Day #6 Post #3 Great idea by iANiMeX! I thought of something that is similar (wanted to leave it for tomorrow's posting) but thought I'll just write it here. More Suggestions (1) Bonus Enemies - My impression of this is more for fun! Basically, on a random basis, bonus enemies like "Pinatas!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%B1ata can appear. They are insanely difficult to defeat (with extremely high HP) but upon death, they explode into manymany bits of goodies! For the context of LD, Pinatas can be bonus enemies that appear suddenly in a game (once per level?). Once defeated, they explode into many different scrolls/gold/jelly? that players need to tap on to collect. To tie-in with iANiMeX, this Pinata can be the bonus enemy for the bonus level. My ideas below will also allow more ways of utilizing the Pinata. (2) Enemy Targeting Priority - I am not sure if it is just me or are we unable to select which enemy the towers accord attack priority to? This would be a very significant strategic element in the game. I hope the team can work on implementing this or making it more obvious. Doing so, you can have a mix of slow/fast bosses amidst fast/slow enemies! Players would have to arrange for their towers to accord attack priority to the "right" (it is subjective) in order to overcome the wave. Hope I make sense here! Therefore, if we have the Pinata enemy, players have to choose if they want to accord attack priority to it (and get the freebies) while risking the possibility of letting a wave go-pass them! (3) NEW Enemy/Boss Types! - I remember in Kingdom Rush, two of the best enemies I faced were the spiders and the necromancers! The spiders would lay eggs that burst into many more small spiders. The necromancers could raise up large army of skeletons. Both could overwhelm you if you do not take precautionary measures to clear them fast enough. I hope the team can consider adding these type of "multiplier" bosses so teams have to further strategise! I should be done for today X)
Areas for Improvement According to the "Record", I have logged over 45 hours of testing in the past 6 days. I feel that I am familiar enough with the gameplay to make some overall suggestions for the developer. I am listing only areas that I think are subpar. I am refraining from wish list type of suggestions. Title Page 1. The looping sound file has gaps. 2. "OPTIONS" instead of "OPTION" Theme Selection Page 1. The looping sound file has gaps. 2. Should be able to swipe from theme to theme for consistency of interface. 3. Touch the theme map to pop up "Enter" dialog. Touch "Enter" to enter theme. Campaign Selection Page 1. Touch the campaign map to pop up "Start" dialog. Touch "Start" to enter campaign. Upgrade Page 1. Tower. Flash the improvement on the horizontal bars for the next upgrade. 2. Reorder the towers according to the sequence of unlocking. Rapider, Iceberg, Driller, Anti-Air, Rocketeer, Death Ray, Charger, Fire Hand, Obelisk, Soul Stealer, and Living Armor. I am recalling the sequence from memory. Please correct me if I made a mistake. 3. "Ice Berg" should be spelled "Iceberg" 4. "DeathRay" should be "Death Ray" 5. "Sour Stealer" should be "Soul Stealer" 6. Lich. The bouncing "new" over the Lich tab does not go away until all remain points were used up. It is not necessary new but just redeemable. "new" should not show again once you noted the points available. 7. Skill should be "Spell" 8. "Remain point" should be "Remain points" when there are more than 1 point. 9. Shop. I am not fond of Jelly money. First, it complicates the shopping experience. Second, for both a paid app or a freemium title, people don't like to be forced to pay for IAP. They will gladly (hopefully) pay if they feel like they have a choice. You may also consider using Tapjoy (www.tapjoy.com) for monetization. 10. Record. "Record" should be "Stats" 11. The items in the Record are not self explanatory. Add a question mark button in the top left space to pop open a window with explanation of the items. 12. Infinite mode is mentioned in the Record. It is no where to be found in the current beta (1.09.00). Are you planning to include it in the final release? Actual Gameplay 1. The looping sound file has gaps. 2. Difficulty. Lava theme (in particular levels 4 and 7) is probably too difficult for a paid title where players do not expect to have to spring for IAP. I am not even talking about hard mode which I have not unlocked. I am currently up to wave 38 of 45 in level 7 Phoenix's Nest. Keep in mind I am trying much harder as a beta tester than I would if I were just a casual gamer. I do not anticipate being able to complete normal mode with only one more day to go for the testing period. Some rebalancing would be in order unless you are releasing this as a freemium title. 