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[eddietree]

What up TIGers?  

About a few weeks ago, I decided to dive into Flash game development. And after hearing so much about the flixel engine, I decided to see what it was all about.  

This is my first Flash game ever developed. I guess if I had to, would categorize UmiIsland as a tower defense. I draw inspiration from such games as Pocket God, Plants vs Zombies and many other TD games. But rather than drilling out the run-of-the-mill tower defense game, I decided to give it a little twist.

I've been spending alot of time ironing out the game mechanics and UI. Thus, I wasn't able to give much thought to the balance of the units and enemies. I tried the best I can...

Play the Game (ver 0.75 - 1/16/2010)
http://illogictree.com/umi-island/

I hope yall like it. Any feedback/criticisms would be greatly appreciated.  

[Human Road]

This is cool. I enjoyed it. Liked the graphics and the concept. Though I had a hard time learning the game. It was too late when I figured out that I can buy more Umis.

I didn't like the aiming part. I suggest that the umis should auto fire whenever a beast shows up (without pressing the shift+A keys). Moreover, firing towards the mouse, rather than adjusting the aim would have been better.

The game got repetative fast. I hope you will add more varieties of Umis with different skills.

Keep up the good work. 

[eddietree]

Hey thanks! I'm glad you liked it..

Here are my responses to your post:

Though I had a hard time learning the game...

I tried to sprinkle tips throughout the game in order to guide the player. However, I feel that many players simply ignore the text that are displayed on the screen. I am trying to figure a way to make the mechanics more apparent to the player and also to integrate the instructions in the game (as opposed to having a tutorial mode).

I suggest that the umis should auto fire whenever a beast shows up (without pressing the shift+A keys).

I considered this before. However, I feel that the spawning of enemies on screen and also the sudden autofiring of all your would be sensor overload for the player..

The game got repetative fast. I hope you will add more varieties of Umis with different skills.

I am currently working on balancing and adding new units for players to build. I am considering add units that will heal your army, defending units that can freeze target enemies and units that provide AOE attacks.


Anyhow, thanks again for playing my game. 

[Curseman]

Not bad.

I think the suggestion of having every umi autofire (except for the one currently controlled by the player) would be for the best, personally.  It might be nice to be able to set the positions of the blue ones, or at least be able to tell them to stand in once place, since the majority of the player's army will be autofiring, it's kind of inconvenient to try and set everyone's angle before each wave.

It'd be nice to have some control over how fast your dudes recover their health.  A healing umi maybe?

It feels like the game is an inevitable path towards defeat, and the player just decides how long it is until that happens.  Maybe that's what you're going for though?

I don't feel like fusing two guys isn't worth it at all, except for to get around the "only 2 of one type" rule.  Again, that may be that intentional.

[Jonathan]

Pretty cool idea; I like that more developers are designing tower defense games to be accepted by greater audiences.  I think allowing Umi to autofire would make playing a lot easier, although I can see it going either way.  I'd also suggest adding additional mechanics that would help the player feel as though they were making progress as opposed to slowly dying if you know what I mean.  Beyond that, the art style is really cute, and the feel is pretty good.  I'll keep an eye on this!

[FiaStarta]

I had absolutely no idea what the game was about, but it looked cute.

I like that more developers are designing tower defense games

It's a tower defense? I thought I was playing a tamagotchi
I should have read first

[FungusTrooper]

This was neat, up until both times playing I found no good time to merge my battle unis together. First time I did it, I didn't realise I'd be defenseless and got slaughtered during a wave, the second time I tried to bring them close together during a wave (by clicking merge and having them walk to each other) only to find that pressing escape didn't actually cancel the merge, just cancelled the cursor, and had them merge in the middle of a fight and cause everything to get slaughtered again. I promptly rage-quitted.

It's a neat idea, but yeah it needs more polish.

[Nikica]

The game is pretty good!

[eddietree]

The game is pretty good!

