Kingturn RPG supports all iOS devices running iOS 4.3 and above, with an ARMv7 processor as additional minimum requirement
(so basically the only devices not supported in general are: iPhone 1st gen, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 1st/2nd gen).

Unlike its Android counterpart, there won’t be a lite / demo version for iOS.
Kingturn RPG will be published as a free app for iOS, with all 6 Prologue scenarios free to play.
Both main campaign and skirmish campaign (together more than 80 scenarios) can be unlocked with a single, one-time inapp-purchase.

We tried to get as close as possible to the pricing model offered on Google Play for the Android version.
This is a little tricky, though, since Apple’s app pricing model is based on tiers, so we have no influence on currency conversion rates and prices on non-US markets.
Anyway, the closest thing to our price model for Android seems to be Apple’s tier 5, which translates to a price of $4.99 for the US version, for example.

During the past months we have been very busy with porting Kingturn from our own engine to the Unity 3D engine (http://unity3d.com/unity/).
The main reason for this port was to familiarize ourselves with Unity, and to develop a (Unity based) framework for our future game titles.

Unity will not only allow us to port future titles with much less effort to other platforms, but also offers features graphics- and effect-wise we could only dream of to accomplish with our own game engine.

The first ones to benefit from our recent work are iOS users (quite likely we will publish an iOS version of Kingturn very soon).
We won’t exchange the existing Android version of Kingturn, though. There’s no point since the content of both versions is identical, and Kingturn is running very stable with our own game engine (never change a winning horse ).

For our future games we will quite likely stick to Unity3D, and we will also consider other platforms for publishing. The Ouya console comes immediately to mind, for example …

Kingturn Underworld RPG is an extended remake of our second title Knighturn and will comprise about 65 scenarios (a few entirely new scenarios and many scenarios overhauled).
The story is connected to the other chapters of the Kingturn Trilogy and plays chronologically before the events of Kingturn RPG and Kingturn RPG Plus.

We have also written several new scenarios. Among them the final chapter that connects the stories of all 3 campaigns of our RPG series.

Kingturn RPG Plus will be published as a Freemium game. This basically means that about 10 scenarios can be played for free, and the remaining scenarios can be unlocked via an in-app purchase.

For our loyal fans we would have loved to upgrade Sw&Ear directly to Kingturn – Tales of Andaria, but both games are vastly incompatible, so this is more or less impossible.

But we won’t let our players down who bought the original Sw&Ear version, of course.
All new scenarios (including the final chapter) have been rebuilt for SW&Ear as well and will be published shortly before or after the release of Kingturn RPG Plus.

Thanks a lot to our small but nonetheless great user community!
Your outstanding ratings, your suggestions, and your advice is what makes us keep going.

Space / Science Fiction RPG
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Would you be interested in a similar RPG with a space / science fiction background instead of a fantasy background?
Something like missions / scenarios on different planets with space marines / battle mechs / robots and weapons like laser guns / light sabers and such? I just wonder whether this is an idea we should pursue from your point of view.

Kingturn RPG
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Judging from the overall feedback so far, it seems that most players consider Kingturn as a general improvement over our first two titles Sw&Ear and Knighturn.
Since nothing is perfect, though, we are especially interested to hear whether there is something that we have done better in Sw&Ear or Knighturn from your point of view.

Sw&Ear Tales of Andaria – Remastered HD version
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Sw&Ear starts to look and feel a little outdated now. We thought about republishing an overhauled Tales of Andaria version (Kingturn like graphics, sound, and AI, elite opponents, legendary items and so on). Problem is that we cannot just update the existing version to this new one (incompatible save games, some of the older devices are not supported any longer, Kingturn graphics engine runs faster on new devices but much slower on old devices (almost unplayable)). I wonder how annoyed buyers of the old version might be, if we republish Sw&Ear as a new game. And what to do with the old version? Take it from the market or leave it parallel to the new version?

If you have been enjoying our previous titles Knighturn and Swords & Earrings, you should consider switching to game difficulty ‘Strategist’ from the very beginning (Options menu).

As mentioned in the tutorial, we have introduced a new spawn probability concept that makes winning a scenario easier the more opponents the player defeats. We think this is a really cool concept.

However, if you are a hard core gamer, you can switch the spawn probability to ‘Always 100%’ in the Options menu.
Note, though, that all scenarios have been designed around this new spawn probability concept, and switching it off will increase the difficulty in later scenarios substantially.

Enjoy the game!

The battlefield size, the respawn / barracks system, and mainly the skill system with over 60 skills lead to a number of possible moves per turn which is way beyond those of a chess game.
This is a statement you probably have to chew on first (at least I had to once I realized this).

So is writing the AI for a game like Kingturn more difficult than writing a chess AI?
Fortunately not, because there is one substantial advantage over chess.
It is much easier to evaluate right away whether a resulting position / outcome is good or not.
That’s why it is (almost) pointless to calculate several moves / turns in advance (which is mandatory for a good chess AI).

