Elf Defense by JellyOasis: 30 Testers, Xbox360, $50 & $10 iTunes Giftcards

This game & testing is making me sleep deprived:

Suggestion 1: Its too expensive to upgrade a tower for 1200+ leaves.. by the end of the game a few towers are fully upgraded.

Suggestion 2: I got the idea that we can add 2 new characters but not an elf. I there should be 2 trees. 1st tree is golden colored tree that generates yellow leaves every few seconds. 2nd tree is green colored tree that generates holly leaves every few seconds. They should be more expensive than elves, cause they have benefits i the long run during the games.

Suggestion 3: should you agree to suggestion 2, we should tweak the game a bit by adding a curtain enemy that have the power to kill those trees (but not the elves). the player will have to build better defense to protect those trees & not only the elves' home/country.

Suggestion 4: should you agree to suggestion 2 & 3, you should make it only possible to build those trees near the path.. so the player won't act smart & put the trees away so they won't be killed ;-)

Suggestion 5: sorry for saying that again but mercenaries are priced too high & also upgrades during the game & in the shop, compared to the pace by which we earn the currency(golden & holly leaves) needed to upgrade.

Suggestion 6: I think you should revise the upgrade mechanics again. At the beginning, the game my seem not dependent on IAP but as time goes by the player will be really bored with the small number of tools he have and would want to see more weapons & characters. Having to get that for 4,000 holly leaves is too much. & to upgrade the holly leaves to be obtained faster is also expensive.

Sorry If you don't like my suggestions regarding IAP but I just don't like IAP & I know alot others who share the same feeling.

I am still going to comment again but I just have to say that you guys really made a great game. I keep watching every aspect of it & think that you guys did good with this game.

 

Bug:
GameCenter doesn't register your scores unless you click on it. It didn't show me on the list till after I exited and came back into GameCenter and did the same thing later when I went to check my score again it took a couple tries for it to update.

Suggestion:
When you go to the upgrade menu and then back to level select it seems to always stick you on normal mode after even if you were on easy mode when clicking on it. Would be nice if you stayed on the mode you were before guess this isn't a problem when you are playing on just normal mode.

 

I feel that the IAP doesn't detract from the overall gameplay and you can play fine without any purchases. A few mOre suggestions though. Really need a better loading screen with perhaps some fun facts or hints about the humans. And information about each individual tower would be nice. And more towers! Though nearing the end you really don't need to use some goers it never hurts to have more to choose from. Maybe you guys could add a ridiculously hard hell mode or something like that for the hardcore gamers. And still thing to replicTe the crash I had earlier but no luck. Maybe just a one time occurrence.

 

Ok after these few days of testing I must say that I believe this game is almost ready for release. All that needs to be done is that you take in some of the excellent suggestions made here and you will have a near-perfect game

 

I agree that ther should be a tree or tower that generates yellow leaves every few seconds. This would make it considerably easier to build and upgrade towers. Please also add more characters and maps.

I noticed that my scores were not uploaded on Game Center. I recommend that you make the Honor achievements also count towards Game Center achievements.

I agree with some of the other testers that you have a small icon that shows total leaves earned out of total leaves possible in the "Select Theme" page.

 

No the IAP itself does not detract at all. What does for me at least is the item system. I think IAP can still be maintained for the holy leaves even with an improved item system.

 

I didn't say that the IAP affect the gameplay. It doesn't The game can obviously be played till the end without IAP. The player won't need those upgrades to win, he'll want them as to not be bored with his current state & weapon. If it remains like this the player will end up playing more just to get more leaves & not for fun.. That might lead to frustration & leaving the game cause he can't acquire them fast enough. He need them for variety not for winning, game is not that hard without them.

I didn't experience the boredom & such. I only experienced frustration cause I really want to upgrade lots of stuff but don't have enough holly leaves. I'm just predicting how a player might feel in the long run, I'm not saying it from experience cause we've only played the game for few days.

 

I think that you should add an endless mode for the hardcore gamers, that slowly progresses from easy enemies to harder ones. It would be cool if you guys could add a mode where you get all of your money at the beginning of the game and see how long you can last.

I liked the fact that there is an announcement of the different types of enemies (such as air, fast, boss) before each level begins, so that players can prepare any additional towers or make modifications in their defense.

I think that the developers did a fantastic job creating Elf Defense. It is a unique tower defense game that exhibits lots of originality. The controls are simple enough and pretty easy to learn. However, I would like to see improvements in grammar and level variety. I also think that you should add more levels and characters in the future. With a few minor tweaks, this app will be perfect!

 

Suggestion :
a) A tower that can generate golden seed. So that we can collect more golden seed rather than just kill the enemy. This because the price of upgrading the towers is quite high.
b) Twitter and Facebook integration to tweet or post the achievement or winning the level is a great idea from the beta tester.
c) Elf Defense icon should be change to Elf icon rather than Red Dragon icon even though the Red Dragon won the votes. But for marketing and connectivity between game and icon, I much prefer the Elf icon.
d) The siren and the notification of what enemy will come is great! But would suggest there will be a notification for next incoming enemy. With this, we can much prepare what to build the next tower based on the balance of golden seed.

Problem/Bug
a) While I playing Elf Defense yesterday, a call come in. After 5 minutes talking and end the call, the app just resume the gameplay without a pause or automatically open pause menu. This give me a little time to get ready back to play. Found also that not even if call come in, also if we hit home button while playing it, and resume from the multitasking bar, the game will just resume with no pause.

