Day 1 - post 2 Okay, here's my second post. I realized that I won't have any time later tonight to post again so this will be a bit short. I will expand on some of these ideas tomorrow night and will post more screenshots. I also have ideas for UI changes, so I will try to create some prototypes and upload those in one of tomorrows posts. User Interface/Menu System: First of all, I really dislike the way towers are selected. The only way I've found to get rid of the tower build menu when in-game is to do a swipe or to tap on an area that can't be built on. This is not a very good way of doing it as it seems kind of sloppy and not well thought out. Probably what should happen is to make a tower build menu at the bottom of the screen and have the player drag and drop towers onto the map. Since the skills are also on the bottom of the screen, you could either put the skills on the right side of the screen and towers on the bottom, or have two tabs that would open pop-up windows that have the skills and towers. Also, a lot of the on-screen buttons obscure the map, so much that certain areas of the map cannot be build on, and if towers are place at the very bottom or very top, the buttons for upgrading/selling get put on top of the tower. Those buttons should automatically relocate if the tower is too close to the edges. I think that because a lot of the UI obscures the play-field that maybe the play-field should have a border around it that the UI would sit on, that way nothing would be obscuring the map. This is not usually done in tower defense games, but I think it might be worth it because this one feels a bit cramped. Also, I think the range of the towers should either be more transparent, or just be a circle that is not filled in, as the currently transparency of the range somewhat obscures enemies and towers. I definitely think that the pause/play buttons should be put together, and the speed button should have three options: normal, x2, and x4, that way the player can quickly and intuitively change from x4 to normal speed. Other Notes: I noticed that in this game, towers are allowed to miss enemy units. My thoughts on this are that this is not an RPG and in tower defense games, you rely on your towers hitting the enemies, so when your towers can miss an enemy 5 times in a row, you really can't rely on them. I honestly think you should remove missing altogether as it makes your ability to win more about luck than strategy. I lost health multiple times because my towers kept missing one enemy and he got all the way through...this is unfair. I think that the 'Jelly' currency should be renamed. I don't know to what, but 'Jelly' just doesn't make any sense at all. The sell/unsummon button I think should be colored blue like the mana and should have a simple of mana rather than coins, since you don't sell towers for coins. upgrade button should probably be green, as red usually means negative and upgrading is a positive thing, thus green. Well, I think that's it for now. Like I said earlier, I'll try to post some more screenshots and elaborate on these points some more tomorrow, as well as other things. I hope everything here is clear enough, and if anything doesn't make sense, send me a PM or something and I can elaborate.
I still cannot get the game successfully loaded on my phone. I'm thinking that my UDID may not have been included with the provisioning file making iTunes unable to load it on my device. I'm going to have to email back AppAsia to get some help... Edit: Well I suppose this still is my second post of the day haha...
Day #2 Post #1 (1) Installation/Crash Issues For testers having the above issues, try redoing everything, meaning: (a) Pull both the .app and provisioning profile into the iPhone Configuration Utility (b) Uninstall Lich Defence (c) Reinstall Lich Defence This worked for me this morning and I can finally get started on playing the game. will be updated with more information later today
Let's rock the Day 2! DAY 2 #1 Bugs: #1 About the orientation issue. The first time the game starts, it's in landscape view (I mean Game Center welcome bar, the AssistiveTouch menu). When the device is locked after a while and unlock to continue playing, you can see the action of orientation then Game Center welcome bar shows on the side. Then again, if you press home button and make it run in background then start again, it goes back to normal. #2 As Psychen said, the position of icons when building or upgrading towers is strange. I have captured more with weird and normal to make a comparison. (Left: Normal; Right: Weird) Upgrading: Building on the right side: Building on the bottom: #3 The game is running in background. However I didn't recall the game from Background. I did in Game Center. You guess what happened? The game restarts as if it isn't running in background. My current game progress is lost. The game starts from JellyOasis welcome screen. --- EDIT: