So far, we’ve had a great response to our game from the people who have bought and played it.  We have also showed it to many industry professionals and the response was equally positive.  Who knows what GDC will bring?!  We’ll see.

If anyone is in San Fran and would like to play against us, just let us know and we’ll see if we can arrange something.  Oh yeah, we’re having lunch with Paul Reiche III on Friday….he’s invited us to his studio for lunch and a quick tour…and hopefully a quick game of Archon.  :)

Secondary Abilities…which means each piece has another fire/ability unique to it. For example, one of the pieces that has previously been pretty weak is now VERY vital on the strategy board. The BANSHEE’s secondary ability is to suck 1 health point per turn from every opponent directly around her on the Strategy Board. Conversely, the VALKYRIE’s ability is to HEAL everyone around her on the Strategy Board…so she’s like a moving Power Square and very important now in the overall strategy of the game. These are the only two that have this ability on the Strategy board…everyone else has something that affects their fighting in the Combat Arena.

For example, the Wizard clones himself (there is a possibility of an 8 vs. 8 Combat, but it gets REALLY crazy!) The Sorceress calls down lightning bolts that fry everyone in it’s path. The Basilisk calls forth little snakes to aid it and the Knight has a reflective shield that works on all projectiles, sending them back to their originator. All abilities are very unique to the piece and pretty balanced. We are really excited to hear what everyone thinks about this new mode, which can be turned on and off. Also, there is a switch to turn on and off FRIENDLY FIRE.

Play it. It’s well worth the $15 bucks. We’ve been playing for over 6 months (at least 1 game a day) and still don’t get sick of it.

We are now diving headfirst into the multiplayer portion of the game, we’ve been doing portions and planning for it…so now it is time to really hit it. I’m hoping it goes as smoothly as everything else in the game.

We are at build 3617.1860…it would be a great Christmas gift for anyone! (shameless plug) I’ll try and keep the DEVblog updated every week, I know I say that every time, but this time I mean it.

BigDownload

I should have everything done tonight…For those who’ve bought the game already, a few more hours of patience and you’ll be playing the greatest game ever created! So buy some controllers, if you haven’t got any, and hold on to your seats!

New Golem character

We’re still on target for getting a build out and into the hands of the faithful fans next week.  I can’t wait to get feedback on everything.  We had our little tournament the other week and learned a lot about how people are playing the game and navigating the menus.  We’ve used this data to sharpen the Strategy elements and include other things to make the game easier to get into (for the new player) yet satisfy the Archon buff.  We also have something really cool planned for next week (something besides the Beta.)

Congrats to Jake Dinkins and Justin Barlow for beating out all the other teams to become our first EVER Archon champions.  They got T-shirts for their win.  They played through several different boards in our TEAM mode 2 vs. 2.  They caught on early to the strategies of doubling up characters and attacking on opposite colored square.  It wasn’t an easy victory, but it sure was fun to watch.

We learned many things through this event, it was like a test market/focus group event for us.  We payed close attention to how they played, what was unclear, where they tripped up and what we could to better.  Thankfully, most of the issues were in the front end design…navigation is a bit unclear in some places and it was good to see that when people got into the game, it was virtually bug free (with very few exceptions.)

Thanks again to NinjaBee and Greg Squire to letting us hold our little tournament.  It allowed us to see our game in the real-world and see people’s reactions.  We had a good mix of new and old school gamers.  About half heard of Archon and remember playing it on the C64 or Atari at one point.  We’ll take our observations and start changing things around to make it better.

We’ve updated our CONTROLS on the Combat board, so it plays very smoothly!  All the complaints concerning the controls have been addressed and now we have one of the best virtual dpads on the iPhone market.

Archon:Conquest has a leaderboard system powered by “Plus+.”  NGMOCO came out with their Plus+ technology to provide a platform that would be similar to an XBLA experience on the iPhone and they did a great job.  It adds a whole new depth to our games, as you can see where you actually rank worldwide.

Conquest fits perfectly on the iPhone and will keep you busy for hours.  Once you complete a quest, you unlock INSANE difficulty!  There are many Awards to get for you people who like that, and the leaderboard system is really nice.  Our beta testers (these are good players) have reported it takes them about 4 hours to complete each Campaign, when they really hunker down and try to get the best scores they can (you’re rewarded medals based on your performance — they’ve gotten all golds.)  So, you could spend over 12 hours getting through these quests…or you can go through them as fast as you can.

I can’t say enough of Conquest…except go buy it, you won’t be disappointed!

Well, those days are over.  We’ve spend the last several months working and reworking the pieces per team and have reached a perfect balance.  The Phoenix will now strike fear in the hearts of opposing forces and takes it rightful place beside the Wizard, opposite the Dragon.  She (I think the Phoenix has to be a “her”) is an awesome creature to behold, especially when she reaches a “level 3″ on boards that allow leveling.

