Adding a Twist to Tower Defense

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by GninjaGnome December 24, 2011 07:44 PM

2 comments, last by GninjaGnome 12 years, 4 months ago

184

Author

December 24, 2011 07:44 PM

I’m currently working on a ww2 tank game that has a towerdefense style battle at the end of each level.

A quick over-view would be the player drives the tank aroundto rescue supply convoys, and in the process acquires points to upgrade theirbase. The final stage of each level has a large enemy force attack the playerbase.

I feel the mechanics for the “rescue” portion of the gameare solid, but the defense part is lackluster.

If anyone is willing to share some ideas for how to make agreat tower defense, it would be greatly appreciated.

--

Here are a few pics with notes on how the game plays so far.

The main camera view is a chase right now, but It could change for the TD battles.

Here is a close up of the base the player defends.

It's just a square with one open end. I don't really know if it would be better to have large open areas around the base or have the player try to route the enemy through specific paths. ..the latter makes more sense strategically, but would it be more fun?

There is a bit more info on the game here: http://floppyent.com/floppyen_devblog/

Thanks for any input.

???'S?????? ?s R???'? ???!!

My Deviant Art Gallery

Caldtem

323

December 25, 2011 07:31 PM

I’m currently working on a ww2 tank game that has a towerdefense style battle at the end of each level.

A quick over-view would be the player drives the tank aroundto rescue supply convoys, and in the process acquires points to upgrade theirbase. The final stage of each level has a large enemy force attack the playerbase.

I feel the mechanics for the “rescue” portion of the gameare solid, but the defense part is lackluster.

If anyone is willing to share some ideas for how to make agreat tower defense, it would be greatly appreciated.

--

Here are a few pics with notes on how the game plays so far.

The main camera view is a chase right now, but It could change for the TD battles.

Here is a close up of the base the player defends.

It's just a square with one open end. I don't really know if it would be better to have large open areas around the base or have the player try to route the enemy through specific paths. ..the latter makes more sense strategically, but would it be more fun?

There is a bit more info on the game here: http://floppyent.com/floppyen_devblog/

Thanks for any input.

What if the rescue portion of the game was actually the player gathering defense supplies? At the end, you can only defend your base with the supplies acquired as of yet. That means you need to be selective on placing defensive structures as to maintain a decent reserve supply for tough fights while also requiring the player to do well in the "rescue" portion to succeed in the defense portion.

I should get a "Thanks to" in the credits for that one

.

*Edit*
Or perhaps that is what you already had in mind, but using the word rescue instead of gather?

The tower defense games I played as Star Craft mods could be really fun if done right.

justkevin

252

December 27, 2011 12:16 AM

I recommend playing a bunch of TD games and seeing what makes them fun. I recently enjoyed the Cursed Treasure defense games (you can find them on Kongregate, I forget who made them). I've only written one flash TD-type game, but it was reasonably popular with about 2 million plays to date (http://lab.wx3.com/defender/).
Without playing it, it's hard to say what would make yours fun, but I would say the essence of tower defense is the player making a series of choices that help him defend his base against escalating waves of attackers. For the choices to be interesting, there needs to be a trade-off. Typical trade-offs include:

defending well against one type of attacker vs. a general purpose defense
creating defenses now vs. creating infrastructure that will make stronger defenses later
choosing which areas are most important to protect

GninjaGnome

184

Author

December 30, 2011 04:20 AM

@Caldenfor: Yeah, I guess I was a little vague there. But gathering supplies is the first part of each level. Convoys of supply trucks spawn at the edge of the map, and it's the players job to help them get to the base safely. They are rewarded with defense points for each truck that makes it. I have some cool mechanics for the first part, but the defense sucks.

@justKevin: Thanks. That's good advice. There are just so many out there and I'm not a big fan of that style of game myself. I do like the idea of making turrets that are general purpose and some that are specific to certain enemies.

I'm thinking of maybe giving the player a little engineer track that builds road blocks and turrets.

I can show you the level as it is now. There are no enemies in it though, The spawn point will be tunnels at the ends of the roads.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1176275/ThomasBuild/WebPlayer.html

I just don't want this part of the game to be tedious.

???'S?????? ?s R???'? ???!!

My Deviant Art Gallery

Adding a Twist to Tower Defense

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