I HAVE IT WORKING!!!  It's so delicious

Thanks for your advice everyone! I'll go over this with my team and see what we decide on our final Kickstarter copy.

Avoid saying the words "tower" or "tower defense"
It's a suicidal term that has press groaning before they even look at the game.

I'd call it an

"Action Defense Game"

Yes...people did not receive "tower defense" well.

  I LOVE IT

  I WILL GET THAT DOWNLOAD *goes back to try again*

LOL my computer can't trust the download for some reason! It won't let me open it. I am so angry. I love this game. It doesn't love me back 

[UPDATE #5]

UPDATE #5

*fangirl squeal* We're featured on Indie Statik!
The writer did critique our keyboard controls. They are kind of clunky! We recommend an xBox controller, but our engineer is currently working on making the keyboard controls feel better. PM me if you'd like to try out our demo and give us some feedback!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------^^^LOOK LOOK LOOK!! YAAAAYY!!!

Glad to see you guys show up here. With Nausicaa being tied for my favorite Ghibli film (other being Mononoke Hime), I am really looking forward to Aegis Defenders. I'm curious if you guys have anything planned for in-between levels (such as a village hub or worldmap) or is the plan to have the player go from level to level linearly? As I've said before, good luck with the Kickstarter!

Yeah! We're HUGE Ghibli fans!  (Lol I guess it's pretty obvious.)
We huge map planned that the player will explore. It's one connected universe. We do have a resting area between levels but it isn't a village. As you explore the lands the player will just have to set up camp in between! As the writer I don't know if I want to reveal the significance of the campfire sequences as they are very integral to the story as well. As a hint-- Bart the engineer is not only traversing to find and reactivate Aegis, he is trying to seek forgiveness for something in his past he feels tremedous guilt from... aaaahhhhh I really want to tell you but I don't want to spoil it!
I also reeaally want the artist to finish making that world-map concept art (won't be an in-game function, more so just a map) so I can share it, but he's super busy.
Maybe our kickstarter trailer might hint at it.

o boy. I'm following this one. Great work.

Yay thanks! 

Yes that's IQ84 in the background. No I haven't finished it. 

I've been wondering about this myself for a while (no seriously - opened a discussion thread on reddit/r/games a few months ago with the exact same title, that for some reason instantly got downvoted).

The biggest issue I have with pixel-art is when it's used inconsistently: It's annoying when a game uses low res sprites, but high-res screens where they can move in sub-pixel positions. I'm not a purist who is against bloom, shading, etc, but again it's often used in a way that feels inconsistent and where it clashes with the pixel aesthetic, and not in a "creates interesting tension"-way.

I think low-poly has fewer of these issues.

Something that both styles have in common is that they are simplified, selectively chosen distillations of reality - unimportant details are removed (due to technical limitations, but still). That means the whole Understanding Comics chapter on cartoons applies here:




(this is only a few panels of the full chapter, obviously)

But you all knew that, because everyone here has already read Understanding Comics, right? Right?

TOTALLY WAS TRYING TO REMEMBER WHERE I HAD FIRST HEARD OF THIS CONCEPT AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT. Sorry for caps.
Thank you for bringing it up!  Everyone involved in visual storytelling should read Uncle Scott's series.  :D 

A couple of thoughts on the subject:

I think that my creative motivation comes from wanting to bring to existence something I personally would enjoy, Like drawing something I enjoy, writing an story I'd like to read, making games I'd like to play, etc.

Games are especially cool because they communicate an experiences (every game does tell a story. But of course the game's story does not have to have the traditional story arc. A game invites to you test out what a certain experience is like. The 'story'/experience of something like Tetris is something like experiencing the feeling of completion/closure/the constant pressure of having to make sense of random things coming at you?)

The relationship that the player has to the game is less passive than any other medium and potentially much more transformative. That's why I guess I like making games! I guess because it's the best way to communicate an experience, feeling, or story.

Just looking through the visuals made me gasp in real life!    This such an impressive, unique idea!

The game looks great! (Personally love the Miyazaki, Ghibli movies, especially Mononoke) The building thing is really interesting. Goodluck with the kickstarter 

Artwork is gorgeous and the game looks incredible as well! I'm a huge fan of Ghibli myself and I can definitely see the inspirations.

Ah, wow, following. This art is delicious!

comment for subscribe.

Just chiming in to say it looks amazing so far.

Looks lovely so far! Loving the vibrant 'alive' Ghibli feel, but I'm also excited for the gameplay!

I really like how you have brought two very different ways of playing together, the building and the shooting through Bart and Clu instead of having it combined in one central character. Also love Bart's beard! Very bushy! 

Just want to say (again!) how much I love the visuals! I recall the fantastic-looking animated version posted earlier, it is absolutely breathtaking. The KS campaign will be a success for sure and I'll vote for this on Greenlight! 

Thanks so much for the kind words! It's great to see that we've communicated the Ghibli inspiration clearly! 
And yes, Bart's my favorite character to draw because of his enviable facial hair.

Just call your towers "turrets" and feel safe in the common type of weapon found in games, like for example Heimerdinger in League of Legends also places TURRETS and it's not scaring anyone off.

But if I were you I just wouldn't label it, your images say more than a thousand words.

We do call those stationary shooting objects turrets-- but the builder/engineer character can build those around the area he must defend, and they are not the point of defense in and of themselves.
Also, I agree with you that I should let the images speak is probably better than me talking about it-- thanks for the input!

Game Looks Awesome! 

You might want to ask people who have tried your game out. There probably in a better position than us to tell you what its like.

