What is Reddit's opinion of
Pixel Blacksmith?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
Popularity Score: 12
This app was mentioned in 45 comments, with an average of 2.31 upvotes
Best Comments
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands! E.g. me!
The problem is, one person rarely has the resources available to create a successful game that you'll hear of, Minecraft very much being the exception. Additionally, you need to be making enough from your games to work full time on them (I don't), so you usually do it as a side job, then when it becomes very profitable, hire someone with the skills you lack (e.g. graphical, programming, marketing).
Jake
Hey,
I can't speak for the quality, but one of my projects, Pixel Blacksmith, has been mildly successful (150k+ DL, /r/PixelBlacksmith community), and I wouldn't mind answering questions if you're interested.
Jake
Thank you! Well, I used to be a software engineer, now I'm a game dev / freelancer / whatever pays the bills!
Probably best known for an android game I made :)
Pixel Blacksmith. You run a shop, crafting items to sell. There's no premium currency and no dumb stamina/energy system. You later unlock shop helpers and heroes you can equip then send on quests.
The game has a single $2 IAP that unlocks a new game+ mode and some other bonuses. There's optional ads that give a little bonus, but there are no forced ads. /r/PixelBlacksmith has lots of info if you need any help.
This is the first time I've ever seen my game referenced by someone else. Very odd!
Regarding crafting system, I personally think it's a nice system. There's 3-4 stages to each item, and different visitors require certain items in certain stages, and give bonuses for their favourites.
Nice! Many moons ago (2011) I had a maxed account, I miss it sorely.
I actually made my first Android game as an outlet for my RS nostalgia!
Happens on my game fairly often. Entire thing is free, no forced ads, then players get outraged when the very end-game stuff (like prestiging) requires a small one-off payment.
Hey,
Absolutely amazing service, I'd be interested in helping out (I'm a full-time software engineer). If you want something like an android app made for free (past work) let me know, would love to bring this to a wider audience.
Also, a suggestion, it might be worth making the downloads also available as torrents. That way if the site goes down, the content will still live on.
Jake
OK... I'll add to it, since no one else is chiming in.
Kinda like Fiz, but more medieval, is Pixel Blacksmith. It's really good as well, with a very active developer. *waves at /u/jakesteam*
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.jakelee.blacksmith&hl=en
A Story of a Band, while it looks a bit cheesy, has some meat to it, and will keep you entertained for a while.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bandgame&hl=en
Hey,
For my recent release I went for very little pressure, no pay to win, and instead relying on making players enjoy playing the game, and being happy to pay for premium.
It generally works well, as those that do upgrade get the benefits and also the feeling of helping the developer. Those that don't upgrade still get an enjoyable gameplay experience.
I have the very end-game stuff requiring premium, and a few extra benefits for premium users.
Hey, sorry for the self promotion!
My game Pixel Blacksmith is an offline, ad-free blacksmithing / inventory management game that seems to fit your requirements.
It's free, the only IAP is a one-off "Premium" purchase that unlocks a few new features. I hope you like it!
I've kinda wanted a nice blacksmith/shop game for a while as well. The only thing I found that kinda resembled what I had in mind was Pixel Blacksmith. Only played through the tutorial though, so I won't tell you if it's any good.. But it seems to have a small community over at /r/PixelBlacksmith so it might be worth checking out.
Hey bud,
If you're interested you might like to try my vaguely popular Android games Pixel Blacksmith / City Flow.
Jake
My game requests "Full network access" and "View network connections", however it doesn't do anything like get network names.
I expect a lot of other apps use it for the same thing I do: to only download ads on wifi, not mobile networks.
Jake
If you're into non-traditional RPGs I'd suggest trying out Pixel Blacksmith.
Just started playing it a couple weeks ago when my back exploded on me and I can't stop. It's waaaay deeper than I originally thought and the developer has already added a bunch of really cool features/mechanics changes.
Edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.jakelee.blacksmith
Hey, self-promotion here!
My fairly popular blacksmithing game (latest update post here, Play Store link here) has 29 achievements, and is free & ad-free.
Hope you enjoy!
After your many, many suggestions / bug reports on the V1.1 and Release posts, this version is dedicated to you!
As a reminder, Pixel Blacksmith is a blacksmithing / inventory management game, with hundreds of items, tens of traders to buy the items from, and tens of visitors to trade the items to! There's also a unique multi-stage crafting system and a distinctive pixel art style.
A full list of changes is at the end of this post. It's a long one!
I hope you enjoy the patch, and as always please let me know any suggestions / bugs / comments / questions / feedback, I love hearing all of it, good or bad!
If you can't wait for these posts, the changes are posted to /r/PixelBlacksmith as soon as they're uploaded. There's also a Twitter and a Facebook (link removed, sorry!)
Thanks for reading, have a wonderful Tuesday.
Jake
Changes:
- Massive performance improvements (no more stuttering!)
- Added buy all button to trader.
- Added preferences unlocked + trophies earned statistics.
- Added ability to click preferences for more information.
- Added state unlocks to level up dialog.
- Added coloured error messages.
- Added scheduling enchanted items.
- Added auto-refresh to all interfaces.
- Added indicator if visitor reward is doubled due to completing all optional demands.
- Added quantity to visitor demand display.
- Changed add visitor dialog to inform of next free visitor.
- Changed Inventory sell buttons to change colour on click.
- Changed enchanted demands having a maximum of 3.
- Changed gems to craft into 5 powders, not 1.
- Changed "locked slot" image.
