Imagine, you guide your thumbs over the controls, the cool glass
heating up as you try to make it through the deadly crossfire of four
fighters. Wheeling your ship around suddenly, you take out the two on
your right. You launch a mine which takes out the one on your left,
but then everything goes up in smoke as the one behind you fires,
obliterating your fighter. You're not dead, not yet, but you're out of
the game for a few moments as your ship respawns elsewhere.
ErnCon is a multi-player space simulation fought in two dimensions.
There are currently a grand total of eighteen ships at present,
standard, premium color, and elite versions of three fighters and
three mechs.
The fighters and mechs both have the same stearing controls, a virtual
stick in the bottom left corner about two inches square, but the
fighters and mechs fire in a slightly different way from one another.
The firing area is a control about two inches square in the right
corner. On a fighter, pressing anywhere in this area fires your
primary weapon, which has infinite ammunition, out of the ship in the
direction it's currently facing. The weapons actually fire a real,
traceable burst of energy, meaning that it takes a little time to hit
the target. The mechs fire similarly, but their firing area is
actually another control stick, meaning that if you press in the
bottom right corner, you fire southeast, no matter whether your mech
is facing that direction, another direction, or making a sweeping turn
to line up that perfect shot on the enemy destroyer you just found.
Additional weapons are fired independently with controls just above
your main firing area, one just above and the second above that. The
Quit button is barely above the top weapons firing button, but it
beeps when pressed, and canceling it means pressing along the bottom
edge on the left part of the main weapons' firing area. This elicits
another tone, by which you know you successfully didn't quit. There is
also a button that essentially fires your afterburners. This button is
at the top left corner of your primary weapon's firing controls and
makes a kind of prolonged blat sound. The boost in speed doesn't last
much longer than the sound, so it's a pretty good indicator.
The gameplay requires voiceover to be turned off, but it wouldn't
provide much in the way of useful information anyway. Also, the
developer is tremendously good about accepting and integrating
feedback and genuinely believes that his app should be accessible to
us.
There are two forms of currency, Coins and ErnCoins. Coins are
standard in-game money, earned by completing missions, whereas
ErnCoins are used to purchase premium items or more Coins. ErnCoins
are also occasionally available through his new Daily Challenge
feature.
Most of the sounds in the app are self-explanatory. When ships or
asteroids explode, they free gems and power-ups. If a gem is
collected, it makes a litle pinging sound. If a power-up is collected,
it makes a tiny sort of alarm sound.
As of right now, hitting some asteroids and all enemies makes a
similar sound, which you also hear if you are hit, but with positional
sound (stereo positioning) you can usually tell the difference between
hitting something and being hit.
If you hit an asteroid, you might hear that sound I mentioned, or you
might hear a single explosion sound. Enemies exploding makes a
fast-paced series of explosions, unless they are larger ships, like
capital ships or freighters, in which case the explosion sequence is
longer, and the sounds are farther apart. Your ship exploding has a
short series of sounds associated with it, and your controls go dead.
You'll regenerate after a few seconds, so no need to worry. There
isn't a sound, right now, to tell you you've regenerated, but since
you can shoot again, there's no real need.
When the time limit on a mission runs out, or when you are destroyed
during Survival mode, your controls freeze up. If you are firing at
the time, it continues to play the sound of firing until you hit the
Continue button, on the bottom of the screen in the center the first
time. The first screen displays your score, then you see what you won
during the mission, coins and an item, then pressing Continue one more
time shows you your progress on the current Challenge or Challenges.
Though all of these are readable with Voiceover, I usually check it
only every couple of times.
Usually, after hitting continue for the last time, a dialogue opens,
asking you if you want to restock your weapons. If you want to go to
the store, Click the Go To Store button in the bottom right.
Otherwise, click the Close button above that, or find it by swiping.
Occasionally, something messes up for us, and the app seems to freeze.
Don't worry. It hasn't really. What has happened is that an ad gets in
the way of going to the next mission. Find a button that is either
unlabeled or is labeled with a series of numbers. Click it, and it'll
take you to the App store. Double tap Home to go to your App switcher,
and you can click right back into Erncon. This happens basically once
per play session. The button you need to click is in the bottom of
your screen, probably about an inch and a half above the bottom edge.
The only other thing to remember is that ErnCon does support PVP, and
there's no way to disable it. Since some of the challenges involve
player killing, expect to occasionally find yourself shot down by
players. Don't worry, I've both been taken out and taken out my own
fair share of people. It's hard, but it's worth it.
Sighted players see the name of the player by their ship, but if you
want to know the name of the person with whom you were just playing,
click the Recents button when you are done with your mission. It's in
the top right, near the Challenges button. In this list, you will find
all the people you have recently encountered. Tapping one, located in
a scrollable vertical list along the left hand side, will put their
gamer username, or a guest account allocation number, in the main body
of the display area. You can see a bit about them, including name,
level, and when you last saw them, and you can even choose to add them
as an ally or send them a free power-up.
Just in case you see me, I'm GamerCane.
That, in a nut shell, is ErnCon. I'm hooked on the game, currently
level twenty, and I'm pretty hooked on this developer, too.
For more information, go to:
www.woogames.com
Signed:
Dakotah Rickard
On 12/11/12, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
Hi decota.
I could've missed the first E-mail, but do you mind saying more about
this
urncon game? how accessible is it? is it an arcade game or what?
I'm only just looking into games on my Iphone, and would indeed be
interested to try more.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dakotah Rickard" <dakotah.rick...@gmail.com>
To: <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 11:56 PM
Subject: [Audyssey] Two-Fer-One E-mail: Laser Tag and iOS Game
Hi List.
I want to appologize, because now I'm just procrastinating on the
whole Laser Tag thing.
I meant to get reviews for two different and accessible systems out
this weekend, in case someone wants something for christmas.
Depending on how school ends up, I'll try to get it done sometime this
week, though it's going to be a challenge, because I kind of want it
to be pro-quality, and I've got two iPhones and limited experience to
work with. Hopefully, between a few people I know, it'll look and
sound good.
In case anyone wants to do any preemtive research, I'm going to be
reviewing Light Strike by WowWee Electronics and the LTTO system from
Hasbro.
Now, as for the iOS game, I want to recommend the game ErnCon again.
This developer is really great. He's just added stereo positioning and
distance-based volume control for auditory navigation of your
starfighter through the various enemies surrounding you. The game is a
great one, and he's not done adding to it yet. Also, he's very open
and eager for feedback on the accessibility of the game.
You will need to turn Voiceover during actual gameplay, but it's
definitely worth checking out.
When I figure out how, I intend to submit it to Applevis, unless
someone else wants to do that.
Either way, happy gaming, and keep your eyes peeled for those reviews.
Signed:
Dakotah Rickard
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