From www.gameinabottle.com - emphasis mine:
[QUOTE=GameInABottle]
We’ll relaunch our site on 01 July 2010. At the same time we’ll close the Arcade Lounge.
There will be a new developer blog giving you more insight, and yes, there will be more GemCraft very soon! See you on the 1st of July!
[/QUOTE]
YAY!!! Holy crap, I can’t wait! Any other GemCraft nuts on the Dope?
YES!
Played the original and Chapter Zero. Wow, they’re addictive.
Yep.
Never did finish 0, though. There came a point where I’d play game after game without winning. I’ve sporadically taken a stab at it since, but I still can’t seem to go anywhere.
Gemcraft was the game that introduced and addicted me to tower defense games. I still think it’s one of the best out there.
I’ve been tinkering with it. It’s a pretty decent game. I’ve referred it to a tower defense addict and he’s liking it too.
Wow, I could have written that exact post. I loved the first one, and definitely enjoyed 0 for several days, but after awhile the impossible quotient was just through the roof.
Just keep replaying battles (levels) you’ve already won, with the aim of improving your score. That way, you can stock up on skills (more and stronger starter gems, cheaper trap/tower construction etc) and thus become better prepared for the harder battles further along. Hope that made some sense.
I beat both Chapter 1 and Chapter 0 that way, or at least that little strategy helped me beat them. And I finally, long after finishing Chapter 0, achieved my last remaining glowing-frame score on Chapter 1:
The (last, IIRC) revealed hidden level, with turquoise “shock” gems.
Anyway, I can’t wait for more of the shiny, shiny monster-pwning goodness!
Boom goes the dynamite, or rather the grade 7 gem bomb!