Universal Eri's Forest - f2p tower defense in a unique 360 degree world

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by Proffesso, Feb 15, 2020.

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  1. Proffesso

    Proffesso New Member

    Jan 18, 2020
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    Hi Toucharcade'ers!


    I represent one half of Studio Qinoko, we are new two person studio based in Melbourne, Australia.

    We are launching the studio’s first title, Eri’s Forest, world wide on Feb 28th. It is currently, quietly soft launched into Australia and New Zealand.

    (also if anyone knows how to get gif's to show up here, please let me know!)

    About Eri’s Forest

    [​IMG]


    Eri’s forest is a beautiful tower defense title played on a unique 360 degree playfield.

    You play as a guardian, helping the local forest spirit Eri, to help protect the trees from an unknown menace, causing the once peaceful insects to attack. During the game you will find and unlock Lanterns, Eri can use these powerful magic lanterns that power up the towers around her.




    Unique Selling Points

    1. Beautiful 3d graphics made with 3d scanned trees

    2. Full 360 Degree playfield

    3. Lanterns power up Eri and nearby towers...find the best combination that works for you

    The game is played on the trunks of trees, fully rotatable so you need to keep an eye on the action from all angles, adding a new and unique dimension to a much-loved game genre. Just keeping track of all the insects is a challenge on its own!

    The trees, 3d scanned from real trees in japan, bring a natural realism to the visuals, heightened to give a lush, ancient feel to the forest.

    Links
    Below is a link to the current Softlaunch version, with full worldwide release on 28th Feb
    if anyone is interested, I just PM me for a Testflight link

    https://apps.apple.com/au/app/eris-forest/id1464648227?ls=1

    PressKit - http://www.qinoko.com/press-kit


    About Studio Qinoko
    Studio Qinoko is a two person outfit based in Melbourne, Australia. We are 20 year veterans of the Australian and Japanese games industries, with career’s and friendship starting at Atari Melbourne House, and many titles shipped between us.



    Thanks for checking out our game!


    Proffesso.
     
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  2. yankeeblue000

    yankeeblue000 Well-Known Member

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    #2 yankeeblue000, Feb 17, 2020
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2020
    This looks incredible. I really wish this was premium as opposed to f2p, but I must say this is one those rare occasions that I may have to have a go at it. I just hope it’s not swamped with f2p nonsense or I won’t stay long.

    I’ve been checking out videos on YouTube and the website. Sharing as much as I can on social media to help with exposure. Best of luck on the full release launch.

    Hopefully you can change your mind on the monetization of the game. If not premium maybe some sort of compromise. Anyway, whatever works best I guess ;)
     
  3. Capronissimo71

    Capronissimo71 Well-Known Member

    Sep 5, 2011
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    Hi, i’d like to try your game! My TestFlight email is: [email protected]

    Thanks in advance!
     
  4. ste86uk

    ste86uk Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
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    Looks interesting, just downloaded it on my NZ account and will try to check it out tomorrow.
     
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  5. ste86uk

    ste86uk Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
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    Hm I haven’t given it much time yet but I’m not sure I will. I remember seeing it’s made by an Australian company so that left me wondering why the weird names for everything and Japanese or Chinese voiceover?

    I’m sure some people will like it but I’ve got so many games to play I get picky when I can.
     
  6. Rohit Bhatia

    Rohit Bhatia Member

    Jun 17, 2016
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    I will definitely play it on my Android but a bit suspicious about the the f2p model. Premium goes well for TD games.
     
  7. kimcQNK

    kimcQNK New Member

    Feb 23, 2020
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    Hi All,

    I'm the other half of Studio Qinoko.
    I wanted to explain our decision on the F2P vs Premium.

    TL;DR - We believe going Premium, Eri's Forest will be the last game we make. With F2P we have a small chance to add new content and maybe if we are lucky we might get to make our next game.


    There are a number well known and excellent TD games out there. These are made by studios who have build a good reputation for gamers like you. When they roll out a new game, you already know it will be quality that you can trust.

    We are an unknown studio, launching our first game. We don't stand a chance in this crowded market place. By making it F2P, gamers have a chance to evaluate the game (and to some degree, us) without any monetary commitment.

    For example, with a few comments here about suspicious f2p, there is high probably they will not even try the game. For others, it may be other features in the game they don't like. This will further reduce the number of people willing to pay for a premium app.


