Rocky Desert Swarm - A Tower Defense Game (SPOTLIGHT Nod)

Printable View

07-23-2012
crazymario

Rocky Desert Swarm - A Tower Defense Game (SPOTLIGHT Nod)

http://lbp.me/v/c5myy7

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been working on a level so I figured I might as well post it here!

http://i3.lbp.me/img/ft/8239d37776cf...654ece23ba.jpg

Rocky Desert Swarm is a tower defense with small elements from standard RTS's mixed in. For example, instead of getting points from defeating enemies, you earn points through "mining". You can build upgrade buildings that upgrade your mining speed and unlock more towers. Also, enemies do not disappear once they reach your base. Instead, they swarm around and attack your base until they are destroyed by your defensive structures.

I did get a little inspiration from the Galactic Defense level in that you may only build defensive structures in certain spots on the map. However, I believe that's where the similarities end. There isn't a set number of waves. The first few waves are made to give a nice sense of pace and progression as all three paths are opened up and all the enemies are introduced. After that, though, enemies will come at you endlessly until you are overwhelmed and your base is destroyed.

http://i3.lbp.me/img/ft/463158dd2e1f...38e9035390.jpg

Unfortunately, because of thermometer limitations there is only one map. However this one map is quite large and there are three pathways for enemies to come through. Besides, I feel that having only one map adds to the survival challenge feel as there is an endless number of waves.

One more thing, there are enemies that can shoot/explode and destroy your towers. This can make things quite fast paced when you have to pay attention to your buildings and replace them while attending to your Destroyers to fend off the swarms of enemies!

http://i7.lbp.me/img/ft/d37821fd9e19...13062b501c.jpg

Anyways, I'm starting to sound like I'm reviewing my own level. If you want to give it a shot yourself, click that lbp.me link and add it to your queue! If the first time you play it is too easy for you, you can win a sticker at the end of the level that unlocks a more difficult mode with stronger enemies and weaker buildings.

I'll try my best to return feedback, but I can't promise to be the quickest person alive. I'm also open to suggestions! Most importantly, though, I hope you all enjoy playing this! So, have fun and thank you for playing! :)

http://lbp.me/v/c5myy7
07-23-2012
Pyrotrooper91

Looks cool , I added it to my queue :)
07-24-2012
Deurklink1

Nice level, was fun to play :) Controls work great! The tutorial is also pretty nice, although i would have rather been able to skip through it with the O button. Also, i think players would benefit from a description of the different towers.. It's a waste spending all your money on the most expensive towers, only to find out the faster creatures just walk past them like they're not there.
07-24-2012
RakasaPlus

Looks fun, added to queue and will save this spot for a review.
07-24-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deurklink1

Nice level, was fun to play :) Controls work great! The tutorial is also pretty nice, although i would have rather been able to skip through it with the O button. Also, i think players would benefit from a description of the different towers.. It's a waste spending all your money on the most expensive towers, only to find out the faster creatures just walk past them like they're not there.

Thanks for the feedback! I absolutely agree. The way the Destroyer is meant to work is that you charge it up and then unleash a powerful attack by pressing square. You can see the controls for it if you hover over it. Thus, it's not a good strategy to simply make all of the towers Destroyers, since you would have to charge up and activate all of them.
Also, I'm personally feeling the Pulser is kinda useless. I might give that thing a buff.
But again, I absolutely agree, and it's something I completely overlooked. I will add descriptions for each tower as soon as I can! Thanks! :)
07-24-2012
Sackie

I love this level it is very well created and very fun to play.
07-24-2012
curtislarkin

I just played it and i did HORRIBLE! haha. The gameplay was real fun however it could use a visual boost in the actual game. You could add more scenery like top down trees, mountains and even chunks of metal all over the place. The intro was very beautiful ( in a post Apocalypse way ). Keep working at it and i defiantly look forward to seeing it as it progresses!

Please play and leave feedback on my level http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/sho...ball-(1-Player
07-24-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by curtislarkin

I just played it and i did HORRIBLE! haha. The gameplay was real fun however it could use a visual boost in the actual game. You could add more scenery like top down trees, mountains and even chunks of metal all over the place. The intro was very beautiful ( in a post Apocalypse way ). Keep working at it and i defiantly look forward to seeing it as it progresses!

Thanks! Yeah, visuals is far from my strongest point. Honestly I'm kinda scared to add anything else since I've had my PS3 crash on me a few times... :p I'll get to your level shortly.

