Tales of Illyria: Beyond the Iron Wall - Little Killerz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_NiJ14fkds

'Beyond the Iron Wall is every bit as good as the first game, and I can't recommend it enough' - Killa Penguin

Explore a vast world of mythical djinn, sandworms, lamias, and arcane undead

You are Kepri, a priestess sworn to defend the Iron Wall in the desert kingdom of Vasena. In a land where women are of low status, Kepri defies tradition to strive for the recognition she deserves. But when enemies threaten the wall separating Vasena from the rest of the world, Kepri must somehow rally the armies and decide the future of her people...or face extinction.

Tales of Illyria is an RPG hybrid mixing Oregon Trail and Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game mechanics. Each party member has a distinct personality and reacts differently to being sick, running out of supplies, and decisions that go against their alignment.

Will you give precious water to a man dying of thirst, or let him die in the desert? How will you cross a river full of vicious crocodiles? Will you strive for peace, or wage bloody war?

Tales of Illyria: Beyond the Iron Wall is the second episode in the Tales of Illyria series. Each episode can be a standalone RPG.

Features:

• An epic storyline with four different endings
• 25+ hours of gameplay
• 800 unique encounters
• Hunt exotic animals and harvest plants to feed your party
• New jungle and savanna environments, in addition to forests, deserts and gorgeous mountains
• 6 kingdoms with 42 villages, castles and cities to visit
• Improved battle system featuring enemy-unique spells, elemental strengths and weaknesses
• New Vasenian armor and weapons
• 86 original musical tracks
• Learn what happened in the years following the chaotic events of Tales of Illyria Episode One: Fallen Knight
• Cameos from Episode One

Check out our blog and forum:
http://www.talesofillyria.com/

Like our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TalesOfIllyria

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TalesOfIllyria

Tales of Illyria Episode One named one of Top Ten Best Android Games - May 2013:
http://www.androidheadlines.com/2013...-may-2013.html

Killa Penguin Review:
http://killapenguin.com/gamereviews/...ndtheironwall/

Everything sounds very enticing.. I love the theme as well, deciding on purchasing...

guys, can you explain why you choose not to release a demo for this one? i really would like to know some devs opinion on that. especially on OUYA it must be much more difficult to sell your game without a demo (in my opinion).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pat1986

guys, can you explain why you choose not to release a demo for this one? i really would like to know some devs opinion on that. especially on OUYA it must be much more difficult to sell your game without a demo (in my opinion).

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Hi Guys, thanks for your interest in our game!

As an OUYA owner I know that most people just play all the demos and never buy. That's what I did. On Google play I offer refunds to people that ask. I'm sorry I don't have that luxury with OUYA. I have a couple reasons for pulling the demo. 1) The application is really big almost to the limit 64K methods and the OUYA SDK was needed for the demo. I couldn't compile the APK so the OUYA SDK was an easy target. 2) Demo conversion is very small less than 5%, the top OUYA game has only sold 7K units. 3) The game downloads 1GB from our servers and we want to prioritize bandwitdh for actual buyers, rather than having slow downloads for buyers because lots of people are downloading a demo.

Please email us at littlekillerz@gmail.com if you want to discuss this or any other issue.

Thanks,
Chad

To give you an idea we have only sold 91 apps on OUYA in 7 months, over one fourth have been in the last week since we pulled the demo. So its been a wise business case. We have 1412 demos installed that's less than a 5% conversion but to get it we had to serve 1400GB of data from our servers.

Thanks,
Chad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

To give you an idea we have only sold 91 apps on OUYA in 7 months, over one fourth have been in the last week since we pulled the demo. So its been a wise business case. We have 1412 demos installed that's less than a 5% conversion but to get it we had to serve 1400GB of data from our servers.

Thanks,
Chad

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Totally understandable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

To give you an idea we have only sold 91 apps on OUYA in 7 months, over one fourth have been in the last week since we pulled the demo. So its been a wise business case. We have 1412 demos installed that's less than a 5% conversion but to get it we had to serve 1400GB of data from our servers.

