Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Resources

Main project Mechanic: Resources

Player resources:

Player resources are a set number of three types of resource bases sunlight, water and food each of these is used to construct towers and can be gathered from certain all the towers. 

Towers construction cost:

Tower construction cost will depend mostly on what type of towers for example towers that can gather resources will be more expensive than tank or offensive towers once the resources of the player have been depleted the play will be unable to construct more towers.

Selling Towers:

If the player is unhappy with a certain Tower or wishes to remove the tower from the  map the player in the tower description can sell the tower and get a 50% return on the resources they used to construct the tower.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Damage types

Main project Mechanic: Damage types

Damage resistance:

Damage resistance is what all tower types have an depending on the type tower increases or decreases. The way this works is that if the enemy attacks the tower with normal damage 30% of this damage will be negated and not taken effect on the tower for types of towers that are built like tanks such as the tree they have a higher damage resistance than a resource gathering tower which will only have 5% this number can be increased few mutations.

Normal damage type:

Normal damage type is a type of damage which if use most by normal enemies this is the type of damage that can be affected by damage resistance only specialist enemy type will not use the normal damage type.

Elements damage:

elements damage will be a lasting effect damage but will also be affected by damage resistance for example if a enemy type does five damage for 10 seconds every pulse of damage will be resisted by the amount of damage resistance that Tower has.

True damage:

True damage is a type of damage that goes through all types of damage resistance for example if a basic enemy did 10 damage that is true both the tower had a damage resistance of 30 the damage resistance would have no effect on true damage.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Evolution

Main project Mechanic: Evolution

Tower Evolution: 

Tower revolution is one of the key mechanics of the entire game. It is what will set this game apart from other Tower defence games. the way it works is in a 3 x 3 grid of a tower is surrounded by all the towers the tower in the centre has a high chance of mutate it will take attributes from the eight of the towers surrounding it and I will randomly generate of upgrades to itself.  The tower will then change its physical form and become completely unique to any of the tower on the map this could have cross breed of  resource gathering towers being able to develop the ability to shoot or have increased health like the tree towers. Once these towers have mutated the player then has the option to store this in the tower library system once installed it can be constructed like any ordinary tower. Once in the colour library is then account bound for that player and they can restart the game and use that tower whenever they want. This creates a player profile of different towers that they collect throughout their different play sessions creating an impressive arsenal players allowing them to make aggression in the game and reach higher rounds.

View upgrades:

In the tower description the players can use the mutation tab this will list all the mutations that tower house and what their effects on the tower are such as physical changes and statistical changes.

Tier number:

The clear number represents how many times the tower houses mutated for example if a tower as mutated once it would then be considered Tier 2  if the tower has mutated twice it would then be considered tier 3 and so on.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Tower properties

Main project Mechanic: Tower properties

The Tower properties is a way for the players to find out information about the tower of your planning on building or have built. It shows user information such as cost what type of Tower it is whether it arranged the cover or time class as well as the tier number. This gives an indication of how many times the tower has mutated every time the tear increases it means is mutated once

Tower basic properties:

this preview will show whenever a player clicks on a tower that one construct it will show them information such as the name the resources it will take to build and is well what the tower type it is. players can also select towers and this preview tab will reappear showing the current health of the tower as well as other information.

Tower description:
from the properties tab players can look at the full description of the tower this will give all the information about the tower such as whether the power can produce a resource does the tower have a damage resistance. Also from here players can access different tabs of the tower description the basic tab  is of course the basic information while the combat tab lists what  the tower's defensive capabilities are and the buff tab lists all dwarfs the tower is receiving from external factors. The final tab the mutation tab is where the player can see all the upgrades this  tower has gained  this is the way players will be able to lock in depth at what upgrades towers can get and is well find information on how this can spread to other towers through the use of the Evolution mechanic.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: AI

Main project Mechanic: AI

The AI is a basic enemy types the threat to the players towers they are simple walking units that go from spawn points to the players towers and take away its health.  This is the most basic type of enemy in the game and will be expanded upon in future updates.

Basic AI:

The AI is a simple character model this is use as a placeholder for now and will be replaced by a model of my own creation

Basic AI movement:

The AI muse road basically using already implanted animations it runs across the grounds going back and forth between certain points.

Basic AI damage:

When the AI come close enough to the place towers they begin to take away the health of that tower overtime. later on I plan to implement our set of animations for the character to show that they are doing damage to the tower.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Tower library/Menu

Main project Mechanic: Tower library/Menu

The Tower library/menu is where the play will be able to select all towers they can construct in the game this is a simple menu system were players simply click and select what I was the one construct then drag them onto the grid layout construct them. the talent library is where players can store their mutated towers to use later on in the same game or in another game as all car was put into the system seems to the player's profile.

Tower menu:

The Tower menu is a simple 3 x 3 grid in which the players can select the nine basic towers the players simply click on the icon then dragged onto the grid and could construct that Tower.

Tower library:

In the Tower library is set as default as empty the players can then once a tower has become mutated and becomes a different type of Tower they then can drag the object and store it within this grid it will be saved to this grid and scored on the player's profile and can be used in any of the game they start.

