#porting this over for beta shenanigans | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

birbleafs · 5 years ago

Text

[fic] Strange Creatures

Series: Artemis Fowl Rating: G Genre: Friendship & Humour, Post-series Character(s): Beckett Fowl, Myles Fowl, Mulch Diggums, Juliet Butler, Holly Short and Artemis Fowl II Summary: Mulch Diggums finds himself abruptly enlisted by the Fowl twins, Myles and Beckett, to create the best Eldest Brother’s Day gift for Artemis, much to Holly and Juliet’s amusement. A/N: Here’s my full piece for the Artemis Fowl Fanzine: A Fowl Mood! It was really fun to be part of this project - many thanks to the mods & fellow contributors for all their hard work. Thanks also to my bro Digi for being a wonderful beta ♥ There are still some leftover merch for sale if anyone’s interested. This fic is set a few years after The Last Guardian, without taking into account the events in The Fowl Twins (as I’d finished writing it last July). Fic can also be read on AO3. _______

“What strange creatures brothers are!” -Jane Austen- ~.*.~ Mulch Diggums was once again on the run and back to his old habits of skulking among dastardly rich Mud Men, pilfering trinkets and valuables from their homes. And once again, word of his not-quite-earnest—or legal, for that matter—endeavours soon reached the LEP’s ears. In fact, his current whereabouts had turned up as a flashing blip on Foaly’s screens when the centaur had been running one of his routine surveillance sweeps of the surface. That, however, is another story altogether, one that Foaly would happily indulge in if you let him. But Captain Holly Short is a busy elf—short on time and even shorter with patience. So alas, Foaly’s tale would have to be shelved. For now, at least.