Thanks,
Chad

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I have difficulty trusting a developer when there isn't a demo or there are widespread reviews available. I understand your approach from a business perspective, but from a consumer standpoint, I think those numbers say a lot.

Using your number of 91 sales in 7 months and a fourth of those coming since the demo was removed, you've had a little more than 26 sales in the past week, which leaves 65 sales in 27 weeks. So for the sake of round numbers, you've had a little more than 2 sales a week on average before you pulled the demo.

To me, that says that people tried the game when there was a demo option and were able to make an informed decision and opted to not purchase it based on their experience, whereas you've made more sales when people were forced to take a leap of faith with no demo available and may or may not be enjoying their experience with your offering.

Now, I know that it's business, but I have a serious problem with this approach because consumers are forced to face a risk which may turn out to be worthwhile, but the developer reaps the reward whether or not the product warrants the cost that they're asking. It seems very one-sided.

Personally, I became interested in your original game when I saw another game in the series on Discover. My thought process was "Well hell, the first one did so well that it warranted another entry?" I was disappointed to find that neither the original, nor the new release had demos attached. This prompted me to Google reviews on the game, and I found that reviewers and websites had a lot of mixed feelings toward it. So, I was forced to consider the price point, and then I began to compare it to other games in that price range that were in the same genre, and I finally settled on not buying the original or the new release.

I don't say all of this in the hopes of discouraging you, or to get you to change your mind on providing a demo or maintaining the premium. This is just the first opportunity that I've had to speak with a developer who has opted to go premium, and I wanted to provide some insight into the thought process that at least one consumer had when making the decision of whether or not to purchase your product.

Hi Hugo,

You missed one point the top selling game on OUYA only sold SEVEN THOUSAND copies! How many demos do you think were installed to get that.

Read the reviews on Google Play they are not mixed all positive. All of the one star reviews on EP1 are people complaining about the poor Google Translation, so you wont see those reviews unless you go to the other language stores.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...erz.ringstrail
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...erz.ringstrail


I to am confused by the demo not converting more sales. But I think it has to do with so many demos being available. I know demos and free to play are on other platforms but OUYA made this very easy...This is how I played my ouya.

Start up OUYA

Browse games
Install the top 20 that interested me
Start playing one if it sucks I stop, even if its good I might wonder hey I got 19 other games installed I better see if a better one exist. Or I might get to the pay wall and then say hey why pay now I got 19 other demos to try.
After I try all 20, I download another 20 rinse and repeat....

Our game gave you hours of play before asking for payment that might have been an issue. At one time it was in the top 25/50(cant remember exactly) games on OUYA using their fun metric .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

Hi Hugo,

You missed one point the top selling game on OUYA only sold SEVEN THOUSAND copies! How many demos do you think were installed to get that.

Read the reviews on Google Play they are not mixed all positive. All of the one star reviews on EP1 are people complaining about the poor Google Translation, so you wont see those reviews unless you go to the other language stores.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...erz.ringstrail
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...erz.ringstrail


I to am confused by the demo not converting more sales. But I think it has to do with so many demos being available. I know demos and free to play are on other platforms but OUYA made this very easy...This is how I played my ouya.

Start up OUYA

Browse games
Install the top 20 that interested me
Start playing one if it sucks I stop, even if its good I might wonder hey I got 19 other games installed I better see if a better one exist. Or I might get to the pay wall and then say hey why pay now I got 19 other demos to try.
After I try all 20, I download another 20 rinse and repeat....

Our game gave you hours of play before asking for payment that might have been an issue. At one time it was in the top 25/50(cant remember exactly) games on OUYA using their fun metric .

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While I do think your reasoning is fair, I want to clarify some things..

Towerfall is not the top selling game on OUYA, the media will spin anything. It was, however, the most hyped OUYA launch title. The current holder of the top selling title, last I checked, was Amazing Frog. Towerfall also grossed $105,000 in those 7,000 copies. The game itself being 15$. Another reason as to why Towerfall never sold more was because it was a Local Multiplayer Only game. Not everyone has friends all the time so purchasing a 15$ game for rare occasions doesn't make much sense.