I cannot re-produce this bug again. May be occasional, may be my mistake. Hope others can have a try to test this. Suggestions: #1 The welcome notice shows up often. I haven't got the frequency, but at least once a day. I think it's better to add an option to show notice on start or not. #2 After a failure, you can see you can revive. First time on current wave is FREE. But what about getting more? I'd like to see the price right over there! #3 After a successful pass, there should be a total time of the current stage. There's a total play time in Record, though it doesn't represent all stage time cost. #4 In Game Center Leaderboard, there should be a more detailed sub-leaderboard to record each stage. Tips: #1 Try to finish the Quests to earn more Experience and Gold. The more Experience you get, the higher level you are. And you can get status points to strengthen your Power, HP or MP. With Gold you can buy new skills, new items, scrolls. #2 Build towers according to the enemy types. If the upcoming enemy is flying type, you can build some Anti-Air to attack specifically. #3 Use the super skills wisely. Each time you use a skill, the HP of Lich will decrease. #4 Once the skill is used, it goes into Cooling time. It will turn to be in gray with color filling. After the icon is high-lit again, you can use them again. #5 Lich will recover its HP after a wave. Something wondering: I hope I can figure them out in later maps and stages. #1 The weather effects are just for frog/cloud? Will there be a dark cloud or even storms, heavy rains? #2 Unlock of the next 3 quests. #3 What does the Leaderboard in Game Center record?
Have been struggling to install the game as well for the past few hours. I will have to start my posts tomorrow assuming I can get installed. Off topic but I finally got keri racing installed a few minutes ago.
I completely understand the design choice. I was simply noting that it would be unnatural for a typical end-user to expect that the play button would turn off when they increase speed and that they can't go back to regular speed by tapping the speed button again. My suggestion is to get rid of the play button and just have a speed button, where you can toggle between normal, 2x, and 4x. The game is always playing anyway unless you pause it or click the X. They could just add a resume button when the game is paused and then everything would not only have more screen real-estate, but it would also make more sense.
Wow... Deleting and reinstalling worked here too so no more crashing! This seems like an odd bug. Thanks much to wilflare! Look... you guys want to bicker about translation but I didn't come here for grammer lessons, on to the gameplay for me.
The game is very solid and it's ten min to midnight so I feel that a major issue for me with the special attacks is finding away to cancel them after they are tapped...maybe when a second finger hits the screen it cancels? It makes for more ease of control of our cooldown time.. I'll have a full detailed impression tomarrow so for now ...just two posts today!
DAY 2 #2 Bug: #1 There's a long black screen before the game starts today. It wasn't that long yesterday. #2 I think it should be a bug that Quest is finished even the battle is defeated. #3 Recommend instead of New Tower in Anti-Air. #4 After upgrading the towers, I have upgraded Rapider to Level 3 for instance. I think when I build it on map, it should be Level 3 not still Level 1. But in fact it shows still Level 1, and I cannot recognize whether the power has been strengthened. Because I didn't care about how much damage it cause with one shot to enemies before. Suggestion: #1 Add a "Touch to Start" feature before enemies come. Or as what I said yesterday, add the count down. #2 When a quest is finished in game, there can be a reminder to let players know. #3 Add feature to save the current game progress after exiting the game. The later stages have over 20 waves, which really costs a lot of time to play. It would be better to save the progress for the players who want to play the game for a while on subway. #4 When upgrading towers, players should view how much increases in which aspect (Power, Speed or Range). Currently only the cost. Example: #5 You can add more Gold in the game. The Gold are scattered randomly on the map. Players can catch them with a simple tap. #6 Add feature to unlock next stage with Coins or Jelly. Players may be stuck at a certain stage, then they can unlock next stage manually at the cost of Coins or Jelly. Tip: #1 Lich can attack enemies as well. You can strengthen its power after you level up using points (3 points per level up). #2 Upgrade your towers in the Upgrade menu to make your towers much more powerful, higher speed and longer range. These effects are taken once you build them on the map. Script Errors: #1 Loading Screen Rocketeer can cause 5X damages when attacking targets at the longest range.
