles, and boardgames. Like TH, the game is based in a world of super heroes and villains. We kept the game play very simple for non-gamers, yet the content is rich in detail to entice the most avid gamers. It is based in a dynamic, free-form setting where you build your character, battle for what you think is right (whether for good or evil), or merely to explore. We have entered a lot of content into the game already, and there is tons more on the way.

If you would like to help us, please go to:

www.urbanlegions.net

We would like people who like games like these kinds of games to play Urban Legions and send us some honest feedback. Thank you for your time and devotion to this growing community of indy gamers. We hope to see you there.

If you limit the characters I can use in a password

a) I makes me think less of the overall security of the site

b) you should actually tell the user instead of just showing
"Please enter a password 8 to 20 characters long."


Less important because it worked, could we get a list of approved characters in user names?

And as I poke around a bit:
"Buying turns, for yourself, or as a giftcard, give the full benefits of being a subscriber. [More Info]"

No thanks, donations are one thing, but allowing people to run more turns because they have money unbalances games.

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tee hee.. Mr peabody..


it has too many letter.. I'm getting tired of reading!!

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Top 10 on the Total Post list

hey.. nice city map...

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Top 10 on the Total Post list

and my alst post.. at least today.. it is kinda hard to find what to do... or.. amybe because I don't read it properly

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Top 10 on the Total Post list

There is a lot of writing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Also, Malk, a game doesn't necessarily /have/ to be unbalanced because you can buy extra turns. I mean, hell, some games don't even /have/ turns :p But srsly, the turns thing comes from the competitive nature of KoL and TH, but I think this game is a bit different. More for the story, ya know? I think that's the same reason Forumwarz lets people buy turns (albeit, they remove them from leaderboard eligibility and what not). I haven't seen any leaderboards on this game, yet, though.

Why don't the monkeys take the severed head?

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Well, I've got a hat!

There's some issues with the password thing. I tried several different passwords with 8 or 9 characters, and the page just didn't respond, other than displaying that message saying "Please enter a password 8 to 20 characters long.". I gave up and entered a rather simple 12 character long password, and then it worked. If there are issues with characters like '!', '@', '#', '%', '&', '$' and '£', it's better to let the user know, rather than just stopping the form from submitting. I haven't played the game yet, but you should address these issues as soon as possible, as they are annoying enough that some people won't bother signing up at all. Good luck developing your game.

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Pupper er poesi!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! This is perfect.

As of Sunday, this is the first Urban Legions has been available to the general public. We ran it past several friends, family members, and co-workers. But, this is the first we've requested public feedback.

Right now, the game has a large block of turns available for playing. We want to see how much people play per day, and will be limiting the number of turns per day by the end the Beta session. Eventually, we will be selling blocks of turns or subscriptions later on for people who want to play more than the daily allotment.

As for the concerns about the passwords and character limits, I have forwarded the link of this thread to my co-designer, so he can look into your concerns.

Again, thanks everyone! Keep it comin'!

No matter how many they may be playing now, make sure to remember that the more turns a player is able to (or eventually, needs to) play per day, the more quickly they'll get bored of the game.

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

Yeah, we're debating this right now. From the metrics we are taking of the beta players, the casual player plays around 15-20 turns per day. The more hard core players have played 200-300 turns per day. We're thinking maybe 20 turns free per day for the non-subscribing, casual players. This is lower than the TH/KoL turns, but some of what we consider a turn is a bit more involved than those other games. Then, for the more serious gamers who want to subscribe, we're thinking up to 100 turns per day for around $5 per month. Or, approximately, 600 turns per month for free versus 3000 turns for $5 (4.8 turns per one cent, plus the free block of 600 turns).

And Olaf... "Why don't the monkeys take the severed head?"
My first thought was a defensive, "Well... Because they don't." But, as I re-read that, it makes me laugh to think how ridiculous the question sounds taken out of context. But, seriously... The way we have the game set up, I could have the monkeys respond differently to any of the items, including the severed head. I've made a note to revisit the monkey house to expand the monkeys' selections. Thanks!

15-20 a day seems low to me. Are you taking data from all players or just regular players? Because I bet a lot of players are just signing up and playing a few turns to get a feel for the game. I know I did. But for actually playing the game I think that would feel like way to few turns per day.

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Right now, we are taking data from all players. You are right, I think several people are getting a feel for the game. But, we see a few casual ones who only play a bit a day, and we see hard core players who play a lot per day. So, that's why we're getting statistics during open beta season.

I know 15-20 turns seems low. But, what we consider a turn and what TH or KoL consider a turn can be different. For us, a turn is all the events that occur between selecting a place to travel to, progressing through the event(s), then getting spit back out at the map. We have two types of events (actually, behind the scenes, there are more types, but from the user's perspective it's two): there is a possible travel event (something that might happen on the way to your destination), and the location's event (something that happens where you selected to go). One or two different events might happen on any one turn.

Plus, the event (or a scene of text) could be as simple, like an "Okay"-type dialog box. Or, can be much more involved. Like there is one event in which the NPC asks a series of questions. There are different paths of text depending upon how you answer the questions. A majority of the TH and KoL events are combat. A majority of ours are more story-driven.

We'll see. We're working on finding a happy medium for everyone.

Thank you all for helping test Urban Legions. We got some awesome feedback and compliments both via this post and emails.

And now, we're gearing up for officially releasing the game. New content is entered all the time. And, we're very excited to be at this point.

Thanks again for all your help!

I couldn't get into it.

It was too complicated for my tastes.

I like an easy-to-play, easy-to-read, easy-to-follow game.

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I've won the 100k DD bet so many times, I should have the title "Mr. Luck"

As do many. But there's potential for an audience here. You just need to get the ones who don't mind putting up with that stuff. Or enjoy it, God forbid.

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

I'm cool with Corrupt Shadow's opinion. I know that Urban Legions is not for everyone.

Since you find it too complicated, I'd love to know why. I think it is easy to play, read, and follow. But, of course, I'm biased. As we designed the game, we tried to keep the format and the writing very simple. If you find elements, or the game in its entirety, too complicated, we should know. Maybe others have thought the same and gave up for similar reasons, but unless someone shares with us, we don't know what to improve upon.

So, CS, if you'd care to expand, please do so. If not in this post, then drop me a note off-line.

I'm not sure how I'd drop you a note "off-line" since this is all on-line. I'm kidding, I got the gyst.

My problem was that the menus and whatnot were too... busy. It was too complicated for me when I was just trying to get a quick feel for the game.

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I've won the 100k DD bet so many times, I should have the title "Mr. Luck"

Thank you for singing up to Urban Legions.net! Your free account is now active and ready to use. Your account user name is: %USER_NAME%. To login just visit the site at:

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

Bet you didn't see that one coming as part of the registration process, did you? I had to sing so high up for an admin account, I nearly shattered glass.

Did that seriously say that in the Welcome email? I thought that was fixed a while back. Well... That's what Betas are for. I'll forward it on to the programmer, along with a spell checker, and have him fix it.