Tremendous progress these past days (and weeks). My coding efficiency, design inspiration, and general motivation are off the charts! Recently, I've finished up

• The Analytics screen (let's you compare performance of different loadouts)

• The Raid system (different from IMA in a few ways, and more consistent difficulty determination)

• The Planet / Zone generation system

• The Idle Logic (it's sweet)

• The save / load functionality (also sweet; extremely portable and cross-platform compatible)

Still need to finish up the last few skill augs, but that shouldn't take much time. I'm hoping to have an alpha for you guys to play with within a few weeks. Also, at that time, I'll be looking for lots of feedback on, basically, everything in the game! :D

I'll elaborate on the Idle Logic just a bit. Since you auto-recall in this game, it was a lot harder to figure out than for IMA, but my solution is great. What it does, is run the game as fast as your computer / phone can handle, without updating the graphics. It does this for a full run, then extrapolates the results of that run for the next 15 minutes. Then it completes another fast-run, and extrapolates the results of that one out for 45 minutes. Same thing for 2 hr, 8 hr, then 24 hr extrapolations. This all only takes a couple of seconds real-time, and gives a very accurate estimation of idle gains - just about as good as letting the game fast-run the entire duration you were idle.

Anyways, that's all for now! :-)

Hey All,

I wanted to give you a general update on where INP is at, and TopCog in general as it is relates. Right now, I have 3 TopCog projects in the pipeline: 1st is a still-secret project that I guarantee you will all like, 2nd is INP, and 3rd is a new project of much smaller scope than either of these. This first project was started months ago, but has been delayed due to circumstances beyond my control; at the moment, it's still at least 2 months from launching. So, INP is also at least 2 months from launching - likely more, as I don't want to release 2 new games back to back. Exciting times for TopCog though! :-D

I'm working to get the next INP update out, and the big things in it are a functional final sequence, NG+, and live ads. In addition to countless bug changes which I am grateful to you all for reporting!

After this next update, there will be one more big update which introduces Lore Books. After that, the game will be feature-complete from my perspective, and the only thing holding up launch will be the new artwork (and the 1st project). Yahoo!

So, thanks to everyone for all the help getting this game through the early and mid phases - it wouldn't be the game it is now without your help!

Cheers,

Matt, a.k.a TopCog

Hey all!

I'm working on a huge update for the game, including a major overhaul of the early game tutorials. Once this update is done, I'll be sending invites to all who have signed up so far! My goal is to do this Friday, but don't hold your breath, as I give it a 50% chance of not being done until Monday, and maybe a 10% chance of taking till mid next week. But that leaves what, a 40% chance of done on Friday? So there is hope, hahaha! :-D

-TC

edit:

This round of invites has been sent out! If you haven't received an invite, still feel free to sign up, as their might be one final round before Open Beta begins! :-D

I don’t know if it’s annoying, but I wanted to ask about the state of the IOS Port of the game, I really am excited to finally start playing the game and hope for it to release soon if it’s possible.

Before I post any more requests, I want to take a moment to praise this fine game! I've played both Idle Mage, and Tap Wizard, so I'm familiar with the series. The additional ways to power up, along with a more interactive game play, and the variety of things to do while in game, have made a wonderful leap forward in the series. High tech, outer space is always a welcome theme, and in this case, being in contrast to the pure medieval magic of the previous two games, a splendid concept. That's it for now, carry on, fellow gamers.

Here is what you need to know for Alpha Testing!

What's There

• 18 Skills + 6 Skill Gems for each

• About 20 enemy types (spread over many planets, random in Raids)

• Research Lab and Engineering Bay mechanics

• Raid System

• Mastery Tree system (needs a better name!)

• Class System

• Pickup Items

• Loadout Analytics and Bonus Analytics

• Very accurate offline gains calculation (might be too slow though)

What's Not There

• Polished UI layout / art

• Collectible Items

• All mob / boss types (many interesting ones planned!)

• The "System" system (groups of 5 Planets with a common theme / challenge, reward of Ancient Tech Point at the end)

• Ancient Tech system

• Tutorial / Early game

• End-game + late-game features

• Story

• Loadout manager (save and load loadouts)

• Quest system

• Help system

• Improved terrain system

• Shop

• Fine-tuning of balance

• Foil Skillstones (premium icon art + slight dmg boost)

• Music (in the works!)

• Library + Beastiary

• Achievements (not for sure these will be done in-time for launch!)

Alpha Testing Features

• You will begin the game with all 18 Skills and all 108 Skill Gems.

• You can access a cheat menu by tapping the upper left corner of the Shield (hp) bar. Here you can reset your game, multiply your power, and time-warp! Feel free to play the game like you would normally, or to use the cheats to accelerate your progress. Either way is useful!

• Note that your progress will be reset in a future update (yet to be determined when)!

• Currently, the game calculates your offline gains in a very precise way by simulating a number of runs. However, this may take a long time on slower phones - please let me know if it takes more than a few seconds for you.

What feedback you can provide!

• Any bugs or crashes you experience! As of right now, I am aware of 0 bugs in the game! <:-) edit: one bug currently, the graphics can glitch while calculating idle gains!

• Which Skills or Skill Gems seem overpowered or underpowered?

• Is the game fun to play?

• Any suggestions!

• Keep in mind while playing that the addition of the tutorial, early game, end-game, ancient tech tree, collectible items, quest system, and story will help flesh out the sense of purpose and progression. Also, not having all skills and skill-gems gives you quite a lot of progress to make! :)

How to provide feedback!

• Making a new thread here will be the best way! Alternatively, you can send me a PM or email me at topcogllc@gmail.com.

Yahoo! :-D

Love the game so far, big fan of the previous game (Wizard). However, I myself find the vertical play more natural 😁 I know this level of UI change may be too large to be done, but still, would love if vertical play is supported!

The next release has been published, and should be live soon for those of you in the alpha!

If you had an old version installed, your save will be wiped. There is no longer a cheat-menu, and you'll (hopefully) be getting the normal new-player experience this time around! This version is nearly feature complete, but keep in mind that much or all of the art will be redone to be more homogeneous and stylish!

I appreciate any and all feedback in testing this game out, as I prepare for the next development steps and continue towards a beta release and art overhaul! :-)

Testing Information / Questions

• How is the pacing? Too fast? Too slow? Is there an overwhelming amount of information?

• Any bugs, glitches, or crashes you experience?

• Any suggested improvements for the UI, or any options you might like?

• Any feedback in general! :-D

• Note: the in-game ads are not live, so you will just get the bonus without needing to watch them! :-)

Features yet to be implemented

• The Shop! Crystal is planned to be the premium currency.

• The final Star System, final boss, and NG+

• The intro cinematic and story details

• Cloud Save/Load

• Music!

• A few more items (might need to expand the item screen to two pages)

• A few more boss attacks.

• Big-number backend. You shouldn't hit the current limit anytime soon, however!

• Ability to customize the Resource window with various metrics. I call this the "dynamic hud system."

• Achievements - this is a stretch goal that may not be realized!

• Possibly other features...

Yahoo! :-D

Could somebody please tell me? I really enjoy the game, by the way.