So it was that Mulch found himself abruptly cornered by an LEP Retrieval squad in his own home—well, he was house-sitting at the moment, but hey, same difference—just as he was settling into a nice, warm mud bath. That’s the thing about the LEP. Always with the atrociously bad timing, never an ounce of tact. So much for being role models, upstanding fairies of the People. The last thing Mulch saw and heard was a deafening blast as the bathroom door burst wide open, and the zipping sound of a fabric-like netting whirling tight around him. There was a flurry of movement as he struggled in the velvet darkness enclosing him, before he found himself promptly hauled back to Haven City and into the dimly-lit interior of a drab holding room, sitting once again before Captain Short. “Holly! Mon chéri… Compadre!” Mulch cooed, tuning his natural dwarfish charm up a notch. “How’s my favourite elfin lady today?” “Cut the chatter, Mulch. I’m sure you know exactly why you’ve been detained.” Truthfully, Holly didn’t have any hard evidence for Mulch’s arrest this time—not yet, at least. But Mulch had hardly ever been innocent, even when he wasn’t actively committing a crime, so it wasn’t too difficult for her to pretend the LEP knew of his most recent of illegal endeavours (which they didn’t). Besides, she’d lost a stupid bet during a party several weekends ago, and—well. You reap what you sow. Holly made a mental note to never take another sip of a certain centaur’s home concoction of sim-alcohol, recreational study or not. Anyway, back to the plot: She had lost a bet and now she had to pull this dumb prank on Mulch in return for a favour for a certain Mud Boy’s family. Holly could almost hear said Mud Boy’s tired sigh of disapproval upon hearing of his friends’ latest shenanigans. Still, she’d also promised Artemis she would visit the twins soon and she figured this was a nifty way to kill two birds with one stone. Technically, it would be two Fowls and a dwarf. Holly chuckled at her own joke, certain that Artemis wouldn’t have appreciated that quip at all, figurative murder or not. Before Mulch had a chance to explain his innocence this time, Holly began listing down the years he’d have to serve, the cell block they had carefully picked out for him this time, the terribly cold draft they had made sure would pass into said cell every night. And just as Mulch was about to get suspicious, Holly shifted gears and offered a compromise instead. Even though he was still confused and rightfully wary of the sudden turn of events, Mulch tentatively accepted Holly’s deal. And soon, he found himself whisked away on a shuttle topside, piloted by the Captain herself. “So where are we headed?” Mulch asked once he’d settled comfortably into his seat. “Now that it’s just you and me, Captain… I’m allowed to be privy to the details of said ‘deal’, right?” Holly was tempted to reveal the truth then, but she figured it’d be funnier if she let the dwarf discover it for himself. Mulch was a crafty one, after all—it wouldn’t take him too long to realise what was really going on. She only gave him a knowing smirk and murmured ominously, “All things in good time, Mulch.” * From the E1 shuttle port at Tara, it was a quick jaunt to the Fowl Manor. Holly could already hear the voices of the twins drifting over the wind as they made their way past the last cluster of Artemis’ fairy roses and to where the twins and their nanny Juliet Butler were seated by the fountain in the courtyard. Seven-year-old Beckett Fowl was the first to glance their way; Holly could’ve sworn the child had canine-like senses, what with the way he had whirled around at their near-silent approach. He was the very picture of innocence as he bounced up to them, his radiant curls and bright-eyed stare reminiscent of an eager golden retriever puppy. “Holly’s here! And S’Mulch Dinggus!” Beckett squealed happily as he launched himself at her. Holly embraced him warmly, before waving a greeting to Juliet who stood patiently behind the boy. The dwarf tutted, unimpressed at the butchering of his name. “We’ve been through this the last time, little Mudskipper. It’s Mulch Diggums.” “That’s what I said,” Beckett giggled, turning back to look at Juliet. “S’Mulch Dinggus. Funny he can’t remember his own name.” Before Mulch could get a protest in edgewise, he was interrupted by a small, polite cough. He turned and saw a bespectacled, raven-haired Mud Child appearing by Beckett’s side. Myles Fowl had the same piercing blue eyes as his free-spirited twin, but unlike his twin, he was the seemingly more precocious and finicky of the two. He looked every bit the likeness of his eldest brother, Mulch noted humorously—from the meticulously pressed suit and tie to the neatly-combed dark hair. Heck, the kid had even perfected the infamous Fowl glare to an art form, crystalline and frigid as an Arctic winter. “You’re finally here as summoned, Mister Mulch,” Myles greeted solemnly. He ignored the wet, icky sounds of Beckett blowing raspberries beside him. “Took you long enough.” “Summoned?” Mulch frowned, before a thought struck him. He grinned toothily at Holly. “So that’s what this is about, eh, Captain Short? ‘Detained’, my hairy as—” “Language, Mulch,” Holly said, stepping on the dwarf’s toes all while matching his grin with a serene, innocent smile of her own. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry I had a Retrieval squad jump you back there in the house. But it’s not like you were likely to be agreeable and come quietly if you knew the Fowl twins had extended an invitation and personally requested for your…er, assistance.” “Is not invitatitions,” Beckett chirped as he chewed on a piece of purple beeswax crayon. “Arty said summons would do in the tongue of magicks, so we summons S’Mulch!” He gave a sagely nod, his mouth stained and flecked with purple now. Mulch gave Holly a look of disappointment. “Frankly, I’m hurt you think I’d even pass up the chance to humiliate my favourite Mud Boy, and what’s more, by teaming up with his own cute brethren. Okay then, little Fowl nuggets. What dwarfish advice would you need this time?” “First of all, we’re not nuggets,” Myles said coldly, just as Beckett clucked like a gleeful hen and made flapping motions with his arms. “I assure you that we are still one-hundred percent Homo sapiens, even if Beck has gotten very good at animal mimicry of late.” “I see this one’s got a great sense of humour,” Mulch observed drily. “Definitely Artemis’ brother.” “A-hem. As I was saying...” Myles scowled at the interruption, and Mulch held up a placating hand in apology. “Secondly, Beck and I, we thought it through for many weeks—Well, I did anyway. However, we weren’t able to make any significant progress in the lab even with Professor Primate’s expertise—” “Not quite sure where you’re going with this riveting story, kiddo,” Mulch muttered. “But I’m still listening, if that helps.” “—and after several failed attempts, we have conceded that we need help from someone with the right skills. Skills we do not yet possess.” Myles paused, his young face pinched with doubt. But his hesitation was fleeting, and he met both Mulch and Holly’s curious expressions with a determined gaze once more. “We want to throw Arty the best surprise Eldest Brother’s Day when he gets back,” the boy said. “So, would you please honour us, Mister Mulch, and teach us how best to make—” “Flatulence!” Beckett crowed as if on cue, punching a fist victoriously into the air. “Please, brother. Not this again.” Myles groaned. “You boys want me to teach you how to let a mighty rip?” Mulch asked, incredulous. “No, that’s not it!” Myles cried, exasperated. “Beck has gotten it all muddled! He means the fettling process used in pottery, not the crude effusion of intestinal gas!” He tugged frantically at Beckett’s sleeve, trying to stop his twin from belting out his favourite self-composed tune called A Song of Gas and Fire, to no avail. For two whole minutes, the group was forced to listen to Beckett’s high-pitched singing of “Pbbthh, pbbthh, rattle-boom! Gas and fire, gas and fire! Heave-ho, the window’s blown!” “Thanks, little Mudskipper, for that, uh, delightful performance,” said Mulch, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes once Beckett had finished his song. “I gotta say, you sure are a natural. But there’s still something I don’t really get. Why would you need my help for the surprise? Like don’t get me wrong, kiddos, I like you two enough. But what’s wrong with Holly or Juliet here, or even Butler himself? If anything, they’re better suited at picking out the mushy gifts...” He trailed off, thinking hard. “Well, I trust the Big Man’s taste for the sentimental, at least.” “Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Mulch,” Juliet deadpanned, with only the slightest roll of her eyes. “It’s true Butler had some good suggestions for gifts, but this is a Fowl twins initiative, so we figured we’d let the kids decide on their own. Besides, Beck had other ideas.” “My ideas the best ideas!” Beckett chanted, beaming brightly. “We decided that we want to make Arty a sculpture for Eldest Brother’s Day.” Myles supplied, glancing at Mulch once again. “We know that Mister Mulch is highly attuned to the necessities of good clay work by virtue of his biological make-up— “S’Mulch is good with muds and gas! I wanna learn how to blast clay backwards too!” “—therefore, you are best suited to teach us how to sculpt and—” “And flatulence!” Mulch tried his best, he really did, but he couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. He didn’t know which was funnier: the thought of the twins gifting Artemis Fowl, ex-criminal virtuoso and menace of the People, a squishy caricature blob of his miniature being or Beckett performing a pompous and fartastical symphony of A Song of Gas and Fire for his dear eldest brother. Either way, he was rightfully tickled and the twins were in luck. Unbeknownst to many, Mulch had spent some time dabbling in pottery and sculpting with clay when he’d lived amongst the celebrity Mud Men; he had chalked it up as weird hobby of sorts. “You Mud twins are hilarious,” he said, once his laughter had subsided and he’d managed to straighten himself up again. “All right, I’m sold on this crazy venture. I’ll help with the sculpting of a masterpiece for ol’ Arty-boy.” From the corner of his eye, he caught a glance of Juliet’s smug expression. Her lips were curved into a wide Cheshire grin as she tapped Holly’s shoulder expectantly. The elf only groaned, before she reached into her back pocket to fish out a single gold coin and slipped it into Juliet’s fingers. Mulch frowned at the exchange, throwing them his best hurt-puppy look. “Running a betting pool on me and for only a single gold coin? I’m affronted, ladies.” “You only wish your crooked mug is worth half a penny,” Holly shrugged. “I’m being generous because Juliet’s a friend.” “Aww, I knew you were a big old softie inside!” Juliet sighed happily, reaching forward to teasingly pinch the side of Mulch’s face. “Now that that’s settled, someone can finally knead clay with the kids and get some work done before Artemis gets home from his conference this weekend.” She quickly stepped away, disappearing into the nearby garage for several minutes before she returned carrying a craft box packed with an assortment of smaller items inside. “These rascals had me running to art stores all over Dublin the past two weeks looking for all kinds of overpriced play-dohs, and yet hardly asked if I could help them to sculpt!” She grumbled, not quite unkindly, as she shook the items out from the box, laying them out on a patch of grass before them. Holly looked over at Juliet in surprise. “I didn’t know you were into sculpting.” She thought of all the hours the young woman had spent whooping over her favourite wrestling matches on TV as a teen. “Never pegged you as the artistic type.” Juliet snorted. “Pfft, me? Nah, I don’t sculpt. That’s more a pretentious Artemis thing.” “Why would you expect the twins to ask you to teach them, then?” “Well, I’d like to be asked first, at least! I took the time to buy all these fancy play-dohs for them, didn’t I?” Mulch leaned forward in interest, looking over the packets of “play-dohs”. He spotted several labelled as Creative Paperclay—at least Juliet managed to get some of the good stuff. He grinned toothily as he rolled up his sleeves, feeling a spark of excitement at getting to work with clay again. “Okay then, kiddos. Let’s get cracking and moulding.” * “What’s this Eldest Brother’s Day thing you Mud Men celebrate like anyway?” Mulch asked. They’d made their way from the courtyard into the Manor basement where Artemis had set up a work space for Myles’ messier experiments and tinkering projects. The group stood now before the large experiment bench. Juliet covered the top with a large plastic mat, and turning the craft box over, shook packets of Creative Paperclay and several plastic and wooden crafting tools out on the bench. At Mulch’s question, she turned and gave him a strange look, brows furrowed. Then she let out a short laugh when she realised he was actually being serious. “Silly fairy,” she snickered, glancing over the top of Myles and Beckett’s heads before she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper: “There’s no such thing as Eldest Brother’s Day. It’s just something the twins came up with but I’m not going to ruin it for them and tell them it isn’t actually a thing. I’m not a monster, you know.” “We know it, Juliet,” Beckett said suddenly, blinking up at her with those large blue eyes filled with mischief and daring. “But Artemis’ a simple-toon—” Myles giggled at his twin’s use of their brother’s old nickname, even as he fought to keep his expression stoic. “—and simple-toons need Eldest Brother’s Day. So we celebrate.” Beckett finished with a nod, as though he’d just gifted both his human and fairy nannies with his brand of enlightenment. “Riiiight,” Mulch said, shaking his head. He figured some things were best left unasked and unexplained, especially when dealing with incorrigibly irreverent Fowl children. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for that impromptu alliteration (it was the playwright blooming within him, he was sure of it) and turned back to the project at hand. The twins had already decided early-on the sort of sculpture they had wanted to create. After ruminating over it weeks before, Myles had settled on recreating a 5-inch figure of Jayjay the silky sifaka, the fluffy white lemur whose whimsical escapades were often included in the bedtime stories Artemis read them. Beckett, on the other hand, had chosen to fashion an honorary tribute to Artemis’ late Syrian hamster, Lady Maeve, poised upright on her hind feet in an impassioned stance, gnawing away at a two-headed wyrm. Once the twins had sketched out their preferred designs on paper, Juliet pinned the sketches up on the cork board on the wall for easy reference. Then they got to work. Mulch placed two cups of water on the bench, and proceeded to show the twins how to gauge the amount they needed for their sculptures and how to knead the clay to warm it up and make it more malleable. “It’s a bit like baking extravagant pastries,” he said as he cut a block of clay into various-sized pieces. “You roll the individual shapes out like this and then stick them together to form a whole creature. Like an animal jigsaw puzzle, so to speak.” “They aren’t edible or taste any good though, not like pastries,” Holly added quickly when she noticed Beckett staring a little too longingly at the piece he’d been kneading. She tapped his fingers away just as the boy lifted the clay to his mouth for a quick nibble. “No tasting?” Beckett asked mournfully. “No tasting.” The elf shook her head. “But I do have some special treacle and espresso power bars from Haven City. It’s much better than consuming bland clay. I’ll let you have a bite later when we finish sculpting Lady Maeve, okay?” It seemed like a good bargain, so Beckett closed his mouth and chewed at his lower lip instead, rolling his clay pieces under his palms with renewed fervour. They continued shaping their pieces. Mulch showed the twins how to score the ends of the individual pieces they’d made for the limbs with a plastic knife. Then they connected the scored ends of the limbs to the body, blending the seams and smoothing it down carefully with their fingers and dabs of water. They continued in a similar fashion for the heads, noses, ears, and tails. Once the twins were satisfied with their sculptures, Mulch carefully placed the pieces on a cool, clean shelf to gradually dry and set over the next 24-hours. When they returned later to check on their work, the twins found the dried sculptures were now off-white and grainy to touch, quite unlike the squishy beige blobs they had been pinching and moulding with their hands the day before. “And now for a good splash of colour to make your pieces really pop,” Mulch said, dumping several tubes of acrylic paints and brushes on the bench with much more flair than necessary. He had a paint brush stuck behind one of his hairy ears—it helped him feel attuned with the art connoisseur in him. “Jayjay has a mostly pure-white coat,” Myles mused as he picked out a few choice colours, “but I think a gold accent to his fur tips, ears and tails would bring out his features more.” “Gold, huh?” Mulch looked over the boy’s chosen colour scheme with approval. “Good aesthetic you got there, Mudling.” “A very Fowl aesthetic for sure.” Holly couldn’t help the quip, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Artemis would certainly appreciate the touch. “Lady Maeve wants to be purple like rain,” Beckett declared solemnly, having been uncharacteristically silent for five whole minutes. “Purple? But Beck, Lady Maeve was a golden long-haired Syrian.” Myles tilted his head towards his twin. “If you paint her fur purple, Arty might not recognize her.” Beckett’s attention, however, seemed to be two steps ahead of the conversation. He’d already dipped his brush with paint and was dabbing streaks of purple all over the hamster’s body. “The Lady requests a cloak of purple rain, so purple she shall be.” The adults could barely stifle their chuckles while Myles groaned once again in defeat. He decided it was probably for the best and turned his attention back to painting his lemur. It was nearly noon when the twins added the last dabs of paint, after which Mulch proceeded to spray a coat of clear acrylic varnish over the sculptures to preserve and seal the colours. Then, he stepped several paces back from the bench to marvel at the fruits of their labour. “We have finished at last.” Myles’ voice was soft, awe pooling in his eyes. Hesitantly, he turned to Juliet and Holly, and then glanced back at the dwarf, searching for reassurance. “What do you think, Mister Mulch? Will Artemis like it?” Mulch rubbed at his beard thoughtfully. Both sculptures looked very much like what you would expect of two seven-year-olds’ valiant attempts at artisanal clay work. “Hmm.” He clicked his tongue lightly as he paced around the work bench, reaching into his inner art critic for the right words. “Now, Myles: Despite the crooked tail, you did a fairly good job at carving the fur textures on your lemur. Plus, adding gold accents to the white fur is very innovative and makes Jayjay glow nicely under the light. A very regal and classic touch overall.” Mulch came to a dignified pause before the second sculpture, rubbing his palms together as if in deep thought. “As for Beckett’s recreation of Lady Maeve: It seems far more… robust than the original, almost challenging anatomy and even physics itself. But the bright mixes of purple and gold contrasts nicely with the green and gore of the flailing wyrm, adding a surprising dynamism to the entire piece. All in all, two very good attempts, my young apprentices.” Holly and Juliet were already sighing halfway through Mulch’s needlessly opulent commentary, but even they agreed with the dwarf’s final assessment, much to the relief and delight of Myles and Beckett Fowl. * When Artemis Fowl the Second arrived home from his two-week long conference on Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation, he was surprised to be greeted only by an unusually silent living room, devoid of the typical sounds of playful bellowing and childish laughter. Leaving Butler to unload his luggage from the Bentley, Artemis wondered briefly at the absence of his two brothers and Juliet, their sitter, before he noticed a strange sort of rumbling noise and vibration coming from somewhere below him. Curious, he headed for the basement, moving cautiously towards the noise. It was there that he found the twins asleep and cuddled around a familiar rotund shape sprawled upon an old velvet sofa. The fairy had his head thrown back against the cushion and was snoring rather noisily. “Ah,” Artemis said, eloquent as ever. He steepled his fingers together, taking a moment to process the scene before him. “Arty…? Oh, you’re finally back.” Holly’s soft voice broke him out of his reverie. He turned to see his old friend curled up on a second sofa, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “Welcome home,” she yawned a greeting. “Juliet’s in the kitchen fixing up some snacks, I think.” “Hello, Holly. It’s good to be back among familiar faces again. It seems that I’ve missed quite a party while I was away…” Artemis trailed off when he caught sight of the strange creatures placed on Myles’ experiment bench. “They’re supposed to be a surprise for you when you returned. For Eldest Brother’s Day.” Holly explained when Artemis raised a delicate eyebrow. He lifted up one of the sculptures for a closer inspection, his forehead creased in confusion at what looked to be a purple rodent gnawing on a plump string of green linguine—Beckett’s. “Eldest Brother’s Day?” Artemis echoed. He reached for the second sculpture—Myles’ lemur—before walking over to take a seat beside Holly on the sofa. Holly stretched her arms as she sat upright. “It’s kind of a long story.” “I expect so. Do enlighten me, if you will.” “Well, let’s see...” Holly began, brushing the side of her cheek with a finger. “Once upon a time, there were a pair of twins who, Frond only knows why, admired and looked up to their chaotically unhinged older brother greatly.” Artemis gave her a slightly wounded look, pressing a hand to his chest in a show of mock offense. “I’m appalled, Holly. You of all people know I prefer calculating to chaotic. There is a method to my madness, after all.” “Ever the theatrical misunderstood genius, aren’t you?” Holly rolled her eyes, even if she couldn’t help the soft laugh that escaped her lips. She nudged his shoulder playfully with her own, a show of affection. “Myles and Beckett adore you immensely—you know that, right?” Artemis beamed, warmed by Holly’s laughter and the comfort of being close to friends and family once more. He watched his sleeping brothers, curled closely towards each other much like two peas in a pod, before he turned his gaze back to the sculptures in his hands. “I know,” he said softly, still marvelling at the twins’ recreations of Jayjay and Lady Maeve. And for the barest of moments, in the quiet that stretch comfortably between them, Artemis Fowl knew that this may only be the start of the first (of many) Eldest Brother’s Day he would experience, but it was already a very good day nonetheless. And he was content. —End—

