Hello to every single one, it's actually a nice for me to pay a visit this web page, it contains helpful Information.

Win. XP SP3. No problems downloading, installing or running. A quiet little time waster of a game. I too would have liked to see a level indicator, but did figure that we were after 5 rune stones so that gave some indication of where I was in the game. The difficulty doesn't really change through the game, so by the end it was getting a bit boring. There doesn't seem to be any point to the 'pests'. Some block vision of an area, but only for a short time, so without playing against a timer it doesn't really matter. Some freeze or lock an area, but again, only for a time, and they're easily beaten or worked around. All in all, a fair juvenile game.


...........................Moderator comment............................

Thanks for your feedback Supreme Ruler (bowing as I type this, lol) ;-)

I must have misread and substituted "trolls" for "Dwarves" so the storyline makes a little more sense now--sorry. Still, I think the storyline could easily be improved. I've played the game several hours now, My biggest complaint is that there isn't any indication of levels, or what I am striving for, or how I will know when I am done, or what the points mean--it just turns into an endless game of bejeweled, but even with bejeweled, you earn stars/rank or something with your point score. This does not have a total point score, or anything that indicates how close you are to finishing the game. Something like that would be very helpful. It was a relaxing time, though.

Whiterabbit said, " I’m taking my son to a Scout meeting, where he is doing his Duke of Edinburghs Award. Basically he’s getting dropped at a specific point on the moors and has to find his way to several points over the next couple of days. He has to carry all his food, tent etc for the weekend with him. " --I think THAT adventure sounds like a great basis for a computer game!!!


..............................Moderator Comment......................

Thank you for your extra feedback blueboomerang and lol. :)

Hi!!

This one downloaded without any problems and opened fine!!
It runs easy on windows 8 and the graphics so far are very good!
I played 4 games with no problems!
Still upset couldn't get Fishdom though! Hope one of the games is offered again soon, now that I have better graphic card etc.!

Thanks for another great game and GL to your son also!


..............................Moderator Comment......................

Thank you for your feedback and thanks.

can't install the game since message:"connection failed" occurs when starting the setup.

..............................Moderator Comment......................

Hi Marliese, did you check the FAQ's section that I linked to in my review above (comment number 1)?

Not a bad game. I can see it would suit the younger generation alot better than the older, but what the hey, I'm a fifty year old kid.
:)


..............................Moderator Comment......................

Same here. :D

with I open setup gives me message failed to connect, what to you do to open this file after it downloads?

Hi there! I have a problem with launching not just this program today,but also any other 'Game GAOTD',or 'GAOTD' programs.I always get either :- "Windows cannot access the specified device,path,or file.You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item",or "Failed to launch the program".
If anyone can help me solve this very annoying problem,then PLEASE let me know A.S.A.P. Thank You.

Oh, almost forgot. Good luck to your son. What medal is he going for? It looks like a nice program for young people.


......................Moderator comment........................

Hi Anita, yes it's regarded highly in the UK. He's at his first stage the bronze medallion. You can't start it until you are in the Venture Scouts and ionwards. Usually your 18 by the time you're doing your gold award. I believe up until recently (due to old age and illness) the Duke of Edinburgh (the queens husband) awarded gold medals.

Decent match 3 game. Changing the cursor to computers plain cursor seemed to take the clunky out of the game. It looked smoother.
Running Windows 7 8gig 64 bit quad processor.


........................Moderator Comment....................

Thank you for your feedback Anita

Deliah is correct. It does remind me of The Flying Dutchman game. The story line is terrible and the movement is clunky. The music is okay. It's a meh game. Not being on a timer it is a good one to just waste some time with but I wisch it had a decent storyline....Would make it more fun. Installed with no problems on Win7.

Thanks to Star ashes and GGOTD for the game.
Good luck to your son, Wabbit and thanks for the review.



........................Moderator Comment....................

Thank you for your feedback Delenn (and your well wishes) :)

[The Same Poster From #4] Works Well On windows 7 Home Premium,64Bit Intel 2.2 Ghz, 2Gig Memory 15 1/2 screen. Thank you, moderator for the reply and instructions. I did everything on the other PC except checking the site mentioned. Nothing woked after 8 changes. I can see it is getting hung up on the Intro screen with the >New< G.O.T.D. Screen Plug at the start.

- As for game, it is Nice. I like the pop-up / cut-out reliefs to the tiles; it's, perhaps a bit more "virtally tactile". The mouse control is sharp and the direction nudge feature makes it quicker & less work for my hand.

Thanks for the game and the personal help! (-:

..................Moderator comment.................

Thanks for the update Peter, sorry it wasn't of ant help.

oops--that should have been "think about how easy" in the middle of the 4th line.