So really, Towerfall isn't a fair comparison because of the listed issues. Its demo wasn't really a demo either, you could play as long as you wanted provided you waited 10 seconds after each match. And other stages being unlocked. Your game could have been a matter of the demo being to long, however. That could be why there were less sales as well..

With that being said, Payday has come and this game is still on my to buy list. Primarily because i am a sucker for the theme of the game :) (gotta get home to do this).

Read this article most games on OUYA and IOS have less than a 5% conversion rate..

http://indiestatik.com/2013/06/25/ouya/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

Read this article most games on OUYA and IOS have less than a 5% conversion rate..

http://indiestatik.com/2013/06/25/ouya/

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The article was published before the Ouya was released...

Even the title is misleading. Ouya's everything free policy?! So that is where I stopped reading :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

Read the reviews on Google Play they are not mixed all positive.

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I don't pay a whole lot of mind to Google Play reviews, as the average user seems to be a tween who leaves overenthusiastic feedback like "BEST GAME EVARRRRR I LET MY GRANDMA PLAY IT FOR 2 MINUTES AND SHE DIED BECAUSE OF THE AWESOMENESS" without actually going in-depth about what they like about it. I do pay mind to independent review websites where a more comprehensive approach is taken in breaking the game down and isn't just based on initial buyer's excitement, and those are the reviews that I found to be mixed.

I'm going to let Kaimega buy and play it first to give me a detailed breakdown before I make a decision. If his response is overwhelmingly positive and well-reasoned, I'll be more inclined to buy.

Fair enough, let me know how it goes.

littlekillerz,

Thanks for explaining why you chose premium. It is logical and makes sense to me. It is good to read reasons for the other side of the argument because they may not be so obvious and even though,"Because it is my game and that is what I chose to do." would be a good enough reason, you have provided reasoning behind it that makes sense to me. I was originally closed-minded on this because I didn't know reasons from the other "side" but since then I have read reasons and your reasons make business sense to me. I can see Hugo's point of view too and how it is a leap of faith on our "side"(the consumers) but I can see that you have to take some leaps of faith yourself with what you think will work with reasoning behind it. I appreciate you filling in some of the blanks on the other side of the argument. Thanks for that and I hope you do well selling your games. :)

Good to see some numbers behind it atleast. Thank you for continuing to support ouya.

Sent from my LGL55C using Tapatalk 2

I have been playing a sideloaded version and here are my observations:

- The game frequently freezes, sometimes crashes (goes straight to the launcher) and sometimes even tries to send an automatic email (to the dev?). In order to avoid this, it is recommended that you save evey few automatic-incidents (they pop up and say "your party have all changed gender - switch armours!", etc) or so. I also advise that if you see the email pop-up, DON'T click on the email app link; just press the "A" button on the OUYA controller (or equiv) to exit the pop-up (and then save).

- The game works really great with a mouse or mousepad attached to a keyboard and also supports gamepads. In fact, you need to press "O" on a PS3 pad to exit some menus (you can't press "Esc").

- The Blood apes and Death-Vultures are WAY too overpowered/difficult. I just killed two hordes of Zombies and Mummy-Lord/Demon with ease, walk down the dunes and get owned by three vultures (whose poison attacks are more powerful than the Mummy-Lord/Demon)! The feck? If you keep meeting these things, I reccomend restarting the game (hence the constant saving).

- Getting attacked while healing in a tent (which, incidentally, is the ONLY way to heal, perhaps, in the game, outside of cities) seems counter-productive. Most RPG's sensibly don't do that.

- The menus don't seem to give an easy indication to show how much food/provisions are needed for my party and don't show me how much weight they are in total, so I can't judge how much weight I need to jettison against how many provisions are needed. I usally just accept "your party is emburdened" as a defacto condition.

- Some incidents, such as the waterfall one, offer no way to refil canteens, which is odd.