#artemis fowl zine #artemis fowl #holly short #mulch diggums #beckett fowl #myles fowl #juliet butler #fanfic

16 notes · View notes

jarienn972 · 5 years ago

Text

A Simple Spell - Chapter Three

A Captain Swan Supernatural Summer Tale

Tonight, I’m finally getting around to posting the third chapter of my @cssns story. I’m going to give this chapter a little preface that this chapter and the next will be a little light on the actual supernatural elements as the relationships develop. There will be plenty more magical shenanigans coming as more is revealed about Emma’s mysterious past and her powers. But first, Emma is going to face some immediate repercussions from her spell - and discover that it may come with some unexpected complications...

As always, thank you to the event organizers for putting together this event again this year for lots more fun! And special huge thank yous to my beta, @lassluna and to @cocohook38 for her lovely art!

From the beginning on Tumblr: One Two FF.net AO3

Well, Emma's disorderly conduct case could officially be considered closed. After her conversation with Captain Jones, she'd managed to track down the harbormaster and needed to speak only briefly with him to verify that the captain had already settled the matter, just as he'd advised. Reparations had been made for the harbormaster's losses and he'd received a sincere apology from the captain himself so he no longer wished to pursue charges against the drunken Mr. Parsons, even if the sailor had made quite a mess of things last night.

She probably should have called David to ensure that Mr. Parsons wouldn't be facing any additional charges from the town, but in truth, she didn't want to bother with it. She simply didn't feel that it would be worth the effort. She probably should arrest the sailor and let him spend the night in the station's holding cell but since he was already confined to (and sobering up in) his own ship's brig, it seemed pointless to take him from one form of custody into another - and she definitely didn't want to take any chances of having to clean vomit out of the cruiser.

As far as Emma was concerned, the matter was closed. It was simply useless to push this any further, especially when a certain handsome, modern-day pirate captain would probably just show up and bail out his crew member anyway. She empowered herself to make the decision to inform Captain Jones that all charges against his crewman had been dropped and that Mr. Parsons was free to go...wherever it was that merchant sailors went off to.

Despite her eagerness to put this case behind her, Emma was still harboring a lingering interest in the enigmatic Captain Killian Jones. As smug as he was articulate, he'd captured her attention with his boyish charm. He was perhaps a tad overconfident and maybe even a little bit vain, but Emma's personal superpower sensed no deception from Captain Jones. She'd always felt that she had a sixth sense when it came to reading people (and maybe it had something to do with her newfound magic), but she'd simply had a knack for knowing when people weren't being truthful with her. Granted, her power wasn't always infallible, but only when she let her heart cloud her head - and only one person had ever completely evaded her powers. And even that was probably because she let him…

She figure she owed David at least a quick text message to inform him that the case was closed and she'd be back to the station shortly, needing only to visit the Jolly Roger to give an official "you're off the hook for now, but don't get caught screwing up in my town again" speech to Captain Jones and crew. She'd have everything wrapped up nicely and would be back at her desk to type up her report long before Graham returned from his vandalism case. No way his case was going to be as easy to put away as this one.

When she finally clambered back out of the cruiser, deciding she was now fully mentally prepared to go toe to toe with Captain Jones and his piercing blue eyes, she immediately noticed that the sea breeze had picked up since she'd spoken to the harbormaster just a few minutes ago. Her lip curled into a frown as she dug through her pockets to see if she could locate anything she could use to secure her unruly blonde locks. Long hair and wind simply didn't mix and she absolutely did not want to be spitting strands of hair out of her mouth while trying to look like a professional Sheriff's deputy in front of a ship full of sailors - especially not the one she was finding herself attracted to. Her fingertips finally found a matte black hair elastic tucked inside a nearly empty pack of wintergreen chewing gum. She extracted the hair tie, shoved the gum back into her jeans pocket and pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail all while resetting her composure.

In her battle to tame her wild locks, she'd barely noticed that another car had joined hers on the harbor front. There wasn't anything particularly special about the car - it was just a nondescript black sedan parked maybe fifty yards from her. Nothing flashy. But there was something that drew her attention away from the Jolly Roger and towards that common sedan. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't really the vehicle she was drawn to, but rather its driver. It had everything to do with the tall, sandy-haired man sporting a charcoal grey pinstripe suit who had climbed out and was now standing next to that black sedan. Something was vaguely familiar about his build and his stance, but it wasn't from anyone she knew in Storybrooke. The moment he turned his head so she could make out his profile, she knew - an old friend, er… boyfriend? Someone from back in Boston whom she'd not seen or spoken to in a couple of years but still recognized immediately.

"Walsh?" she called out to her former acquaintance whose back was still to her. "Walsh Gibbons? Is that you?"

The man turned toward her to see Emma standing beside the sheriff's cruiser smiling broadly at him. He squinted for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the glare but reciprocated the welcoming expression as he recognized the familiar red leather garment and long, golden hair of his former flame.

"Emma Swan. I heard that you'd moved up here to Storybrooke but I wasn't sure until just now."

"Well, it's been what - two years since we last spoke?" Emma queried with a grin as she closed the door on the cruiser and took a few steps toward Gibbons.

"Something like that, I guess," he replied with a shrug, closing the distance between them with several long strides. "Joined the Sheriff's Department, I see…"

"Had to earn an honest wage somehow," she chuckled. "What on Earth brings you up this way?" She recalled from their brief relationship that he owned some sort of import-export business back in Boston. Storybrooke seemed a bit off of the beaten path for that line of work. "This is hardly the kind of place that would suit your business."

"You might be surprised," Walsh countered. "Storybrooke is a wonderful source for some of the more eclectic finds. You have some very unique merchandise here in your little town. I'm actually here checking on a shipment that's arriving for a client of mine. I was just on my way to check with the harbormaster to see if the ship it's coming in on has arrived yet."

