BA6: research: Super Sanctum TD

Super Sanctum TD

super sanctum 3-D is a retro-styled arcades tower defence game. Available for download on steam this tower defence game is similar to many other tower defence games with a few twists and turns. Sanctum doesn't have much in the way of a storyline that more or less tells the player to destroy the enemies before they reach a certain point because they are bad and that's pretty much.

In terms of gameplay sanctum varies from traditional tower defence game is in a way that the path that the enemies use in sanctum cans early on where players will place their towers. Also as well the powers and special abilities to the player are used in a kind of infant terry system which the player is only allowed to bring a certain number of towers and special abilities with them into the level.

Enemy pathing

when the player enters the game there are greeted with a map view overlooking the area where the game will be played. on this map will be a half showing the enemy's path from their base to yours this will be shut represented by a dotted line moving constantly between your base and there is. To increase the length of the enemy's journey you can block off parts of the path the enemy is going to take so they have to do find a mother path round which is often longer this is used to slow down the enemy and allow your towers to have more time to attack them and whittle them down. The aim of building towers to prevent this path is to increase the enemy is time that they have to take to beat the end and is a clever gameplay mechanic as it allows players to sign out where they were on the enemy to go in order to build their defences in a tactical approach.

Upgrades perks

perks allow  players to upgrade that I was outside of the main game itself be able to do this with the use of perks in a perk tree. the pair treat yourself into five different tiers of upgrades the first is physical Towers this will both towers that use physical damage to destroy enemies giving them various upgrades permanently when the player enters a game making them more efficient. The second tier of upgrades is  energy Towers this is towers that will use energy attacks to defeat enemies will give certain buffs the amount their product to battery this as well is permanent. The third tier tree is a economy this will help with the source collection and also make your towers more efficient at collecting resources from former enemies.  the fourth skilled trade is skills these are the abilities of the player can use themselves to gain an advantage over the enemy this will increase their efficiency and also cooldown times so that can be used more often. the last to upgrade it affects these will affect any of the towers that use different effects on enemies for example a tower has a chance to store that is in effect this will both these effects and make them last longer or even reduce their cool downs or maybe even give them extra damage in various cases.

This perk selection is a way of allowing players to advance through the game by letting them upgrade the towers permanently. This allows players to build up a profile with a aim all their rewards and keep them forever which means the more a player plays the game the better they will become an more grateful Mark is a very powerful mechanic and keep people interested in the game and having long play sessions.

Tower selector

the Tower select that is a menu that appears before every mission in the game what this does is allows players to select from an inventory of towers and allows them to bring in  up to 4 towers of their choosing this is a way of limiting players to be more tactical about their choices as players maybe am not able to unlock up to 15 towers they may only bring in a set number to that of certain arenas.  this is to encourage tactical play from players instead of giving the players all the towers to choose from and allowing them to put them down the player must be tactical in their thinking and shoes the towers that will greatly help them in the current level as well this adds another layer of player progression as they will see through the more they play the game the more towers there will be able to unlock.

special skill selector

Similar to the Tower select the main menu that special skill select the menu allows players to choose from a multitude of different special skills and bring four of them into the level of the these special skills can be timed explosions which will affect enemies in a certain radius which then have a cooldown or they could be global explosions which will wipe the map of all enemies but with a bigger cooldown others include teleportation in which players can place down a teleporter which resumes enemies straight back to the beginning in order to stop them from reaching the players base. this menu is virtually identical to the Tower menu  in layouts and also the way where this is well offers players a way of seeing  what they have asked what  they have on marked and also how they progressed. This is well is another tactical choice but the developers to give more complex play to their game at that players have to do carefully plan out what abilities to use which will be useful for that level instead of giving the player all of the abilities to use one this adds  another layer of difficulty to the levels as players have to be tackled with a choice of abilities to pick.

Towers

once in the game the playercan just towers and place them on designated areas around the map. The player will have four towers to choose from to place down in the said areas. The player can then select each tower and see different stats and information about the tower. Also when the tower selected it will show a previous marker of how far the tower can fire. Once tower selected there are a small box will appear underneath giving the name of the tower and also the different stats of a power such as fibre rate and damage.

Tower upgrading

Tower Bridge and feature is a relatively simple featureless game as there is a button at the bottom of the screen the players compressed than hover over a tower and will give them a number on how much the tower will cost to upgrade. As well as once that I was selected to upgrade it  will show what the new stats of the ability that will be before purchasing in the stats part of the tower showing that what will chang for the tower when it is upgradede.

Tower upgrades physical changes

one of the towers are upgrade they will receive a physical change on the map from the original model or Sprite they will become something different with subtle changes at the more tower is upgraded the more physical changes will occur to. The example pictures of the top show to towers next whichever of the same type one is upgraded and has small physical changes. The image on the right shows the normal tower next to a fully upgraded tower showing that is completely different with all new physical objects based on this to show the player clearly that this towers upgraded without the player to click on them but also it may convey some of the new upgrades of the tower.

 Synopsis of the game

personally I found the game to be quite enjoyable I definitely enjoyed the Pathfinder mechanic in a way that you could affect it and force the enemy is to go down the same route as I thought that gave a lot more control of the game I also enjoyed the physical changes of the towers as I for it gave the game more depth. The pair copper grade I thought was the best feature as it allowed a kind of advancements are players who kept on playing the game making the player more more powerful and I thought this is a very incredible feature I didn't enjoy so much the Tower selection menu as it felt like I was being limited to any for towers and I feel that the should have been more available to the player. But another one of the best features was the special abilities as this offered the player more interaction and also The player more fixated  on the game instead of getting bored from just watching towers shoot all the time.

Good point about the game

So the good points I found about this game were definitely these physical upgrading features and also the perfect style menu that could be viewed away from levels as I felt these gave more  progression for me as I felt the more I played the better I was going at the game and also I was able to create more more complex towers defend my base with. One of the other great points a fan of the game was the path finding system as I found this to be very unique and a very good way of personally controlling which directions the enemies are going to force them into its vantage points for myself. In summary the point are found to be good about this game where

.Perk tree

.Path finding system

.Player controlled special abilities 

Bad point about the

The bad points that I found about this game where the limited amount of towers and special abilities that could be brought into the game as they were only limited to 4 per level and that you couldn't bring all the towers together in one level. I felt that this was limiting the play experience and also meant that if I wanted to combine towers together I could only use a very limited amounts and it felt very limited into the game play experience. as well I felt that the amount of towers that could be placed on the map was weight limiting and maths this kind of meant that I was meant to play more tactical the towers but also felt like I had no room for error in the missions which dampened my experience a little.In summary the bad points of the scheme were.

.limited abilities to bring towers into levels

.limited abilities to bring special abilities into levels

.Limited tower placement

How this game can help influence mine

In summary this game was very helpful in deciding some features that I was to implement my game I think using a check system of some kind allowing players to progress is a very unique and is an essential experience that I may have to put into my game. As well as plays using special abilities to destroy enemies as this offers another way of interaction to the player and feel it is good to keep them engaged in the game. The limited tower option in this game has also convinced me that I shouldn't put a system like this in my game as it may dampen people experience and is well I'm going to offer large amounts of tower placement to allow for the players to compensate if they make wrong decisions are wrong places in placing towers. the point are going to take away from this game in summary are.
.upgrading system outside of the normal level
.player controlled special ability
.allow players to have a vast amount our towers
.allow players to have a vast amount of place to place towers