The music is rather pleasant and inconspicuous, which is nice--it doesn't get irritating after awhile like some game music does. I find the "chunky movement" quite distracting. I would appreciate more info on what purpose the bonuses serve, also the purpose of the pests--do they actually mean anything in terms of points or privileges, can you use them later, or are they just benign features of the game? Also, I hadn't thought about this until Swamp Thing brought it up, but the incongruence of of the story line is quite disappointing, especially when you thing about how easy it would be to have made a valid, more interesting storyline. If this is about trolls, whose characteristics are well known in northern European mythology--well, trolls wouldn't be above ground at all, or building libraries for heaven's sake--they would be mining gold and jewels, or stealing them, or warring with other troll tribes--trolls are all about greed--that could have been a fun story line. Also, runes were a Nordic alphabet with interesting and easy to obtain history--it would be more interesting to use the game to translate runes to discover the buried village of the ancient elves, or something--I hadn't found anything in the game as far as I played that looked like a rune. A bit of historical information would have been easy to include and made the game more unique. On the plus side, the graphics and music are soothing. This game did not install easily for me, which is the first time I've run into this on GGOTD--it had something to do with wanting to install in the computer's "Game" file, which may have been a proprietary file, specific to games that came with the computer--just a guess. Most games have been willing to just be installed in separate folders in the "all programs" line-up. Again, I haven't run into this before, & was ready to give up on installation after the 4th try, but the 5th try was a go. I appreciate you offering this game.

..................Moderator Comment........................

Thank you for your excellent feedback blueboomerang. :)

Works fine on Windows XP SP3. I will also be putting this on my W7 machine. Nice little match 3, thanks.

This is a really neat match three game with nice scenery. Installed easily Win 7 Pro 64 bit, but then again I never have problems with Give Away Of The Day Games. :-)


..................Moderator Comment........................

Thank you Marcy

Downloaded easily. Large objects are easy to look at. Not my favorite kind of game and I have to leave for work so not much time to play but I think that some will like it's story and simplicity.

I run MSSE and got no virus warning. However, my 1st attempt at d/l resulted in a 40 something MB corrupted file; my 2nd attempt resulted in a larger file that actually unzipped/installed.


..................Moderator Comment........................

Glad you got it installed. Is the avatar a picture of you? :)

This happened to me a few times before...i dl the game..to desktop and it works fine, but, i cannot take it out of the folder, or delete the files it came with otherwise, it wont work..
i tried dl to desktop, to c:games, still same result..i have to leave it in it's folder and keep all files as well...bummer!


..................Moderator Comment........................

Hi Joanne, Sorry, can you explain further? My opiate soaked brain isn't quite sure what you are saying?

Unable to DL game - got error message "corrupted file".

..................Moderator Comment........................

Hello Valerie, check the FAQ's section, I'vep[osted some fixes. (linked in my review above)

This is a great game. Very addictive. The levels aren't timed which is good for me, and they aren't too long so that I get bored. I also like the different sorts of games which all fuels the addiction. I tried to play the game in a window but it hung the computer. Works fine full screen though, but that might have just been a one off oddity.


..................Moderator Comment........................

Thank you for your feedback Ann

Hi, Wabbit,

Best wishes for your kid coming out the other end of the maze unfazed.

When I was a kid here in the US, back when us scouts used moss on the North side of trees for orienteering (we got lost a lot, also used the moss for bedding and that's akin to cramming an unfolded map back in a glove compartment), I think our merit badge was called the Duke Duke Duke of Earl.

No, wait, come to think of it, that was a dance we had newbies do after putting their forehead on the handle of a baseball bat and making them spin around 10 times. Nevermind.


..................Moderator Comment........................
Hi RuneSage, nice to see your still around. Not seen you in a while. As for the duke of Earl, lol. We had to rush out and get him a compass yesterday as I'd misplaced my old one. Unfortunatley he forgot his scout knife. :)

If any of you are experiencing the SLOW CURSOR on your computer, change the custom cursor to system cursor and that will make the game playable. This only applies to very low end Intel Graphics Cards.

..................Moderator Comment........................

Thank you for your feedback Little Bear

Okay, I'll try this game. BUT it CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT be better than FISHDOM. All (ALL) Match 3 games created in the FUTURE HISTORY of gamedom will fail to approach the perfection of FISHDOM.

I'm confused, though! Is this a game about DWARFS? Dwarfs live in caves. You know, like underneath mountains. What's up with talk about ancestral trees? Trees don't grow in caves underneath mountains! Ancestral trees are an ELVES thing, not a DWARFS thing. Has the company who made this game REALLY mixed up such basic middle earth fantasy ideas?

STORYLINES matter, people! Be ACCURATE with your FICTION!

Clunky movement. Nothing smooth here. BUT dwarfs are CLUNKY so CLUNKY is OKAY in this case.

This is an "EH" game. It's not good. It's not bad. It's just eh.