"Well, unless that ship is the Jolly Roger, it's not here yet. That's the only one in port," she informed him with a nod towards the ship docked a few hundred yards away. "And at least if your cargo was delayed, it was spared from possibly ending up in the bay…"

"I'd certainly hope so…," he responded nervously, a scowl scrunching his brow as he contemplated her statement. "Is there something I should know…?"

"Sorry… nothing earth shattering," she laughed. "Just a drunken sailor who went on a rampage and threw a bunch of stuff into the harbor. A few barrels, a couple of buoys and a whole lot of rum apparently. Nothing really valuable and the harbormaster was already reimbursed for his losses."

"Certainly good to know that the ship I'm awaiting has yet to arrive in port. Doesn't seem that anything of extreme value was lost," he commented, trying to disguise his previous unease over her off-hand statement, although he doubted Emma would grasp the actual of the value of the package he was awaiting. At least if she had sensed his prior discomfort, she made no mention of it, nor did she let it show.

"Well, I was just on my way over to that ship to inform the captain that his crewman won't be facing any official charges," she explained. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I think I'd better get back to work before my brother starts calling and telling me to get my ass back to the station."

"Then, by all means, don't let me keep you from your duties, Deputy," he said, flashing a huge smile that brought memories flooding back as to why she'd been drawn to him in the first place. He was still just as charming as ever and she found herself feeling the little flutter of butterflies in her stomach again. She also couldn't help but let her mind drift back to the spell she'd cast last night. Was it possible that she might have already met her destined love but simply hadn't recognized it before?

"It was really great to see you, Walsh," she grinned, suddenly gushing like a silly schoolgirl. "Maybe our paths will cross again… How long will you be in town?"

"I suppose that depends on how soon my shipment arrives, but I'd already planned to spend a couple of days here. I have a room reserved at Granny's bed and breakfast and I would definitely love to see you again, so, if I'm not being too forward, how about dinner? I saw what looked like a nice little Italian place in town… Would you join me?"

"Uh…," she hesitated a moment, her head swirling with potential answers as she found herself struggling with a bout of insecurity over being asked out by a handsome former flame, albeit a short-lived flame. Should she say yes? Should she decline? "You know what… Sure - why not? Unless there are riots in the streets tonight, I'll be happy to join you, but we're not calling this a date, okay?"

"Okay, just a nice dinner with an old friend. How's 8 o'clock sound? I can pick you up…"

"I'm off at 6 so 8 is fine, but I live a block away from Tony's restaurant. How about I just meet you there?"

"Sounds good. I'll see you tonight then, Emma."

"See you tonight," she repeated as she sensed a slight flush crossing her cheeks while she watched Walsh Gibbons stroll towards the harbormaster's shack. She knew she needed to snap out of this and regain her composure so she could get back to business, but she wanted to revel in this feeling for a minute or two.

Deputy mode, Emma, she reminded herself. She still had a ship's captain to speak to and heaven only knew what else David was going to throw at her today… Of course, right now, her duty meant heading from having this little one on one with a good looking, charming man to conducting a professional debriefing with another suave, attractive man. Could be worse…

-------------------------------

With a trace of redness (that she intended to blame on the sun if asked) still visible on her face, Emma scaled the gangplank, hoping that the blush wouldn't be too obvious to a ship full of sailors. She stepped onto the deck under the watchful scrutiny of several crew members who appeared less than pleased to see the deputy aboard their ship again, although she sensed that there were likely just as many leering stares as disapproving ones but she didn't have time to care. That wasn't pertinent to her job.

She spotted the familiar red knit cap of the first mate, Mr. Smee, and shouted the man's name in an attempt to garner his attention. "Mr. Smee - is your captain free?" she asked once the easily sidetracked man acknowledged her presence.

"The captain, ma'am?"

"Yes, I have some new information to pass on to him relating to Mr. Parsons' case."

"Oh, yes, yes. He'll be quite pleased to see you, Miz… Swan, was it? He's below desk overseeing the inventory since some of the stores came up a bit short this week. Cap'n wanted to make sure there were no sticky fingers… You know… Let me go fetch him…"

"Thank you, Mr. Smee," Emma replied with an exhausted sigh after receiving far more information than was necessary.

"Of course. Just stick around here if you would, please."

Emma nodded her confirmation and thankfully, her wait was brief as she spied Captain Jones emerging from beneath a hatch on the opposite side of the deck from where she stood. The starboard side maybe? She wasn't particularly versed in nautical terms and never could remember whether starboard was right or left but this seemed an awkward time for her brain to tease her with nautical words. Did her head really want to make her appear a fool in front of a handsome sailor by tempting her to use the wrong word or phrase?

As he made his way topside, she noticed that Captain Jones had shed his outer layer of black leather but it really wasn't his lack of a jacket that captured her attention - rather it was his apparent lack of a visible hand at the end of his left arm. Her eyes were drawn to a glint of steel shining in the late morning sunlight and even though she tried not to stare, she couldn't stop herself from trying to identify whatever was in place of normal flesh and bone. What the hell was it?

"Deputy Swan," the captain addressed her from across the deck. "I knew you'd be returning expeditiously." The bastard flashed a self-assured grin at her while crossing the deck to meet her by the gangplank. She almost expected him to conceal his abnormal arm from her view again, but he didn't, nor did he react to her obvious interest. "Am I to surmise that matters have now been settled?"

"I do believe that you were quite certain of that earlier, weren't you, Captain?" She responded to his brash self-confidence with a hint of irritation in her voice. She'd never really been the type to appreciate someone being so overly certain of an outcome before she'd been given chance to deliver her conclusions.

"Well, I pride myself on resolving situations before the reach a problematic stage. It can be quite a necessity while at sea for long periods of time on a vessel such as this," he explained with a confident smirk. "But I digress… I was informed that you had some news for me?"

"As you've already figured out by now, since you've settled the damages with the harbormaster, he's chosen not to press charges against Mr. Parsons. Don't suppose he's sobered up yet?"

"Last my security officer checked on him, he was still soundly sleeping it off."

"Well, you can inform him when he's conscious that he's free to go, but he'd better stay out of trouble or there will be charges filed by my department."

"You needn't worry about Mr. Parsons inciting any more ruckus, Deputy Swan," Captain Jones assured her. "He's to be confined to quarters for the duration of our stay in this port and will be assigned additional duties once we set sail. We may look like a bunch of rowdy pirates to the untrained eye, but I run a tight ship here. Mr. Parsons' actions did not provide a proper representation of my crew."

"I certainly hope not, Captain, or I'll run the lot of you out of my harbor," she threatened, although it was mostly posturing as she didn't even know if she had the legal authority to do so.

"I will keep that in mind," he smirked, giving a little nod of his head as he arched an eyebrow, body language speaking loudly that he knew she was bluffing but that he was enjoying the challenge. He'd also decided it was time to comment on her drifting gaze that kept returning to his missing left hand. "I've noticed that your attention keeps being drawn to my prosthetic. Is there something that you would like to ask me, Deputy? There's no secret here…"

Emma's face immediately flushed crimson again as her rudeness in staring at his disabled limb was revealed. "I'm sorry, I noticed it earlier when you came up out of the hatch and I was trying to figure out what it was, which I now can see is a hook… I'm sure there's a story behind it…" She was genuinely curious even if part of her was screaming at her to bolt down the gangplank and not look back.

"Unfortunate result of a run in with an angry crocodile years back," he replied, reciting the tale with little emotion. "He took my hand, but he made a very nice pair of boots."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"It's fine, Love. It was a long time ago and I've long since come to terms, although one does have to be quite cautious when scratching an itch…" His warm smile eased some of her embarrassment. Clearly, he'd been in this situation before, but she was still feeling like an ass.

"Can I ask - why a hook?"

Jones laughed heartily at the query. "I do have a proper prosthetic hand, but when shipboard, a hook is far more functional. It serves many purposes."

"I suppose that makes you Captain Hook then, doesn't it?" she teased, instantly regretting the quip when he groaned in annoyance - until she realized he was taunting her right back.

"That would be my more colorful moniker, Deputy, but Killian will suffice. Now, since we've put all of these legal formalities behind us, I would like to offer a personal gesture of goodwill to recompense the time you've spent contending with this petty matter. I would be honored if you'd join me for dinner this evening."

Emma blinked in momentary disbelief. Had this handsome, blue-eyed devil just asked her out? And just minutes after Walsh had done the same? More than three weeks without a date and suddenly she casts a single spell and she has too incredibly good looking men both inviting her to dinner?

Oh - there was that. She'd already agreed to dinner with Walsh…

"Captain Jones… Killian, as much as I appreciate the offer, I actually already have plans for tonight…"

"Perhaps another evening then?" he pressed. She could hear the disappointment in his voice, but there was still a hopeful tone that she'd agree to his offer. "Perhaps another night would better suit your schedule?"

"You know, I'm not sure how appropriate this is, but sure - why not?" She shoved her right hand into the inside pocket of her jacket and fished out a slightly bent and lint-covered business card that contained both her Sheriff's Department phone number as well as her personal cell number. "Here," she began as she passed the card to him, "I'll check my schedule and we can plan for another night. Call me tomorrow at that second number on the card."