Year 3: Main project: Mechanic analysis: Player camera

Main project Mechanic: Player camera

The player camera is the the basic controller for the player which allows them to move around bruited the camera and zoom in in the 3-D space.

Moving the camera:

the player can use controls is to move the camera in varying directions these controls are set to W,A,S,D.

Zooming in camera:

With the scroll wheel player can zoom in on at varying degrees.

Rotating camera:

When holding in the middle mouse button players can freely rotates the camera to any degrees they want.

Snap rotating camera:

snap rotates is a way of stabilizing the main player camera these are set to the control keys of Q  to rotate left and E to rotate right these will snap to a 45° angle from any position to set the player camera to a fixed point.

Snap moving of camera:

Snap moving allows players to snap the camera to a certain position by double-clicking on a round plate or tower to instantly transport the players camera to that location censoring the object in the plane view.

Year 3: Main project: Research: AI

Main project Research: AI

Enemy path: Dota 2

on the game there are two I use the example of the AI path finding in which AI creeps move along a certain path until they reach the enemy tower and attempt to destroy it or enemy units.  This is a very similar concept that I wish to use with my game for the enemy AI will be something of an taking great influence from.

Detecting player: Dota 2

In the game enemy units will attempt to go after the players character if it is close enough to them they will then latch on to the player character and attempt to destroy the player character until they lose sight or the site is blocked by the fog of war ( Beyond sight range). in my game I don't want to use a perception system similar to this in the way that the enemies can lose sight of the object they are attacking in my game I want to use a perception in which once the AI has seen an object they will only stop when it is destroyed them are whole for the object goes out of  a perception radius.

Damaging units/objects: Dota 2

in dota the AI can attack objects or other AI a basic damage dealing mechanic but in the way that this is different is that it is a mixed of range than mainly and depending on what type of unit is as a range in which the AI can attack.

after looking at all these mechanics from the game Dota 2  is very clear that these mechanical suit my game and I will try to implement them. It is very clear that my games movement system and AI I try to be similar to dota because of how excellent dota movement and AI system or are implemented.

Year 3: Main project: Research: old research

Old research 

In the last project I conducted research into a few tower defense game. I used this research in this current project in order to inform my development of the game. *this is old research*

Balloons Tower Defense 5

Balloons tower defense is a single player tower defense game. Balloons Tower defence started as a free web game that was very simple in its first instalment. Over time the game developed  and became more complex as a result. with the game has reached the fifth instalment they had four more towers than it had in any of its instalments and also had  micro-transactions on the three web version.  These micro-transactions will allow players to unlock various towers and various different items. Afterwards the creators decided to release a full game variation on steam for digital download. This full version came with all the complete towers and special upgrades that the micro-transaction websites have.

Story

The game has very little story and more or less just allows players to decide on what that is. The only real promise of the game is that you're on the monkeys to you and your chance to stop balloons and that's pretty much it. the levels are  set up as a path for the enemies to go upon to reach the young and upon reaching the end will subtract life away from the player. And it's your job to stop the balloons from reaching the end. This can be dawn with multiple types of tower all doing various different to the fax to the enemies.

Enemies

the enemies in the game very some difficulty with the beginning enemies being popped the single hit from any of the towers. Scaling up to the massive enemies that take hundreds if not thousands of hits to destroy as many variation between from balloons that will regenerate over time if they are not part and also balloons can only be popped by certain towers and other balloons that can slip under the radar of your towers unless you have a upgrade on the radar tower to help your book towers see them all of this combined three enjoyable ground-based game having multiple difficulties for different players and allow closed-end mountains and high schools on various different levels.

Environment building

 The game also as well features two different types of terrain in which to build units on for example on grounds of players can instruct most types of Towers books on readers or oceans the players can only construct seaworthy towers such as boats and submarines  both of these towers are considered to be highly valued as they offer their high damage for a low-cost books they can are only be ports often in certain places on the map.

Towers

I'll be running through the different power place in the game and given a little description on how they work within the game.

Dart Monkey

This tower is considered to be the most basic as is the cheapest enemy fires single darts at a time. This means that I'll can only take one balloon at a time but through upgrades this tower can be upgraded to do a lot more damage. It is often the first tower that is put down on the map and is the most basic of all the towers.

Track Shooter

The tracks you are tower is much different than the basic tower as the truck tower will not lock onto a target which you are it will release a wave of spikes that will hit enemies within its perimeter. This is best to be placed on map corners or  where the point of the map make almost a U-turn as to gain maximum effect this is the whole point of the tower that is more to be used in certain choke points to gain advantage over its area effect.

Sniper Monkey

The sniper tower has an unlimited range which means it could be placed on any part of the map I will be able to fire and destroy enemies. The sniper tower other is not really made for high amounts of enemies is more designed to take down the strongest of the enemies its upgrades as it does the most damage to a single target meaning that it is better to only have 2 to 4 of these towers instead of using them as a main defence.

Boomerrang Thrower

The boomerang tower is a cross between the normal dark Tower and the spike for a time as it fires a boomerang which circles round in an arc popping enemies. This is meant to be a cross between both of those towers bringing both of their advantages together as a upgrading can become alot faster and more efficien.

