Mr. Sinister

The Mardek series is solid. So is Sonny (along with the sequel). Also, if I'm allowed to recommend something I made, Telepath RPG Chapter 2 is pretty well-liked as well. If you want to dig deeper than that, this site is a good resource (if somewhat out of date).

Yikes! I'm really glad Awakening sold as well as it did--it would have been tragic for the series to die now after 23 years. (Isn't that crazy? The first Fire Emblem released a little more than 23 years ago!)

Thanks! I appreciate the congrats, and I likewise definitely appreciate the write-up. I very much like your idea of doing a flashier "Level Up" effect. I've put it in The List! (Already in The List: more attack effects and an optimized enemy AI that takes its turn faster--though of course, AI optimization won't happen until the AI is otherwise fully programmed.) So, here's the deal with the turn speed thing. I've gotten this complaint a few times, and partially I think it's partially because I've compared this game to Fire Emblem a lot without explaining some of the subtler differences between the games. A big part of the reason the player's turn takes longer in Telepath Tactics than in Fire Emblem is because you have a lot more options with each character. For example: there's no click-to-attack because characters can have eight or more unique attacks with varying ranges, costs and AOE. The player needs to be able to easily browse and select from among those: so we trade off a little speed (one-click attacking) for more tactical depth (a lot more unique attacks). Similarly, it actually wouldn't work very well to use a Fire Emblem style menu after characters move in Telepath Tactics because the game gives you a lot more options for character movement. Fire Emblem requires every character to take its entire turn in one go; Telepath Tactics doesn't. So you can move a character, go off and do other things, then come back to that character later, maybe move it again, maybe use an item, maybe attack; and even then the character doesn't have to be done (unless you want it to be). If I were to automatically force the player to hit Done or Attack after moving, it would crush that flexible turn structure! As with the attacks, I opted for more flexibility and tactical depth over greater speed. With all that said, though, I will definitely keep adding in little convenience options as players request them. If you have other suggestions for speeding up the turn, I'm all ears. (Oh, also, quick tip: try using hotkeys. Most actions have 'em, and they're faster than clicking buttons! You can find them on page 4 of the manual.)

Getting early access to the Map Editor is definitely a good choice! :)

You guys! We've hit our third stretch goal, and are less than $3,000 away from the fourth, "branching campaign" stretch goal with 62 hours left in the campaign. (Think Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.) I've posted a new update talking about this and answering backer questions concerning the lore of the Telepath universe, including info about its geography and the various races of the world. Check it out!

Hey guys! So, we're now in the last week of the campaign. I posted a new update today talking about some improvements I've been working on to Telepath Tactics. We're getting pretty close to the stretch goal that will allow me to stick procedural battlefield generation into the game. I would use it sparingly (if at all) in the main campaign, but it could be really handy as far as creating campaigns with unpredictable battles and high replayability! Oh, also, you can now change weather, lighting, fog of war, victory conditions, and other battle settings on the fly. Here's a video showing me fooling around with that (I suggest watching in HD): There's more, too. Head here to read the full update! http://www.kickstart...pg/posts/448578

And more! I don't know if you saw, but we hit our dungeons stretch goal yesterday. That means the game is now going to support dungeons with scriptable levers, buttons, pressure plates and doors. I posted an update about it, and went into some detail on features you can use in your single player campaign battles. I also created a video showing how the map editor works. You can see it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1426761469/telepath-tactics-a-strategy-rpg/posts/442081

Things continue to go really well! Here's the latest: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1426761469/telepath-tactics-a-strategy-rpg/posts/438018

Update! I've written up a small post about the first stretch goal, talking about new character classes and the potential for a class promotion system if we hit the goal. Check it out! Ha! Nice. Thank you!

Thanks, I appreciate it!

All right: we've met our base funding goal in just 3 days, which is really good news! I've posted an update with stretch goals. You can read it here if you're curious.

Guys--we're getting really really close to hitting our funding goal! As I write, we're now less than $750 away from being fully funded. I'm currently taking votes about potential stretch goals, so if you're interested in influencing the direction the game takes, go ahead and make your voice heard. Hey, thanks for your support! I really appreciate it. It's up to you what you do with that Producer credit--if you want to stick it on a resume, hey: be my guest. (Though when it comes time for an interview, you should probably be prepared to answer questions about what you actually did as a producer... )

Quick update on the campaign: it's going really, really well! Here is where we're at right now, as I type: $11,211 pledged 74% funded That's a pretty darn good place to be with 31 days left to go. If you want to be a part of making Telepath Tactics happen, there's still plenty of time. Come on over and check out the campaign page, play the new public demo, and let me know what you think!

