Updated on December 17, 2017
Autumn, Adventure and Booty
Update Tidal Wave!
Ahoy! It’s now Autumn, Deadleaf Critter’s favorite month! It’s been a while since I last updated, so for those who don’t know, my current w.i.p title has a name: Defend Yer Booty! If you’ve stumbled upon this website, the game is a 3rd Person Tower Defense. If you do know about it, you should know it’s going well. I’ve been jumping back and forth between creating new levels and tuning gameplay. DYB! will have two juicy modes: Adventure and Plunderama. Adventure is a story mode and Plunderama is an endless wave survival. Each will have different challenges and unlocks. The scope for this game has grown from what I initially set out to do, but I think it’s a favorable outcome. I’ve learned a lot in the process and last thing I want to do is fall short of it’s possible potential, especially when its within grasp.
Above is an early concept of the main protagonist and sidekick. Dorian is essentially a castaway who, after years of searching finds the fabled ghostly seas. His sidekick, Grub is a stubborn Hauntling. In game, combat should involve a blend of both characters. I started making this game with Johnny Fishfists as a defender, so you’ll probably won’t find Dorian and Grub in any screenshots yet. It’s one of the first ideas I’ve come up with where I’ve held back from designing the main character. I had an idea and some iterations of where I wanted to go with it but felt I needed the world and game fleshed out to find out what character I wanted.
I’ve added a ‘Ghostly Power’ ability, which means each character/defender will have some sort of temporary power up move on top of their normal combat. It can be activated once the power has recharged and should make for some tide-turning and fun moments.
The DYB! takes place in a pirate limbo, so there’s different type of undead all about. Not all are bad, not all are good. Ghouls, Hauntlings and Spectres are usually okay. The vast majority of them oppose joining Grimbeard’s fleet.There’s also other otherworldly inhabitants that the player will face against. Zombarnacles, for example are starfish-controlled corpses that will destroy all in their path for rum.
(Above) Zombarnacles are annoying rum-thirsty jerks.
(Above) Trying to take on a horde of enemies without setting up defense is nearly impossible.
(Above) Coconut Blasters and Urchin Infantry defend the booty. No you don’t, you boney scalliwags!
There will be a range of different defense items the player can mix and match in their arsenal. Most can be unlocked by spending loot earned from either mode. Players will be able to earn loot easily but a more substantial amount of loot is rewarded in different ways. One way for example is flawlessly defending for a whole wave.
From the get go I decided to avoid snapping defense items to a grid. I thought it would be cool to organically place units, and although this opens up a realm of slightly problematic scenarios, I think it allows for a lot more creativity, fun and endless possibility. Yeah, players will most likely try to find exploits but I think it’s somewhat part of the fun.
However there is one exception. When I first started, I wanted players to be able to build barricades anywhere. For a number of reasons it just didn’t seem to work effectively, things became increasingly more complex than they needed to be and there were too many problems to justify putting it in at all at that point. While testing barricade placement, I found myself wanting to use barricades to block small gaps or bottlenecks in the level. Although I still spent a great deal of time setting up the barricade in the right angle. Building a well placed object against a timer or a wave of incoming enemies is just something you’re not going to have time to do or waste time doing. It was a cool idea being able to plug up a narrow path, so I made a condition where barricades can only be setup in places marked. On top of this the barricade will snap into place, removing all the hard work out of aligning it flush with the gap.
Still have a lot of work to go, as currently most of my time is spent making levels and content but I’m hoping to push a lot more out in the next 6 months. Stay tuned fish fillets.