Killian accepted the card from her with a broad, genuine smile, giving her a peek at the man behind the bravado and innuendo. He glanced briefly at the card before slipping it into the breast pocket of his vest. "I will call you tomorrow then, Emma. Until then, enjoy your time with whomever the lucky party may be who'll be in your company tonight."

"I will," she responded sheepishly, cheeks flushing anew as she contemplated the sheer absurdity of this morning. Here she was, blushing like a fool, with two eligible men fawning over her. Just what the hell had she done?

#cssns #captain swan supernatural summer #cs ff #cs au ff #cs ff au #witch emma #a simple spell

33 notes · View notes

gammaprimesmw · 4 years ago

Text

Super Mario Bros: Vanilla Islands - HUGE updates

First off, after a very long wait, the demo for this hack has passed moderation. It almost didn't though, mostly because of slowdown in several levels.

While I waited for the demo to be moderated, I continued working on levels until completing them all.

World 6

6-1 - Bills, Bills, Bills! Bullet Bills, that is! At first, coming up with a song title to reference for this level's name was a little challenging. I don't have or know too many songs that have the word "Bullet" in them. The best I could probably think of is "21 Guns." I didn't count how many Bill Blasters are in this level though. "Bullet" is only half of the prominent enemy's name though. I do know of, like, and have a song with "Bills" in its title. Thus, the level became "Bills, Bills, Bills!"

youtube

6-2 - You're Always on My Mine

I don't think I can do a mine-themed level without having a miner pun in mine. At least, I don't want to, especially if I can reference an SWV song.

youtube

6-3 - You Rock My World

Yeah, the level was 6-1 when I made the video, but I moved it back to 6-3 when I realized that it was harder than 6-2. The difficulty was toned down a bit further since this was taken as I tweaked the speed values for the bouncing rocks that spawn from the horizontal pipes.

youtube

6-4 - Larry Koopa's Castle

Time to dodge even more bullets. Is it just me, or are Bullet Bills overlooked as good castle enemies/hazards in official games?

World 7

It's a Slippy Slidey Ice World, so much of the challenge comes from the ice physics. There are also some enemy projectiles that can freeze Mario in place in addition to hurting him. Brrrr....

7-1 - Snow (Hey Oh!)

Snowman Pokeys and Snowball-Pitchin' Chucks are nothing new for my ice worlds. They're easy sprite graphic swaps after all. Christmas-y elements in snow world decorations are also nothing new. They just fit, much like Middle-Eastern-sounding music in desert levels. I don't really care how cliche it is.

youtube

7-2 - Ice, Ice, Baby!

Here's where we get into enemies that can freeze Mario with their attacks. The Venus Frost Traps were somewhat difficult to set up because they use a projectile that was lost in one of SMWC's sprite section remoderations. They're based around a custom plant coded by imamelia that, by default, spits Bob-Ombs at the player in an arc. By changing what palettes the stem and head portions used, as well as what sprite they spawned, I was able to turn them into iceball-spitting Venus Frost Traps. This is the same method I used to create Venus Frost Traps in my entry for the 2018 Chocolate Level Design Contest on SMWC. BTW, don't ask where all those Christmas lights are plugged in.

youtube

7-3 - The Bumpty Dance

There's more icy shenanigans and more referencing hip-hop songs from the early 1990s here. I could've called this Bump, Bump, Bump, but I like "Bumpty Dance" better as a name. It's a little more indicative of just what will do the bumping here. I also could've called it "Bumpty Bump," but Golden Yoshi already used that name in SMW2+3: The Essence Star. Besides, the song being referenced is called "The Humpty Dance," not "Humpty Hump." I probably would've made the same assumption back in 1990.

6-4 - Lemmy Koopa's Castle

It's a Slippy Slidey Ice Castle! The Bowser Statues spit ice instead of fire. The darker iceballs simply freeze Mario, but the lighter ones that appear later in the level hurt. Lemmy himself shoots these same projectiles, along with one that can both freeze and hurt.

WORLD 8

This is it! This is the final world!

youtube

8-1 - Make it Hot

Yeah, you may want to warm yourself up after traveling through an ice world, but not like this!

youtube

8-2 - Hot in Herre

I did make a level called "Hot Out Herre" for Kola Kingdom Quest. Here, though, I can more directly reference the Nelly song that must've been the summer anthem for 2002.

7-3 - Fire in the Sky

Originally, I had this level's name set to "Soaring Over Gloomy Skies," referencing a custom composition I made in 2012 and originally used for the level. After finishing it, though, I felt like the name "Fire in the Sky" would be more appropriate, given the fiery hazards that abound on this airship. The song being referenced isn't one I'm a huge fan of, being more into 90s rock than 70s rock. There's still some Author Appeal behind the name though. It's not only the name of a song, but also the name of an episode of G1 Transformers, which happens to be one of my favorites from that series.

8-4 - BOWSER'S CASTLE

Here's the final level of the game! Prepare to face a gauntlet of fire-spitting statues, Fire Bros, Dry Bones, and things trying to either burn or crush you to death! Mama Mia! Yes, the Status Bar has changed in this hack. This was pretty much the only way to eliminate the slowdown that almost got the demo rejected. The original Status Bar was a sprite, and slowdown in Super Mario World (or practically any SNES game) is the result of too many sprites being on the screen at one time. One way to work around this is to use the SA-1 chip, but that requires converting every custom asset in my ROM that uses ASM. That can be another tedious process stacked on top of the already-tedious process of having to port everything to a new ROM. I had to do the latter anyway to safely change Status Bars, and I had to do it twice. The first alternate Status Bar I tried had glitches, so I had to switch Status Bars a second time. I finally settled on Ladida's Minimalist Status Bar, which I previously used in Super Luigi Land. I did have to remap some of the icons due to the significant edits made to the vanilla Layer 3 graphics files used by the HUD. There was still a glitch to be worked around though. The darkness effect for 4-3 wasn't quite compatible with the new Status Bar, and the level ended up looking like this.

It may look kinda cool and trippy, but it's not the desired effect. Furthermore, pressing the P-Switch had no effect on it, as was intended. The effect is supposed to use the SNES's color math functions to darken the screen (color subtraction, specifically). The second half of 4-4 also uses color subtraction to achieve a spotlight effect. Said effect was still functional after the Status Bar switch. I took a look at that code and learned that color subtraction was very easy to engage, only involving a couple lines of code run during level initialization. I basically copied the init code from the spotlight effect UberASM into another UberASM file. I then inserted that and made Layer 2 just a solid gray image, with the gray being palette animated in Lunar Magic to turn black when the P-Switch is active. Color Subtraction would cause this to make the "lights" in the level come on when the P-Switch was triggered, saving the level's gimmick.

This necessitated changes to the level's appearance. I made a simple Layer 3 background and darkened the overall foreground/background palette. I think I like this look better than the old one.

This is a beta version of the completed hack. You will need a Super Mario World ROM, a SNES emulator (I recommend snes9x 1.60), and Floating IPS to apply the BPS patch to the ROM. I can't tell you where to find the ROM.

#rom hack #super mario world hack #beta release #snes #retro #Youtube

0 notes

exilesofembermark · 8 years ago

Text

Game Dev Update | 4.28.17

“You ate the last Twinkie...” - Master Dwarf Thisguy ^

We’ve waited to show more than a glimpse of the dwarven race on Embermark until our own hammers were pounding out the mass of loot we’ve promised in Dev Updates past. Now that the promised loot train is rolling, it’s time to really take a look at our stout, grumpy friends.

Last update, we covered the beginning of our game mode experimentation, world map navigation, a Legendary sword and the ability to view your Battle History. This time, its about content and gameplay. Read on to check out our new icon system, new battle environments, new loot, an upcoming AMA, your chance to help design an item that ends up in the game and what we’re learning about battle mechanics.

Oh, and dwarves.

DWARVES

Whether they’re holed up in the caverns and carved-out tunnels of Siege or feverishly rebuilding the once-great Anglon, dwarves in Embermark are a force to be reckoned with. Here’s an Elite version of our angry fellow from above:

We started the dwarf-creation process exploring what we wanted the basic proportions, faces and gear types to be, as well as where they reside in Embermark and what their background is. As you can see below, Beardbo Grumperson IV there on the far right is a look we’ve stuck with through the representation of our Elite fellow above.

There are a few geographic locations where the dwarves in Embermark tend to be found (though they travel and team up a bit more than dwarves in many other settings), and as mentioned before, the region of Siege is one of them. They’ve gone underground for the past several hundred years as Embermark was overrun and a terrible place to live, but a few ancient entrances to their underground lairs are still visible on the world map:

3D design proceeded much as all the humanoid races we’re developing have-- from the base player model, with some changes that led into a distinctly dwarven look:

And unless the dwarf in question has been beaten in battle to a humiliating degree lately, he/she usually has some manner of facial style going on:

We couldn’t resist this one:

And this one, with a better look at some of the tattoo designs we’re playing with:

I’ve mentioned the history and background of the wolves in Embermark before (despite my bold-face lie about there being no rats, bats, wolves or skeletons in this game). They’re a mean and cunning lot, with far more organization to a “pack” than typical.

Well, this gives you a clue about how dwarves on the continent feel about them:

Depending on the proportions of our humanoid NPCs, we’re making versions of all their gear to also fit the player, for extra tasty drops.