- There are some spelling mistakes in some incident descriptions.

- Some characters complain that their equipment is from some city. Is this relevant? does it actually affect their use of certain equipment? How can we easily check to see which equipment is suitable?

- Some equipment is said to be gender-specific only (ie: priest armour), but other items, such as the extremely femenine "gold helmet" can be worn by men (try it!)

- It's easy to see hair and other features sticking out from behind helmets and armour.

- There seems to really only be TWO different character models (male and female). This is really confusing, especially at the begininng, where the dialogues seem to only be coming from two peopple (when, in fact, it was about 5). Throw in identical costumes and it becomes almost impossible to distinguish or care about the characters.

- In the fighting screen, the middle character's position (at the front) is constantly standing on a highlighted oblong, framed in gold (this apperears when you click on a character). It was there from the first battle and hasn't gone away.

- When some characters or enemies walk, portions of their character model or entire character model dissapear.

- Archers often can be seen with their bows going straight through their legs while they are standing.

All in all, this game, although nice, seems to need some serious bug fixing and plishing in order to warrant the price asked for at the Discover shop, IMO. Perhaps this was another reason no demo was given?

Obviously, you folks only have my word. Without a demo, you can't check...

EDIT: I must again state that these observations concern a sideload version. Your milage may vary Obviously, it would be great to correlate these with people who have played the vanilla Ouya version (ie: the "email" glitch might be due to not connecting automatically to a missing service that the game requires?). You can sideload the game from Google Play, for around the same price, I think. As long as the Dev gets the money (providing people want to keep the game or not) one way or the other, I suspect all is cool and groovy.

I have posted them here as I did not want to bug the Dev to "fix" them on my behalf, when I am using a sideloaded version (getting customer service for something not official doesn't seem right), but I DID want to share them with you all in the hopes that if they are widespread, then they can be discussed, but also to let those that haven't tried it that there MIGHT be bugs, which might dissuade their purchase (which, as there is no demo, seems fair to do)...or NOT!

PS: Thanks to the mod and I couldn't reply due to a time limit or something on replies. I had to wait 8 mins or something.

- The game frequently freezes, sometimes crashes (goes straight to the launcher) and sometimes even tries to send an automatic email (to the dev?). In order to avoid this, it is recommended that you save evey few automatic-incidents (they pop up and say "your party have all changed gender - switch armours!", etc) or so. I also advise that if you see the email pop-up, DON'T click on the email app link; just press the "A" button on the OUYA controller (or equiv) to exit the pop-up (and then save).

Turn off Graphic Caching this problem will go away. But screens will load slower and there will be slightly longer pauses between attacks. I'll turn off the debug feature for OUYA

- The game works really great with a mouse or mousepad attached to a keyboard and also supports gamepads. In fact, you need to press "O" on a PS3 pad to exit some menus (you can't press "Esc").

- The Blood apes and Death-Vultures are WAY too overpowered/difficult. I just killed two hordes of Zombies and Mummy-Lord/Demon with ease, walk down the dunes and get owned by three vultures (whose poison attacks are more powerful than the Mummy-Lord/Demon)! The feck? If you keep meeting these things, I reccomend restarting the game (hence the constant saving).
I feel I have nerfed them adequately already


- Getting attacked while healing in a tent (which, incidentally, is the ONLY way to heal, perhaps, in the game, outside of cities) seems counter-productive. Most RPG's sensibly don't do that.
What!?? This is a core feature of the game, and is more realistic.

- The menus don't seem to give an easy indication to show how much food/provisions are needed for my party and don't show me how much weight they are in total, so I can't judge how much weight I need to jettison against how many provisions are needed. I usally just accept "your party is emburdened" as a defacto condition.
What!?!? On the provision screens it gives you some idea how much you need. There is the weight and provisions menus which both show you how much you have and how much weight you are carrying

- Some incidents, such as the waterfall one, offer no way to refil canteens, which is odd.
Oversight by the author that wrote the event

- There are some spelling mistakes in some incident descriptions.