    @ste86uk and @Rohit Bhatia, I'm sorry to use your comment as example, I'm actually thankful that you took the time to voice your opinion here. But the reality is most people would not and they would have moved to the next game.


    We wanted to bring something new to the TD genre; not just visual, but game play as well. Hence there may be some aspect of Eri's Forest that TD fans' will not like. We fully acknowledge that, we just don't want people associate Eri's Forest as another TD game with different graphics. We wanted player to have an experience they can remember.



    Either model (F2P or Premium) is still a big gamble for us, for the 7 years we have spent making it. If F2P works, it just seems to give us better chance to make more content for Eri's Forest and if we are lucky, we might be able to make the next unique game.


    There are many games out there that misuse the F2P and I honestly hope we are not being categories in the same group. However, this is for you to judge.




    FYI: Eri's Forest is set in a fictional Japanese forest, hence we have themed everything into Japanese culture.
     
  8. Ringerill

    Ringerill Well-Known Member

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    I didn't see it was F2P when I started to test it and it was quite a bummer for me. I know it is totally a personal opinion here but I have big problems with F2P mechanisms such as Timers (in this case, it is Energy but the problem stays the same)... Mainly because I am a sporadicly concentrated player and instead of playing a little bit everyday, sometimes during the week I just get some free time and play non stop. This makes Timers the most horrible thing that can happen for me in a game.

    I know F2P looks like the way to go nowadays because of the reasons you mentioned above but that's also the mentality that makes the market blocked on the F2P mechanics (devs want to earn money for the time they invested, I totally understand this choice). But there are some ways to do actually both.
    Some games have adds but offer to remove them with an IAP, while others have cosmetics to earn some additional income instead of adds. I remember a game that had an Energy system but proposed to remove it completely with an IAP. Some other methods exist, I won't list them all :)

    But for a game like TD, a F2P mechanic is reaallllly strange for me. Most of the time in TD games the scheme is organised in the following way: 1. you advance in levels, 2. you unlock new towers, 2bis. you unlock items, 3. you unlock challenges for levels you completed (more waves, tougher enemies, etc.), 4. you struggle in later levels so you try to complete some previous challenges to improve your characters/towers, 5. you finish the game, 6. you try to complete all levels with maximum score and all challenges (some try to do it along the way instead of at the end), 7. rarely, you unlock some end game levels and bonuses.
    Here what the F2P would surely limit is 2bis (you have to buy lamps, etc.), 4 (if you die, you lost your energy, too bad for you) and 6/7 (an extension of 4). Needing energy to try new levels would be ok, but retrying previous levels is not acceptable... 20 Energy (out of 200 if you increase the cap with IAPs VS 100 by default) to redo the 1s level is quite a lot. And it keeps increasing incrementally by 2 for every level. TD and Timers definitely do not mix well because it kills the replayability and hinders the progress.
    Also, on a separate note, I didn't see point 3. No new challenges, I can only redo the same level (in the story mode). I also don't know if there will be a point 7 with some additional features once the game is done. As the game is still in beta, I don't know if it will be added or not.

    Also imagine a casual player who is not really good at TD. First, by bringing new mechanics like the ones you do, which really complicates the strategy tbh, you risk to make them lose quite often. I don't mind because I like TD and some new challenges are welcome, but more casual players risk to be frustrated quite fast. Dying is ok, retrying is ok, but being limited by energy makes it difficult if you are not good. Unless you plan to make them spend money to buy some energy until they manage to win...
    And don't forget that to upgrade lantern, which are your character buffs for towers, you need ressources that you can obtain either through exchange for premium currency, daily rewards or level farming. You don't simply unlock them and will definitely have to farm for it.

    Also, you say that F2P is the best way to go because premium is risky before you made a reputation. However, what I see here is a mix of Energy, Premium currency and some pretty pricy IAPs on top. To be honest, they are maybe a little bit too pricy since there are already adds and timers and premium currency... The list of IAPs goes like this: Leaf 3 (dmg lantern, 4.49€), Fire 3 (spd lantern, 4.49€), River 3 (range lantern, 4.49€), Stone 1 (mana regen lantern, 5.49€), Energy expansion (+100 energy, +1/min, 4.49€), Lantern slot (6.99€). I hope the first 3 lanterns can be obtained through normal play, the stone one, not sure (wouldn't be surprised if none of them are accessible normally). The Energy expansion is more than required if you want to have a chance of playing more than 2/3 levels later on without waiting 1 hour in between (30 energy at 0.5/min makes it 1 hour to play/replay level 6, simple as that). The Lantern slot is just an additional help for more bonuses but is almost mandatory if you want to achieve 3 stars without try-harding for days (for days yeah, don't forget you can't retry too often since you need energy to replay levels). In total we still have 11€ for "almost" required items. Not as F2P as I would have liked it to be...