We’ve been play testing both the iPhone and PC for a while now and have taken all the comments from the forums, emails and App store into consideration and have made a perfect mix.  This, I believe, is the ultimate Archon experience…which has been long awaited by fans the world over.  I’m not just saying this because I’m the owner of the studio making the game…but because I am one of the biggest fans of this game, and have been since the day I loaded it up on my Atari 800 (it was from a 5 1/4 floppy.)

The work is hard, but fun and well worth it.  Our 4 player games last about an hour because we have to really think about strategy now (I’m playing against one of the best Archon players in the world.)  We all get beat by Brad (our lead designer), but most of the time, we are ganging up on him during combat.  Tomorrow Pre-sales will go live and we have a special treat for those who buy early.  I’ll have that announcement later today.

We have the players name along with a nifty (huge) recharge indicator.  We’ve need to really make this big, because you need a quick read when you’re battling 3 other people.  It gets really hectic during combat…especially when you accidently kill your teammate and have to go it alone!  We’ve also put in a faint “recharge” timer so you know how long before you’ll be able to fire (it fills up with a subtle grey, then pops to Green.)

I’ll have more to show as I get it finished.

Image being the Djinni, and you’re entering battle with a level 3 Dragon (he has triple shot), a Troll and a Wizard.  I found myself trying to hide in a corner and letting them duke it out, until I hear “HE’S HIDING!  GET HIM!”  Then all three of them turn on me.  For those who’ve played the board game “RISK”, there can be a lot of similarities as far as truces and alliances being formed during gameplay.

I also found myself in a battle with 2 knights…I was a Dragon and thought, “Hah, 2 Knights on a grey square…easy!”  That was before they expertly herded me into a corner and hacked me to death….Oohhh the fun of 4 player games.  We have “Teams” or “Free for All”, along with AI…so if there are only 3 people playing, 2 can be on a team and the leftover player simply grabs an AI for his teammate (and selecting INSANE for his setting.)

There are many other surprises in store for the PC, such as various new boards, new abilities, etc.  I don’t have any screenshots yet, mainly because the TEMP art is so ugly…but that will change soon.

We’ve decided to start pre-sales from our site OCT 15th, so tell everyone you know to buy the game so you can play against each other.

Archon, which was first released in 1983 by Free Fall Associates, now makes its way to the PC, after more than 25 years.  The remake from React Games first made its appearance on the iPhone in June of this year to critical acclaim.

“It reached the top 20 best selling games worldwide within 2 weeks of its release on the App store and still maintains a 4.5 out of 5 star rating” says Chad Lee, owner of React Games.

For the PC version, React unveils new multiplayer game modes featuring up to 4 players in “teams” and “versus” battles.  Also choose between classic 8-bit or new artwork, online leader boards, achievements, HD resolution and, of course Multiplayer on a local machine or across the internet.  Additional enhancements include a variety of board layouts, character leveling up, power-ups and enhanced AI.  Archon for the PC will be released during the holiday season 2009 and pre-sales will start on October 15, 2009 through their website at www.archonclassic.com

“In bringing Archon to the PC we’ve really focused on maintaining the classic feel of the original game.  That said, there were aspects of the title that needed updating for the modern audience.  For example, the addition of 4 players was never in the original, but it adds so much fun it feels like it always belonged there.” says Brad Moss, Design Lead at React Games.

Also announced is Archon:Conquest, a single player game based on the Archon franchise created for the iPhone.

“We knew the iPhone version of Archon needed a single player experience, so we included a ‘Conquest Mode’ at no extra cost in the 1.9 Archon update (coming soon.)  In order to freely expand the single player idea without affecting the Classic version of Archon, we decided to create a separate App called Archon:Conquest.  This new App will include several additional campaigns and quests.” says Lee of the new App.

Archon:Conquest was submitted to the App store earlier this month and will be available soon.  Conquest features a total of 4 campaigns, 60 quests, various board layouts, unique character abilities and enemies to conquer.  Awards and the new Leader Board system is powered by Plus+.

“We are excited to be part of the Plus+ family.  They have many quality games in their library and their technology is sound…a perfect fit for what we are doing.” says Lee of ngmoco’s new Plus+ technology for the iPhone.

React! Games is a privately owned company.

For more information, visit React Games at www.reactgames.com and the Official Archon website at www.archonclassic.com

So, I thought a good place to turn for ideas would be the community.  Who better to ask for help than the people playing the game?  So, people…What would make a really good achievement?  I mean a REALLY hard one?  Maybe even one that nobody can get…like:

“Annihilate the Dark team by only using 1 Knight.” or, “Win a game in under 1 minute.”  We have a list of about 20 or so…but some are really easy.  Let me know your thoughts on our forums.  Click here to enter your idea.