3. It does not make sense to issue an F Rank for Victory. F stands for Fail and should indicate defeat. Only use S, A, B and C for Victory. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing C rank. Do you mean to use C instead of F? 4. Next wave info slide in from the left needs to last longer. Also I am still confused about the Recovery HP/MP box which is listed above the incoming units. What does HP 121 + 0 and MP 31 + 0 actually mean? 5. Probably the most important improvement would be a tutorial about the unique features for Lich Defense. Most players will have no idea about the different unit types. A little description for Physical, Magical, Regen(erative), Flying, Evasion, and Boss units would be very helpful. Also unique is the ability to upgrade Lich with Scroll, Skills, and Items. This can be inserted below the explanation of POW, HP and MP. 6. Finally I am confused about if I will gain Gold, Jelly money and Exp after completing a level. Why are there G and EXP in the Quests description but no rewards for such? Is EXP yet to be implemented? Is the amount of gold earned predefined for each quest? If so, why not list the amount in the description? If not, how can I earn more gold? Also even though it says G: 250, I don't think I am getting 250 units of Gold. This aspect of the game is just so confusing to me. Am I correct to assume that the percent next to S rank correlates to damage to Lich? GameCenter Not working yet. Conclusions Of course I am being critical. The game as it stands is fantastic. Making a few changes will greatly diminish the confusion factor and, therefore, significantly enhancing the enjoyment of Lich Defense. Well done devs!! I do wish that I can beta test items available only with Jelly money. I want to thank AppsAsia for hosting a great beta testing contest and allowing me to participate in such a fun title. Tomorrow will be Day 7, I plan to share a few personal pearls for everyone who, like me, is getting stuck in Lava theme. Good luck to all!
Day 5 Post#3 That's what I wanted to talk about really nice suggestion. If we are talking about new mobs, then I have some ideas: Frost Elementals. These mobs should freeze nearby towers so they cannot attack. Movement speed - medium, HP - medium.. The only way to kill Frost Elememtals is using ranged towers e.g. Rapider and Rocketeer. Water Elementals slowing towers nearby. Those Elementals should have huge regeneration too. Movement speed - medium, HP - high. .Should be very vulnerable by Fire Hand tower. Wind Elementals should be very quick air mobs(Movement speed - very high, e.g. 5 seconds for dealing the whole path in Normal speed mode), but with low HP. Only powerful anti-air battery can deal with them. Fire Elementals should be slow mobs with high HP. They should turn to Wind Elementals after hit from IceBerg tower. Also Fire Elementals should have special skill: 5% chance to downgrade nearby tower every 5 seconds. If the tower is level 1, then it should be destroyed. I think that mobs with special abilities is great idea. Isn't it?
Day 6 Post#4 About game modes. I think that adding CO-OP mode would be pretty cool. For example: It should be up to 4 players(2-player and 4-player modes). Each player can build on his/her side. Mobs can come from other side too so your friend's towers will damage mobs which run to your lich. More powerful bosses, more units in each wave. Reward for successful completing includes jellies too. EDIT: I thought about DUEL mode too, in different aspects: 1) Both players building towers and sending waves of mobs. 2) Attack-Defense duel. One player sends waves(he has 100000 MP at start, damaging opponent's Lich gives more mana), other player builds defenses. But it is hard for realization, so I decided not to tell about those ideas
Day #6 Post #4 Great suggestion by Megalitum! Thought I'll take it further and add it some of my thoughts as well (1) Local Co-op - This would work largely for the iPad (only). The iPad can be configured into a split-screen configurations for players to play together. Alternatively, players can also play AGAINST one another. I will develop this in my next point. (2) Addition to Challenge Mode? Versus Co-op - I hope some of you played Swords vs Soldiers. Basically what I am going to suggest go along simliar lines! Based on Mega's idea below, I hope the team can consider a Versus Mode. On top of building towers, players can now send enemy waves at each other (once again, wave units are purchased through mana -similar to SvS system). The battle between players can get rather hectic as players try to send overwhelming hordes that can go pass the towers and take out the Lich! ahh reached my post limit!
