[Prototype] 2D Tower Defense with ~Mazing/Juggling~

Enchiridion

Hey guys!

So I've been in the gaming industry for a while as an artist but only recently decided to start coding my own game, as I have had to learn to integrate UI functionality for work.

This game is inspired by the old Warcraft III custom maps such as Line Tower Wars or Tropical Tower Wars (a South African custom map btw), because I've always enjoyed the concept of mazing and juggling the creeps.

I'm aiming to make it for mobile, as over 90% of mobile TDs have set paths and you cannot maze.

For now it just has a simple game loop and I am just adding features as I go along, so I am open to suggestions and feedback.

Attached is a windows build. Enjoy!

EvanGreenwood

That's a really cool start! An you're right, without mazing tower defense games are less interesting. Mazing gives the player far more opportunities to manipulate their opponents (which is a much more powerful feeling than just damaging them before they reach the end of their predetermined path).

I don't think you HAVE to take my advice here, but I think one up from TD games with mazing are TD games with a bit of base-building. There's probably better examples, but "Attack of The Titans" had a bit of this feeling. And recently "They Are Billions" showed how rad building a base and defending it from lots of enemies is.

I don't think you need to build SimCity to get some of that base-building feeling. I think you could achieve a bit of that feeling by making the parts of the tower defense more inter-dependent.

Some random ideas:

- Obviously slow-down towers and splash towers are a classic combination in TD games. So classic that it's a bit boring now probably if implemented exactly like in all the other games with these towers.
- Perhaps you could build resource collection towers, that collect the resources from the fallen enemies.
- And then you can build distributors that collect the resources from the collection towers and funnel them back to the HQ.
- And maybe towers need electricity, and that has to travel to the towers from the generators you build.

That sort of thing? What I'm getting at is that designing mazing TD is better than 90% of TD games on mobile, but it is still a problem that players have experienced before. Ideally you want to give them a problem that gets more complex or different to standard mazing TD. I've really enjoyed games like "Creeper World 3" which is technically a TD but the problem I'm solving is quite different to a standard TD.

I don't know if making the layout of the towers require a bit more planning, because there are maintenence/energy networks that need to be stuck in between, is the right solution. But what I'm getting at is maybe there is a way to break from the standard formula and get players who have already played mazing TD games excited about this one.

And from my side, the thing I love about TD games is building a Tower Defense that outsmarts the enemies and feels like a fresh solution. Recently I've been more excited about PC base-building in games like "They Are Billions" and "Factorio", and I feel like there's an opportunity on mobile to capture that feeling while keeping it a bit simpler.

Where are you based? We were thinking of doing a Tower Defence Jam later this year, like in June or so.

Enchiridion

Thanks for the feedback!

While I haven't really thought of any core concepts or game loops yet, I am still getting a lot of influence from Line TD. So much so that I am thinking of making it multiplayer and instead of automatic waves, you will "send" creeps to the other players in your match. No idea if that is way to ambitious or not, but that's where I want to go eventually.

As for additional buildings, Line TD also required you to build non-offensive buildings that were used for unlocking new towers. They also had an option to choose different tower upgrade trees based on water, fire, earth etc, similar to Tropical Tower Wars where one can choose races.

My initial idea was to release for mobile so want to keep things simple, but if the game feels good on PC then might change my mind.

I am based in Cape Town, sounds cool, might join that to gain some experience :D

Tuism

As far as multiplayer tower defence games go, I've played an oldie called Comet Crash that had mazing AND multiplayer AND it plays simultaneously on a console, and I feel it juggled it pretty well. Going even simpler there was Mushroom Wars and its ilk, but that's probably way too simple.

On a mobile perspective you probably want to design for async play.



I'm with Evan in that TDs generally put me off because they're a pretty tired genre by now and I basically ignore most TD. Actually I don't play enough games in general to have enough insight into each genre's current trends anymore :P

Enchiridion

Well I chose to make a TD as my first game for the precise reason to try and revive the genre, or at least make it stand out from the saturated market.

I am a bit of a noob when it comes to coding terms, what does async play mean?

Also, here is an example of juggling in my game so far (I am aware that the creeps sometimes move diagonally, they should not be doing that):

Enchiridion

New Version Changelog:
* updated buying/sell menu to be click + hold on tile
* made game over screen transparent so you can see your score when you lose

Enchiridion

v0.0.6 Changelog:
* added splash tower functionality
* added creep healthbars
* added tower range indicators on click
* added menu buttons with Start, Restart, Speed Up and Pause/Resume
* balanced game based on envisioned tower upgrade tree
* made tower projectiles same colour as towers
* able to run game in background now

Tightrope

Would like to give it a go, can't see the link though...

Enchiridion

Tightrope said:

Would like to give it a go, can't see the link though...

Added it back, dunno where it went to lol, thanks for spotting that!

Tightrope

I don't have any experience with TD games so quite enjoyed this. Trying to figure out an optimal maze was fun. Once you have the 'solution' the game loses its replayability, so I'm curious to see how you're going to ramp up the challenge. I'm sure you have plenty of ideas lined up but have you considered having the 'creeps' come from different directions? Should be easy to implement. So far a very polished and clean experience.

Enchiridion

Tightrope said:

I don't have any experience with TD games so quite enjoyed this. Trying to figure out an optimal maze was fun. Once you have the 'solution' the game loses its replayability, so I'm curious to see how you're going to ramp up the challenge. I'm sure you have plenty of ideas lined up but have you considered having the 'creeps' come from different directions? Should be easy to implement. So far a very polished and clean experience.

Yeah there will be different kind of creeps (flying, invisible, tower attacking, elemental weaknesses and resistances) so that's one way I'm going to change things up.

Creeps coming from different directions is tricky because it depends on the phone orientation, I've played one mobile mazing TD where the creeps come from top to bottom in landscape mode which is very difficult to play against because the distance they travel is so short, but definitely something I've been thinking about.

Enchiridion

v0.0.7 Changelog:
* reconfigured camera size and orientation, game is now in portrait mode
* added camera controls
- PC: scroll to zoom, click and drag to pan
- Android: pinch to zoom, touch and drag to pan, double tap to reset camera
* healthbars now animate and change colour

Enchiridion

v0.0.9 Changelog:
* creeps now move diagonally (not sure why I didn't make them do this in the first place)
* added new game mode: Multiplayer
- Balance your strategy between sending creeps to earn more income and building towers to defend
- NOTE: currently you send creeps to yourself, actual multiplayer coming soon
* minor UI tweaks and fixes