- Changed mithril longsword description.
- Changed close & help buttons, to be more intuitive (sorry!).
- Changed scrollbars to always be visible.
- Fixed furnace not saving last item correctly.
- Fixed powdered gem text + appearance.
- Fixed bonus % displays.
- Fixed time taken to selling items.
- Fixed items seen count.
- Fixed crash on start up if L35+ and premium.
- Updated help articles.
Hello /r/AndroidGaming!
After your overwhelmingly positive feedback to Pixel Blacksmith, hopefully you'll like the spin-off that I've spent the last few months working on, Blacksmith Slots!
The mysterious Purple has spread over the world, and it's up to you to figure out where it came from, and rid the world of it! To do this, you'll need to help people rebuild by completing slot machine related quests for the inhabitants, and make your way to the source.
There's over 100 free slots across 20 maps to spin at, over 150 items to use, and hundreds of lines of dialog for 45 characters!
There's no premium currency, no "energy" / "lives", no "invite your friends", no forced adverts, and the entire game can be played for free, with or without internet. If you're into Google Play, there's 30 achievements, 8 leaderboards, and automatic & manual cloud / local saves.
Compatible with Android ICS-O+, on phones or tablets, in portrait or landscape, in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Oh, and the download is tiny (< 8MB), and the game starts in under a couple of seconds!
As always, I really appreciate any and all feedback, good or bad!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.jakelee.blacksmithslots
Thanks for reading,
Jake
PS: Updates will be posted at /r/BlacksmithSlots
PPS: You can view a collection of screenshots here, and a trailer here!
Hey,
For my game I include the ~10 most important updates, and add a "All changes: redd.it/abc123" at the end, linking to a post on the game's subreddit. On mobile this link is clickable.
For example, on Google Play, on Reddit. Note that the release post on the super-interested but quiet game community links to the semi-interested but noisy /r/AndroidGaming discussion.
I agree re: limit, it seems needlessly short. What's wrong with giving users more information!? Even 1k would be nice.
Very aware, thank you! I'm a dev myself, e.g. Pixel Blacksmith :)
Have you tried Adventure Communist yet?
It did for my game, using places like /r/AndroidGaming to promote.
I focused on very strong community engagement, and playing to my strengths (one man, quick release cycle, talking to players individually), instead of my weaknesses (no budget, no connections, etc).
The threads were pretty popular, and the game was relatively successful, especially for my first major project and first app release.
That being said, there's a hell of a lot of luck. As /u/adbourdages said, focus on a unique point your game has, and how it differs from the 50 vaguely similar shovelware games that will already be out there.
As a side point, I also found AppBrain (no affiliation) to be pretty helpful. Once you register your app, it gives a few tips to improve play store optimisation, such as keyword analysis. Here is my dashboard for Pixel Blacksmith (which I haven't updated in 5-6 months), I found a lot of tips there pretty useful.
I would recommend pixel blacksmith.
Pixel Blacksmith | 4.0 rating | Free with IAP | 100,000+ downloads | Search manually
> Pixel Blacksmith is a game about crafting items for customers! As all kinds of visitors come into your humble blacksmithing shop (there's even robots!), they'll want all sorts of items before they'll leave. Can you ...
|Feedback|PunyDev|Lonerzboy|
Self-promotion, Pixel Blacksmith is a portrait RPG. Only one IAP, a one-off "premium" unlock.
Hi /r/Kenney!
I released my second game a couple of days ago. It's a isometric puzzler all about rotating tiles to make everything (paths, rivers, etc) flow. Here's a gameplay video.
Some of you might recognize my name from the relatively successful Pixel Blacksmith (125k+ downloads), hopefully you enjoy this game even more!
City Flow is free, with optional adverts and IAPs: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.jakelee.cityflow
Features:
✔️ Features:
- Complete 235+ puzzles!
- Unlock and use 215+ tiles!
- 12 flows across 6 environments!
- Create, share, and import your own puzzles!
- Generate over 235 ^ 215 (1 septuagintacentillion ��) custom puzzles, you'll never run out!
- Earn boosts to gain an advantage!
�� Also:
- No internet required!
- �� Low battery usage!
- Regular content additions & new features!
- Supports Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish!
- Earn coins to unlock boosts, game modes, tiles, and packs!
�� Customisation:
- Choose your favourite background / in-game music, or leave on random!
- Don't like the game sounds ��? Pick new ones!
- Unlock and use new in-game background colours!
�� Google Play:
- 30 Achievements
- 23 Leaderboards
- 21 Daily / Weekly Quests
- Automatic & Manual Cloud Saves ��
Haven't played most of these but this is what I could find:
Shoppe Keep- fantasy rpg setting, recently released so may lack polish, 3-D
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!- potato based, isometric, cartoon style graphics
Apocashop - browser game, pixel, charming, papers please+lemonade stand, similar bartering. (play this)
Weapon shop de omasse- 3DS, smithing+rhythm game, 3d/cartoonish graphics, mixed reviews, japanese influence
apps:
Pixel Blacksmith- pixel graphics+smithing, dev posts on r/pixelblacksmith
Merchant - pixel, fantasy rpg setting
Adventure Bar story - rpg mechanics and similar art style to recettear with food based crafting/shop, also available on nintendo shop
Fiz : Brewery Management Game- pixel, brewery management
Sorry for the self promotion! My game Pixel Blacksmith has over 150k downloads, and has had tens of updates in response to redditor feedback.
It's free, with a single payment to unlock all end-game features like prestiging. I hope you all like it!