    Going F2P with adds is ok. But going F2P with Adds, plus Timers, plus Premium currency, plus IAPs, this is becoming a little bit ridiculous :(
    Basically, if you are ok with losing and waiting, then it is indeed F2P. Here however, I feel like you will end up paying more than for a premium game just to barely play it like a normal TD...
    I am ok to buy some IAPs if I have enjoyed the game but I am not fond of buying IAPs to actually enjoy it.

    PS: on my next post, I will actually write my impressions on the game, which is really good and innovative and definitely should deserve your attention! Maybe the F2P mechanics will be changed, or maybe you don't mind. Still I wouldn't want you to miss out on this one just because of what I have written above.
     
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  9. Ringerill

    Ringerill Well-Known Member

    Dec 13, 2012
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    Now, on a more positive note, let's talk about the actual game, its gameplay and novelties!

    First of all, appart from the gameplay itself, the graphics are really gorgeous and the environment is dynamic as well (leaves are falling, things are moving in the background, etc). This really is nice to have in a TD where most of the backgrounds are static. The whole colour palette and bloom effects are also pleasant and stays within the nature vibe :)
    Also the whole theme of nature, trees, plants and insects gives a refreshing breath to TD. Towers are different plants, the animations are tied to nature (e.g. slowing turrets create sap that sticks to insects). And to actually have to protect something (the tree against insects in this case) is also nice (most often, you just have to prevent enemies from going to the end of the line, without any story or lore behind the end line).

    Now, about the gameplay, there are several things to say.
    As all TD, you have a line of enemies trying to reach the core. To avoid that, you have at your disposal the usual arsenal of towers like small but quick damage, slowing ones, big damage but slow attack, well the usual as I said. During the first waves, you have a coloured line to see where enemies will be coming from but as you advance in waves, new lines can appear, requiring you to readapt your strategy. You have several types of bugs but you don't really know in advance which ones will come during the wave (I haven't found a way to see it at least). That would be a nice addition because most known TD tell you in advance so that you can adapt better. Here is it more a trial and error system. You can however see the progress of each enemy line by some markers at the bottom of the screen.

    To build "towers", you need mana. You can earn mana by "killing" bugs (you basically make them fall down the tree), or by waiting. You can also destroy turrets to get some mana back. You can also upgrade them but at the moment, I have only seen one upgrade path for each tower (no double specialisation, yet?).

    The nice mechanic is the hero character. It's not like usual heroes who participate in the combat line: this one serves to buff your towers and actually takes the space of a tower. This simple fact that the hero takes a space makes the placement really complicated (strategy wise). Once he is in place, he can boost the towers based on the lantern he holds and the bonuses can vary between damage, radius, speed, poisons, etc. So it's up to you to decide if you want to boost your surrounding turrets or place a whole turret instead.
    The hero can be moved and have to be moved most of the time to adapt to the needs. Also, from time to time, an empty turret space can spawn a bonus that gives you mana if you move your hero to it. It's up to you to decide if you prefer run and grab it or wait and stay to keep the defence stronger. However, once all the spaces for turrets are filled, your hero will be unable to move and no mana spawns will appear.
    You can't switch lanterns mid-fight so you will have to chose carefully before each level what lantern to equip. However, I don't like the lack of info before going into the fight because if you don't guess correctly, you will lose your energy and will have to redo it afterwards.

    The 3D/360° system doesn't really add to the core gameplay but adds to the game on its own. What I mean by that is that the maps essentially stays 2D but is not flat. Sometimes, the path goes around the tree and some things can happen behind it, requiring you to rotate the screen. This dynamise the play for sure as not everything is happening on the screen you see and some surprises can happen if you don't look around enough. This does make the game more mentally draining because it will require you some additional spatial awareness but it is not too difficult once you are used to it.