Ninja Monkey

the Ninja tower is similar to the normal dark Tower but I can see Cameron balloons which are invisible to most of towers this makes it a vital tower to place in order to avoid being attacked by Cameron balloons which your towers cannot defend against.

Bomb Tower

The bomb tower is a cannon that  fires explosive shots which can affect multiple balloons in an area they are also one of the only units that can pop lead balloons which cannot be hit by normal towers and have to be broken first by the bomb tower making this a necessity to be placed on the map during a game.

Ice Tower

ice towers have a similar range of fact to the track Tower books they freeze all balloons in a certain area in place and allow them not to move for a certain amount of time this makes them vulnerable to other Tower attacks and is a great way of slowing down the advance of the balloons towards the end of the track these are often placed at the beginning of a track allowing towers more time to attack them and with all the numbers down.

Glue Gunner

The cooling tower is mostly different from all other towers as it will not do damage to the enemies until upgraded. The glue tower slows down the movements of the balloons to almost half the normal rates meaning that this tower is often placed right at the beginning in order to effect the balloons as much to account through upgrading the slow rate and how long the glue last fall can be increased.

Monkey Buccaneer

the ship tower is a more advanced version of the dark Tower firing many darts out a second but has one significant drawback. The biggest drawback of this tower is that it can only be placed on water and often on maps of water is very scarce meaning that not many of these towers can be placed.

Monkey Ace

The monkey ace tower  release as a plane into the air which will affect all balloons in a certain area with area affect damage from this plane. the monkey tower uses the airbase as the placement on the grounds meaning that has to be space for this power to be placed and also the plane will only circle a certain area meaning of this tower should mostly be placed in high enemy populated area for maximum effect.

Super Monkey

The super monkey tower is considered to be the highest tier of Tower dealing with massive amounts of damage to balloon units it is similar to a dark Tower but that if I is an immensely faster. The biggest drawback to this tower is how expensive it is to produce and upgrade but is often considered worth it for its three firepower and long-range

Monkey Apperentice

The monkey apprentice tower is a wizards theme tower which fires out magical attacks to balloons in order to damage the his attacks often consist of chain lightning attacks which will affect large number of units at a time and also can be upgraded to abilities were this tower can send balloons back along the track to a certain point giving it great value to certain play styles.

Monkey Village

The monkey Village is different than every single tower within the game because of what it can do to other towers. The monkey tower will both all towers in its range and give them different upgrades whether it be more cash when they destroy an enemy or faster firing rates or even more popping power allowing them to effectively double their effectiveness and this is considered a essential tower to combat high waves and higher difficulties.

Banana Farm

the banana factory is used to create resources to the player other than popping enemy units this will give players resources periodically throughout waves and is often used in any way used to gain money but this offers a trade-off to players  if they purchase to many banana farms and not of defence towers they may lose but also best players do not do enough resources they may not be able to build towers to defend from their enemies.

Mortar Tower

the more tower is a basic tower that launches an explosive shell what it is different in the way that the player must select an area for this tower to constantly attacked meaning that players can tactically position these towers attack points meaning that these can be more versatile to certain players as they will be able to shift  their attack on location around the map to different areas where the balloons are advancing.

Dartling Gun

Darling towers are a high fire rates dark Tower but with a twist. They focus fire on where the players mouse is on the screen meaning placed in a new for high populated enemy areas with this similar to the more Tower. This is often better than some automatic towers as an offers more control and more firepower but requires constant attention for the player to be in control of them.

Spike Factory

Spike factories are a tower that will place down spike traps onto the path points of the enemy preventing them from moving up without going through this track despite only has a small range in which to do this but can be used to create a barricade to stop the advancements of the enemy.

Heli Pilot

heli pilots tower is almost a cross between the darling tower and more tower in a way that the helicopter will follow the player Case and attack in a range around malaria these are often used to attack balloons around the map without having towers with it in those areas in the play control where these helicopters are and use that  to their advantage.

Monkey Engineer

the monkey engineer is similar to the spiked tower and also the dark Tower at the same time. The monkey engineer itself is equipped with a nail gun firing darts straight up balloons like a normal dark Tower. It will also construct many tourists that will be placed around it which also fire the same small dart at Towers as well when upgraded this tower can create patches were balloons get slower as they travel through as well as more high-powered tourists which fire faster and do more damage.

Bloonchipper

The Bloonchiper tower is a tower that uses balloons against themselves.

 The waiver Bloonchiper tower works is that it will shock up surrounding balloons then fired back to cause damage to other balloons this is in a sense is a way to store the enemy wave and use the numbers against them these often poor to write the beginning of the pass and also allows other towers to shoot at them when they are being sucked up and thrown back. Making this a great stalling tower to prevent the way from advance.

Monkey Sub

the monkey sub tower is another water-based tower and can only be placed within water. The monkey tower similar to the normal dark Tower finds star's an increased rate but when upgraded has an infinite range and also has the ability to become support tower similar to the monkey village where the surrounding towers will receive buffs to their speed and damage.  Because this tower is placed within the water  it is faster than most common towers and more cost efficient to produce and as it has a global range can be placed anywhere on the map and often proved very reliable.