That said, we had (and have) to deal with a couple of other problems, though:

- Computer chess AI has been researched for many years by quite a lot of people. This is obviously not the case for an RPG AI, since every game has its own set of rules.

- The limited cpu speed and available memory on mobile phones (this becomes less of an issue for sure, but it is still nothing to be ignored entirely)

- The battery life (the more calculations are done, the higher the battery drainage)

- A unit move should be done almost instantly

For a PC version I would quite likely have gone down the road of a simulation approach: Calculate all (or most) possible moves and take the one with the best outcome.
Due to the formerly mentioned constraints, I decided to take a different approach for Sw&Ear / Knighturn / Kingturn, though.
Our AI system is based on several heuristics with an enhanced aggro system as the most fundamental one:

Each attack or skill usage adds a certain amount of aggro to the performing unit. E.g. the higher the previously done damage, the higher the aggro. Additional aggro is granted if a unit has very low HP, in order to make it a primary target.
Furthermore, the closer a unit comes to enemy barracks, the more aggro is applied to it.
The aggro of a player unit that occupies an enemy base is sky rocketing, for example.
Player units with the highest aggro will be dealt with first, provided they are within move + attack range of a game controlled unit.

There are plenty of others heuristics that deal with more complex decisions like using the right skill (e.g. single target or multiple targets) or chosing the right position for an attack.
(Maybe) surprisingly, the most difficult decision is whether it is a good idea to position a unit on top of the own base in order to guard it.
This decision depends on various circumstances: Remaining number of spawns, opportunity to block an opponent’s path, or the chance of defeating an opponent that could take over the own base otherwise.

The last mentioned decision / heuristics has been probably the weakest spot of our previous titles Sw&Ear and Knighturn.
So we’ve been working hard to improve the AI of Kingturn especially in this regard.

May the opponents in Kingturn beat the hell out of you …

Enjoy our games!

Added note:
I should probably explain how the term ‘heuristics’ is used in an IT context.
This basically means that a perfect solution is sacrificed for the benefit of far less required calculations. How close you come with this approach to a ‘perfect solution’  mainly depends on the quality of the involved estimations and assumptions.
Heuristics are commonly used for path finding calculations, by the way (A-Star algorithm).

Initially, Trampoline Dude was just a technical protoype for our Kingturn game engine.
But since we have been bold enough to publish it on the Anroid Market and even charge a small fee for the full version, it is past time that this title gets a little bit more of our attention.

Here is a first draft of our new Dude:

Trampoline Dude will be quite likely republished at the end of March, 2012 .

The main goal for our next RPG title is to further improve the strengths of Sw&Ear and Knighturn (mainly the game play) and overcome its weaknesses (scaling issues, the graphics, and parts of the UI).

For Sw&Ear and Knighturn we’ve made the mistake to split our focus on two vastly different platforms too early on (Android and iPhone). This way we had to  spend a lot of time with cross-platform design, compatibility issues, double amount of testing and whatnot.

For our new RPG title we will concentrate on one platform only, so we can make the best game we are capable of. And this platform will be Android.
Although I wouldn’t rule out the support of iPhone or other platforms in general in the future, this clearly has a low priority for the time being.

But let’s talk about what you can expect from the new RPG:

A) Fullscreen scaling for all Android devices
The first thing I did was to entirely recode our graphics engine. As a result, there won’t be any scaling issues for high resolution / density phones or tablets. In addition, the new graphics engine allows us to do some nifty things like …

B) You can gradually zoom in and out of the battlefield. This way you can adapt the battlefield and combat unit size to your personal liking and your particular device. This feature is fully implemented already, and I think the result is really cool .

C) Vastly improved game graphics
We are currently negotiating with several artists to achieve state-of-the-art graphics.
Instead of talking too much about this now, I will publish some sample art as soon as possible.

D) The game play
Basically the game play will be similar to the one in Knighturn and Sw&Ear.
The game design is at an early stage, yet, so I will talk about the game features in a future post in more detail. However, there are a couple of new things that will be more than likely part of our next title:

- Introduction of passive skills (achieved in addition to active skills during level up)
- Elite units that are stronger than normal ones, – preset on the map and spawned randomly (Kudos to Eugnics for the great idea (see post below))
- The Summoner class: Can summon allies to his side (Kudos to Jim Reed for the great idea (see post below))
- The Trickster class: Basically a thief with some very nasty surprises for his opponents
- Improved item system (more diversification)
- … (to be determined yet)

E) Polished classes
Thanks to the great customer feedback for Sw&Ear and Knighturn, we have a good idea which classes we should redesign for the next title.
As a result, we will probably end up with fewer classes that will be much more polished.
Right now we are working on making the Knight and the Warrior class more attractive and flexible, for example.

It is too early to talk about a release date already, but a rough estimation would be around March / April 2012.