Day 6 Post 1: Suggestions: 1: When you have new towers added they tend to move some of the old ones around which can be a bit bothersome if you get used to tapping one area and do that the next round you will get a different tower. When they are added they should stay in that spot. 2: Not sure if this would be considered a bug or not but I upgraded a spell while I only had 2 spells equipped and it shifted it from the first spell slot to the third one which is a little weird. 3: Perhaps when you complete all 6 quests for certain maps you could be rewarded with some Jelly points or stat points for the Lich.
Day 6 Post 2: Suggestions: 1: Would be kind of cool if after you finished the game you had access to some human maps where you got to play as the humans and defend from the Lich. Or even just decide which waves to send in to try and over power a AI controlled Lich. 2: More items to change the look of you Lich. Lots of people love being able to fully customize the characters they are playing as and even if the equipment doesn't have the best stats they will use it if they like the way it looks. It would be kind of fun to have some silly looking items for the Lich like an afro or santa hat. 3: Be able to build some traps to better defend your Lich. Could have some like a spike strip that would cause damage to the units going over it and after X unit crossed it, it would get destroyed or an ice trap that would freeze a unit that crossed it to give you a couple more seconds to do damage.
That's a better description...the description in-game should be along those lines...current description doesn't make much sense.
DAY 4 post #2 mistake in help section. the picture shown is totally wrong. Icon in color means it is ready to go while in grey it needs cooltime to charge. Please fix it.
Ok, new day in a new week. Only 5 days to go 'til Friday... While I really do love TD games, I have to admit I'm really starting to get burned out on them. One thing that could possible help remedy that would be some variation. Right now pretty much all TD games, inlcuding this one, have the same basic types of towers. Granted they are great and and useful and help with your strategy for each level, but a little variation with some new tower types would really go a long way in keeping the game fresh instead of just another game. I'm not super creative to think of WHAT these new tower types would be but I'm sure someone has a lot of ideas. When the action is getting frantic and there are tons of enemies on the screen, I always want the option to tap an enemy and target them to be defeated first from the closest towers. It's SO helpful with that one enemy that seems to sneak by your towers when you aren't looking About 50% of the TD games I play have that option and I always see it as a benefit and sign of a well designed game. I don't think it would be too difficult to implement given the game is 95% ready for release. Again I'm trying not to suggest too many things that drastically change the core gameplay or graphics but just want to let you know of some simple additions that could add polish and quality to an already great game.
I don't think it's a bug. It's just an example, telling you that the cooling time is filled from top to bottom. You can see all these 3 skills are in different colors in the real game.
Day 6 Post #4 I think it is better to have a Dark Intro movie for this game. I've made an unofficial (fanmade) intro movie for this game. Hope you guys will like it. All voices in this teaser/intro movie is from me. Enjoy!
Day 6 #1 I don't think some suggestions above will be accepted. Some of them are never seen before in other defense games ever. I don't think Lich Defense is the best defense game. And it will never be the perfect defense game. So still stay focus on bug resolving not just speaking whimsical things.
Day 6 #2 #1 The game doesn't auto orientation on iPad 2 when the Orientation lock is unlocked. #2 Turning weather/effects on or not doesn't make big difference. The weather effects are not that obvious. Just some cloud, snow.
Day 6 #4 Add more quests in Hard mode. Currently the quests in Hard mode just changing the digits, such as "Use skills more than 10 times" to "Use skills more than 30 times". Such quests don't make sense. You should replace them with new ones. Here are some points: 1. Finish the game with only Rapider. 2. No enemy killed by Lich.