ICONS

When you have a lot of lootses in a RPG, someone has to make the icons. And usually, artists hate doing it cuz there’s so many and it takes so long and it’s not sexy.

WRONG.

With Exiles, it is sexy (and so are you). We’ve had the same placeholder sword/boot/pants icons in just about every screenshot you’ve seen up till now (like here and here). No more!

Because we aren’t satisfied with that (and hate sleep), we created a new icon creation pipeline that takes EACH design for a piece of loot and creates an icon for it. So for every item you get, you’ll see a Tier 3 (that’s the highest) image of that item over a rarity color (either nothing, blue, purple, gold, or green) to give your loadout that extra oomph you’ve been looking for.

GAME MODE EXPERIMENTS

As fast as the content train is moving, the mechanics train is hurtling along just as fast. Now that we have most of the Abilities, Stats and Talents working for the Warrior and Mage classes, we’re diving into what will make the moment-to-moment gameplay the most strategic, satisfying... and visceral! To that end, we have our 4-Ability loadout that we’ve talked a lot about, but last week, we got a second mode of combat going-- The Deck.

With The Deck, the rules of the game are still the same:

WEGO-style turn-based with initiative determining order of ability execution

Abilities combine with Gear & Talents to create effects on either character

First character to die (there’s no fainting in Exiles) loses

However, instead of a 4-Ability Set, you now choose 8. 4 are chosen for you randomly at the beginning of a Battle and the others are in queue. As you use Abilities, they cycle back into the deck and the next Ability in the deck becomes available (see the smaller “coming” Ability represented below-- that is WIP as is everything in these Updates, and it will get a proper UI representation if it ends up being something we support).

Initial testing has proven fun and maddening-- my main Mage “MoarMagicks”still can’t consistently beat SingmeAsong’s main Warrior “Jackal,” despite my clearly superior strategies and build-- and we have some work to do on what the mode does to overall balance. But it’s promising, and we’re excited to show it to you if it ends up passing muster.

AMA

We’re getting ready to do another AMA! If you’ve got burning questions about Exiles, from features to rules to lore to whatever, join the crew and the community for an evening of anything goes-- even making fun of the devs-- we can take it. Submit questions/discussions now on the Reddit thread, and we’ll have some answers ready. And you can win stuff! We’ll be doing some good old-fashioned rolling (of virtual dice) for in-game prizes (loot table is forthcoming, and will be published on the AMA thread in the forums).

So head over to the Discord channel on MAY 9 at 5:30 PM Central Time and get the inside scoop on all things Exiles.

WE HAVE AN ANDROID BUILD

“WHAT?!”

Yes. MANY of our early testing sign-ups have Android devices, and I have some good news for them-- we have an early Android build! Now, before any shenanigans break out, you should know that it’s rough, new and not as far along as the iOS build. But it lives, and you Android users will be kicking arses before too long right beside your iOS brethren.

VANISIR

Along the southwest of Embermark is a region called Vanisir, a mostly arid-- but critical-- piece of land, given its major port, resources and the presence of a manageable Breach. We’re rolling out Battle environments for each of our starting world zones, and Vanisir’s first can be seen here, with an unfortunate player sizing up the enemy that I can’t stop showing to you-- the overly intelligent and vicious WOLF.

“Hey, didn’t I just see you atop some dwarven shoulder armor?”

THE PLAYER CREATED GEAR CONTEST (PCGC)

Players have been guiding us every step of the way toward Embermark and it’s time for them to get a piece of loot or two (or more) in the game. All of the rules surrounding battle and loot haven’t been revealed, but those of you following the development of the game probably have an idea or two rolling around in your heads about a piece of equipment that would do X, Y, or Z.

So the 1st Exiles Player Created Gear Contest (PCGC) is on! Check this thread in the forums for all the details and how to submit your idea. One lucky (and clever, and creative) winner will get their piece of loot in the game (and get a copy of it themselves) and many will win prizes based on the criteria you see in the official thread!

LOOT UPDATE

The loot train continues, and our artists are feverishly designing, modeling texturing and lootzing armor weapons and even rings now (rings are just icons, so they won’t show up on your person, but whatevs).

Armor for the Warrior is getting the color-tell treatment, as we showed for the Mage armor earlier. You’ll see it throughout the system as you start to play, and it’s turning out to be both useful and sometimes hilarious, depending on the how close your gear build preferences are to your color preferences (did someone say transmog? *whistles as he walks away).

Behold the Axe of Cleaving (your head from your body)!

You will see this spear put to good use by our draconian friend below.

I’m not even sure what to say here other than I wouldn’t want it connecting with any part of me...

We continue to design various silhouettes for shields, for those sword-and-board enthusiasts out there...

And here’s one more! (this one’s a stock broadsword, but I still lurve it)

MILITARY

Last couple of Updates, we’ve been showing off a race of baddies that will hound and hinder you throughout your journey to be among the Marked. Their political and military machinations threaten to overrun the entirety of Embermark.

They also look like dragons, have wings and are awesome. Now we’ve got them animating in the engine and will be playable in short order. Like the dwarf above, we created their gear with an eye towards dropping it for you to use in your own loadouts.

(Alas, I had to fool with this one quite a bit to get it under Tumblr’s 2 MB GIF limit, so if you want a higher quality look at this attack, it’s here)

REMEMBER

We’ll keep sharing details as we head into testing (remember to PM TheWizard on the Exiles forums if you want in on closed testing & beta later), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with the Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

GET IN ON THE CHATTER

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly lot with plenty of daily shenanigans (there’s even a Shenaniganizer).

THE BONUS

I leave this here without comment.

#gamedev #rpg #mmorpg #mobile games #fantasy #games #video games #eoe

3 notes · View notes

bowsetter · 6 years ago

Text

The Daily: Proxy Bitcoin, Simjacking, Zencash Becomes Horizen

In today’s Bitcoin in Brief, we’ve got details of a new interoperability alliance to create proxy tokens such as bitcoin that can be represented on a single blockchain. There’s also news of UAE’s first Shariah-compliant exchange, more simjacking shenanigans, and Zencash has a makeover. We’ve got a lot to chew over, so let’s tuck in.

Also read: Hiding Bitcoin Cash in Pictures With the New Pixel Wallet App

Simjacking for Sports Cars

Simjacking, in which a fraudster ports a victim’s cellphone account to a new handset, with the intention of stealing their crypto, is on the rise. Last month we reported on Joel Ortiz, who’s accused of stealing $5 million in bitcoin in this manner. Motherboard has now revealed details of his 19-year-old co-accused, who, according to the indictment, has been living the dream while enacting all the crypto memes. Xzavyer Narvaez is believed to have invested some of his ill-gotten simjacking gains in a McLaren sports car, and was pictured alongside it in a now deleted Instagram post with the caption “Live fast, die young”. Narvaez has been released on bail but his alleged partner in crime Joel Ortiz remains in detention.

Zencash is Now Horizen

After enlisting the services of a branding company and performing extensive community consultation, Zencash has pulled a Raiblocks/Nano and claimed a new name. As of August 22, the cryptocurrency is known as Horizen. The project’s co-founder Robert Viglione said: “The Zencash project has greatly evolved since its inception more than a year ago, and it’s now time to expand our brand to more accurately reflect our mission to promote the fundamental human right of privacy worldwide.”

“What initially launched as a privacy-focused cryptocurrency has transformed into a much broader and deeply capable platform that will host a variety of privacy-focused applications, including secure messaging and publishing.” One bonus of the rebrand is that the cryptocurrency will get to retain its ZEN ticker.

UAE Launches First Sharia Compliant Exchange

Earlier this year, a research paper claimed bitcoin to be compliant with Shariah law. That theory has now been put into practice with the establishment of the UAE’s first Shariah-compliant exchange. The platform, which is being created by Adab Solutions, will service Muslims in the Emirate states who wish to purchase cryptocurrency whilst adhering to Islamic teachings on finance. Just to ensure it’s compliant with all things Shariah, the exchange plans to set up an in-house Shariah Advisory Board.

Crypto Matchup Enables Social Trading

From the UAE to the Dominican Republic now, the home of Crypto Matchup, a new app to encourage social cryptocurrency trading. One of the biggest successes of the bitcoin cash community has been humanizing the act of sending and receiving crypto through a range of fun mini-projects such such as Pixel Wallet. Crypto Matchup can be added to that list. It aims to help cryptocurrency fans around the world arrange informal meet-ups to make trades in-person. In addition to BCH, it supports coins such as BTC, LTC, and DASH. A desktop portal and beta Android app are available to try now.

Proxy Bitcoin, Anyone?

Uphold, Cred, Blockchain at Berkeley, and Brave have teamed up to create a coalition that will oversee the Universal Protocol Platform. It will enable proxy tokens of all kinds to be created and managed, overcoming the interoperability problem that obliges coins such as ethereum and bitcoin to exist on separate chains. Proxy tokens will serve as a representation of the underlying asset.

“The early days of the internet were very similar to the world of blockchain today, with many different technology platforms fragmented and incapable of communicating with one other,” said JP Thieriot, co-founder of Uphold. “We believe that the Universal Protocol Platform is a technology that has the potential to connect blockchain technologies, much like the breakthrough of the TCP and IP protocols that drove the internet towards mass adoption.”

