Posts made by Aviox

Thanks for the in depth response, @snarlynarwhal, and thank you for considering my suggestions.

"Change enemy AI so they don't attack towers unless they are blocking their path to the player (or some other goal)"

We thought long and hard about this one and decided that while we could certainly do this and make a great game, it does make Dwerve less unique and more similar to other tower defense games.

The current (0.0.5) game-play and level design of Dwerve seems to be about scrambling to keep a few towers alive and in place. It's a one-tower thick wall between you and the enemy at multiple choke points; a thin veil between the enemies and your inevitable death. Is this tension (scrambling to rebuild dying towers) something you devs want Dwerve gameplay to center around? (If it is, I'll find ways, as a tester, to support that goal)

I don't hate this tension and I definitely don't want it completely gone, but I have mixed feelings about it.
Personally, I find this tension pretty intense -- which isn't automatically a bad thing -- but if it's the primary play-style, it seems to remove that oh-so-satisfying feeling as you slowly amass an army of towers, and sit back and (or scramble behind the scenes and keep working to) watch your towers wreak havoc. It also deminishes the strategic potential of the game. I don't want to remove the action, I just would like a little more of the TD-style strategy.

Does anybody else have thoughts on this? (I'm totally okay with being the only one that feels this way)

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In my mind, what I mean by "more TD-style strategy" is something like this:

1. More creative tower placement. There's some in there already, but something like mazing (weather it's player-created mazing or level design) would add way more potential. I like the kinds of towers you have, but 0.0.5 doesn't give a ton of ways to utilize them that I came up with. e.g. the floor traps with the timers on them make them nearly impossible to use, since you wall off your access to them with towers. (of course, more time between waves might solve this)
2. The per-battle grind of building up the number/strength of towers. It sounds like the yellow gem idea mentioned elsewhere will add to this concept. Mazing could also add to this concept. Even if the only thing your mazing-related-towers do is make the enemies take longer to get to you, the player abilities (boomering & anything else planned) plus ranged towers have more time to do their job. Which would be my preferred play-style, if given the option.

The above (original post) suggestions are, of course, just one way these could two things could happen. For example, here's some other (possibly simpler) changes that could add in some form of mazing:

• Barricade towers, that have a unique trait -- they aren't targeted by enemies unless fully blocking the enemy path.
• Add a tower that aggros enemies, causing them to prioritize attacking that tower, provided they can get to it.

I hope this helps!

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So it seems that you'd prefer the game to play more like a traditional tower defense game, and I think making such changes would certainly make for a really fun game! But, I think it would also cause Dwerve to become a little more generic and blend in with other tower defense games. I think that you pointed out a lot of serious issues with our current design, but Peter and I feel confident that we can address these issues without having to default back to more traditional tower defense mechanics.

In some ways, I suppose that's true. But I'll clarify that I definitely don't want Dwerve to be just another TD game (there's more than enough of those on the market). As I said above, I don't want to remove the action, I just would like a little more of the TD-style strategy. When I first came across Dwerve, my first impression was it would be a game similar to Orcs Must Die, (which I don't consider a generic TD game) but maybe with some more open Zelda-esque gameplay throughout. Now that's a game I'd love to play. But perhaps that's pretty far off from your vision. And if so, that's okay.

Thanks again!

@snarlynarwhal
Maybe it would make sense for the yellow power stones to be lost after an encounter if not used, that way the "saving scrap" issue will be alleviated.

Thanks SnarlyNarwhal!
That was a much more in depth response than I was expecting!

Based on the current alpha (0.0.5) levels, I have some suggestions for general flow for enemy encounters.

• Change enemy spawns so they don't count down to the next spawn until all current enemies are defeated.
• Change enemy AI so they don't attack towers unless they are blocking their path to the player (or some other goal)
• Greatly increase the maximum number of towers.
• Add a sub-currency that towers cost per-build. (gears? -- then change current gears used for upgrades to gold gears?)
• the sub-currency would be gathered over the course of a round, perhaps from enemy drops. a max number of this sub currency would make sense.
• Add a cheap "barricade" tower.
• Remove timers from floor traps.
• Make the encounter areas larger, allowing the player to maze with towers.

Here's a sloppy mock-up of what a level might look like:

First Session
9/6/2019 - about an hour
I tried to write down thoughts I had as I played the game, to help devs get in the mind of the player a little bit. In the future I might try to record video of me playing and “thinking aloud”. Not everything listed is feedback, just what I was thinking about.

Boot Process

• No intro splash screen or anything. Jumping right into the title was a little bit jarring
• Arrow keys only for movement?

Level 1 (intro level)

• Dialogue sounds are a bit harsh. Maybe different sounds per character would be nice. Gramps could have a deeper, old man sound.
• I like the dust poofs when walking around
• Bouncy trees, birds chirping and flying around, general life.
• The sliding controls feel a bit off. Sometimes it’s hard to get into the smaller gaps. (like the gate at the beginning)
• It seems strange to have QWERT ability controls with arrow movement. I feel like QWERT controls are usually used for mouse-controlled moba style games.
• I want to control the boomerang throw manually.
• My arrow tower is stuck behind a gate! Help! (this was before I learned you could press space to recall ANY tower, not just the tower you’re next to)
  
• I really liked the “How do I get that?” and “Armor!’ thought bubbles. Fun touch
• Maybe the main character (Dwerve) should have a different font color than other characters? (blue?)
• I couldn’t pick up a gear that was in a corner. Perhaps they should pull in to the character a little bit when close. Also notice the minor graphical glitch with the water in the top left of the screenshot.
  
• Maybe Dwerve is a little slow?
• Rain! No rain sound effects

Level 2 - first dungeon level

• OH! Space recalls ANY tower!
• (random thought) -- it’d be cool to buy upgrades of some sort. Maybe that will come later.
• With mouse control, you could use right click to recall a tower of choice, and maybe even place them further away. (AND control the boomerang!)
• Game should probably pause when it loses focus (e.g. alt+tab)
• Zap towers maybe should just stay and not have a timer?

Level 3 - hard dungeon level

• Maybe “waves” should be more obvious / called out, and have longer breaks in between?
• I’m not sure I like the battlefield changing on me mid-fight. Feels unfair.
• No mazing or anything (so far)... hmm….
• Seems too hard? 3-1 took 4 or 5 tries, 3-2 took even more.
• Punch turrets are fun.
• DWERVE isn’t a typical TD formula. Which seems to make it much harder. And maybe less fun than the formula? Typically, the enemies aren’t trying to get to the player, they’re trying to get to an exit of some sort, and they only attack you if you aggro them or wall off somehow. Also, there’s something fun about building up more towers after each wave. I’m not against the power gem concept, but maybe there should be a sub-currency that allows you to build towers, and as any particular fight goes on, you can build more and more towers.
• Perhaps you should teach what towers do by them already being built somewhere in a little mini-wave. Being told where to place towers feels counter-intuitive to a TD style game. It should be up to me how to approach and beat a level, and if there is an optimal way to win, that should be up to me to figure out.

Level 4

• Oof. I don’t think I have another level in me right now. (exit game) -- (I later found out that there wasn't actually "another level", since it was just the practice level.)