You dropped your kid up in the middle of the more? More what?


......................Moderator comment........................

:)

well, msse says it has a virus and deletes it.


...................Moderator comment......................

Oldbat, there has never been a game giveaway with malware. The giveaway team tests all game giveaways using the latest malware suites before allowing any downloads. No one else has reported this problew either; indicating it's almost certainly a false positive on your side. I'd either turn off your AV software until installed or set it up to accept the game.

What it's probably detecting is the protection that the .gcd file adds to the giveaway. this was added last year to stop users hacking the game. That is not malware. Thanks for your feedback.

Ok Win 8 x64 Pro. Adjustable screens, full size, easy to read graphics at least on first game board. Pleasant music. Make your own shortcut. Prob gets bit tougher once pests placed on board. I'd bump rating to 7.5 for match fans esp if have any sight issues since so far is easy to 'read' board pieces. Small bonus points for the background dwarf village build aspect. Thanks GOTD.


...................Moderator comment......................

Thanks for your feedback Beergas

Really chuffed a new match 3 game which looks like its going to be fun, just wanted to say a big thank you


...................Moderator comment......................

:)

The mechanics are pretty much Flying Dutchman revisited, with the addition of city building and a bit of magic, so I like it a bit better than Flying Dutchman. As mentioned above, tile movement is not exactly smooth, but I'll probably get used to it after a while. It's nice to have a game that's not a rerun. Thanks, all.

Good luck to your son on his real-life DoE quest, Rabbit!

...................Moderator comment......................

Thanks for your feedback Delilah, yes you are right, it is a little like The Flying
Dutchman game. The city building part does add to the pleasure of playing.

Good morning whiterabbit, this is an enjoyable game and the granchildren love it, keeps them amused so it has to be an OK type of game. I would like to offer my sincere good luck and wishes to your son and hope he completes his Duke of Edinburgh Award, it will be one of the best days of his life when he passes, please let us know how he got on next week, remember we might all moan about games being good or bad, but never have crossed words with each other (more like a big family), and I am sure that all the other people on here wish your son all the best as he strive to achieve his award.


........................Moderator comment......................

Back at last. got sidetracked on our way home. Thanks Kev. Yes I agree, I remember doing mine with fondness many years ago. :)

.......................Moderator comment...................

I'll return as quickly a si can to continue moderating. It will be late morning at the soonest. Please continue to post comments. they will be moderated, either by me later, or by the other moderator. (You'll be able to tell which moderator as I am the only one who leaves answers to comments). :)

Crashes: On my Vista Home Premium Intel Dual Core,2 Ghz 3Gig Memory, 32 bit 17 1/2" screen I constantly get "APPCRASH" after my screen glows/ fades in and out full screen black then white and back several times. Will reboot and also try on Win7 64bit laptop.


.........................Moderator comment.......................

Hello Peter, check to see if you are playing with Admin rights. also try going into compatibility mode and fiddling with the settings. If that fails try changing your screen resolution. Check the FAQ's section over in the Game discussion forums. I've posted several fixes over there. (See my review above for link. :)

Works fine on Win 7 pro 64. Fairly typical match three game.

I find the tile movement a bit "clunky" compared to other similar games - eg Playrix's Fishdom. But once you get passed this the game is as enjoyable as any of the others given away from here.


.........................Moderator comment.......................

Thanks for your feedback Peter. :)

Well this looks like a fun match 3 style game. A Dwarven kingdom that needs its Rune-stones found and a city needing to be saved or is it rebuilt.

Either way this looks fun so a great big Thank You from me to Stars Ashes for this new video game of there's. Since I have never seen it on there website before now I am going to assume that this game is fresh off the presses.

Perhaps we here at GGAOTD are amongst the first few to get to play it and beta test it as Stars Ashes gets it ready for sales. A brand new match 3 game now ready for world wide release on Stars Ashes home website.

While they have put a bit of a new twist to an older RPG styled story line they have made this game look interesting and the story line has peaked my interest.

I am Down loading it now. Once I have played it some and given it a solid look over I will come back and post a follow up review to grade it...

I have tough standards so I will try to be fair. but almost every one of the games from Stars Ashes that I have installed and played over the years have always been quite enjoyable.

Though I must admit some of there games have been challenging to finish and others of there's where far to easy. But finding it easy just might have been because I had a cheat code that made me virtually indestructible

This new Match 3 style game with 64 levels gives me a feeling that this one will take me some weeks to complete. Thank you GGAOTD and Stars Ashes for bringing us another great game to play .


.......................Moderator Comment...........................

Thank you for your feedback Rick. The game was created last year, but this is the first time it's been given away here. Pretty standard fare, with thre city building as an extra. I've enjoyed playing it for a short time.