Special placed units

Road Spikes

different from towers road spikes are cheap effects that can be placed on the Lane these will pop up to 10 balloons and can be used to catch balloons that have made it through the player's defences they are purposely not cost-effective as there are mainly used as a weight off for the last of balloons that have escaped the players towers.

Exploding Pineapple

Explaining pineapples are used mainly to destroy large areas of balloons and also lead balloons they do have a time delay meaning that they have to be tired by the player to hit large groups and are similar to road spikes in that they are not cost effective to use permanently but are more or less used to thin out large enemy units to make it easier for the player towers.

Resource generating tower

looking more closely into the resource generating tower banana farm. This is the only type of tower within the game that generates from the sources for the player I found this to be a remarkable idea giving players a risk reward strategy in that this tower doesn't provide any useful defensive benefits for the player but it does offer the sources that the players to construct more elaborate defences.

I think this is an idea that I will definitely consider within my game look to implement as it offers a new strategy for players to take the risk and benefit from a reward is definitely a mechanic I would like to explore in my game prototype.

Tower upgrades

The tower of great botanic I think is one of the most important game mechanics within this game. The reason for this is that it offers players progression with their current towers meaning that plays were not just run into a dead end once they are placed towers that they become invested within the structures constantly upgrading them and seeing them improve to become better. This is mechanic I am almost certainly going to implement within my game as offers players a new level of immersion into the game and keeps them playing to discover what new what grades they can achieve for their towers and also provides a way of reaching more difficult enemies rather than just over populating the map with the same towers this is assured way of extending the playtime of the game and is definitely a necessary mechanic to begin to function.

 Water to terrain/normal terrain

terrein in this game plays an important role in which towers can be use their which towers can't. only water-based towers can be placed in the water and normal towers can only be placed on the land boughtwater is often limited in most maps these water-based towers are often more powerful and faster as there is limited space to put them compared to the normal land towers but as well these water towers do not have certain abilities that normal land towers house such as explosions to rid of lead balloons and also camo detection towers. This offers a trade-off in which that players have to do use both terrains to their advantage in order to the feebly do find this to be an interesting mechanic but it seems to have little effect on actual gameplay when observed.

Synopsis of the game

personally I find this game to be very enjoyable and offers great progression to players I find the game to be quite sure in the sense that it will take at 20 to 3 minutes to complete a level and levels are often not that they read as I was able to play this game for say 2 to 3 hours I found that after that it became very repetitive and with not much difference to. This is an issue of definitely like to address within my game as I would like to keep players playing for as long as they can and keep enjoying in the game high for most of the I understand that through upgrades this game develops a lot of replay ability and I think this is an issue that I'm going to implement in my game to  interest players to carry on playing to discover new upgrades that they can use on towers.

Good point about the game

The good points I think about this game that it has great upgrading systems and a large variety of towers that players can use as well as multiple to rain and many different variations of map which offer greater variety the players and often difficulty for players. The upgrades allow players to advance their towers and see them progress to more powerful states while lacking in progress further and further through challenging waves in summary the point  to be very good where:

.Many different tower traces

.Vast upgrade trees

.Various different maps

.Different to terrian (water/land)

Bad point about the

the bad points I found about this game where that the upgrade is where not challenging enough to achieve. I found that upgrading the tower would not take too long and this would inevitably be mean that upgrading towers in general was not hard which led me to be bored of the games towers relatively quickly I feel that if the towers in the game where harder to upgrade in a sense that certain criteria as have to be met before they could be upgraded this may allow  for more interest to certain towers as players can explore different new towers and have to reach a certain goal is to upgrade them. so in summary the bad points of this game I think where:

. To easily upgraded towers

. Not enough varying grades

How this game can help influence mine

After looking and researching into this game I found a lot of useful information to use for my prototype when I start creating it. I'm definitely going to be using a upgrade system within my game's offers a lot of good playability to the game and keeps players interested but I think differently from this game I'm going to make the upgrade is harder to achieve than just purchasing them as this will  take players longer to unlock higher tier upgrades but also keep them interested as they see the towers upgrading.

 As well I would like to create varying different upgrades that are not the same every time the player purchases a tower as they may be offering different variations each time they are upgraded meaning that no two towers will ever be the same as I think this will offer players more replayability. Allowing players to have much more variation in the towers they construct to the points I'm going to be taken away from this game are:

. upgrading system

. many different types of towers

. with varying different upgrades her tower that are never the same compared with the same tower

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

Ant Buster

The game

 Ant Buster is a Flash-based tower defence game played through a browser. The main goal of Ant buster is to place down towers in order to defend your cake from the ants and stop them from carrying of pieces into the cake if you run out of cake slices the game will be over. The main way to track your progress is to see how many levels you get through showing at the bottom right of the screen the levels will go on indefinitely until the player cannot defend any longer. Ant Buster offers various amounts of upgrades vervain off in many different upgrading trees this is the main feature of the game.

