Endless Island TowerDefense-TD V2 Devlog-2

We’ve pretty much nailed down the setting of the game and what the core loop of the game will look like Endless Island TowerDefense-TD V2 Devlog-1.
Next, I’m going to continue to refine the core loop, because the core loop is the core part of the entire game, and it is the core loop that determines how fun it is.

Today’s goal

• Sort out some issues in the core loop
• Analyze these problems and get some preliminary solutions
• Analyze these solutions and decide on one that can be implemented next

Organize your thoughts according to the game scene

Select the destination island scene

What is the purpose of this scene?

I think the core of the game is to “explore” and “grow”.
However, it is not unnecessary random exploration, and it is certain selective and controllable when exploring.
So, instead of having levels 1, 2, and 3 designed in advance, the goal scenario is chosen so that players can choose their own Settings when they start a game, they know what they are going to do, and they know what they want to get.
Difficulty and payoff are directly proportional.

How?

The core gameplay is to repeatedly switch between the “deployment phase” and the “work phase”, where the player makes decisions in the “deployment phase” and validates decisions in the “work phase”.
Similarly, when it comes to choosing a target island, the player has some expectations: they don’t want it to be easy, nor do they want to be beaten up by the enemy.
The player can choose the difficulty of the next game according to his current state to achieve the flow experience he wants to achieve.

What exactly?

At this point, the parts that can be separated from the core flow and have an impact on the difficulty of the game are:

• The size of each island
  • 3×3 (small)
  • 5×5 (Medium)
  • 7×7 (large)
  • 9×9 (giant)
• The density of resources that each island can produce
  • Barren (0~1)
  • Normal (0~2 PCS)
  • Rich (1~3)
  • Large fat (2~4)
• The number of islands at the beginning
  • 1 to 10
• The speed of collecting treasure while working
  • 1 to 3 times
• 

Rules of difficulty influence (two sets of schemes)

• Split influence difficulty
  • Island size increases each enemy’s health
  • Resource density affects the number of enemies generated at each intersection
  • The speed at which the studio collects treasure affects how fast the enemy moves
• Integration influence difficulty
  • Attributes can be affected according to certain calculation rules
    • Enemy attributes
      • Vitality
      • Moving speed
      • Quantity of treasure carried
    • Player attributes
      • Acquisition speed (1~3 times speed)

Game Scene

What attributes

• The total amount of resources that can be collected by the game
  • Determinant
  • Island size
    • Resource density

The way the game is input and output

• Drag map
  • Hold and move
• Select NodeBlock (plot)
  • Click Select and deselect the blank space
  • Indicates that the block is selected
  • The lens is centered
  • If there is no tower on NodeBlock, the default lens is used
  • If there is a tower on the NodeBlock, the viewing lens is used and the scope of the attack is shown
• 
• About the Tower (to be determined: several ways)
  • Acquisition, construction, demolition
    • Draw card system
      • Acquisition tower
        • Spend gold to draw the card, choose 1 of 3, the selected card is stored in the card area for use
        • There is a limit to the number of cards that can be stored in the card area, and cards cannot be drawn when the limit is reached
      • Tower building
        • Select a NodeBlock (no tower)
        • Select the card in the card area
          • You can preview the attack range
        • Click the Build button
      • Tower removal
        • Select the NodeBlock with a tower
        • Click Remove button
        • Added dismantled tower cards to the card area
    • In the mode of configuring a fixed card pack
      • Acquisition tower
        • There is a fixed number of tower types that can be built per board (for example: 6 fixed types)
        • The gold cost per tower is fixed
        • The type of tower that can be used in each game is programmed before selecting the island, similar to Hearthstone’s hero and card combo system
        • Gold is enough to build the tower
        • The background of the card can have a progress display of how many coins can be built
      • Tower building
        • Select a NodeBlock (no tower)
        • Option 1
          • Click on the tower you want to build
            • You can preview the attack range
          • Click the Build button
        • Option 2
          • A list of towers that can be built appears around the selected location (surround)
          • Choose one to build
      • Tower removal
        • Select the NodeBlock with a tower
        • Click Unload button
        • Return a percentage of the gold required to build the tower (for example: return 50% of the gold)
      • 
  • Select the NodeBlock with a tower
    • Displays some information about the current tower
      • ATK
      • Attack frequency (loading)
      • Attack range
      • Unload button
        • Gold coins obtained after dismantling (if any)
    • Unloadable
    • Show attack range
• 

Additions in the core loop

• The construction of the tower should also be operable during the work phase (acquisition, construction, demolition), so that something can be done at a later stage
• Skill system is not required, work stages, enemies can be selected
  • The camera follows?
  • Hit fire first
  • View detailed information, or just view blood volume information
  • Enemy display marked as priority target (hit fire target)
• Maybe every time you expand a new island, you can add a random event choice, in the form of N choosing 1
  • For example: all arrow tower attack power x2 in the next turn, or weaken enemy health, change the weather, etc
  • 

Preliminary game flow design

According to the above analysis, after re-organizing, you can get the general process design of the game.

Next step

Now that we have the flow of the game in place, it feels like a good start.
So next, we will start to publish the UI and process code coding according to the prototype of this process.
I will also keep a record of the development ideas and progress of this game, if you are interested, welcome to discuss together.