    The game seem to have a narrative story that you unlock with each level so it's not just random levels after levels. As I said, graphically it is really pleasing and it's not too difficult to orient yourself on a smartphone screen (I played on the iPhone 7 Plus). So on an iPad, this should be even better looking.
    The 3D maps add some challenge and the hero makes you actively look for opportunities: you rarely just sit and watch the line of enemies advancing without any input.
    This game is however imo quite a difficult one and I am not sure that someone who has never played a TD before will enjoy it right from the start. Right from level 2, I got some difficulties to reach 3 stars and I would consider myself a seasoned TD player. Maybe take this into account before playing so that you are not taken by surprise. But once you are used to the mechanics and you begin to understand the best positions for turrets and the hero, you can have a nice time and an original TD.
     
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  10. kimcQNK

    kimcQNK New Member

    Feb 23, 2020
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    Hi Ringerill,

    First, I still don’t understand what is “2bis”?

    I’ll try to address the concern you raised around the F2P we have implemented.

    > Leaf 3 (dmg lantern, 4.49€), Fire 3 (spd lantern, 4.49€)….

    Imagine a guy in suits coming up with his brilliant pricing model just to find out no-one is willing to buy any of it. That was me, except I was not in suits. Ok. I screw up here with the value of the lantern vs IAP price.

    I’ll reevaluate the pricing of all the IAP on the next major update.

    As we are launching in 1~2 days time, we want to make sure we don’t break any thing. Also we wanted to have the time to take in so more feedback and priorities of the work.

    Also for the record, the IAP lanterns are unique. You can’t acquire them in game. Can you image the players finding out the lanterns they bought can be acquired in game, and they will do to me?


    > … Plus Premium currency and Plus IAP.

    Come on. Cut me some slack here. Isn’t this the same thing? Isn’t this just an Expensive IAP?? :-(


    > Timer

    I have provisioned something in the game to assist with this. But I’m guessing you won’t be happy until I completely remove this.
    There isn’t much more I can say on this nor do I have any useful solution at this stage.


    > Challenges

    We have no idea how the market would perceive the game, spending more time and resources to add more content was too risky to continue on. But yes, we have plan on adding more game modes and challenges in the near future.


    Just out of curiosity, what is your favourite TD game and on what platform?
     
  11. Ringerill

    Ringerill Well-Known Member

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    Hum, it seems that I what I wrote was understood as a huge critic for the game, even though I wrote a review after this one about all the cool parts. Sorry if it sounded like an attack, I simply gave my opinion about the F2P mechanics. And in the end, I wrote that I understand why this path is taken. Still, I wanted people to know what to expect and in the end, they will be the one to judge if they are ok with this or not. I am not here to chase people off. Even after all I wrote, I will definitely download it once it officially goes out and see how it works out.

    About the "2bis", I simply separated the unlocks for towers and items. Some TD only unlock new towers while some add some additional things like heroes, powers and trinkets. Here, the items would refer to lanterns because you unlock new ones as you play. Sometimes, you have to buy upgrades for towers, sometimes for the hero, that's why it's not entirely the same as point 2 and I put a bis to it because it's close.

    When I was the Lanterns level 3, I though it would be some way to make the game easier for people struggling, not just some additional items. Something like early unlocks of end game items. If you want to have some upper hand or if you don't want to wait for the late game, you could just buy it right from the start and make your progress smoother. I just didn't know what it was since I haven't finished the game yet. Early unlocks make sense in F2P games and can help player to progress if they are really stuck at some point. Makes sense to make these items unique.

    IAPs and Premium currency is not the same imo. You can have a game with just IAPs that you can buy only using real money and you can have games with only Premium currency that you can exchange for special features or items. The difference comes into play if you can get the Premium currency by playing normally. This would mean that a player could avoid paying if he insists on it and gather the necessary amount of gems, gold or whatever the currency is by watching adds, collecting daily/weekly rewards, etc. On one hand, you have the possibility to not pay but in the other case, you know that you will have to pay real money as the item couldn't be bought otherwise. There were some games where I played for several months and watched adds from time to time and managed to buy some premium costly things without paying any cent (I could have paid but the choice was offered not to). I win because I don't pay and the developper wins because I watched adds.