Upgrades

upgrades in the game of varied in how they work the first level of its offer three basic upgrades the player can only choose one of these upgrades and the rest of the next two groups. The three groups the staff with our heavy attack fast firing attack or double attacks when upgraded it will open another upgrade three which can be heavily specialised into leading to unique and various different firing methods such as rocket lasers or even sniping towers.

upgrades effects

Similar to other tower defence game's Ant Buster contains a mechanic in were towers that are upgraded will receive physical changes on the map. these can wildly varying from laser-based towers to gas space towers and often the more expensive the upgrade of the more elaborate the physical changes on the tower this allows players to instantly recognise which towers have been upgraded and also what  backed tower will do.

UI(user interface)

the user interface of this game is one of the most basic use of the interfaces I've seen in any of the tower defence game is that I played. It only shows the points money and levels the current player is on the money is obviously what the play were used to construct towers and the points and levels are there only to show players progress and compare them with others nothing more they offer no significant in game effect.

Targeting

one of the more interesting mechanics this game is targeting mechanic in which the player can click on any of the enemies and all towers in range will attack about one and that enemy only this allows players to prioritise different enemies for example ones with higher health of those ones of lower health. This is a rather interesting mechanic and allows players to have a lot more control over the towers compared to some of the tower defence games are reviewed so far.

Synopsis of the game

personally I think this game is okay as a tower defence game it is not very long and can really only offer half an hour to an hour of gameplay before becoming bored but I for a displayed some interesting mechanics of the varying upgrade and trade which was a lot different from any other tower defence game I've seen so far and also the aiming system I thought was a very good mechanic and could be suffered greatly value as a allows players to  have more control over their towers keeping them focused.

Good point about the game

the good point think about the game are definitely the varying of great country which offers a substantial amount of different upgrades and endgame towers were players to utilise film company in various different upgrades to form these and is a lot more elaborate than any other game I played so far another points that I found to be very good about this game is the target system as it allows players to have more in-depth control over their towers so in summary I think the point of this game are.

. many varying upgrades

. targeting system

Bad point about the

 the bad point of one of the scheme are that it feels once the player has created a few towers that the game becomes boring and becomes reasonably hard pretty quickly. I feel that even with the mass amounts of upgrades the game becomes very repetitive very quickly with all waves being the same constantly increasing in difficulty and even if the player's restarts the waves are exactly the same and also feels like there is no progression as well which I think is a essential part of tower defence game. in summary I think about point this game are.

. linear levels do not change

. no progression for players

How this game can help influence mine

after playing through this game a few times and reviewing this game I've come to the conclusion that the upgrading system in this game is a very strong point to this game and is what makes it quite interesting as well as top system but I feel that with a bit more developments in progressing players and giving them a sense of progression this game could be a lot better and the points I'm going to take away from this game is to use many varying different upgrades and a type system of some sort bought off the player progression to light does not run  into a similar problem like this game as where it does not feel like the game changes or there is any progression.in summary the points but I'm going to be taken away from this game and to input into my game are.

. Includes many varying different upgrades

. implemented targeting system

. try to avoid linear levels to give players more replayability

. try to include aggression through give players a feeling of accomplishment

Plants Vs Zombies

Plants versus zombies is a 2-D tower defence game which has a difference by style compared to most common tower defence game's.the layout of plants versus zombies is set out in five alleyways in which zombies will come through these five alleys and is up to the player to place towers on each of the to defend the main house from attack. the game consists of is very different tower styles each being different from the last and also having multiple different effects which are different from one another. difference than any of the other tower defence game is open researching this game does not contain a grid system of any sort but it's still meeting the phone atmosphere the cute pleasantry I think this is because of the constant changing of levels and new introduction of enemies which are exciting and fun to  learn how to challenge them.  Similar to sanctum TD this game has a selection system in which the player can select a set number of towers to take into the level with them each giving different effects and some being essential in order to  pass a level.

lanes

the way the lane mechanical births even plants versus zombies. Is that the player can build towers on this Lane and they have to stop the zombies from reaching the end. this offers an interesting new feature which is different from some of the other tower defence game that look that in a sense that the players towers can be destroyed by the enemy if the lanes aren't defended well and not been in that as well as defending their-based players have to defend their towers so  to lock their money that they pay is their towers was not wasted. As well this offers a few more interesting gameplay mechanics in a way that players can tactically plan which supports towers on the lean for example the players might you keep the resource towers that they used to gain resources to build more towers at the back and  portage stronger towers in front of them to defend them from attack.  it definitely gives the game a more tactical feel and also more fresh air to the player as when zombie start to advance close to the towers and start to destroy them it means they have to do act quickly in order to save as much as they can.

Resource Towers

she is a source tower is another interest the mechanic that this game introduces the players. What makes it so interesting is that players have to construct this plant in order to gain more resources to construct more plants to defend their base with with. this gives players a well something they need to defend in order to carry on with the game as if the players lose the resource towers they lose their ability to construct more towers to defend their base. It also has a way of keeping players more engaged with the game as the source towers spawn resources the player has to click on them in order to collect them this in turn keeps the player concentrated on those towers as well as the income is tax giving them more engagement with the game compared to all the tower defences which just that the player sit and watch as towers automatically attack with no player imports.