Day #2 Post #2 Suggestions on Usability (1) Auto-Rotation - Currently, the game is fixed in a certain rotation and does not rotate even when the iPad is flipped. Hope the team can implement auto-rotation so that iPad users can play it with the SmartCover (2) Auto-Pause - Currently, the game does NOT pause even when I use the hand gestures (four fingers swipe up to access the dashboard). Players usually do this to adjust brightness. The game should auto-pause when this happens to provide convenience for players. (3) Deployment of Skill - Currently, in order to use a Skill, a player taps on the skill and drags it to the intended area/target. I think it would be better if the player can FIRST TAP on the skill, then on his next tap, the drag would begun. Also, there should be a way for players to cancel the skill-casting. Perhaps by tapping two fingers while dragging (or tapping out of the target area). User Interface (1) Quest "Badges" and "Rewards" - Currently, when a certain quest is cleared, the quest icon goes from "grey" to "gold". However, the rewards remain "grey". This may be a personal opinion but I think it would be great to colour the rewards as well. It feels more complete that way. (2) Quest Completion Notification - Currently, there is no way to tell if a quest is completed during a game. I hope the team can consider adding in a notification whenever a quest is completed. (The way Jetpack Joyride does it is a good reference) Alternatively, the notification can be in the form of a translucent speech bubble by the Lich. Gameplay (1) SS Ranking - The team can consider the implementation of the "SS" rank where the player completes ALL quests and has ZERO damage done to the Lich in a SINGLE playthough. (Currently, users can just repeat to clear all quests.. there should be a higher achievement for PERFECT/FLAWLESS playthroughs) (2) Timer - The team can consider adding a timer so that players can track how long they are taking to clear each level. These data can go toward creating another scoreboard/leaderboard on GameCenter for players to compete against one another. General Comments (1) Graphics - The graphics look decent. I won't shout amazing but it is well within expectations. The only bit that I think is really AWESOME is the cloud effects. There's a level of detail quite unlike any other game I've seen. (2) Sound - The sound is average. Nothing particularly stands out. Hope to see more development here. (3) Multiplayer - It would be great if the game is connected to a "server" (when the player intends to) So players all around will join a specific clan/alliances to defend their Lich. So how well "defended" a Lich is will be based on the number of "SS" ranks that its clan of players have achieved. More thoughts to come soon!
Day 2 Post #1 Translation Errors: Correct: You should sell Soul Stealer in critical moments. (Also, text are overlapping or were outside the border.) Correct: Play the game at twice the speed until the end Correct: Summon more than 20 towers Clear the stage with more than 1500 remaining MP Upgrade towers more than 40 times before clearing the game Correct: Clear the stage with less than 50% HP Kill more than 5 units on a single tower's shot Clear all the waves for 900 seconds Correct: Don't summon a tower until you've cleared the 3rd wave Correct: Don't summon a tower until you've cleared the 3rd wave Correct: Summon less than 15 towers Sell more than 5 towers Play the game at twice the speed until the end Correct: Clear the stage with more than 500 remaining MP Destroy more than 4 buildings Correct: Destroy more than 5 buildings Correct: - Increases tower's damage within Obelisk's range - Not that useful in tight spaces Correct: - Deals massive continuous fire damage - When an enemy dies from fire, it'll explode - Don't use it as the main tower
Day 2 Post #2 Impression/Review?: I've finished the game and unlocked the Hard mode and 3 more Quest for every Chapter/Theme. Game was great. I think this game is even better than the Elf Defense. I love the implementation of the Skills/Spells. They really helped a lot in this game. I also like the x4 speed feature. Really helped speed-up the game specially if you have a powerhouse defense. I also like the Weather effects on this game. What I like the most is on the Lava stage where it shakes the screen from time to time because of earthquake. The game is well balanced and the final stage (Lava 10) is really one hard level. I think that was the hardest level on any TD game I've played so far. Great job on doing that and it makes me feel so great finally conquering such a hard level. I've played that single level for almost 2 hours just to finish it. My Lich kept on dying every time I try that level. My tip is never play that level in x4 mode or you'll surely die. Lol. I've finished that final level in x2 mode only. Now that I've finished the Normal mode, I think I need to ready myself and specially my voice because it will rain..... Rain of cursing for the uber hard levels. LOL. NOTE: I didn't use any Jewels or Special items (Jewel purchase) when I've finished the game. Game can be finished without buying any iAP or Jewels. Btw, I've played and finished all levels in NORMAL mode without any crash. Good job there. Bug Report: I noticed a bug where if you tap/touch on any buildable block/space to have the tower selection menu appears and touch and drag on a Skill/spell, the tower selection will not disappear. Making it hard to see the level. Hope it will be fixed where if you accidentally touched on a buildable space/block while going for the spells, the tower selection screen will disappear or close. Suggestions: I think it would be better if there will be a notification or a pop-up where it says "Congratulations! You've unlocked the Frozen Theme." after finishing or completing all the Meadow levels. Same goes also when you've finished all the Levels in the Frozen theme where you can unlock the Lava theme. Also please do this when you've finished the Lava Theme. Make something like "Congratulations! You've conquered all lands! You've unlocked the Hard difficulty.". I also thing it would be better if there will be a reward every time you've completed a Theme. Like a rare item/spell for the Lich. Bonus stats also works. I also think a good bonus like super rare equipment after finishing the whole game in Normal Mode. That would be rewarding for the players after finishing such a hard fought battle.