    Timers are something I abhor but again it's a personal point of view. I grew up with premium games, I did not adapt to the F2P model and I don't intend to. And most people who download a "Free" app don't even think about buying something and try to stay as free to play as possible anyway. I somehow adopted the "Adds removal" IAP but that's as far as I go most of the time.
    Maybe I should have made a point about the difference between F2P and Freemium. When F2P mechanics can be totally removed via IAP, I would consider it as being Freemium. But when such mechanics stay even after IAPs, I would still consider it to be a F2P (even if they become lighter, they are still present). Again, a totally subjective opinion. But I have seen many times people on TouchArcade who first ask if there is a possibility to remove adds permanently and if there isn't they don't even try to download it. Old habits or personal gaming philosophies are hard to change.

    When I spoke about Challenges, I meant about additional things to do when you replay a level. It has become a common trend in TD games. Things like 1HP, stronger waves, limited ressources (high initial mana but no mana gain through the level), limited turrets (access to only certain types of turrets), etc. The level design stays the same but the challenges add a replay value making the game twice or thrice as long without the need to create new levels.

    About my favorite TD games?
    I don't think I have a favorite one among all because I like diversity.
    All the Kingdom Rush series are nice examples, but I would say the Origins is the best one among them. The world is interactive, the enemy lines change and appear, you have heroes, you have powers, you have several different upgrades available for each tower. All in all a nice source of inspiration.
    Dungeon Maker Dark Lord is not really a TD but I would consider it as one. The gameplay is really different from classical TD games but the core mechanic of enemy waves and a "core" to defend is present. The addition of a randomised progress makes it a rogue-like TD and I liked this mix.
    Plants VS Zombies could also be considered as a TD but in this case, I played the first one and got rid of the 2nd release because it was heavily riddled with F2P mechanics...
    Tiny Guardians surprised me a lot. It has some graphical similarities with Kingdom Rush but the difference of gameplay is absolute. In this game, instead of having enemies following a line to your core, you are the core and you have to reach the end of the line. The "tower" you use are your summons that follow you around and you have to move them around to respond to threats along the way. You have upgrades, you spells, you have special challenges and some end game levels (if my memory is correct).
    The last on my list is Mindustry and is really special in its mechanics. It's a mix between TD and Factorio. You have to mine for ressources and create some production chains to construct towers and supply them with ammo. You have a base, a mobile turret/hero and a huge map to explore. A pretty hard learning curve to say the least but I always welcome a challenge :)
     
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  12. yankeeblue000

    yankeeblue000 Well-Known Member

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    Jeez! Nm! I’ll pass on it completely now. Best of luck
     
  13. kimcQNK

    kimcQNK New Member

    Feb 23, 2020
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    Hi Ringerill,

    While I was in the middle of responding your first post, you posted the review. I didn't have a chance to see the review until now.

    As for your review, thank you, you are pretty spot on in terms of the game play we are trying to offer.
    One of the key challenges we had with the whole concept was:

    "Would players play a strategy game when they can only see 50% of the map (handicapped)".

    It wasn't an easy thing to solve. There were a lot of trial and error to get it to where we are.
    I'm glad you are able manage it. I'm sure it will still be disorientating for some players.


    The basic concept Eri's Forest isn't too different from other TD games (build lots of weak towers or build a few strong towers), but this is also where it can be misleading.
    Eri's Forest is slightly so different that if you use a strategy from another TD, you will struggle to beat the levels. I've been working on the project for so long, it's difficult for me to tell (and I haven't play another TD game in a while to compare). But yes, I have heard from people that they struggled with the first 3 levels. I need to watch over someone new playing the game.

    With Eri taking up a tower placement, it's one of the core mechanic, where players need to decide to build a tower or keep it free for Eri. It's one of the trade off base on players' play style.

    By back on your opinion, my response might sound defensive but it isn't my intention. I'm taking it "serious" trying to address your concerns/opinions. This is possibly one of the hardest thing for me to do. I either agree or disagree, but to disagree, I need to spend sometime to consider a middle ground.


    > Things like 1HP, stronger waves, limited ressources

    Yes. That's the kind of things we have planned. But it will need to be accessed from a different menu called Challenge... it's just the way I have structured internal code.



    For other TD:
    - Kingdom Rush the original one was excellent. Every cool idea with their slow tower (barracks). I couldn't play the rest of the series including (Iron Marine), feels too similar.
    - One of my fav was Horde of Orcs on Mac/PC (my second TD game). The first TD game I played was on flash. I dont remember much anymore.
    - PvZ, I played it on the Mac. They got sooo many things right (Premium model included). :-D
    - PvZ2, I agree with you on that. I actually use that as my use case on what I should NOT do.
    - My most recent TD game I played was X-morph on Steam. I highly recommend it.