Alright, I've updated the level. The tutorial has three sections now (Basics, Towers, and Tips) that can be watched in any order. Hopefully this will help people understand how to play. I also made Pulser slightly more effective. Have fun and continue to give me feedback and suggestions!
07-24-2012
biorogue

cool, looks great and adding to the queue. I have a "tower defense" idea in mind and may seek some help if you wouldn't mind. Just would need help on how to do the logic portion
07-24-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by biorogue

cool, looks great and adding to the queue. I have a "tower defense" idea in mind and may seek some help if you wouldn't mind. Just would need help on how to do the logic portion

Sure, I might be able to help a little. I'm not a logic genius but I think I can figure out how to make many things work. Just tell me if and when you need me! :)
07-25-2012
Turkeyntz

This is a very well made level! The tutorials are very well put together, and the gameplay is alot of fun with a nice difficulty curve! I like the over all look of it too. I love how you need to keep an eye on your towers health and rebuild when needed.
Like i said on the level review, you should be proud of this, because I really enjoy it, and I dont really care for tower defence games lol
07-26-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turkeyntz

This is a very well made level! The tutorials are very well put together, and the gameplay is alot of fun with a nice difficulty curve! I like the over all look of it too. I love how you need to keep an eye on your towers health and rebuild when needed.
Like i said on the level review, you should be proud of this, because I really enjoy it, and I dont really care for tower defence games lol

Wow, thanks a lot! :) It's nice to see people are enjoying this. It gives me that extra drive to continue to not only improve this level but also make new levels!

That said, I'm still looking for ways to improve this level as much as possible. If you have any feedback or suggestions, I will listen!
07-26-2012
Sport_dude

Looks great, have it queued!
07-27-2012
crazymario

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it. :)
07-28-2012
HeySK

I've got it queued up now.
07-28-2012
Greensmurfy

Awesome level crazymario. The tutorials were really well made, but scared me a little because I thought the game was going to be complicated. I picked up on the controls right away and had a blast. I did notice a minor... minor problem in the tutorial. In the towers section one of the words got bleeped out. I think it was when you were talking about the laser tower. The game was really fun, and I didn't notice any problems gamewise. The destroyer tower was my favorite tower heh. I put one on each lane and that seemed to work well.

Could you check out my music level for f4f?
http://www.lbpcentral.com/forums/sho...=music+jukebox
07-28-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greensmurfy

Awesome level crazymario. The tutorials were really well made, but scared me a little because I thought the game was going to be complicated. I picked up on the controls right away and had a blast. I did notice a minor... minor problem in the tutorial. In the towers section one of the words got bleeped out. I think it was when you were talking about the laser tower. The game was really fun, and I didn't notice any problems gamewise. The destroyer tower was my favorite tower heh. I put one on each lane and that seemed to work well.

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
Thanks for pointing out the bleeped out word in the tutorial. I guess I was in a hurry and forgot to actually test the level after I published it. Oops! I'll fix it soon. I have your level queued and I will give feedback as soon as I can! :)
07-28-2012
Sackpapoi

Here's my feedback like I promised. :hero:
I'm not really a "tower defense" sort of guy, but this was pretty cool. It was colorful and paced well. The tutorials felt really lengthy though, and like deurklink, I would have preferred to be able to skip them when I got a good enough idea (unless I missed that somewhere?). The level looked nice, but could use some other slight changes and decorations to make it nicer. I think it'd be great if it got to the point where it rivaled the Tower Defense in the Move Pack, but it's not quite there yet. The multiple weapons thing was nice though.
07-28-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sackpapoi

Here's my feedback like I promised. :hero:
I'm not really a "tower defense" sort of guy, but this was pretty cool. It was colorful and paced well. The tutorials felt really lengthy though, and like deurklink, I would have preferred to be able to skip them when I got a good enough idea (unless I missed that somewhere?). The level looked nice, but could use some other slight changes and decorations to make it nicer. I think it'd be great if it got to the point where it rivaled the Tower Defense in the Move Pack, but it's not quite there yet. The multiple weapons thing was nice though.

Thanks a lot! I actually just got the Move Pack yesterday. I wasn't aware that they had a tower defense level of their own! I'll give that a shot myself and see if I can draw any ideas from it and see what I can do to improve my own level.

Also since I've got the Move Pack, I've updated the level changing most of the hologram into sticker panel. Text is much easier to read now! And I also fixed that rather humorous bleeped out line in the tutorial. :p
07-28-2012
HeySK

Im not big on tower defense games, but I liked playing through yours.. I thought it was pretty clever. The hologram lettering was a little tough to read... you might consider tweaking the material so that it's more readable.
07-28-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeySK

Im not big on tower defense games, but I liked playing through yours.. I thought it was pretty clever. The hologram lettering was a little tough to read... you might consider tweaking the material so that it's more readable.

