(Post had to wait a day to post due to me being a “New Member” and having a daily post limit )
Alright check this out guys, thanks to the guys who led me to think out of the box (if that was even more possible, lol,… : P… ) and helped me discover more about the puzzle quest series and what they were ‘thinking’ behind this new ‘update’… see for yourself –
(background notes)
Log in →
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Blown away by Total Trash UI and weird new ‘floaty’ card layout etc →
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see first hand people leaving the game in forum posts and in real time chat etc →
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wonders what’s possibly going on →
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no dev input leaves ones mind to wander →
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scours forum on this happy to see many people agree on weirdness of update, but still longing for the answer to why it was implemented →
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see a post a guy says, “I can’t think of anything other than they are deliberately trying to destroy their own game because of development of another game” →
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find that hard to swallow but got me thinking, since I seen other games (i.e. ‘The Gate’) go ‘down’ while the same art assets were being used to make an updated version of the ‘same’ game →
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Seen a post mentioning some feel that they’re making it more difficult for ‘pros’ to navigate because they want new players to feel they have more of a chance (as ‘pros’ leave/take a break) (since new players spend more money etc) →
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I start the thread " Serious question and Conclusion on the New UI " since to me something isn’t quite right and it partly looks like the game is being sabotaged on purpose, to water down the player base? Drive people to another game they’re working on? No concrete evidence, but something along those lines…
" Update " Part (Point of this second thread)–
- someone named ‘Naruto’ makes this interesting remark:
"anyone else noticed they updated the UI to look like their other game “Magic Puzzle Quest” based on Magic the Gathering game? "
Huh?.. had to reread that (since I played through all the Magic xbox 360 games and played the real thing years ago etc, and yes think its’ a great game… )…
Start doing the search, sure enough… the ‘Truth’ behind this New UI ‘Update’ seems to stem from the Lead ‘creative designer’ being hired to work (with the basic same job title) on the ‘New’ Magic Puzzle Quest game, game’s been out for a while (I think? Not sure because it’s not on steam but is on google play?) but seemingly they needed to hire/continue with a new development team as the old one left, Leaving an opening which another company took, with Fawkner taking lead creative design.
Basically, seems like they, (the GoW devs) for whatever reason, decided to forego the classic ‘Gems of War’ “feel”, for a design layout that matches the format they’re doing on the Magic Puzzle Quest, to probably and presumably make their programming job easier in the future (or whatever the excuse/reason, i.e. easier to apply the same type of updates/changes to both games quickly in their development pipeline?).
So seems that either after Fawkner shifted to Magic he decided to intergrate the same layout in Gems for a more streamlined generic feel?.. Or whoever came in to take his place decided to change GoW’s layout along the same lines…
See for yourself – (not including the actual complete links for fear of post being removed for some weird reason, it’s easy enough to look them up)
(Site 1 copy/paste) (Note the date, barely 2-3 weeks ago)
(from " forums.d3go.com "
- Magic: Puzzle Quest’s New Development Team: Oktagon Games (9/27/17)
Hi Everyone,
Since Hibernum’s closure in the middle of August, we’ve been working as quickly and effectively as we could to find a new development team that would be the best fit to continue developing Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest. We know that many players have been anxious to know more information, and we absolutely appreciate everyone’s patience and support during this transition period.
Today, we’re finally excited to announce that we’ll be partnering up with Oktagon Games as the new development team. In addition, Steve Fawkner, the original creator of Puzzle Quest, will be taking a Senior Designer consultant role with Oktagon Games to assist on the title.
If you’d like to learn more about Oktagon Games, or about our development schedule for the coming few months, then please head over to the full announcement article below:
(Site 2 copy/paste) ( " d3go.com/news " )
PRESS RELEASE: D3 GO! NAMES OKTAGON GAMES AS DEVELOPER OF MAGIC: THE GATHERING – PUZZLE QUEST MOBILE GAME
Posted on September 27th, 2017
LOS ANGELES – September 27, 2017 – D3 Go! today announced that Oktagon Games will be the new developer of Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest. In addition, Steve Fawkner, the original creator of Puzzle Quest will be taking a Senior Designer consultant role with Oktagon Games to assist on the title. Oktagon Games replaces former developer Hibernum, after announcement of their studio closure in August.
So there you have it, a combination of ‘truth’ in that the devs are doing what they do best, figure out new and improved ways to get rich off the masses (Puzzle Quest and Magic the Gathering together?.. lol these guys are going to be multi-millionaires in a year, lol…), but not exactly telling the public the whole truth while they do it…
Or maybe they have?.. who knows, (I don’t because I’m relatively new to the forums, just signed up to see more about this new UI fiasco lol)…
Anyways, seems the basic game ‘style’ they decided to work on in the ‘Magic’ version of the puzzle quest game was brought here, in fact I think someone already showed some pic of it (somewhere in the forums), but I must’ve missed that it was another Puzzle Quest franchise…
Question is why would the ‘head creative lead’ take it upon themselves to make such a switch (in design), effectively killing what Gems of War stood and stands for, without any kind of ‘vote’ or anything…
That, folks, will have to be a point left up to you to bring to the devs…
Anyways, so they might not be totally trying to drive away people from Gems, but they sure are doing a good job doing whatever they want while forgetting Gems has it’s own type and style of player-base, and perhaps it’s not the best idea to randomly change up a game after it has already found it’s ‘niche’…
I think the take-home most important ‘point’ in all this is that there was a lack of communication in this whole massive recent update.
Both to at least make some effort to know if the majority of players wanted such a drastically different GoW ‘feel’, and second,
to ensure that if they do such a massive overhaul they better be prepared to ‘announce’ anything that might not be going smoothly so people don’t take it the wrong way and start leaving.
It would seem those hideous black/white icons actually -are- placeholders, but who the heck knew? (It’s still not mentioned in any patch notes, just heard third hand in the global chat by someone that heard a dev say it in discord…)
Something that extreme and drastic (like those ridiculous black/white icons that has caused countless people to leave and wonder where the devs heads are at…) should be prefaced with a ‘message of the day’ when you start up that it’s a temporary thing and not to be worried about it.
Having not done that, many people took it all the wrong way and started leaving (again, assuming they actually are temporary), never mind the general change to the game giving it a totally different feel.
I guess at the end of the day it wasn’t a ‘total conspiracy’, but even to this point I still can’t find a straight answer on the new icons, and if they’re going to stick with those atrocious bland white letters on the cards you can’t see half the time.
At the very least, there should be more pre-emptive discussion with the player base before such extreme changes, could’ve prevented a lot of people leaving.
Hope everyone learns from this,
K thanks guys was a very interesting day
Have you ever tried to sit a 5 year old down long enough to do anything? 