    Anyway, I think I'll conclude here. The Timer issue with your play style (if you play, you want to play the whole day), no promise here but it's at the back of my mind to lessen the issue.
     
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  14. Ringerill

    Ringerill Well-Known Member

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    I think you did it in the right way and probably shouldn't change it too much. The difficulty increases with levels and so does the amount of rotations you have to do. It's good that you are not thrown into a full 360° level right from the start so that you get the chance to get used to it.
    If really some people have problems with that, you could always work something out like adding some kind of transparency for insects and make them glow a certain colour through the tree. At least that way you know there are some enemies advancing on the other side. Could be tricky to tackle the right amount of colour though because some maps can become crowded pretty fast and you wouldn't want to confuse people on what is on the frontal side or behind.
    Or you could add a Pause button. That way, players can check what is happening around. Or maybe they could just pause and enjoy the scenery and make some nice screen shots ;)
    But all in all, I like this feature and the "difficulty" it adds. It's what makes the game original and stand out from the rest.

    Meh, don't worry about it. It's normal to try to defend your choices, which are justified :)
    Devs can't please everyone anyway. And if, as you say, you manage to build a reputation and make this game known, you could always switch to another monetisation system for a future game. I am totally supporting it, especially since it's not just a generic TD. We'll see how the public will react.

    Yeah, that really seems like a personal choice here. At first I though that there might be an optimised way to use it to your advantage. Most of TD levels have a really perfect way of turret placement and hero choices but here, I couldn't make up my mind about what is THE best way. In the end, I just try to build turrets everywhere and keep Eri at the space where it can maximise the number of turrets buffed. But I am sure that with some micro-management, it can be made quite efficient for boosting and mana gathering. Maybe with a better lantern, it would get more optimal to leave a space for Eri and make him move all over the map when the need arises.

    It's nice that it is planned. Yeah, if it is due to the code structure, you can only work from here and make do with it. I think that 1HP and Limited Mana would be nice challenges. And restricting only certain types of turrets could create challenges where Eri plays a bigger role as compensation for the missing ones. Would have to be tested out to be sure it's feasible for the random player without requiring him to setup everything perfectly.

    On another side note, I really think that if the player could know in advance what the waves would be filled with, that would help a lot to setup the proper strategy. Something like a pop-up window appearing during the setup phase, before you click GO. Because you have this free paused time to plan your strategy but it's useless if you don't know what to expect. Yes, you can see the types of ennemies you are going to have, but even that, you really have to guess at first to make the link between the small icons and the actual insects they represent. However, you don't know how much of each category you are going to have. And that detail if what matters the most. If there are a lot of small and fast insects and just 1 or 2 big ones in the end, that changes the layout of turrets dramatically. Having to adapt on the fly adds a huge difficulty that might be frustrating.

    Yeah, well, you don't have to go out of your way just for me. If the audience don't mind it, then so be it. Still, it would reassure a lot of player over here if it could be somehow removed.
    It's not that I won't play the game, it's just that I know how it ends up with game using Timers. I download it, play it until I run out of energy, then switch to another game/activity. I might come back to it later if I remember but in the longer run, I know I will just forget it or I will switch priorities to something else (probably to the thing I would be doing while waiting for the energy to refill).

    Horde of Orcs and X-morph?
    Never heard of them. Since I don't play on computer anymore, that could explain it. But X-morph looks pretty interesting.
    I've totally forgot the Anomaly Defence series. It's not really a TD in the original sense but it could be interpreted as an inverse TD where you have to follow the line to reach and destroy the core. I went looking for it and have sadly realised that the game was rereleased by another studio and I would have to buy them all over again (which I probably won't do...).
    There were these two Dofus themed TD called Dofus Battles. It played around the RPG gameplay where your towers were characters from the game and you could level them up and put some equipment looted from the enemies. Too bad it has not been maintained and was pulled out from the AppStore :(

    But let's not forget the oldest one of them I played: Gemcraft. Maybe that's the one you are looking for? I think it was a Flash game. The towers merging and crafting, that was really something unique...

    If people know of some Reverse TD (aka Tower Offense) games on mobile, I would gladly take their info on that!
     
  15. kimcQNK

    kimcQNK New Member

    Feb 23, 2020
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    Thanks for understand our viewpoint.

