Hello fellow Developers, I am currently developing a TD game for WP7 and would like to ask you what kind of features you expect form such game the most? We're still at a point , where we can add some features so we are curious what non-obvious features( for the genere) we could add
a cheat mode! theres nothing like haveing an infinite amount of money to bulid whatever you like and stack it up against never ending waves enemy units that get larger and more numerious to see how long you can last
i like to see stff blow up
Challenge modes, where you replay the level but it's harder in some way, are a great way to add replayability to a game without substantially increasing the development cost. A few examples of challenge modes for a TD:
Not allowed to build tower <X>.
No tower upgrades (or not past a given level).
No selling towers.
Enemies have 10% more health.
Enemies move 10% faster.
Enemies give 10% less money (or towers and upgrades cost more).
When an enemy dies, it heals the ones around it (favors single-target high-damage attacks vs. splash or attrition).
When an enemy takes damage, it instead takes half that much damage and other adgacent enemies take the rest (favors splash).
Enemies move slower but are far more tough.
Enemies move much faster but are weak.
Enemies regenerate health slowly.
More enemies per wave (with or without the usual extra money from more kills).
Waves come closer together, possibly as a continuous stream.
Strengthen one tower type (possibly not the obvious one to use on a level) and weaken the rest.
Force people to buy upgraded towers (i.e. you build level 2 towers, at the full combined cost, instead of lev1 at the basic cost).
Run the overall game faster (force the player to think and react quicker).
Money slowly drains when not being used.
You start with less money.
You start with a few pre-built towers, but very little (or no) money.
Give no money for kills within a wave until the whole wave is dead (or reaches the exit).
Have enemies that reach the exit cost the player some money.
Towers build and upgrade slower.
Most of these are pretty easy to implement, code-wise. They could be done individually or in combos. There could be extra perks for completing them (for example, you might get more points if there's a leaderboard or something). You can eaither add pre-designed challenges for each level, or allow players to select their own challenges. Challanges don't even have to actually be harder, just different. In fact, some of the things I've suggested would be perfectly reasonable core game mechanics, helping to separate your TD game from the rest.
Related
I posted this in the nexus one apps topic but it should probably go here
V 1.0 of the Zombie Survival Handbook is now out, and I would love feedback. If you don't want to spend the 0.99, I would still appreciate thoughts as to what type of things you would want in this sort of app.
Current items that aren't found in normal zed apps:
Excerpts from the army survival guide for survival on the go in a variety of climates
Cultural overview of zeds myths from different parts of the world
Historical overview of how our modern zombie was shaped over the last 100 years
One of the suggestions was a review of modern zed literature + movies, and here are some of my favorites at least that you may not have seen
The original REC (quarantine)- was amazing.
FIDO was very well done.
Dance of the dead was low budget but fun to watch.
and I've heard good things about ' Dead Set' but haven't seen it yet- 6 episode 'what if' in which the big brother house is assaulted by zombies. (They're cut off from the world so don't realize z-day is here)
Well, seeing as we haven't had any zombie attacks yet, I have no real input...
I will test it though, could be a good read just in case.
A barcode to scan in OP would be nice.
Anyway, trying it out
I thought dead set was pretty good, not my favorite, but certainly better then a lot of the other zombie movies that are around.
If there some sort of guarantee?? If I spend 99 cents and end up being a Zed I'm going to want my $$ back or the equivalent in brains depending on how Im feeling.
With the android market you always have 24 hours to cancel after your *first* purchase for a full refund.
If it's longer than that and you feel like I truly put out crap, I'll do whatever I can to help you. I suggest going with the 24 hour route since I feel at the very least I am responsive.
Any relation to the book The Zombie Survial Guide by Max Brooks? If so, I'd gladly give up my $0.99
The only relation is in the general theme.
Brooks did a good job but created a backstory for his type of zombie with the fictional Solanum virus. It also assumes the role of a world which has already had outbreaks particular to his class of zombie.
This app goes with a more generalized focus on survival, also using portion of the army survival guide for wilderness survival for its 'on the run' section. I.E.- Finding food in a desert environment, or avoiding heat casualties / frostbite related injuries in a desert/arctic environment respectively.
The cultural overview is something I'm always looking out for, zombie like creatures and references throughout history. I've received some feedback but would love it if more people emailed with little tidbits
If you are a RPG nut then I wanted to tell you about a little known gem on the play store. It is called "kingdom conquest" and is HUGE in japan. It is made by SEGA (so you know it's good).
The game has FPS elements (dungeons to run which nets you "draws"). You use the draws to acquire cards. These cards have skills on them. You can level the cards up, level the skills up, and at certain levels the cards can be used to synth the skills to other cards. Ultimately you build units of three cards each with their own skill sets. All the while you are creating a base and expanding your territory.
Unlike other card battle games, this game has crazy sim city elements. You start on this HUGE map with up to 20,000 other players. You fight territory and also "towers" which reward you with DP (daily points). You can use the DP in the auction to buy cards.