What stories from today’s roundup caught your attention? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Motherboard, and Crypto Meetup.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post The Daily: Proxy Bitcoin, Simjacking, Zencash Becomes Horizen appeared first on Bitcoin News.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2woWfdC

#cryptocurrency #cryptocurrency news #bitcoin #cryptocurrency market #crypto #blockchain #best cryptocurren

0 notes

jacobhinkley · 6 years ago

Text

The Daily: Proxy Bitcoin, Simjacking, Zencash Becomes Horizen

Also read: Hiding Bitcoin Cash in Pictures With the New Pixel Wallet App

Simjacking for Sports Cars

Zencash is Now Horizen

UAE Launches First Sharia Compliant Exchange

Crypto Matchup Enables Social Trading

Proxy Bitcoin, Anyone?

What stories from today’s roundup caught your attention? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Motherboard, and Crypto Meetup.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post The Daily: Proxy Bitcoin, Simjacking, Zencash Becomes Horizen appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The Daily: Proxy Bitcoin, Simjacking, Zencash Becomes Horizen published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

0 notes

waynekelton · 5 years ago

Text

The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS

Diablo. It’s one of the most popular, successful, and beloved gaming franchises in the world. The very first entry came out in 1996 and it and its two successors defined the huge hack-and-slash action-RPG genre that exists today. The franchise is known for its story-driven campaign, fast-paced combat, diverse class options, and deep skill trees. Diablo III is the very model of a comprehensive gear system that allows for some serious min-maxing along with ample end-game content for gamers who don't mind the grind.

Here's what you can play in the meantime while you wait...

The Best Mobile Games Like Diablo

Book of Demons

Barbearian

Battleheart 2

Crashlands

Titan Quest

Bastion

Eternium

Diablo Immortal

This list was originally mean't to serve as a way to fill that Diablo hole in your life, but we've known for a while now that an official Diablo spin-off game is coming to mobile called Diablo: Immortal. It was announced at BlizzCon 2018 to a very mixed reaction. Nothing further was heard about it till BlizzCon 2019, where Blizzard announced some new content for the beta. It's still not got an official release window - maybe 2020, if we're lucky? But the company don't appear to be in any rush to get this to market

Book of Demons

Developer: Thing Trunk Platform: iPad Only Price: $4.99

youtube

The Diablo influence is clear in this ARPG newcomer, but the packaing is a bit more light-hearted. Set in the 'paperverse', your character and the world are rendered as paper-people, wonderfully illustrated, and not as fragile as one might think. The dungeons are procedurally generated and loot comes in the form of item cards that you can find and equip, even mid-battle if you feel like you've chosen the wrong thing.

You start off as a warrior, but you can also unlock the Rogue and a Wizard as well. It can feel a little repetitive and automated at times, but thoughtful design decisions help to maintain interest. Each character has their own signature cards and three levels of difficulty the game certainly warrants replaying even after completing your first eight-hour run through. Read our review for more details.

Barbearian

Developer: Kimmo Lahtinen Platform: iOS Universal Price: $8.99

youtube

2018 has seen the release of a couple games that have earned a place on this list and Barbearian is foremost among them. Barbearian features frenetic fights against death-defying odds, a combat style that is very reminiscent of Diablo III. You charge into and through huge hordes of enemies and send their lifeless bodies flying in every direction. These fast-paced battles are about where the similarities end. The game follows a story but is driven by its action and does not have the quest lines associated with standard RPGs. Nevertheless, it's a heck-of-a-lot-of fun and I got over fifteen hours of entertainment out of completing all of the content. I gave it five stars in my review and recommend you check it out for a lot more on why Barbearian is great.

Battleheart 2

Developer: Mika Mobile Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $3.99

youtube

This is simplified version of Diablo III's rift system. An unintentional game mode has also arisen: AFK (away from keyboard) Arena. Astute min-maxers have realized that Cyrus, the necromancer, raises skeletons from the dead that automatically lock onto and attack the nearest enemy without any player intervention. An optimized Cyrus can go deep into the Arena without any help from the player. If that doesn't speak to the spirit of Diablo III, I'm not sure what does.

Crashlands

Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

youtube

All of this equipment provides bonuses to damage, critical hits, move speed and more along with providing special abilities like life drain, stunning your target, and a whole lot more. She also has the power of Juicemancy at her disposal, which allows you to optimize your gear by upgrading it and rerolling stats until you get the stats you want. Crashlands is a fantastic game and merges the exploration and crafting of Minecraft with the combat and gear optimization of Diablo III.

Titan Quest

Developer: Dot Emu Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

youtube

For those looking for the traditional RPG quests and storyline, Titan Quest is the most Diablo-like you can get on a tablet. It started on the PC as an attempt to replicate the success of Diablo II and was later ported to iOS and Android. Set in the ancient, pre-Roman world it also has solid loot acquisition—there are over 1200 items which can be enhanced with runes. There are also diverse skill trees, called masteries, from which you pick two. The masteries essentially decide your class and provide some great variation, customizability, and high replay value to the game. The mobile version of the game has had plenty of issues—including frame rate and saved game issues—but it is still one of the better Diablo-like titles.

Bastion

Developer: Supergiant Games Platform: iOS Universal Price: $4.99

youtube

Action RPGs are frequently known less for story and ambiance than, well, the action. Bastion, the debut title from Supergiant Games, is different. Bastion’s story—set after the Calamity, a devastating event that shattered the city of Caelondia—is amazing. You play as the Kid; a survivor skilled in the ways of the new, violent world. The Kid meets a man named Rucks who directs efforts to collect the cores that once fuelled Caelondia and rebuild a bit of what was lost. Rucks also serves as the game’s outstanding narrator, who gives both play-by-play and color commentary on the Kid’s every action and every mistake. Bastion’s soundtrack is perfect, and its graphics are still impressive after all these years. The action is fast-paced and chaotic very much like the Diablo games. There are various weapons from which to choose, though gear plays a smaller role in Bastion. This is definitely the game for you if you value the action and production values of Diablo over its loot and min/maxability.

Rogue Wizards

Developer: Spellbind Studios Platform: iOS Universal Price: Free ($5 Gem Drops x 2 IAP recommended)

youtube

The game is free-to-play and the monetization is easy to ignore if so desired, though I recommend the "Gem Drops x 2" IAP which brings progression in line with the premium Steam version. I’ve already written quite a bit about the Rogue Wizards, and its monetization, and you can check out my five-star review and game guide for more.

Eternium

Developer: Making Fun, Inc. Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: Free (with IAP)

youtube

One of the closest games to Diablo III on mobile is Eternium. You play as an adventurer—a mage, warrior, or bounty hunter—on a quest to stop Ragadam, an ancient evil, from bringing an apocalyptic plan to fruition. The adventure hops between multiple planets in the universe and you’ll face dragons, aliens and more deadly creatures. You collect companions as you go to help you face the increasingly dangerous foes in your path. Both you and your companions will gain new and varied powers as you level, which you cast by drawing symbols on the battlefield.

Gear is a huge consideration in Eternium, and there is a ton of it. As in Diablo, you can equip something on nearly every major body part and each piece of gear has several attributes that enhance your abilities. The game also features gems, which can be combined into even better gems and slotted into items for bonuses. Eternium even duplicates Diablo’s features that allow you to add sockets to equipment that doesn’t have it, collect sets of gear, and reroll an attribute for an item.

Eternium is a free-to-play game and uses gems as its primary currency. The game is well balanced, you don’t need to buy gems in order to play but can do so to unlock certain quality-of-life options faster. I spent $5 to get an additional companion slot earlier and more character storage space, for example. You can watch optional ads for more gems and there is a setting to turn them off entirely for those who want to avoid the temptation.

The campaign is extensive and Eternium also includes a series of special “trials”, think rifts from Diablo. Gameplay is good but nowhere near as great as Blizzard's series. That’s a high bar to clear, however, and Eternium will definitely scratch the itch on your mobile device.

What would your list of favourite Diablo-like games look like? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes

exilesofembermark · 8 years ago

Text

Game Dev Update | 3.8.17

There are seven-- SEVEN-- delivery ends for this battleaxe. Sadly, there aren’t seven different ways for this axe to connect with your opponent in Exiles, but that biggest big blade there will connect for sure. It was designed to destroy the FACE of your enemy when they dare to oppose you. This axe has been a regular entrant to many previous screenshots which heavily featured the Warrior Class.

So it’s fitting to use a Warrior weapon to say goodbye to the Warrior for a little bit-- this Dev Update will be so much moar about MAGES. Last time, we dug into the visual telegraph system for gear, the state of PVE, our upcoming presence at GDC and a couple Ability Deep Dives.

This update, we are focused on running. Cuz now we run. The game version that we brought to GDC was the first time Exiles was running entirely from the backend-- with PVP battles, PVE Quests, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure choices and even hidden treasure pushed to your device from a magickal computer in the sky.

Why care?

Cuz now we run-- all of the static screenshots and concept art and whatnot we’ve shown throughout development will now make their way INTO the game, and it will happen like Chain Lightning.

EXILES GOT TO GDC!

The GDC booth for Epic’s Unreal Engine was gigantic, and Exiles was honored to play a role within it as a showcase mobile title. All week last week, the Gunslinger team demoed to showgoers, players and press. We got a ton of great feedback and some new ideas from the show, and swung by the Touch Arcade GDC homebase to do a video demo you can see here:

youtube

If you want to see what TA had to say, the full article is here. As always when I demo, I hid some stuff-- I hid a series of numbers in this discussion-- they’re throughout the video. 2...15...20...5...10...13. If you can tell me where they “show up” in the demo, PM TheWizard in the forums with the answer, and you’ll receive a free Chest of loot in the game when it launches.