In overall I'm enjoying playing/beta testing this game. Goodluck with the release!

 

+ After more playtime I am enjoying the level designs a lot more. The art and background still feels stale but the challenge is better.

- It's annoying when I barely pass a level and I am told one star is "not bad," if 1 star is not bad then what is bad? It's ok for me to know scoring one star is inferior and that I should run away in shame.

- Not doing as well stalls accumulation of in-game money, it can seem frustrating to feel "stuck." I had resisted upgrading units but have given in to doing so and will see how that improves the game. A balance consideration might be to force a tutorial encouraging introduction to upgrade at certain early points where difficulty spikes. I am curious to see if just upgrading units will destory a lot of the difficulty. If so it might be worth considering automatically upgrading units to keep things balanced.

 

Maybe a practice mode to try out different elf and item combinations could be added after the tutorial

 

Thoughts for the day:
1. When it's Loading, make the "A" in loading a touch bigger. It looks too small.
2. Don't have the "Notice: Thanks for Purchasing" pop up so much, maybe drop the percentage it shows up, but always show it the first time you use the app? Also the word "notice" there seems a bit weird for a "thanks for purchasing" part in it.
3. Honor Screen (multiple grammar errors).
-Second from left, top row, change it to "Defeat a boss wave 50 times" or "Defeat 50 boss waves" or something like that. Unless you just want it to be fighting a wave, but I doubt that's what you mean.
-Third from left, top row, change to "Clear every map in normal mode.
-First from left, second row from top, change it to "Build 2 mercenary towers in a game.
-Second from left, second row from top change to "Clear every map in crazy mode.
-[this next one is more optional, unlike the others] Far right, second row from top, change to "Have more than 3000 holy leaves at a time".
-For when you show "Hidden Achievements" change it to "Hidden Achievement" without the "s".
-On all the bottom rows, add the word "a" between "with" and "perfect score".
4. Is there a reason on the honor mode it only shows the crowns for normal mode? Just curious, since it basically is saying your progress in easy isn't that important...might be for the best though, since normal is more important probly. A toggle for "easy mode star/suns" would be nice if you tapped it. [probably fairly optional, but it might be nice to have].

 

When the Fire Dragon is introduced, I suggest the text should say:
"Fire explosive lava breath which damages multiple ground units, but can't attack flying units. Skill: increases attack power of all elves for a moment"

Also, when I try to build a tower on the last row, the item buttons get in the way. Maybe the item buttons could hide and if you need them you could press a tab button on the edge of the screen thr would bring up the item buttons. Either that or make the screen more scrollable so the last row is completely visible.

 

Definitely needs a tower that can generate good during the game. It would definitely make it easier to earn gold. And I do agree win what many others have said about the icon. Though the dragon icon looks cool maybe it should be an elf I on to better reflect the actual game. Or make the dragon tower a more central part I the game.

 

Hello. I am one of the beta testers. I got the game a few days ago and I didn't have access to my computer. So let me just go ahead and type what I think so far. I didn't know this game was already on the app store! I think the first screen of the game with all the various buttons is nice but I think we need some social network buttons to tweet/status about the game automatically via Twitter and Facebook.

I'm really in love with your character models. They are very nice. I like how it has a block theme to it. I looked through the levels and boy you packed a lot into this game. I think that's good. The first level seems hard but I guess it's because I'm jumping into the game for the first time. I love the various types of characters that are protecting the building. The one shooting ice to freeze enemies saved me. I had to use up all the space for placing defenses!

I forgot to bring this up before but the app icon could be better. I know you had people pick for it but I think it could show more of what the game is. Maybe one of the villains in the game attacking a the building that the player is protecting. So far I'm having fun and thanks for letting me test. I'll try to type out more stuff to you later.

 

I just tried this on a iphone4 3X and it was fine... I'm sure your right but I'm ok on this end..

I'm also in the same boat with screen orientation .. With a iPad it helps to be able to move the home button around ...as well as a iPhone..

As far as IAP I feel the level of gameplay is easy enough to fully enjoy it.. Thus making it a decent 1.99-2.99 priced TD game... Although some of the price could go down just a bit for the mercenaries..

WHAT do you other testers feel it should be priced? ...

SOME GOOD THINGS I'VE NOTICED TODAY IN THE THREAD AND GAMEPLAY:

*The level select screen definitely needs a tweak and fix...
*The need for a coin/leaf making tower needs to be made ...even if it's a IAP OR lower the prices for some IAP..
*Really need to change the spellings for some major things we see alot EX- eilectrician = Electrician
*please consider some or even one special move that is sound and graphically animated ...something that will set this apart from other TD games ...EX -the line drawing special move from my last post.
*Fix the portrait mode bug after using gamecenter..
*Possibly change the icon ... I remember voting for the red Dino before ... But the more I play this the elves should represent the game from the first look!

I'll play a bit more for bugs then I'm off to sleep .. My work week begins in the morning..

 

Every time I either start the app or come back from the main menu, the game goes back to showing normal mode levels even though I was working on easy mode. It'd be nice if the game remembered the last mode you played and showed those levels.

Also another suggestion: more soundtracks. The track on loop gets old.

 

How about adding some nature entities as special purchases/mercs? Eagles bombarding the path, bears running down the path clearing it, trees sweeping enemies off of the path, things like that?

 

Great idea! A practice or sandbox mode would really be excellent!