[Prototype] Alchemist TD

Comments

• Elyaradine

  8:47pm 12 Aug 2015 edited 8:53pm 12 Aug 2015

  Glad you posted it! Just a collection of random thoughts here, because I'm tired and too lazy to format it.
  
  For some reason when I started it up, it wanted to connect to the internet. I didn't know what for, so I blocked it.
  
  I've played TDs before, but I haven't played the GemTD. I started out extremely frustrated. When I clicked the Build button, nothing would happen, or the building would appear right behind the button (where I didn't want to place it). It was only after restarting a few times and then coming to read the post that I realised I'm supposed to drag the button onto the field. This doesn't seem like a PC game convention, but when I think about it as a mobile game it seems to make more sense.
  
  I generally didn't know what the other buttons did either. Pressing the X button thinking it'd close the bar deleted one of my gems instead. I don't know what the heart and arrow do. (I messed around with them for a bit and still don't.)
  
  Some of the art cues were misleading. Some of the trees and bushes don't block collision (so the wave can move through them), while other things on the field do. I saw later that the grid would turn red for impassable stuff, but the red isn't always visible, so I'm not always sure. The trees look nice, but they block a lot of the play area so that you can't see behind them. It wasn't clear to me what the path direction was until after I saw the first wave (at which point I restarted because my first gem placement was going to take forever to get to).

  The second you canuse a gemyou just placed and combine it with any other gem on the field to make supa amazing supa awesome supa gems.

  I didn't know what the rules were for combining -- does it combine based on gems that are nearby, or gems on the entire battlefield, or gems that I've placed this round? I played several waves and never seemed to get to that second phase you wrote about. For the most part, I just selected gems until I could upgrade. The upgrade button looked to me as if I could click it when I couldn't. (It only looks as if it's disabled when it's next to an enabled button. When it's on its own, it looks as if I can still click it.)
  
  I'd like to know what the stats are for a gem, so that I can compare different gems before I upgrade.
  
  I don't know what the numbers at the bottom of the screen mean.
  
  I'd like to be able to cancel placing a gem, either by releasing the over the UI somewhere, or by right-clicking. I'd also like to be able to see where the path is going before I place the gem. Occasionally, I'd place a gem only to realise afterwards that the path went far away from where I was building, which felt unfair when it wasn't something I could predict easily.
  
  I really wanted a fast-forward, given that TDs are mainly about playing the build phase. Waiting for waves to clear is fine for the first few times, but it gets old quite quickly.
  
  I don't really see what the "hook" is. I mean, it may be that I haven't played enough to know (the waves seemed to stay pretty much the same for me, so there weren't different enemy types, and so I don't know if there are interesting strategies to employ or something). It's just, "It's a tower defense where your gems are the towers, and you combine gems" doesn't sound like an interesting hook to me. It might have worked great in Warcraft 3 when I was at LAN parties and we just trawled through hundreds of maps looking for fun stuff to play, but I don't think that works when it's a standalone. I feel you'd either need to be selling some kind of unique and interesting mechanic, or a really cool fantasy. So this looks like it's been an awesome learning project, but I feel as if you'd need something more more unique in your prototype or your theme to really hook peoples' interest (unless there's an untapped base of players who're just dying to play GemTD again!).
  
  The art is pretty! If you did the art yourself, and you're looking for a game art job, you could probably land one (assuming the studio's in a position to hire right now). And if you did the scripting too, and have some experience writing custom shaders and optimizing for mobile, my previous employer would probably be interested in hiring you. :P
  
  
• Eric

  10:01pm 12 Aug 2015

  @Elyaradine Thanks for the input man.
  
  I was going on the 20 sec gameplay you talked about here:makegamessa.com/discussion/comment/36401#Comment_36401 so that explains why half the stuff isnt working. eg. the tree/bush collisions (just the top left works). Also explains why there isnt 100 different types of enemies.
  
  The usability of the build pane is definitely good feedback. I thought it might be stupid so it does need fixing. Especially the buttons that dont do anything yet is something I guess should not be visible until it does.
  The path lines are for debugging. Unless you think it would be a useful tool for the player.
  The fast forward is also an obvious requirement that has to be there. Got frustrated myself.
  There is a recipe book GUI when you hit 'R' that shows the possible gems and stats. No button on the hud though which is retarded. Thought I could get away with that seeing as it's a prototype.
  