SO. MANY. MAGES.

At long last, wizarding is at hand. There are always a few times during the development of a game when you go “yes finally! WOOT” and this is one of them. The three starting Classes in Exiles are Warrior, Mage and Rogue (each with three specialties) along with three others designed, but we’ve been working through development with the Warrior as the template. Now that the game is getting ready for testing, Exiles systems support the input of any number of Classes (<-- foreshadowing), and the remaining few are going in.

We have a huge number of Rogue fans in the community, so a word of caution: don’t expect the Rogue in next week-- we need to fill out the Mage’s gear. And fill we will!

Robes, boots, shoulders, staves, books (yes, books), orbs, gloves etc are all rumbling through the art pipeline. A Legendary or two will make an appearance and then we’ll get Mr/Ms Thief McPocketses into the game.

Mage Talent Trees are up as well! Here’s a look at the Elementalist Tree, one of the three specialties within the Mage Class (the other two being Blood Mage and Warcaster). Characters can pick and choose from each tree as they like.

THE NEW WILDEWOODS

The Zones (regions) of Embermark have been evolving since day one and the starting Zone, Wildewoods, has been a particular favorite for the team. We’ve been working on Lore behind every town, landmark, ruin and port in Embermark and there will be plenty to find (and fight) once the game is live (remember, the world map in Exiles functions like a Google Map, with various activities, Quests and events appearing in different places and at different levels of zoom).

To see how the map art is evolving, take a look at what Wildewoods used to look like and where it is now:

The new icons there in the screen represent where a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type choice would be made (affecting your Motivations and Standings) and the other one is... TRAYSURE. These can be visible or hidden depending upon your character’s development, the current Season’s plot and what events are live.

(And if you want to know where that old Bog Hag lives and what she’s up to, look no further. Is she evil or good or purely pragmatic? You decide...)

PVE IS LEGIT

Huzzah! I’ve said it often, but one of the ambitions of Exiles is to have a living, breathing world, with ebbs and flows of faction, politics and motivations (even morality, if Lord British can dig it), so having our PvE system online is a big milestone for the team.

Questing, events, making choices and finding caches of valuables are all driven by your actions (and achievements) in the game and that system saw its debut in this last build. The screenshot below is a big deal for us, not because the Ogre is trying to squash a bug, but because his actions are driven by the backend of this game and that means we can push any NPC at any time with any abilities and any loot into the game in real-time. With no update. You’ll just get the goodness in your game.

STAVES

What’s an RPG without them? And this one is looking at you...

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE MAGE IN ACTION

Here’s a bunch of GIFs that illustrate how the Mage is coming along. Ol’ “MadeOfMagicks” here starts off with a classic-- the Fireball, which does decent damage (affected by stats and gear of course) along with a chance to Burn the enemy. (he rocks a Crit too, so Addrighar is in trouble)

Blizzard doesn’t do a ton of damage, but its Chill effect slows down the other player for a few rounds, offering some first-shot chances and decreasing the enemy’s defense.

Poor Addriggar. Poor, poor Addrighar...

Huzzah!

(please note that these GIFs made the Warrior look like a knucklehead. He is not a knucklehead and will soon have his revenge)

TRAYSURE

Last update, we showed what you might find in the placed (and random) treasure caches found around Embermark. Oftentimes, you’ll get a drop (random-ish), but sometimes you’ll get something specific. Something that matters to someone that might not be you...

ABILITY & TALENT BREAKDOWNS

Each Update, we’re featuring a couple of Abilities (active) and/or Talents (passive) to preview what kinds of effects the choices you make in developing your character have. This time, we’ve got one of each, both from the Warrior Class:

Devastating Swing

So the “devastating” part of this swing isn’t when it connects. It’s what comes after. This Warrior Ability does a decent amount of damage (affected by stats and what weapon you wield, of course), and then leads to an effect-over-time. It increases Crushing damage for 2 rounds after the move is played. So if you follow with Bash, Shoulder Rush or the armor-increased Skull Crush, your enemy is in for it.

Blood Madness

“No, my friend. You’re crazy.” This one isn’t an active Ability. This one’s passive, despite its name and disconcerting icon. Bleeding (an effect that can sit on either combatant) causes the Warrior to flip his/her lid, increasing the weapon damage they can do, and it’s increased if you spend more Talent Points on the Talent (max of 5). The interesting part is this-- either combatant bleeding trigger this effect, and both means PUNISH.

THE 3D LOOT INSPECTOR

Want to check out that new piece of loot that just dropped on your character without having to equip it (or upgrade it... or salvage it)? Booyah:

See that triple-dot on the bottom-right part of the armor’s description box? Click that to get all the details you could ever want about a Pounding Mage Chest.

REMEMBER

If you haven’t already, follow along with the Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

DISCORD, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW...

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi-- it’s a friendly lot and there are daily shenanigans (there’s even a Shenaniganizer).

BONUS: A VERY BAD GUY

Very. ‘Cross the Breaches came many a monster. Not all of them were rampaging. Some were measured, thoughtful, insightful...

(back-only is shown to you on purpose for dramatic effect)

BONUS BONUS: SCREENSHOT

Oh boy-- Armadillo is coming in with Destruction’s Wake, and Nezuja’s not super-happy about it, given his 74 remaining HP...

Ha! You thought after the Bonus Bonus, we were done!

WRONG.

Remember how I’ve been showing the evolution of Embermark’s awful, awful wolves from concept to in-the-game? Well, here’s the next step-- what kind of RPG wolf would she be without a blood-curdling howl?

Now we’re done (till next month)!

#gamedev #rpg #gdc #mobile #wizards

1 note · View note

waynekelton · 5 years ago

Text

The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS

Here's what you can play in the meantime while you wait...

Barbearian (Review)

Developer: Kimmo Lahtinen Platform: iOS Universal Price: $8.99

youtube

Battleheart 2 (Review)

Developer: Mika Mobile Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $3.99

youtube

Also new this year, Battleheart 2 picks up where the original Battleheart game left off seven years ago. It features real-time combat where you control up to four characters, chosen from a variety of options, in a series of battles to gain loot and experience. As you level up you unlock new skills and talents to enhance those skills. There's also a variety of gear and four different slots in which to equip it. This creates some opportunity for Diablo-like min-maxing. Battleheart 2, unlike its predecessor, offers a co-operative mode for up to four players along with an Arena mode where you face down wave after wave of enemies to see how far you can get. This is simplified version of Diablo III's rift system. An unintentional game mode has also arisen: AFK (away from keyboard) Arena. Astute min-maxers have realized that Cyrus, the necromancer, raises skeletons from the dead that automatically lock onto and attack the nearest enemy without any player intervention. An optimized Cyrus can go deep into the Arena without any help from the player. If that doesn't speak to the spirit of Diablo III, I'm not sure what does.

Crashlands (Review)

Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

youtube

Crashlands is a survive/craft/explore game where you play as an intergalactic UPS driver who crashed on an alien world. You must figure out how to survive and get yourself, and your precious packages, off the planet and on your way. What does Crashlands have to do with Diablo? It's the combat and gear. Pretty much everything you come across is looking to kill you and it is best to wheel around and shake and bake, all the while attacking with your homemade arsenal of weaponry. Even more similar is the game's surprisingly expansive gear system. Flux, the game's main character, rocks a primary weapon, four secondary devices (bombs, flamethrowers, freeze rays, that kind of thing), four trinkets that provide various bonuses, and four armor pieces. All of this equipment provides bonuses to damage, critical hits, move speed and more along with providing special abilities like life drain, stunning your target, and a whole lot more. She also has the power of Juicemancy at her disposal, which allows you to optimize your gear by upgrading it and rerolling stats until you get the stats you want. Crashlands is a fantastic game and merges the exploration and crafting of Minecraft with the combat and gear optimization of Diablo III.

Titan Quest (Review)

Developer: Dot Emu Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: $6.99

youtube

Bastion

Developer: Supergiant Games Platform: iOS Universal Price: $4.99

youtube

Rogue Wizards (Review)

Developer: Spellbind Studios Platform: iOS Universal Price: Free ($5 Gem Drops x 2 IAP recommended)

youtube

If you're looking for dungeon-delving action and gear optimization of Diablo III without the real-time pressure, Rogue Wizards is the perfect game for you. It features a great deal of variation in gear and slots in which to equip it, a town with upgradeable shops from which to buy and sell, and even a Treasure Goblin. Rogue Wizards feature a strong storyline, but the turn-based combat is king. Once you've completed the quests, there's still plenty to do in the game's Gauntlet mode, a high-score chasing dungeon where you see just how far you can go. The game is free-to-play and the monetization is easy to ignore if so desired, though I recommend the "Gem Drops x 2" IAP which brings progression in line with the premium Steam version. I’ve already written quite a bit about the Rogue Wizards, and its monetization, and you can check out my five-star review and game guide for more.

Eternium

Developer: Making Fun, Inc. Platform: iOS Universal and Android Price: Free (with IAP)

youtube

What would your list of favourite Diablo-like games look like? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Games Like Diablo for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes