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[DWWilson]

The game pace was pretty slow.  It took ALOT of waves for things to pick up.  It could take easily an hour or more to make it though an entire area, and only about 5 min of that was actually engaging or interesting.  This was my main complaint, as it just got boring.  One problem to that end was launching the next wave early didn't give any advantage, so you almost always better off letting the nodes heal up than moving on to the next wave.  At the very least if I shave 10s off the current wave, I should get 10s worth of 'repair' for the nodes.  It'd also be nice if I could start a new wave before the last one was finished, as the early waves were so tediously easy.

I'm not sure if you've played the most recent version, but I made a significant number of changes that should have addressed most of these issues.

I just made the next wave button spammable; in response to your post

The areas get much harder. The first area is just an extended tutorial where you can piss around seeing what all the different things do.

There is also a hard mode that you can enable from the menu, that makes the enemies spawn in much higher numbers.

Most of the buildings weren't repairable, which kinda sucked, they really needed some sort of repair mechanic.

There is a spanner that you can buy to repair buildings. Page 2 of the weapons.

The tower options seem kinda limited for a tower defense game, and the action gameplay I found kinda boring (or whatever you would call the part where I chase them down with my axe/gun/whatever).  There didn't really feel like there was a sweet spot between the two.

People really need to get past the first area. There are 6 in the game, the first is the only easy one. I have this problem where if I make it too hard it will put people off, but if I make it too easy people get bored.

There aren't as many towers as there would be in a tower defence game, but most tower defence games don't have all the other shit.

Anyway, thanks for playing it and writing a response, all information is valuable

[Crimsontide]

I got to area 4.  But I didn't know of the spanner, that was probably my fault for not looking for one.

[DWWilson]

I got to area 4.  But I didn't know of the spanner, that was probably my fault for not looking for one.

Cool, that's pretty far, was that in the new version with the new areas and next wave button? if so, how did you like the improvements? Was the difficulty curve ok?

I could have made a better tutorial that explains the function of every item in the game, but it would take forever and probably get quite boring.

I'm going to go and beg Bytejacker to let my game be on free indie rapid fire, but I want to make sure that it's all good before doing that.

[DWWilson]

Sounds like some interesting stuff going on! I haven't had chance to play the recent versions but should have some free time soon.

Yeah I changed my mind about having an extra bit to sell, it just didn't seem right to hold something back, so I added this bit and called it done. The levels feel more unique now, although the difficulty from area to area is a bit off. Like area 3 feels slightly harder than area 5, but the difficulty settings are there if you want to change it up a little.

I've decided to re-draw all the art in the entire game. It's going to take forever, but it will look mad when it's done.

Anyway, I look forward to your input :D

[siegarettes]

Whatever you do though, don't do what I did and become obsessed with adding in new items, it'll take forever, and is just not worth the time.

I think it's a better idea to just do 1-2 mechanics well, then a shitload that no one will use or appreciate. (although my new level design might have fixed this problem)

well said. im working on the latest build of my game and im having that problem where i keep getting sidetracked by adding new stuff. i say im just gonna finish making the tutorials and whatever then end up adding a new character. i got it organized now so i should be able to get it out soon, i'll give you a heads up.

and thanks for the extra info on the game. i totally didnt see those extra pages. i'll be back when i get more time in with the game.

[DWWilson]

Made the tutorial considerably more efficient. Not a huge update, but if it was running a bit shitty, it shouldn't now.

[siegarettes]

i see you got a feature at the YoYoGames forum. Congrats!

[brog]

Seeing this on RPS (congrats for getting a mention there btw) reminded me I hadn't gotten around to posting here and I said I would, so.  Didn't play it for very long because my computer has serious issues right now (constant BSODs for no apparent reason).

Anyway:
- I found how the menus worked to be really uncomfortable.  First of all the space to click on to open them is too small, and then the way they stay open after you've bought something is distracting.  It'd be less distracting if it was something that was constantly there in the first place - I'd probably recommend this.  Also keyboard shortcuts for everything would be nice.
- It was pretty annoying having to keep clicking "next wave" for more enemies to come.  (again, small button, clumsy laptop touchpad).

Will add more comments if I get my computer to work long enough to play some more.

[DWWilson]

Thanks, yeah I got a couple features since I last posted in this thread. Got one at Jay is Games, and the one at RPS yesterday. That was unexpected. I emailed them like a month ago and figured they thought the game was shit as I didn't get a reply.

But then I got the review so that's awesome.

From the feedback I've got, I've narrowed down the two biggest problems with the game: the menu, and the art.

The difficulty is also a bit of a problem, but I think that's always going to be a problem with any game. The tutorial also needs to be more in depth.

I have a cunning idea on how I'm going to fix the menu, by introducing this whole rpg style learning of a few abilities from a big list and having only those abilities in the game screen. This will cut down on the micromanagement significantly, and reduce the buttons from 26 to about 5.

Yeah you really need a mouse to be able to play this thing, hotkeys would be good, but hard to add. I'll put them in the next game along with the new menus and resource system. All the big changes.

[siegarettes]

I'm glad to see that you are continuing progress on this game, even though its already been released to acclaim.

I find myself losing motivation on my own project and working in very small steps...

Its uplifting to see someone so dedicated to the quality of their game.