  I'll consider your opinion on the uniqueness of everything. In my personal opinion GemTD is about the only non-blatant clone of a TD that ever existed (with the exception of sanctum). But then again my personal opinion won't make the game successful. I'll work a few more days on the game regardless as I'm not depending on it for income or whatever.
  
  Anyways thanks again for the input.
• Elyaradine

  11:04pm 12 Aug 2015

  I think there was a TD I played that was miles ahead of the others (that I'd played at the time), both because the towers and units had abilities that I hadn't seen in other TDs and because it just seemed so well polished, with little things it didn't that I hadn't thought about before. I seem to remember it was over 12MB. I can't find it now though. :/
  
  If you're having fun, by all means keep having fun. XD Maybe while you fool around with stuff you'll discover some combination of behaviours that produces a really nice interaction.
• hermantulleken

  12:13am 13 Aug 2015

  I was also a bit confused about what is going on. I had the same questions as @Elyaradine, so it would be worth going through each one and add the information to the original post. It may be a good idea to rewrite it completely; take out everything about the future (to make it less intimidating), and structure it something like this:

  To play, place 5 gems on the map by dragging the hammer onto the map. You can then either combine them, or keep one of them. After you made your choice, the enemies will come. After all the enemies die, the next build phase starts... If they don't die...
  
  A few notes:
  * the path changes...
  * hit R to see recipes...
  * some buttons don't work: ....
  * the numbers on the bottom of the screen are ...
  * ATM the enemies are the same each round
  
  etc.
  

  The way the combining works is a bit strange. Why not show the five gems a player gets at each round up front, and allow the player to combine gems whenever (and not make it compulsory)? The choose-one-to-keep or combine seems overly complicated (especially if you have to build blind).
  
  Then a bug (I think): the spiders get stuck at the 3rd waypoint if you don't manage to kill them, and the only way I could get out of this was to restart.
  
• Eric

  5:27am 13 Aug 2015 edited 5:28am 13 Aug 2015

  @ thanks man the shortening I think is a good idea so I deleted most of the original post.
  
  The gem combo mechanics sprout from the original game.
  
  I actually think your idea of combining whenever you want is fantastic. However I think there has to be balance. So maybe if the player combines 3 gems to make a new one, that will count as 3 builds. Then the player has a choice between maze length and gem power.
• konman

  6:47pm 21 Aug 2015

  @Eric Downloaded your prototype and fired it up. The graphics are excellent and the UI is very slick.
  
  I managed to get 1 wave beaten, but the second one froze on me so could not get any further.
  
  As i tested this I needed to restart often to try different things. There was no way to do this easily and I had to hit Escape and then run the executable again to get back in the game. A restart option would make the play-testers life a lot simpler. :)
  
  I am a fan and remember when you posted GridLock too and messed about with it for a bit. The combination of gems here sounds interesting, although I couldn't figure out a way to do it. i got lucky with a pink amethyst that zapped all spiders without needing to combo any gems to get more damage.
  
  A tutorial/intro explaining the basic concepts at a staggered pace might make the initial learning curve a bit less steep.
  
  Are you using NavMesh or maybe A* for the pathfinding?
• Eric

  4:01am 24 Aug 2015

  Hey @konman
  
  Thanks for the feedback :) I'm working pretty hard on the next release which will hopefully be a bit more user friendly.

  A tutorial/intro explaining the basic concepts at a staggered pace might make the initial learning curve a bit less steep.

  You're definitely right on that one. A tutorial will be featuring in the next build. But the game has changed quite a bit in the meantime. I followed @hermantulleken's suggestions and one thing led to another and now the game is a bit different. I believe in a good way.

  A restart option would make the play-testers life a lot simpler. :)

  You'll be happy to know the restart button has been added.

  Are you using NavMesh or maybe A* for the pathfinding?

  I'm using the NavMesh. So far I haven't run into too many shortcomings. I could eventually place 250 gems in a test run without a noticeable change in the NavMesh performance. So that's a relief.

  I am a fan

  Haha thanks I appreciate it.

  The graphics are excellent and the UI is very slick

  Thanks a lot. But this is one of the things that changed quite a lot. To fit my vision of the "story" or you know... the reason why you need to build murderous gems.
  
  I estimate the next release to be available in 2 weeks or so. So we'll see how it goes :)