The Telepath Tactics Kickstarter campaign has launched; check it out! :)

Update: the Telepath Tactics Kickstarter relaunches in 3 days! I'll post again when the campaign is live.

Thanks! I have; it's one of the stretch goals I'm considering for the upcoming Kickstarter. Check out this post for more info.

Hey, folks! I've been hard at work over the past two months making Telepath Tactics better and better; here is the updated "What is Telepath Tactics?" video showing off many of the improvements: For more details, I've done detailed write-ups for December, January and February detailing the multitude of improvements to the game made over the course of each month. Perhaps the coolest change is that the game now has massively improved dialog and scripting support, with full support for dialog trees, character relationship values, and even branching campaigns. I'll be updating the alpha demo again in a little over two weeks, when I launch my second attempt at Kickstarting this game. Thoughts? Comments? Let me know below!

Thanks, guys! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

Hey guys! I've gone ahead and updated the public demo. Among other things: The game now has an undo stack that lets you undo more than one move back. Telepath Tactics now supports explosion chains. The enemy AI has been improved a bit. There is now a second large battle in the demo, a much more challenging one with greater diversity of units, attacks and items on display! Download links and more info are right here: http://www.kickstart...cs/posts/370187

Thanks, guys! It takes place in a different part of the same world, features most of the same races, and basically extends the combat principles I established in the earlier titles with...well, you've seen the feature list.

Thanks, guys! That's actually a deliberate mechanic which forces you to pay closer attention to positioning. You can get around it with careful planning, though, since you can move characters multiple times per turn. For instance: say you have a swordsman blocking a bottleneck, but you want to let an ally through. You can move the swordsman a space, move the second character, then click the swordsman again and move him back. Each move will take a space from his total movement, but you have the flexibility to maneuver like that. With all that said, if you really hate having to think about keeping units out of each others' way, the game allows you to enable ally pass-through as an option. (Just not in the demo.) Death is permanent; and yes, the game absolutely supports burning ground.

Okay! I took a few hours to update the public alpha demo with requested features. On the usability front, he computer now skips its turn entirely when it's going to hold position; there are now customizable character move speed settings (Normal, Double or Instant); and clicking middle mouse on the ground will auto-deselect the current character and close all menus. There were also some requests that I make the second battle more challenging, so I did that. Oh, and I added items to the destructible barrels, in case you want to try those out. Enjoy, and let me know what you think! WINDOWS DEMO MAC / LINUX DEMO (you'll need AIR to install the Mac / Linux one)

Interesting idea with the half-row; that seems like a good solution. I'll keep that in mind! The Escape key deselects units, actually. (It also navigates upward through menus.) The problem with making a left-click on the ground deselect is that you left-click on the ground to drag the battle camera around; I don't want people to accidentally deselect a character every time they adjust the camera. I might be able to find a happy medium, though, like making a double-click on the ground deselect the current unit! I'll experiment a bit. Sweet, I look forward to hearing it!

Much appreciated--and definitely helpful! I'm definitely planning on a "fast turn" option for the enemy, so don't worry about that. I like the idea of using rally points; I bet I know how I could implement it, too. Good call on that one. Improved tilesets are dependent on the Kickstarter succeeding, but yeah, I'd like those too. The only bit bit of feedback I'm not sure what to do about is the black space at the top of the map--there is inevitably going to be an inaccessible top row on any given map because of the perspective at which the player sees the battlefield, and because of the necessity of rendering characters' upper bodies jutting somewhat above the space they're standing on. I suppose I could fill that row with dummy tiles of some kind, but then I'd need some other (presumably also immersion-breaking) indicator that the row is not accessible. Would a darkened row of otherwise normal-looking tiles work better for you? Otherwise, I'm not sure if there are any good options short of redoing the entire perspective or having characters stand at the very bottom of each space (which I suspect would look just slightly terrible). Any ideas?

Thanks, Arch! I'm aiming to make this game the best it can be, so if you have any suggestions for improvement, I'd love to hear them! (That said, if the feedback involves the crummy interface graphics, lack of attack animations, and lack of character portraits, don't worry: I'm working on that stuff.)