Most of my concerns about LD are cosmetic marring the engagement in the product. Ignoring that and instead of fantasizing dream additions I keep trying to anchor myself to the game mechanics. To summarize, Lich Defense has satisfying frantic gameplay but suffers from some balance and pacing issues. LD takes a while to get interesting due to easy early levels/waves. Interface mechanics are good. The controls are well designed and feel fluid. Enemy behavior is effective and sufficiently varied. The menu design, in-game and main, are intuitive. Stability remains good, I have not had many freezes or crashes save for the multitasking bug not registering taps when fast switching between apps (iPod Touch 3GS here). Attempts to crash LD have indicated good performance. If released today Lich Defense would end up a serviceable but mediocre game with the essentials in place but generic art design and totally nonsensical plot. I think there’s an epic game in there but the unvarying enemies/bosses, slow early pacing, and generic tower designs may sink LD in an over-saturated tower defense field. Now on to the wild suggestions/tweaks: Dramaticize Lich demise by turning the screen red or showing, in the background, a more detailed background screen. Currently when Lich dies he just disappears from the stand and it shows vacant while revival options pop up. If my Lich dies, I want to be amused. Consider also that using the death/revival and victory/stat splash screens is one way to imply story. On victory a splash screen showing, for example, skeletons chasing maidens would add personality and show the Lich’s dark designs; or on defeat showing a do-gooder hero saluting. Use Elf Defense assets to connect it to Lich Defense to strengthen the Jelly Oasis brand. It would be amazing if the Elves made a cameo appearance in Lich Defense and this would be a good way of cross marketing. Elf Defense character cameos would give players a sense that these two worlds are connected and that there is a larger story / purpose behind the scenes. Despite their differences, elves and Lich share a common human enemy. Slow motion the final shot of ending wave for dramatic purposes. It would be satisfying if the deathly blow to the last enemy was emphasized. In terms of Marketing: Change the name to something more unique. Lich Defense is a plain vanilla generic description of this game. On one hand it’s easily understood, on the other the term “defense” blends in with a field of tower defense games. Assuming I knew nothing about LD, which is a fun game, I would be hesitant to download another tower defense game (because they have a tendency to be cookie cutter). The video trailer may be misleading by over-emphasizing the dramatic tower filled franticness of the best LD battles. It would be good to add a few seconds of a bare bones intro level wave; maybe emphasize the Lich's ability to attack and cast spells without towers. I disagree and encourage developers to avoid the multiplayer trap. Multiplayer is a popular request but for a frantic game like LD that relies on ability to manipulate/pause game speed LD is not logistically sound for multiplayer. Even if multiplayer was reasonable too often I have seen developers (like Mission Europa, Furious Tactical, etc) cater to multiplayer only to find in short time online servers are barren or my friends have lost interest. Spend your energy elsewhere. An intro movie would help but I think the more immersive approach would be to add plot tidbits throughout. One of the biggest problems with Lich Defense is that it doesn’t seem cohesive and aside from solid gameplay the art design and themes come across as painfully generic. Save for love of tower defense game play alone there’s not reason to go on. An intro would help with set-up but not egg players onward.
Day 6 Post 1 Add cutscenes that tell the background story of why the Lich is defending against the heroes. They don't need to be high quality videos, normal comic style panel will do.
Day 6 Post 2 New items suggestion: Cursed ring Reduces the Lich HP by 50%, increases damage by 30% Short sighted Reduces all tower range by 50%, increases damage by 30%
is everyone clearing the stage 8 one by one quest 'don't summon a tower until clearing the 1 wave'? I have tried several times. I didn't put any tower but use only lich's attack and skills till wave 5. I am still not able to complete this quest. Is there anything special? or it's just a weird bug I come across
The first wave on that Meadow Level 8 is too powerful. I think they've mistakenly used a powerful wave instead of the normal or easier low hp ones. The next wave to the first will be easy to kill so I think it is a mistake from them.