Thanks! You're pretty good yourself!  Haha!


Anyhow, after listening to alot of feedback from fellow play-testers, I've decided to balance out all the stats for several of the units in the game. Specifically, I sped up the evolution speed and merge times quite a bit.

I also redid the algorithm that spawns the enemies. Now, the stream of enemies should feel more steady and easier to cope with.

The updated version of Umi Island can be played here:
http://illogictree.com/umi-island/


Thanks guys! 

[FungusTrooper]

Well, I managed to survive longer this time. Not sure how far I got, but I had 1 level 4 pink uni, two level 4 blues and 1 level 4 and 1 level 3 yellow. I was getting two or three grim reapers along with bats and stuff per level.

I stopped playing solely because I got bored. It is a neverending cycle, it seems. Would be nice to have some sense of progress, I guess?

[Towerfiend]

It's definitely not a tower defense game I'm used to.

The graphics is good and the concept is great.

Although if you want feedback / critique: It's kind of hard to aim your Umis at the enemies, auto mode should aim for enemies, or at least continue blasting even after the enemies are killed to save me from having to re-auto them again.

It is definitely an addictive game, an addictive, hard and punishing game. But i'm willing to torture myself. (My super umi's ...)

[William Broom]

Cool game, the only criticism I have is that when you're aiming with the little cursor, it's very easy for your mouse to slip off the ring and stop controlling the cursor. You should make it so that as long as the player doesn't release the mouse button, they can aim with their cursor anywhere on the screen.

[supershigi]

Cute game!  I think you've done a good job with making the gameplay feel addictive... it's a nice change of pace (both graphically and in terms of gameplay) from some of the tower defense games that were popping up a few years ago.  I'm going to echo what some of the previous posters were saying about how it's a tad difficult to aim your Umis at the enemies which is a bit frustrating at times...

Cool game, the only criticism I have is that when you're aiming with the little cursor, it's very easy for your mouse to slip off the ring and stop controlling the cursor. You should make it so that as long as the player doesn't release the mouse button, they can aim with their cursor anywhere on the screen.

This is how I felt.  I think this is a pretty good suggestion... I'll let you know if I can think of anything else.  Anyways, great job... this was very cute and fun ^_^

[Curseman]

The zen fighter umi is irredeemable trash.  You trade away two excellent level 4 sword umis for one umi that's worse than the sword guys are individually.

[jrjellybeans]

Played the game, liked it over all.

I agree that aiming was difficult at times because of the small area to move your mouse.  Overall, there was just too much happening on screen at once that it felt frustrating.

But, great job!

[ross]

I enjoyed playing this. I got to wave 22. I liked merging and upgrading. The pace of the enemies made me feel some tension.

I hated the aiming. You can't really do a very good job of aiming, since it's awkward to quickly set or adjust the angle of an umi. You can't even set it up in advance since your umis kind of wander around uncontrollably. Also, I felt a little frustrated when my umis became damaged. Even continually upgrading/merging them, they were taking damage more quickly than they regenerated it. I didn't feel like I had any choice to prevent it either, since aiming is poor.

Overall, like I said, I enjoyed it. Lots of great things going on here.

[Curseman]

It might be better to make it so you aim directly where the mouse is pointing, or use the keyboard arrows to adjust the angle instead of the click and drag thing you have now.

I also think that all computer controlled umis should automatically fire when enemies show up, and instead of aiming at one angle at all times, they should be perfect aimbots, but keep the aspect where they do half damage, so the player controlled character is still the most important one.

It might make the game more interesting and less frustrating if umis had less maximum health, but healed faster, so each individual encounter was more dangerous on its own, but the eventual death of each umi isn't as inevitable.

[J. R. Hill]

Seconding that I'd like to use keyboard arrows for aiming, I'd also like to be able to use up some karma to heal my guys once in a while...

[Curseman]

I'd also like to be able to use up some karma to heal my guys once in a while...

Hey, that's not a bad idea!