Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Demon's Tower
By planetary
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 799 | 3.38 | 20 | |
| Fun | 521 | 3.50 | 20 | |
| Innovation | 843 | 3.08 | 20 | |
| Theme | 1071 | 2.91 | 20 | |
| Graphics | 840 | 3.30 | 20 | |
| Audio | 691 | 2.88 | 20 | |
| Humor | 1046 | 1.69 | 20 | |
| Mood | 1073 | 2.91 | 20 |
hey man wanted to say that your html build doesn't work
also the game is nice, very in-depth with the powerups and upgrade system, I think it would be great if everything went by a bit faster as it can be a bit repetitive at first, but afterwards it really gets going. good entry
It starts a little slow, but with some upgrades under your belt you also start to be able to afford some cards, and get to experience all the cool ideas this game has. Well done!
i cannot play the html version :/
I had a lot of fun with this one! Took me a bit to figure out exactly what was going on, but once I understood, it was a lot of fun! The casting delay on spells felt a bit excessively long, making it tough to use them strategically, but the meta progression is quick and satisfying, and unlocking new spells is a lot of fun! Really enjoyed this one, definitely gonna come back to it a couple times! ^^
I added the HTML version to this site and I hope it works!
@cosmo8 , I'm glad that you enjoy the game! I know that is a long delay between the build of the pentagram and the effect of it, but I wanted a little bit of intro.
Probably the most fun game I've played so far!
I like the game, I'm a bit confused on how buying the cards work. It seems random as far as whether or not you get an upgrade for your $20. I also kinda wish there was more to do during each run. Definitely could be a chill thing to have going on the side. It took so long for things to ramp up, I just let the game run and ignored the cards.
It is a very nice concept, and I like the simple visuals, especially the explosion effect using the same sprites as the thing it spawned from is very cool. Some notes on the mechanics:
The player is encouraged to ignore the cards. There is no explanation of what the card does when in game. It is never explained that the money in game is different from the money you use to upgrade, meaning it is natural to assume that it is the same resource. Leading to not using cards in order to save up to buy upgrades. Upgrading the cards at random does not allow for strategic deck building. The card effects are have a long build up, which makes them bad for pulling you out of tough spots. And the card effects are very short, which means you need to spend a lot of your resource to keep being able to use the card, effectively. The cards that builds a tiny tower is very nice, and so is the death wave. The rest are difficult to use well because of the delay in the summoning.
The upgrades are static, and the enemies scale with the wave counter. This means that there is always a point at which the enemies will overpower everything.
My suggestion would be to have the cards be free to play, and start the player of with some basic ones. I would also remove the upgrade shop, and have the player choose an upgrade after every wave. Maybe even remove the card shop and have the cash be used to draw new cards.
Overall it is nice idea, and I did spend a ridiculous amount of time playing. So great work!
Fun little tower defense. While the game start a little slow, especially since (from what I can understand) you have to die to return to main menu and get upgrades & cards/abilities, after a few waves it get interesting especially with a few cards that give the player stuff to do instead of just watching the shooting. I really think the game should have started with one card already bought. Love the simple/abstract visuals. Not every game need photo-realistic art after all to look good. Great job!
Hi @blank-3d, thanks for the feedback!
I know that a lot of cards available in the store have little impact on enemies or are for a short time (after 3 - 4 seconds of cooldown). Even the price of a single card is higher than an upgrade.
Money problem: menu money is different from round money. So you are free to use any available card you want in a round because it doesn't affect the money for upgrades. My advice is to use the blue cards (except the mini tower version card) when the boss arrives!
This game was a little rushed, so if I had an extra day I'd test it and definitely change some prices and stuff. I immediately saw some drawbacks after some friends who didn't attend this event tested my game and asked me many things about how it plays.
The idea you came up with is very nice! After a wave having the option to choose 2 or 3 options to upgrade your tower (ie: damage, health, armour etc.) is really nice, and after a boss wave to choose an available perk! Why not?
If you want to know how enemies level up, their health, damage, and speed are equal to their previous level multiplied by a certain constant. So their level increases exponentially!
In conclusion, your feedback is the most useful, longest and most complex feedback I have ever received! I will take care of these aspects in future events.
*Thank you very much!!* --
I love this game it's simple and nice. Good job!
Really had a ton of fun you should be proud! Game play was really enjoyable, with a few polishes here and there it would be steam ready!
Okay this is a bit tricky to review short so bear with me.
The start is quite confusing and need quite a bit more polishing, it took me about 20 min to even realise how fun it is and how much potential there really is!
I think this game is about a third ready to be released on steam for 10$ which is unbelievable good for a jam game! I see that the html build was broken initially, but if this game doesn't get 5/5 it's only because people didn't stay long enough! I might sound hyperbole, but this is by far the closest to a be a "real" game I've played this jam, and I've played some games I thought were great entries. It really scratches the same itch as "Gnorp Apologue" or "Rouge Tower".
The simple graphics are great! The particle effect when enemies dies feel solid and the tower shooting feels really satisfying. Levelling up attack speed felt super nice. I like the concept of the summoning, it feels just enough to make it to sort of a "rouge idle game" rather than a pure idle game.