As I said, I changed the text from hologram to sticker material, so it's much much easier to read! Thanks for your feedback!
07-28-2012
HeySK

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazymario

As I said, I changed the text from hologram to sticker material, so it's much much easier to read! Thanks for your feedback!

Sorry CM, I played the level earlier this morning; you must have posted your remark about the sticker material just before I made the suggestion to change the material. I wanted to give your level another go; I'll check it out again later tonight. I bet the sticker looks excellent.
08-01-2012
THe EGG

super cool! I played it 4 played in a row which doesn;t happen often - i had loads of fun and really wanted to get the best score. Got second eventually :)

i though the look was cool - curtis suggested some extra detail which would be the cherry on the cake but the tower and baddies look awesome (except the random badguys with the big noses?!?!). Its clear whats what and the explosions are satisfying.

Its a really fun game mate. There's lots of good choices about what to build where for replayability.

i made some notes while i played:

-tutorials are awesome - alot to take in and not skippable but there were well communicated. I could only listen to the first 2 once though.
-for a while i was like 'why can't i build the phaser towers - i have enough money?'. one confusion is that it gives you the option of bulding them (and destroyers) when you hover over the spot even when you haven't build the phaser lab (lab?)
-the intro music is cool but not quite what i would expect from the genre/setting.
-awesome finish - a nice surprise!
-not sure about the mulitplier as final score - if you dont know this then you can miss out on the multiplier bonus which is essential for the top score.
-how do you use the destroyer?!?! i built the tower but it didn;t give me any instructions and i held x and pressed square but..nada.
-can u repair the base or did i miss this?
-what does the final 200 mine do - extra cash?

My final strategy was to fill the map with the cheap blasters with two phasers close by, worrked well but eventually got overuun. I guess the balance of weapons to baddies is crucial and hard to get just right. For me it seemed likee the cheap blasters were a bit too good for the money and that the effect of different weapons versus different baddies wasn't quite pronounced enough. Those blasters took em all out!

Overall this was fricking awesome fun - i loved it! Can;t wait for a sequel :) Surely it would be really easy now you have the game mechanic (?), once you have reached a certain time you are transported to a new sublevel map!

Well done crazymario!!

Oh, and 17 plays?!??! That is a crime. Come on everyone - this level is wicked fun!
08-04-2012
Squid2723

Fantastic job! This is certainly one of the best tower defenses i have played, the theme and decorations were excelent, it was very user friendly and the tutorial was very helpful, the enemies are creative and adorable in they're own strange way, had a blast playing it, keep it up!
08-04-2012
crazymario
Quote:

Originally Posted by THe EGG

super cool! I played it 4 played in a row which doesn;t happen often - i had loads of fun and really wanted to get the best score. Got second eventually :)

i though the look was cool - curtis suggested some extra detail which would be the cherry on the cake but the tower and baddies look awesome (except the random badguys with the big noses?!?!). Its clear whats what and the explosions are satisfying.

Its a really fun game mate. There's lots of good choices about what to build where for replayability.

i made some notes while i played:

-tutorials are awesome - alot to take in and not skippable but there were well communicated. I could only listen to the first 2 once though.
-for a while i was like 'why can't i build the phaser towers - i have enough money?'. one confusion is that it gives you the option of bulding them (and destroyers) when you hover over the spot even when you haven't build the phaser lab (lab?)
-the intro music is cool but not quite what i would expect from the genre/setting.
-awesome finish - a nice surprise!
-not sure about the mulitplier as final score - if you dont know this then you can miss out on the multiplier bonus which is essential for the top score.
-how do you use the destroyer?!?! i built the tower but it didn;t give me any instructions and i held x and pressed square but..nada.
-can u repair the base or did i miss this?
-what does the final 200 mine do - extra cash?

My final strategy was to fill the map with the cheap blasters with two phasers close by, worrked well but eventually got overuun. I guess the balance of weapons to baddies is crucial and hard to get just right. For me it seemed likee the cheap blasters were a bit too good for the money and that the effect of different weapons versus different baddies wasn't quite pronounced enough. Those blasters took em all out!

Overall this was fricking awesome fun - i loved it! Can;t wait for a sequel :) Surely it would be really easy now you have the game mechanic (?), once you have reached a certain time you are transported to a new sublevel map!

Well done crazymario!!

Oh, and 17 plays?!??! That is a crime. Come on everyone - this level is wicked fun!

Thanks a lot for this excellent feedback! I've taken a lot of it into account and have updated the level.