Rune Stones Quest:

Rune Stones Quest downloads to a 68.4 MB zip file and unpacks to a wrapped setup file, a security file (setup.gcd) and a read me doc with the terms and conditions and instructions

The game installs to:

C:\Games\RuneStonesQuest_game

by default and is 113MB in size once installed. There is no shortcut installed nor any uninstaller. To delete just delete the installed executable





I’ve not tested it on all of my computers. Most are offline at the moment awaiting various repairs or upgrades. It works on both my Win 7 and win 8 computers.

Introduction:

A long time ago, five rune stones were created by craftsmen of The Mountain People. The Rune Stones allowed whomever possess the stones to command all natural elements, while offering protection from foes, aiding in mining, crafting and farming.Many tried to steal the riches of The Mountain People, much to the thieves’ dismay all nature stood against them and forced them out of the Dwarven kingdom. One day an evil sorcerer discovered the power the Dwarves possessed. By disguising himself as the King, the sorcerer located and destroyed The Rune Stones. Shortly thereafter, the fields of the Dwarves’ kingdom became barren as wells dried up and the drought began. And The Army of Darkness stood on the threshold. The Rune Stones must be restored to save the Kingdom, however the knowledge of their creation was lost long ago. The best Dwarven masters prepared supplies and ancient manuscripts and disembarked on a long journey. In the wilderness of the far off valley, the masters will strive to acquire the ancient knowledge lost and use it to restore The Rune Stones! Will you aid them in their vital quest?

Reference accessed HERE 22nd June 2013

The Game:

I have to leave in a few moment, so this is a very brief intro to Rune Stones Quest. I'm taking my son to a Scout meeting, where he is doing his Duke of Edinburghs Award. Basically he's getting dropped at a specific point on the moors and has to find his way to several points over the next couple of days. He has to carry all his food, tent etc for the weekend with him. I'll be back fairly late as the drop off point is quite a long way, so moderation will be a little late too.

Today's game, Rune Stone quest is a typical match three game, with the usual bonuses (explosive fire, hammer and lightning). When you line up more than three items in a row or column, you'll get bonuses. The longer the chain the better the bonus. Matching objects next to a pest will cause the pest to activate. It takes time for the pest to deactivate. Hidden objects can be found and released from under tiles. The aim of each level is to remove all dark tablets from the board. As you progress through the game there are other objects to find and match together such as parchments and rune stones.
You will slowly build a settlemen starting with the ancestral tree; to create the ancestral tree you have to match acorns. To receive rune s tones you need to have completed such buildings as the Library, Settlement Center and Alchemy Lab. Each building will require you to collect specific tile sets, which will be made clear throughout the game via your chiefs messages at the start of each level.

Video:

You can see a couple of videos of Rune Stones Quest HERE, HERE, Quest HERE, HERE and HERE


Music:

If you don't like the music you should be able to exchange the music from the sound folder which is located:
C:\Games\RuneStonesQuest_game\Data\Sound\x.ogg

You'll need to rename and convert any of your MP3s to the .ogg format before you replace them. Not all files in the sound folder can be exchanged, so make sure you back up all files until you are sure the game works okay.

Minimum System Specifications:

Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7 plus it also works on win 8
Pentium 1.0 GHz or equivalent
256Mb System RAM
112 Mb Hard drive space
Direct3D compatible 3D graphics card
64 MB gRAM

Conclusion:
A pretty standard match three with city building elements that adds to the game. Well worth downloading if youy like match three's, but it's nothing special. I enjoyed the short time I played the game and will be keeoing a copy, at least for the near future.
Score:

Overall I'd give this game the following score:

Game play - 7
Graphics - 7
Music - 6
Replayability - 7
Originality - 6

Total = 33 out of 50 which equates to 6.6 out of 10

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If you have any problems installing today's game please go HERE for help.





Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:


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You'll find many more game deals from Gamersgate, Gamestop, and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above.

To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price.


You can get a free arcade game via Alawar's game box, just click the free game tab. It changes approximately every month If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand.

The latest IndieGameStand game is 8-Bit Commandoa a run and gun platformer. If you pay more than the average you also get the puzzle game Chains and Touch Chess. You'll also get a desura Key for 8-Bit commando and Chains. You'll find the deal HERE. This deal ends on Mon 17th June around 4am GMT.
you can find out more about this deal over in the Game discussion forums. :)

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There's more Indie bundles available. you can find them via the Game Discussion forums. All bundles are excellent value for money :). For most of these bundles you need not pay more than $5 for several games that would usually cost you a lot more. You'll find links to all of these bundles in the Game discussion forums HERE


If you want more match three games you'll find over 140 of them over at MyPlayCity and at least 50 over at Gametop. You'll also find Match threes at FreeGamePick and Jenkat games.

Please be aware that installing games from these sites can lead to toolbar installations and changes in your home page and browser.


A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you've checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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