    Just a couple notes:

    Yes. We tried it with just the insect's health Bar showing thru the trunk (which is much smaller than a insect), and that was enough to mess up the screen.

    Definitely an area we need to improve on. BTW, the wave indicator shows only the unique insects on that path and it's in the order of their appearance. So, it does have some order to it, but you won't be able to tell what is in between. Also, if you drag the wave indicator bar up/down, you can minimise/maximise the icons. On the phone, it's still pretty small, but on an iPad, it's perfect size.
    When I was implementing the wave indicator bar, I was very careful not to get too close to the iOS horizontal task bar on iPhoneX/new iPadPro, as I might get rejected Apple. So it's purely a real-estate issue.

    Yes. Brilliant design. I think I played all of them and completed them all as well.

    Not Gemcraft. It's something older than Gemcraft (2008). I didn't discover Gemcraft until much later. Speaking of Gemcraft, there is something oddly very satisfying about. I tried to understand what make it fun for me but I never did. Plus my biz partner, would never approved a mechanics that geeky into Eri's Forest.
     
  16. Ringerill

    Ringerill Well-Known Member

    Dec 13, 2012
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    Here I am again but this time, I have tried to play the game normally (i.e. without any IAP stuff) to see how to get 3 stars on the first 5 levels. The idea was to guess the strategy required and the possible ways of turrets placement. Because, by playing like I would any other TD (let's take the Kingdom Rush games as an example of strategy), I couldn't get 3 stars. So this meant that there was another, more specific way of dealing with turrets here.
    I want to write it here so that other could use it as info. But also to make the dev know what seemed strange or not intuitive so that it could be reworked if needed.

    For starters, I only used 1 or 2 lanterns, those accessible early in game without grinding. You have access to Moss 1 (6 dmg), Ember 1 (10% SPD, +2.5 Poison) and Water 1 (12% RNG, 13% Slow +1sec). At level 5 or 6 you unlock another slot for a lantern, so I used 2 lanterns only for the level 5.

    At first, I simply tried the casual build of 2 small turrets surrounding a slowing turret. That is always a strategy that pays off in most TD but here it got me in trouble more than once... Either the slow effect is not sufficient or the insect are too fast in general, but I always got some enemies getting away with a sliver of health. Even when improving the slow effect, it wasn't enough.

    Then, the idea was to put small turrets everywhere, so that enemies are attacked along the whole way and not in a concentrated place. Since you don't know where the next new lines are going to appear (unless you know the level by hearth), it seemed like a viable choice. It wasn't as bad as I though, or at least it was as viable as the 1 slow/2 attack strategy before. However, the amount of DPS didn't suffice and some enemies got past the core.

    In the end, the first 3 levels were accomplished using only small turrets in a concentrated space BUT Eri was around to give a boost in damage AND they were upgraded as soon as possible. It is important to notice that upgrading a turret almost double its damage, and it costs ~30% more than a new turret. This made the levels really easy and I could just sit and watch bugs getting shaved off the tree.

    Later on, you have access to big turrets with splash damage and slow attack speed. I though it would simply ravage everything when coupled with a slowing turret but it turned out that this is the worst thing to do. The speed of the splash turret just doesn't keep up.

    In the end, the best strategy is to put small turrets near a concentrated point and upgrade them to max. Then you can move on to other spaces, but only when turrets are at least level 2.
    With this type of turrets, Eri's lanterns become really handy because it boosts raw damage and not the percentage. Then, increasing speed or radius works fine in both cases. Because of this, you should always keep a space for Eri that maximises the number of turrets buffed and move him around from time to time.
    At one point, you will meet new enemies like the Jumping insects and just because of that, this strategy of fast attacking turrets is the way to go. Why? Because when you hit the jumping bugs with splash damage, they just jump and advance further along the line, making your splash turrets useless and even dangerous for the core.

    It's a little bit sad to see that a straightforward "strategy" of building small turrets all over the map is the best one to get 3 stars for each level. I'm only at level 7 now but I did some Challenge levels and Quests, and still, this way of playing is the one that pays off.
    Still, maybe in later levels you will have to use some more combined placements with poison+slowing turrets for instance. But for now, grab your damage and speed lantern, build turrets all over the map and enjoy the scenery :)
     
    ColeDaddy and yankeeblue000 like this.
  17. Boardumb

    Boardumb Administrator
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold

    Apr 14, 2009
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