I know the Destroyer is kind of complicated to understand, but I'm trying to make it as easy as possible to understand since it is essential if you want to get that high score. Hover the cursor over the tower and press X multiple times to charge it (the blue quarter sections that you see on the tower indicate what level it's at, 1-4). Then press Square to activate its attack. After it's done with its attack, the level will reset back to 1 and you will have to charge it again.
I mention how it works in the tutorial and if you hover over a Destroyer, the controls for it will appear on the top-right. If you have any ideas for making this tower easier to understand, please tell! :D

And yes, the "final mine" does basically give you extra money. It increases the rate that you get money from your other mines! Aaaaand.... you can't repair the base. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squid2723

Fantastic job! This is certainly one of the best tower defenses i have played, the theme and decorations were excelent, it was very user friendly and the tutorial was very helpful, the enemies are creative and adorable in they're own strange way, had a blast playing it, keep it up!

Thank you so much for the praise! I will definitely continue working on more levels for the future.

UPDATE TIME!!!!1

I have made a fairly big update to this level based on everyone's feedback! I'll probably forget something, but here's the things I've changed:
- I made the level slightly more decorative. It's still not amazing, but we're getting there!
- There are now only 3 mines, as opposed to 4. That fourth mine was just completely useless and gave much more money than could be spent.
- The tutorials can be read at your own pace and they can be viewed as many times as you want! Yay! :D
- I hopefully got rid of the multiplier problem with the final score by making the chute thinner and the bubbles smaller. You still have to kinda jump around though, so I'll continue working with that.
Thanks for your feedback, everyone! Again, if you have suggestions, feel free to tell me. Have fun!
08-06-2012
unnatural

I played this level several times. I enjoy tower defense levels and replay value is crucial. So good job providing the necessary elements for that. Those being ability to try different strategies, comparing weapons, positioning, economizing, varied enemies, etc.

First just a few minor details I noticed that seemed a bit off. When going left after doing the tutorials (very well made btw), the cam was really slow to pan out. You made the lobby background look nice; show it off. Also, you dont need to last 8 minutes to unlock the sticker, so long as, after you die, you continue to wait in the heaven area. And, if you try to charge an already charged or charging destroyer it still costs 20. Just some tiny things.

The gameplay is the most important element and you did it right, but a few tweaks may sharpen it. Overall it is certainly a "Swarm". The frantic nature is great, but some help monitoring where youre at could help the player plan strategies. If there was some way to know exactly what stage or phase you were at you could plan your setups. So you can aim to have specific defense layouts at specific phases. Because its frantic, the player must look all over to see whats going on. Maybe its just me but I felt it a little difficult to tell which specific enemy type I was seeing at a quick glance, and if destroyers were charged or needed charging.

I think a few visual aids could go a long way. Overall its solid. Well done.
08-08-2012
crazymario

Quote:

Originally Posted by unnatural

I played this level several times. I enjoy tower defense levels and replay value is crucial. So good job providing the necessary elements for that. Those being ability to try different strategies, comparing weapons, positioning, economizing, varied enemies, etc.

First just a few minor details I noticed that seemed a bit off. When going left after doing the tutorials (very well made btw), the cam was really slow to pan out. You made the lobby background look nice; show it off. Also, you dont need to last 8 minutes to unlock the sticker, so long as, after you die, you continue to wait in the heaven area. And, if you try to charge an already charged or charging destroyer it still costs 20. Just some tiny things.

The gameplay is the most important element and you did it right, but a few tweaks may sharpen it. Overall it is certainly a "Swarm". The frantic nature is great, but some help monitoring where youre at could help the player plan strategies. If there was some way to know exactly what stage or phase you were at you could plan your setups. So you can aim to have specific defense layouts at specific phases. Because its frantic, the player must look all over to see whats going on. Maybe its just me but I felt it a little difficult to tell which specific enemy type I was seeing at a quick glance, and if destroyers were charged or needed charging.

I think a few visual aids could go a long way. Overall its solid. Well done.

Thank you, too, for your feedback.
At first I thought there isn't much I can do to fix the slow pan out problem, but I think I have an idea.
I thought the 8 minute timer would stop after you finish, but I guess I'm wrong. I'll see what the problem is there.
However, the problem you're saying with the Destroyer is wrong. The tower has 4 levels of charge - you can charge it multiple times. When it reaches the 4th level, THEN you can no longer charge it and it won't cost you anymore money. Again, I know that the tower is pretty complicated to understand. While I did have visual for what level the Destroyer is at, it was kinda subtle. So, I did what you suggested, and I added less subtle visual aids that help show exactly which level a Destroyer is at. Which, of course, also helps you see which Destroyers need charging at a quick glance.

So, I've updated the level again. Hold L1+R1 at the beginning to teleport straight to the controllinater and play immediately if you're impatient, and I've added the extra visuals that I mentioned to the Destroyer. I'll fix the pan out and timer issues soon. Have fun!