Tower selection

the Tower selector in this game is more of a hybrid between the Tower defence games are played in the past. As this game lets players bring six towers into the level with the player this is from a selection of towers that they have accumulated through levels. at first I thought this would be a hindrance to the game's performance but it actually turned out to be a very strong gameplay feature of the game meaning that players have to be tactical in their choice of what I was to bring with them or even their favourite ones and that if the players chose the wrong set of towers for a mission they would have no chance to completely giving players a sense of  strategy a tactical play when they bring in the right towers for the right job. This also meant that players could play for emissions and if they fail could then changed their tower selection to fit with the mission they were going up against to give them a more beneficial outcome this sort of infantry feature in which players could choose from a selection of towers gave a lot of variety a and also sense of accomplishment as players collected more towers to use in game.

Per level tower selection

the Tower selection menu that comes before the level begins allows the players to select towers to use in a load out in the level. The player can choose from a multitude of towers they have collected through the levels these could be their versions of different towers that may cost more for a more efficient or it could be certain towers that are effective against certain enemies.  This infantry system allows the players to look over towers that they have collected and reason whether it be worth bringing these along or leaving them in the victory for that level as well this means that players can choose what placed out they Wanna go for in maybe players might have a defensive line of towers or players might choose to have special ability towers which do all the work for them. This system strike me as one of the most impressive part of the game as it gave good tactical in-depth feel for the game giving players more control over the outcome of the games and I felt this was really impressive and well done.

Mine games 

as well as having a main tower defence game plants versus zombies offers some mini games in between same levels the images above show a mini game similar to bowling in which the players  used circle shaped warlocks almost like bowling balls to knock over zombies. This mini games often fallen and a good way of breaking up the monotonous  levels which some people can find repetitive. As these mini games are done so well that did not feel old feature a tower defence game and actually were pretty enjoyable and offered a new look into how the game can work  this is well Me very intrigued in the game as playing these new mini games are found to be quite enjoyable as you learn new things and don't have to constantly play a tower defence game this game offers you more than that with its mini games.

Good point about the game

personally I thought this was one of the best tower defence game is over search so far with many of the design features improving the gameplay and make it more immersive as well as mini games offering players a different way to play the game and also a way to get away from traditional tower defence field. Two of the points that I found to be the most oppressive where the tower infantry system and also the leaning system. 

First for the learning system was very impressive because of the added technical thinking that  the player has to use to navigate the level with the player having to place their mean damage towers in front of the resource towers to protect them instead of a traditional tower defence game where towers will just sit on the Lane shooting at targets and not being in real danger this game offers more in that way of giving  the player scent of danger when the zombies are getting close to the towers as they will lose the tower and the resources they used to build that hour and if not careful the players could you lose the resource towers that they use to create their plants denting their chances of completing the level.

the second system the infantry system I thought was a great way of giving players progression in the game as the players would see this arsenal of towers that they have collected to admissions and be able to select which ones they think are the best suited for that mission giving the player at this in-depth control onto how the exhibition is going to go. I thought this was a great system that offered players more tactical choice animation. 

In summary the good points available this scheme where.

. Tower infantry system (allowing players to store towers they've collected through levels)

. leaning mechanic/towers can be destroyed

Bad point about the

personally I thought that wasn't very much with the game that I could criticise as I found myself enjoying very much the overall aesthetic and games design that was put into this game. The features that I would say could feel a little bad to me was sometimes the mini game feature even know well fermented could feel out of place but often could not answer someone like me who enjoyed the tower defence aspect I felt just distracted from the main tower defence feel of the game bought I think it has a good implementation in  the way that it breaks up the board's that sometimes comes with playing tower from two. 

Another feature that I took more than disliking to was the limited tower feature that the players could only bring in a limited number of towers to the game as I felt similar to sanctum TD that this detracted from the gameplay as players were limited to a set number of towers permission but I felt the plants versus zombies pulled this off more effectively as sometimes missions where required for the players to have a limited choice in order to be challenging at this game pulled off a lot better then sacked and it. And one of the smallest complaints I could have bought this game was that it would featured no upgrade system to the towers and no way of improving the towers which I felt could have been the next step in play progression to the game as players could have had a chance to upgrade their towers with another resource when they were in the Tower selection menu make no more effective and  allow players to be even more personalised their arsenal to their own desire  And I think this might have been a wasted opportunity to the game developers bought did not hinder the game in much as I barely noticed that there was no upgrading system at all. 

In summary the bad points that thing about this game were

. limited towers that could be brought into the levels

. no upgrading system

. mini games sometimes detracting from gameplay experience

How this game can help influence mine

after playing this game for a long timeI found a lot of information that I'm going to include the micro tape definitely the Tower infantry system and also the sense of danger  for the players towers as I felt this Players interested this combined with a tie will be so system in which the players asked to actively engage with this tower to collect the resources as well keep players interesting and a layer to what's going on the game is that of allowing them to sit back and just watch as the game unfolds.

 As well as some of these points definitely an upgrade and system this up and I'm going to include of my game and I'm definitely going to keep the game focused on the core gameplay of months of the tower defence game as well as trying to limit the player into what towers they can bring into the level allowing players to customise and do whatever they want with their towers.