I think it would have been a good idea to let the player start with one card in the deck so you have something to interact with from the start - so far after playing it about an hour I think its more of a idle game, and a great one at that, with some interactions once in a while. But when starting it just felt a bit slow, and I was wondering when I get to play my cards.
It also took me a couple of rounds to realise that the money you spend during the game isn't spend when going out to the shop. I think that could be a lot clearer. I think the most simple way would be to split it up into two currencies, so for example "mana" to play cards and $ for the shop. Then you could also have a passive mana reg stat.
The wave meter is a bit confusing that it takes two laps, one red and one green. I haven't figured out if that means something, but if it doesn't, it probably should just be one slower lap. I still haven't been able to click to the next tier, and I've survived around maybe 30 waves. Don't know what's up with that, but if it is just because I havn't reached it yet, it would be nice to have some indicator for how many waves I need to survive. Or if it just that I cannot figure out how to change tier I guess I find it confusing how to do that :P
I've upgraded my base tower quite a lot, but since I still need to start from the beginning it feels a bit slow in the beginning of each round. It would be nice to pick what wave to start or that higher tiers were reached quicker (maybe they could be bought with upgrade money). Also I would like to be able to abandon current round. I accidentally started a game without upgrading the "tower" which is what sent me out here to write this review instead of continue playing.
One thing I could be iterated upon is how you get money, since the enemies are scaled but not the money you get it feels a bit pointless to play card if you see your gonna die soon and you will get the same money after restarting against easier enemies. So maybe you could be 23 * X $ for clearing wave 23, or more money per enemy the longer the game goes.
I still haven't dwelled into the deck building component of the game (I have only bought two poison clouds), so I can't really give much feedback on that yet. But the visual is nice, but since the game is so minimalistic in general I think it could be nice with a circle outline of the exact area it hits. Also some indicator of how long it lasts, maybe on the card itself to not clutter the game screen. I don't know if it's random what card you get, so maybe I was unlucky, but I got two poison cards and that doesn't seem to give me anything since there is no cooldown. I think maybe it got upgraded(?) but if so I feel the second card is still unnecessary.
Sorry for the wall of text, I just really like the game and think it has great potential! I'm gonna get back playing now. Well done!
Hey @bjornstenlund! Glad you like the game! I hope you had a lot of fun and you don't have to feel sorry for the wall of text though! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide this feedback!
About the money issue: I quickly realized that this was a mistake on my part. The next day some friends played my game and asked me if the money in the round is different from the money in the menu. And the thing about advancing in the round to give the enemy more money seemed unnecessary to me, because after each wave more enemies came anyway, and more likely to come rarer enemies than the Basic (Fast, Tank and Fighter , which give more money than the Basic). That means more money!
The problem with the wave meter (or timer): each wave has 2 parts: the actual wave (when enemies are coming towards the tower) and the cooldown (when no more enemies are spawning), which this cooldown can be skipped by pressing Tab. Skipping the cooldown you will collect double amount of money in a certain time (it can be seen on the money that the font changes to green).
Getting to wave 30 in 20 minutes is pretty good, getting to wave 50 took me around an hour. But now comes the second mistake I made: a friend was playing the game heavily, but if I didn't see what he was doing, he was still on Tier 1 playing, while he passed wave 50. When you reach wave 50 from a Tier, the next Tier is unlocked, but this was most likely not noticed by most players. I should have added a little text somewhere that a new Tier was unlocked.
Another mistake was the "patience test". Whenever you die in big waves (20-25 and beyond) you have to start over from wave 1, which is a bit annoying, especially since you have to wait until the waves where the action starts. If I had added a Time Speed button it would be a lot more fun.
Of course, there may be more mistakes that I made, but nobody is perfect, especially when things are rushed. This event is the 2nd one that I have attended and I would like to attend the following events as well. Every game created is an additional experience in game development, and that's what I had: from the simplest games, created in many weeks, to a game created in 3 days for Ludum Dare.
In conclusion, your feedback was indeed very long, but also qualitative, which means a lot to me (and anyone too).
So, *Thank you very much* -- for your wall text, I really appreciate that!
I loved it! I've got a thing for arcady games like that, plus you have a meta progression, it feels polished enough for a jam, really well done! Would love to play a full version of this!
I also have to +1 the previous comment, definitely some UX improvements to make but that's already a solid experience.
Thank you for the game and congrats on your entry!
@planetary Thank you for the answer! yeah exactly, every jam game has flaws, and I mean that's sort of the point! My entry definitely have :)
I think the more money with better enemies thing is a valid point, now that I've played it a bit more you can for sure tell you get more money the longer the game goes.
Just wanted to update a little bit with the deck mechanic now that I've tested it a bit more. I now realise that your hand is always filled with random cards you've unlocked, and since I only hade one card in the deck (upgraded once) it always occupied both my unlocked slots in my hand. That means that what I said earlier with summoning timer on the card doesn't really work either since the card is gone after it is played. Maybe the hand could just show the unlocked slots, and maybe a text could be displayed initially ("no cards unlocked") to make it a bit clearer. That wouldn't exactly work in my case where I only have one card in the deck, bit it's sort of an edge case.
Thanks for a great game!