Most of the events have been edited by my editor but I suppose a few mistakes are still lurking

- Some characters complain that their equipment is from some city. Is this relevant? does it actually affect their use of certain equipment? How can we easily check to see which equipment is suitable?
The characters are just reacting to the armor being of a different kingdom. They are from Vasena and to them, other kingdoms equipment is strange and heavy

- Some equipment is said to be gender-specific only (ie: priest armour), but other items, such as the extremely femenine "gold helmet" can be worn by men (try it!)
I let all the helmets wearable by both sexes


- It's easy to see hair and other features sticking out from behind helmets and armour.

This is an oversight.

- There seems to really only be TWO different character models (male and female). This is really confusing, especially at the begininng, where the dialogues seem to only be coming from two peopple (when, in fact, it was about 5). Throw in identical costumes and it becomes almost impossible to distinguish or care about the characters.

This is a limitation, I assure you we have like 50 character heads but even then we have to recycle a lot

- In the fighting screen, the middle character's position (at the front) is constantly standing on a highlighted oblong, framed in gold (this apperears when you click on a character). It was there from the first battle and hasn't gone away.

Are you playing on the OUYA this is the cursor for the controller. On the OUYA version its always on.

- When some characters or enemies walk, portions of their character model or entire character model dissapear.

I thought I caught all these. Its a missing graphic file

- Archers often can be seen with their bows going straight through their legs while they are standing.

This is a mistake of the artist

I'm not really seeing any major bugs here for you to call the game unfinished. Just turn off Graphic Caching. But I appreciate your feedback

Thanks,
Chad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlekillerz

I'm not really seeing any major bugs here for you to call the game unfinished. Just turn off Graphic Caching. But I appreciate your feedback

Thanks,
Chad

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http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6...10fwo1_400.gif

You, sir, have just taken me off of the fence and planted me firmly in Illyria territory. Two purchases, incoming.

You just turned over one of our grouchiest members, littlekillerz. Members like himself like it when developers deliver in multiple aspects like arriving here with a good game, solid communication backed by facts if need be much like what you're doing now, and belief towards their own projects. Excellent work.

Hmm...

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/1099...ch-smile-o.gif

Made a sale here!

Thanks guys! If you happen to read the comments on Google Play you will find I take every customer and issue very seriously. I always issue refunds to unhappy customers and try to fix any issue ASAP. It's a shame the other App stores don't allow you to interact with your customers and offer refunds.

Thanks,
Chad

Tales of Illyria: Beyond the Iron Wall is now $0.99 on OUYA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaimega

Tales of Illyria: Beyond the Iron Wall is now $0.99 on OUYA

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Will likely be some time before I'll get around to playing it because my backlog is huge, but I'd be a fool not to pick it up at this price.

I got bored with this. It did not seem clear to me why some armour and weapons were unsuitable for my characters. Surely if it is the right weight (which again was not clearly shown in the weapon and armour info)and it has more stats, and it is for the right gender, then it is fine for that chracter to use. I stopped playing after I went to a foreign land and my characters all complained about wearing all of the fabulous magical/won-from-a-boss/rare/expensive new plate/chain/knight's armour for them.

That and the slow, repetetive nature of the game, plus the unfinished quests were dragging me dooooooooooooooooooooooo-A DJIIN APPEARS AND KILLS EVRYONE-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-THE WATER IS POISONED!ooooooooooooooooooooooooo-NO HEALING YOUR PARTY MEMBERS DURING THE DAY OR FIGHT PROPERLY, DO IT IN A TENT, WHILE ZOMBIES ATTACK< REDUCING YOUR ORIGINAL HP!ooooooooooooooooooooooooooown

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaimega

Tales of Illyria: Beyond the Iron Wall is now $0.99 on OUYA

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Thanks for the heads up, Kai, I would've missed this otherwise. A must buy for me at that price!

Tales of Illyria: Behind the Iron Wall is now Premium at $0.00. GET SOME!

Go hit Buy if you don't have it yet.