In summary I think the point land and take away from this game and use in my prototype of.
. a tower infantry system
. danger for players towers/structures
. do not limit the players tower troops
. include an upgrading system
. focus on Tower defence mechanics

Kingdom Rush

Kingdom Rush is a web based tower defence game is also available on IOS as a mobile game.Kingdom Russians are very traditional tower defence game with very simple game mechanics which worked very well together. Kingdom Rush also includes a campaign mood in which players can progress than an upgrade is for their overall profile and also allows players to collect scores on each level and compare them with their friends.

 compared to other games are funking the rush to be very sure not containing substantial amount of content compared to some of the other games and also did not keep my interest a very long as I thought the limited tower trace unlimited upgrades was quite boring after a certain amount of time.

Map screen

in the map screen play can choose from all previous levels they are played and also advance to new levels from  this screen they can also be play missions to achieve higher scores or beats score records. when players click on a level they can seethe map there will be playing and also to from the screen players can see their upgrades that they've achieved and also how many stars they've got her level. For come people who like to complete all charges in games this is a relatively good mechanic as offers players to easily and quickly see what scores they have on each mission.

Towers

Kingdom Rush only contains for different types of towers within the game these four towers are an artery tower barracks was its tower and a Canon tower. The Arrow Wizard and Canon tower all towers that will she projectiles out of them and depending on the enemy will do more less damage. The barracks tower will spawn meanie NPC is onto the path which can block enemies from advancing and allow the other projectile towers to fire upon them. The towers are meant to be used very tactically in a sense that the player must use a barracks to block the enemy then use projectile towers to finish them off while they are blocked in order to block as many enemies from reaching the end base. The choice of towers will heavily affect outcomes of battles as its towers do have their advantages and disadvantages as some towers will be week towards then enemies and others won't.

Special abilities

better ability in the game are an important way of providing the player an extra bit of power in the game. There is only two abilities in the game which are the ability to spawn troops in at any a point on the map but these troops are often very weak. And the second ability to spawn in a meteor shower which will destroy a small section of enemies standing underneath. Both of these abilities can be upgraded to an poetry and offer the player a little bit more interaction with the game similar to that in supercentre TD.

Tower upgrades

Tower upgrades are used to upgrade the efficiency of each tower. These are often cost a substantial amount of money box will prove valuable as they will increase attack damage and as the map does not contain many tower placement parts this is a vital part in how to survive more difficult waves. Each upgrade will physically improve the tower giving it a different aspect of look. though compared to some of the other upgrades systems I've seen at our defences this upgrade system seems to be very lacking as there only seems to be a few tears of upgrades at the player can invest in.

Tower upgrade effects

when Towers upgraded this will make the just how physically changed into a new and improved looking tower. these asset exchanges show the player quickly with towers of the upgraded.

Player profile groups

when the player loads of their profile they have the ability to look into the great trees in which wants the player complete certain levels they can upgrade all of the tower's abilities through this screen. The upgrade consist of many different things such as sure a cooldown rates or even less cost to the towers. As well the special abilities that the player can use can be a rich with history and these upgrades are essential in progressing through the games more difficult levels.

Synopsis of the game

Overall I found kingdom rush to be an okay game offering a good half an hour of form but after that I became very bored with the game and did not see to carry on as the upgrade system of the towers and the limited number of Tower placements didn't really keep me invested in the game. though the upgrade system for the profile I found to be quite an interesting concept I felt that it was very lacking in how it affected the game with only statistic based upgrades and not anything physical or visual to see these upgrades were not often considered to me as they didn't seem to have substantial effects on the game. And with the limiting of only two abilities are not able to select any more I thought that this was a wasted opportunity as  the developers could have included more abilities and players to choose from but didnt. 

Good point about the game

in synopsis the wasn't many things I jeweller of this game portsI did thoroughly enjoyed the upgrading profile system in which players could upgrades all the towers through their profile and permanently keep their upgrades for the next time you play the game I thought this was an interesting way and also gave a centre progression but because of the lacking gameplay did not seem to my overall. In summary I think the good points this game are.

. Profile upgrades

Bad point about the

when reviewing this game I found it to be quite boring and didn't really work well for me is what the gameplay was very lacking in most areas I felt that the limited use of only four towers detracted from gameplay experience and even with their upgrades didn't offer much variety in what they could do. As well as the special abilities only having to use throughout the whole game I felt this is very limiting to gameplay and combining this with quite difficult waves it gave the sense of being constantly defeated and not having much chance to make a comeback. In summary I think the bad point to this game were

. limited towers

. basic upgrading

. limited special abilities

How this game can help influence mine

when looking into this game is given me a lot to think about for my game prototype. With some of the points seen in this game is clear that limiting the players  number of towers they can use generally seems to for the player and a large variety of different towers is essential to keep players interacting as well I think a more intricate upgrade system is something I will have to consider one place in my game as well as if I'm going to include special abilities creating a variety of them which can be changed. But I think a good part of the game but I should include within my prototype is some kind of system in where the player can keep progress for upgrades to their towers which carries on for all of their time playing the game similar to the profile upgrades displayed in this game. In summary the idea is going to take away from this game.