I have completed Meadow stage. I will report on my experience so far. 1. No Retinal graphics on new iPad. While the market share for new iPad is relatively small, having Retinal graphics is a big seller. It translate to state of the art/latest technology to the potential customer. The most blurred image is the range for the rocketeer. 2. Not user friendly for newcomer to tower defense games. Need better basic tutorial. At lease offer to run the help section when the game is first launched. 3. I am a little put off by the gap in the background music loop, particularly in the menu but also during gameplay with the boss music. A sign of lack of attention to details. 4. There appears to be a campaign mode and an infinite mode. I assume half the quests will be for the infinite mode. I have not unlocked the infinite mode yet. Nevertheless you should be more clear about what to expect. 5. It is a little hard to clear the upgrade/sell graphic. I would like to toggle it on and off by touching the tower rather than having to touch the road, for example. 6. The next wave info slide in graphic from the left is too brief to be meaningful. 7. Rather than cast a "skill", it would make more sense to cast a "spell."
Not a bug. Your Lich probably was attacked by the runners/enemies a lot of times that's why you've received such a low rank. I think the bug was the percentage. The percentage didn't match the Rank. It should be lower if the Rank will be F. Day 2 Post #3 More Translation Errors in Hard Mode Meadow: NOTE: Quest in Hard mode are a bit different than in the Normal mode for each Level in every Theme. Correct: Clear the stage with less than 80% HP Summon less than 30 towers Correct: Clear the stage with less than 80%HP Correct: Destroy more than 5 buildings Summon less than 30 towers Correct: Summon more than 15 towers Correct: Destroy more than 8 buildings Correct: Upgrade towers more than 30 times before clearing the game Summon less than 20 towers Play the game at twice the speed until the end Correct: Summon more than 15 towers I also noticed a text DEFEAT on a game over screen. I think it should be DEFEATED?
Although I am not a tester, this looks awesome! It looks like it offers ton of replay value through quests for each individual level, buying skills for your Lich(?) I can't wait till this is released
Day 2 Post #4 Suggestions: From the image above, upgrading a tower in the game will not improve the tower's Range. Only the Power is increasing each upgrade. I think it is better if the Tower's Range is also increasing together with the Power and ATK Speed of the Tower. Most TD games does that format and hope to see it implemented in this game too. Or you can make a separate upgrade for the Range and ATK Speed. More options for the players to experiment on their towers. I think this is a good feature too. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I think the Fire Hand Tower is a useless tower in this game. I thought it will be powerful since it is only unlocked in the Lava Chapter but it is too weak. This tower is weak and doesn't do any decent damage to enemies specially in the Lava Chapter/Theme. The continues fire damage it deals is so low that you won't even notice a damage it deals with the enemies. I tried mixing this tower with my other tower and this one does no good to help me defend the Lich even in full upgrade level. I think this tower should be tweaked more to become useful.