Right! Good point. 
If anyone would like to try a demo, please pm me for access. My team doesn't want me to publicize the demo yet!

shouldn't this go in the business subforum

Ohh sorry I am relatively new 
Yes, I see that that the business forum is a better fit!
I did have a more general question that was more like "Do people really just dislike Tower Defense or is it just my personal experience?"
Which kind of follows to "If that is true, should I say something different about my game?"

Next time I'll post in the business forum! Thanks for the tip. 

turret defense is actually the earlier term. the first 'tower defense' game was actually called 'turret defense', and was a custom level made for starcraft 1. it was partly inspired by rampart, an earlier nes/arcade game involving cannons, but rampart itself is not a tower/turret defense game. this custom sc1 level was cloned and modified, creating a genre of custom levels

after wc3 was released, those levels were copied, and wc3 uses towers rather than turrets (because it's medieval rather than futuristic). tower defense became more common than turret defense as a term for that type of gameplay, not because wc3 was more popular than sc1, but simply because tower is an easier term to remember how to spell than turret (a lot of people misspell it as turrent, for example); it's a more familiar word

later on, they were extended into flash games. sometimes you were a lone guy defending a base rather than someone placing towers/turrets to defend it. in such cases, 'defense game' was the genre name, cutting out the necessity of a 'tower' in it at all. if your game doesn't use stationary towers or turrets, you can always call it a defense game

if you're going for name recognition though, use tower defense, it's the most recognizable. 'tower defense metroidvania' sounds fine to me too, although keep in mind that the term 'metroidvania' is only recognizable among indie game developers and a certain hardcore gamer demographic. the vast majority of gamers have never heard the term 'metroidvania', and in fact that term originated on these forums

!!! This explains a lot!  I'm glad we went for a name change-- We called it Aegis, then we went with Aegis Defenders, which doesn't specifically say "Tower Defense" but hopefully implies a defense game in general. We have multiple types of defense scenarios, many of which involve defending a target--but more akin to survival situation. As the game progresses, you'll need to defend moving targets, targets that have dynamic abilities like activating doors/weapons, and even targets that don't want to be protected. We were kind of thinking of coining a new term. What do you think about coining the new term, "Tactical Metroidvania"? Does that imply something that the game is not?

Again, I hear the point that it's hard to explain the game without playing it, so if any of you want to try it out I'll pm you the web address and password. 

<3 METROIDVANIAAAAAAAAAS

from what i understand from your post, is the game have me station at the place and defend for something? if so, it's tower defense, where you defense something like a building or portal. but if the game have me defend for myself by building the tower around me, while in the same time, i can control someone to fight the hoard, then i think it's arena. i guess defense arena/arena defense will be what i will call it for(for the part where you build tower and defence).

Oh! The distinction makes a lot of sense! Thank you. I think that defense arena is a better description of what our combat feels like! You will defend your position, whether that be the center, one side, moving objects, etc, depending on the level.

metroidvania doesn't really fit the term if exploring doesn't include combat or backtracking to find something that's previously unreachable, among many thing. maybe just can the metroidvania and instead just call it exploration to prevent confusion.

Good point! We do have backtracking within the storyline of the game, and many areas of the game where the gamplay feels more traditional metroidvania than defensive arena. It's true, we'll have to reveal more of the game to call it metroidvania.

  THE GIF IS TOO ADORABLE. I AM GOING TO EXPLODE.

[Is this true for you?]

I'm working on a game right now that we're were getting the word out for. We used to call it a Metroidvania with Tower Defense combat. But we're concerned that the words "Tower Defense" might turn off some gamers. The problem is, when we get it in front of people, a lot of people respond positively to Metroidvania, but back away when we say Tower Defense. They say it has a "casual game" connotation and people don't want to touch it. Is this true for you?

Also... we're thinking of rebranding. What do you think a good alternative might be? We were thinking of calling it:
1) Tactical Metroidvania
2) Tactical Action/Adventure
3) Metroidvania with strategy combat

If you want to see what I'm talking about, my devlog is here for Aegis Defenders. The website is in my signature.
And here are the gifs that kind of hint to the game play:

There are two characters you must control by switching back and forth. One is a builder, and the other is a hunter. One is defensive, the other offensive. Parts of the game are exploratory, and parts of the game feel more like an arena where you must protect from both sides of the screen (much like tower defense! but...we're unsure about using that term now.)

[UPDATE #3 Kind of?]

UPDATE #3 Kind of?

Apparently, SOMEONE from my team *cough* ALREADY MADE AN OLD DEVLOG like months before I did and DID NOT TELL ME!!! I have been dutifully updateing on a game that is already on here! So embarrassss  Lol. However, it did die a while ago, and we'll seek to merge the two. Here's some location art from that devlog. (It's in a small animated gif on our first post)

Snowfly Peak

Loving what i'm seeing here.  Also your artist is nuts, drawing without any construction lines - definitely influenced by Kim Jung Gi.  Crazy bastards ;p

Keep kickin butt, your game is looking super solid!  

VIKING GHOST GUY!!!  
Yeah we were watching that King Jung Gi timelapse stuff for days like  
Thanks so much! Much respect to you too!

  SUPER polished! I can't wait to see more!

WOW! Great retro feel and looks like a fun game! I can't wait until I have time to try the demo!

Damn, another amazing game.
I cannot compete with this

No! We will all make great games!!!!!!!

Dig the art style you have here. If in need of some inspiration check out our favorite Studio Ghibli artist Kazuo Oga...



Keep up the good work.

Thanks! We love Kasuo Oga and were going back and forth on thinking about ordering that art book one time... we ended up being super cheap and passing on it

Wow 
This is perfect. Seriously, those cinematics in pixel art, the characters, the gameplay! Oh my god!
I don't even know what to say!

Oh man! Glutton Mash guy! Thanks for coming by and checking us out! I love your game!!!
Wish us luck, we're launching Greenlight and Kickstarter in a week!