. Allow players to build a profile which can be upgraded

. offer a vast array of towers

. make it intricate upgrading system which as many branching paths

. use various different special abilities with many different effects

Summary of the research findings

when I decided that I was going to create a tower defence game from my university project. I decided to research into many different tariff and schemes in order to get a feel of modern tower defence games and how they work. I listed a lot of points from each of the games which I will summarize my findings in its documents and layout are the foundation of what my tower defence game will feature in terms of mechanics and gameplay style.

The list of games that I reviewed to get a sense of tower defence game mechanics were.

. Balloons tower defense 5 

. Ants Buster

. Super sanctum TD

. Plants versus zombies

. Kingdom rush

Each of these games I've felt had some good mechanics or gameplay styles and they also add bad to gameplay mechanics which did hinder the games open in this document I'm going to lay out the bad points and good points and then explain how I'm going to implement this into my game.

Balloons tower defense 5 

Good points:

.Many different tower traces

.Vast upgrade trees

.Various different maps

.Different to terrian (water/land)

Bad points:

. To easily upgraded towers

. Not enough varying grades

Ants Buster

Good points:

. many varying upgrades

. targeting system

Bad points:

. linear levels do not change

. no progression for players

Super sanctum TD

Good points:

.Perk tree

.Path finding system

.Player controlled special abilities 

Bad points:

.limited abilities to bring towers into levels

.limited abilities to bring special abilities into levels

.Limited tower placement

Plants versus zombies

Good points:

. Tower infantry system (allowing players to store towers they've collected through levels)

. leaning mechanic/towers can be destroyed

Bad points:

. limited towers that could be brought into the levels

. no upgrading system

. mini games sometimes detracting from gameplay experience

Kingdom rush

Good points:

. Profile upgrades

Bad points:

. limited towers

. basic upgrading

. limited special abilities

Summary of game research results

Good points:

Tower: From my research findings the towers are going to be used in the game that has to be a large variety of towers to choose from over 10 towers to select from as from some of the games are played limited number of towers tend  to lose the play's interest fairly quickly.

Tower Upgrade:  From the search is clear that a system in which towers can be upgraded is an essential part of progression in a tower defence game. From the research these upgrades need to be intricate and varied and also allow players to vary the towers in many different ways through branching upgrade trees. both these upgrades need to be difficult to obtain and need to take time to unlock  but need to be balanced  so they do not disinterest the player as it may take too long to upgrade certain things.

Enemy Paths: as for the enemy pass in which they will take to reach a certain objectives that the player must defend I think looking on my research a similar system to plants versus zombies may be a good idea in which the player has to defend the towers themselves from attack in order to carry on playing in which that if the player loses all their towers to overwhelming enemy units then the game will end. This is different from any other tower defence in the way that most Tower defence games makes the player protect a certain object which has health boards in the case of plants versus zombies because of the intricate layer of tactical play this offers because players have to be tactical in the way they used towers to defend against incoming waves I think this will offer greater gameplay experience with the players.

player profiles: the player profile was an icy year that seems to be circulating round many of the tower defence game. This is the idea that the player progresses outside of the individual tower defence games and keeps a saved profile of their progress this could record scores and even allow players to upgrades things about their towers for a separate menu I think this is a feature that is going to offer the greatest gameplay feature from my game as such an important part of building players interest within this game as players will become more invested the more intricate their player profiles are. The player profiles will consist of upgrades and various different towers the players have unlocked throughout the game similar to that plants versus zombies, super sanctum TD and kingdom rush.

special abilities: the special abilities feature which is featured a lot in tower defence game's is quite a unique gameplay aspect as allows players to take more direct control into the game and I think a shop that I'm going to utilise hopefully in my game but I will be careful not to fall into some of the mistakes some other going to have made and try make these special abilities as varied as intricate as the Tao upgrades meaning that players can customise  their special abilities as much as their towers.

Bad points:

variation: variation is a part of the game that I'm going off to take into consideration as other games that do not show variation in their upgrading/Tower mechanics seem to suffer greatly from repetition and I feel that in order to make my game more keep telling to play and must offer a wide variety of variation with towers and upgrades and special abilities in order to keep the player interested and  make the player feel like they are constantly repeating the same levels over and over again.

linear levels: another point and you have to take into consideration is  linear levels this is were I think multiple different to rains and layoffs are going to comment I think if I implement a system in which players can progress through multiple levels this will break or this issue and other key players interested  And avoid the game falling into the mistakes that and Buster did in which the maths doesn't ever change making the player feel bored in that map.

limitation in towers/special abilities that can be used in game:  the issue this raises is mainly found in the game super sanctum TV and also kingdom rush which the player is only given a limited number towers to use in game at this issue can be easily remedied by offering to offering players the full list of towers similar to that billions tower defence from the start and allowing players to then choose which ones they want to use and experiment with.

 limited upgrades: I think this issue is going to be the hardest issue for my game to overcomeas creating many varying difference upgrade trees which branch out is a very very difficult to design feature to implement as it requires a lot of time and balancing in order to make them effective. But I think offering players of vast array of upgrades will inevitably keep their interest high in the game and also keep them interested and playing the game you can then come back for more and having longer play sessions and will ultimately be worth it to implement a large-scale grading system.