Dev Q&A - Post your questions here!

[shredder666]

The most frustrating thing about playing LOTB is keeping track of what talismans you have and what they are assigned to, there is nothing within the game to advise on how best to make use of your Eddies, Allies and Skills, Talismans when you announce challenges/achievements whilst you do offer some hints and produce some great advice on twitter with the character guide cards etc.. not all of them are covered and there is no guarantee you have one of the characters you promote. My current roster consists of 193 characters while i probably don't need them all if there was some sort of intuitive A.I that could advise on what you have at your disposal and how best they could be exploited, it could possibly give you a quick report across all your classes of characters and tell you have this many eddies/allies with those skills that compliment each other and you have those characters that have similar skills sets and advantages so put them into the sacrifice pot and give recommendations of which characters to get with the rewards to make your roster more balanced and varied!

Q1 How difficult would it be to incorporate those features (Advisory Summary Screens, Intuitive intelligence etc..) to help people out? I think this is better articulated by the user zamasu above in the section 'in-game functionalities'

Q2 If you couldn't implement these the next best solution in my opinion would involve developing some sort of API to access your details on the servers, say for example could i get my current details exported in a JSON file so i can ingest it into a platform like Splunk and get the answers to the questions i need answering - do i have a eddie or ally with this skill, do i have this talisman in my inventory if so is assigned or not etc.. Would an API call feature be possible?

Q3 Any plans to introduce band members as characters or notable people in the world of Iron Maiden such as Rod Smallwood as enforcer of the Underworld!

Q4 The band are almost all in there mid 60's how do you see the future of the game enduring if Maiden sadly decide to call it a day? I can't see them retiring in the next 5 yrs unless circumstances change (you never know) but they couldn't in my opinion do their stuff like the Rolling Stones in their 70's as it is far more demanding physically and technically.

Q5) I got into Maiden in the early 90's as i approached my teens but other people have been lucky to have been there from the start or at least the mid to late 80's. Arguably there most celebrated artwork and albums from the 80's is powerslave and Somewhere in Time. Do you have any plans to introduce a world based on the iconic Somewhere in Time cover in future releases.

Q6) A bit personal and of topic but if you are fans of the band (which i know some of you are) were you disappointed that the band have ignored the Kingdom of the Sands world on the LOTB tour in favour of keeping too many band personal favourites in the set focused on the War and Underworld themes! The consensus is that Kingdom of the Sands was left out to avoid the Alexander the Great debate! Powerslave is suited but has been played recently on the Book of Souls tour!

Q6) What game engine did you use to make the game and what tools do your artists use to build environments and design characters? How quickly could a non-artist learn to create some decent character art in Photoshop or Gimp for their own game? Can you recommend any online resources? I am learning Unity, believe it or not i used to enjoy games in the late 80's early 90's and at one point wanted to be a game designer/programmer but it's not the path i went down as i got older. However in recent years i've reflected more on my childhood and what i liked back then and have gone all retro and tools like Unity make it possible to make games with little effort especially 2D platformers. I loved the game Rygar (from Tecmo 1986 it was such a great game with loads of intricate parts for it's time and a classic i want to beat my high score game! i have it on PS4 as part of the arcade classics series it is still addictive and great to play in 2019) So my game will be heavily influenced on that using an Iron Maiden theme. Working title(s) are currently Chains of Misery (Live After Death eddie inspired) or Flash of the Blade Runner -(futuristic Eddie themed game based on SIT artwork and Blade Runner film)

How did you find about the game? Through the Iron Maiden Fan Club/Website etc..

Were you an Iron Maiden fan first, or was the game an introduction? I have a been a big Maiden since 1993 so i always show great Enthusiasm for anything Maiden related not just the music and live shows. I'm also not afraid to be critical Ed Hunter was crap i've only been learning Unity for a few months and i could probably make something better even in 2D!! LOTB though a mobile game is streets ahead of that abysmal effort even if it was the late 90's even the retro classics of the 80's were better than Ed Hunter

How long have you been playing? Like most fans i downloaded the game when it came out ordered one of the fantastic press kits. I didn't really play it for the first year but i was never one for playing games on my mobile anyway, however with the announcement of the LOTB tour i decided to spend some time on it and i now play it way more frequently and try to complete the daily challenges at least 5 times a week. I play if for free and have not spent any money on deals or packs etc but i still get enjoyment playing it free but obviously it will take longer to build up a formidable roster that way!

Can i just take the time to say a big thank you for making this game a success and making it an enjoyable experience as was mentioned above, of course we moan about things that are not perfect and are needed and don't expect those sort of features over night! but we say it cause we do actually care. I appreciate it is almost impossible to produce a perfectly working product and even the the biggest of modern games/IT projects are produced with many bugs and glitches when released and always have numerous patches and updates well after release date!

Leviathan Edit: Hi shredder666! Matt answered your questions here!