Thanks and I look forward to your ideas!

A HUGE fix we implemented in this latest update is with the controls.  One of the biggest complaints we have (and every other game on the iPhone) is the controls.  Where we erred was with the firing input.  I think the Dpad works just as well as the best virtual Dpads on the iPhone, and the firing mechanism is simple…just touch the right side of the screen.  The problem we discovered was the iPhone was confusing the ‘firing’ touches with ‘pinching’ and since we didn’t support pinching in combat, it would ignore the touch…hence the piece wouldn’t fire.  Sorry…our fault…but it’s fixed now with the 1.7 update.

Also, we’ve included a new board called “Invictis.”  It implements “Power-ups” during combat along with special Power Squares during Strategy that give other abilities (see image below.)

Color is very important on this board.  You can see on this Strategy board, the new look of Power Squares.  They each have a different number, which affects a different ability of each character.  Orange=Movement of the character, Red=Weapon and Green=Health.  So, landing on a Power Square with a Red dot could give you a triple shot, or a more powerful shot or even a faster shot.  Once you land on this new Power Square, the ability it gives you will stay the rest of the game…so it’s a different way of leveling up, like in Ascension.

In Combat, you’ll randomly have other Power-Ups appear throughout the course of the game.  We’ve kept the color the same as the Strategy Board, so you know Red affects your weapon, Green affects your Health and Orange your speed.

So, This new board offers a whole different type of Strategy than previous ones.  And the best part is it’ll be available to play through Multiplayer, when we get that finished (around the corner.)

We’re close to finishing Bluetooth and let me just say…there are LOTS of surprises around the corner!  Multiplayer is a blast, the game is more robust than ever and next update, I’ll talk about Multiplayer and the 1 player Campaign we’ve finished.

We really like this board and the different strategies involved.  For example, your flying units are extremely important and every DEATH is important because you know it is leveling up somebody.  No longer can you afford to simply throw your knights or goblins away in suicidal combat!  Also, the Phoenix is truly a Dragon hunter, especially when he gets to level 3.  It is our new favorite board.

Here are a few screenshots about the new board “Ascension” that is the highlight of the 1.5 update.  This board is very cool and lots of fun to play.  In fact, we find ourselves coming back to this board to play over and over.  We almost never play the “classic” version anymore because we have so many more options to play (more on that later.)

It’s pretty cool to have a Level 3 Dragon fighting a Level 3 Djinni or Valkyrie.  The whole board lights up with pretty little particles!  I can’t wait for you to play it and give us feedback.

Our newest update, due out next week is 1.5 and we refer to it as “Ascension”  We call it that because it contains a new board of that name.  Now, when you want to play a game, you can select “classic” or “ascension” as your board type.  Why is this new board unique?  Well, it’s not just a new layout with characters placed differently…but there are a bunch of new things added.

Particle effects add more visual POP to it, There is one less Power Point and the best part is your characters will LEVEL UP based on the number of kills they have.  There are 3 levels each one can achieve and with each level, they get different abilities.  I don’t want to spoil it for you…but just look at the video and see for yourself.  Some get a ton more health, others move faster, while others get more powerful shots.  We’ve balanced everything out nicely and it is a BLAST to play!  I can’t wait for you to play it…It adds so much more depth and value to the game.

I’ve noticed, through my browsing the game sites, that some reviewers have changed their ratings and scores solely based on our last update (1.2)…let’s hope this update continues that trend (hint, hint!)  We’ve committed to having weekly updates until mid September, which will add a ton of value to this game…so log onto the forums and let’s hear your comments.

Download it HERE!

We’re pretty excited about the LITE version and the potential new users this will bring to the Archon universe.  It will feature the following:  8 unique characters, play either as Light or Dark, Left handed mode, Smart Aim settings on or off and Accelerometer support.  It gives a good taste of what the full version will be like…and it’s pretty engaging, although the AI setting will be easy, it will give enough strategy and combat to get people hooked.

We’ve got our update schedule outlined, which we’ll average about 1 update and/or feature a week for the next month (if all goes well)…and YES, it includes the Multiplayer version as a 2.0 update.  Since our engine is multi-platform, most of the things we implement will carry over to the PC and other platforms, so if you like the iPhone version, imagine playing with a controller!  Of course, we’ll upgrade many things for the other platforms to fit it, so it won’t be a straight port from one to the next.  We’ll even redo the graphics to fit the platform, so each one will have it’s own unique look.

Can’t wait to see the responses to the 1.2 update.  It’s like Christmas eve for us, waiting for everyone to open the present we’ve taken so much time to prepare and wrap…we can hardly wait.