Then you can join alliances (i.e., guilds) with up to 100 players. You can battle other guilds and fight for something called "debris towers." There are 8 of them per world and they are CRAZY hard. The world you join usually lasts for 6 months (about the time it takes for the 8 debris towers to be captured). At that point in time, the alliance in control of the most debris towers wins. Then special super rare cards are distributed to the winners. But the best part? It doesn't end there! That 6 month period is called "season 1" and when it ends "season 2" begins. All land, bases, etc is erased but you can keep your cards. So you basically start fresh in a new world, with harder monsters, but with your existing cards that you can continue to level up...
I could go on and on for hours about how in depth this game is... if you have any questions just ask here. But the game is so crazy in depth it has its own forum with thousands of posts/answers. The best part? You don't have to drop a dime on the game if you don't want. If you get good, you can be ranked #100 in the world without spending any money.
Wet your appetite? Download it from the play store and when you register please use the following referral code in the game.
It will reward both you and I with a RARE card.
Referral code: 7fdbcF3.
If you have any questions about the game, just ask away. I will try my best to answer them.
Also, join World 11. It just opened a few days ago and so everyone is starting fresh. Tons of DP to get!
There is still lots of time to join up in World 11! If you have any questions, just post them here.
The Lowdown
I was looking for something fun to play on phone and I came across this. It was free in the app store so I figured that I’d lose nothing by trying it out. The first thing that I noticed was the cover art which presented itself as cute and colorful. I wondered if this would translate to the game as well since, for me, cute is almost always a good thing. As I downloaded the app, I kept wondering about how silly the entire concept was. I thought to myself, “What is the point of such a weird game?” The game revolves about you being a Beaver with his own custom wooden cart. Apparently, this Beaver has a nasty need for speed and spends his time travelling downhill (and aiming for an X-games promotion) in his cart. To make things interesting, you can perform an assortment of tricks such as wheelies and flips.
Learning the Ropes
The game is pretty basic. You will have to guide the Beaver on his downhill descent as you perform a series of tricks. You have 2 buttons to control the cart: tilt forward or tilt backward. Tilting the cart backward, for instance, will allow you to ride on only 2 wheels (classified as a wheelie) and will grant you bonus points. Doing a tilt after a jump will make the cart flip which is worth massive points (given that you land safely). You will also have to collect gold coins on the downhill path to glory. One thing to remember is that you have a limited amount of fuel to burn during the stage and this is what limits your journey.
Gold collected will determine the types of upgrades you can afford for tricking out your Beaver cart. I’m not sure if these upgrades affect the performance of your vehicle or are purely aesthetic in nature. Take note that before starting a stage, you have 3 specific goals that you can opt to do during your downhill run. Accomplishing them grants you bonus gold and that’s what you want to do in order to earn more and upgrade your cart.
There are power-ups in the shop which you can purchase with gold or purple acorns. I guess that is the premium currency for the game which you can buy with real money. Some of the powerups that can make your run more interesting.
Not a Wallet Hurter
I got the game for free in the app store. Not bad since you get to you can try it out at no cost.
What I think
I like the game due to the simplicity of its graphics which comes out as a cute cartoony experience. It is simple yet entertaining. Unfortunately, it is far from perfect. I find a big lack in terms of customization. There are only a few choices of upgrades to choose from (around 5 per category). Also, you are stuck with the beaver. Not that I don’t like him or anything but, I would very much want to see a giraffe try to cart. Some mini-games would also help break the monotony that comes after a while.
I suggest keeping this at hand during lull times. This might In fact, it might be worth using while waiting for the bus, waiting for your food in restaurants, or during your breaks to the bathroom.
This is actually a good game. Challenging yet fun at the same time.:good:
Tried this one out but the game is too challenging for me. It was hard controlling the beaver's kart. I always crash and burn. Poor beaver.
I thought the game was for kids, it was hard to control at first but eventually I got a hang of it. It was actually fun.
I've downloaded this game a few weeks back and was surprise that you made a review about this game. I totally agree with the points that you have stated in your article. The game is fun but hard at first. Luckily, I was patient enough to keep on playing the game until I got a hang of it.
groan RExesd
My curiosity got the best of me and I've downloaded this game. It is frustrating at first but since I am really competitive I wanted to perfect my every run. Now, I can double backflip and frontflip. I'm aiming to perfect my wheelies and to achieve a triple backflip/frontflip. :highfive:
How Meditation Reshapes Our Brains
BRAIN SCANS SHOW MEDITATION ACTUALLY CHANGES THE SIZE OF KEY REGIONS OF THE BRAIN. Meditation increases grey matter in areas of the brain which improve memory, empathy, compassion and resilience under stress.
NEUROPLASTICITY. Your brain is able to rewire from cradle to grave; engaging in repeat behaviour or using visualisation and meditation leads to changes in the brain. Neurons actually changing how they link and communicate with each other with experiences, either real or imagined.
MEDITATION SLOWS AGING. Meditation slows down the usual aging process of the brain. MRI scans show 50 year old meditators retain the same amount of frontal lobe grey matter as 25 year olds.
The benefits of 8 weeks of meditating for 30 minutes per day were studied by comparing MRI scans of meditators with non-meditators.
THE RESULTS
Areas of Meditators Brains That Changed After 8 Weeks
MEMORY AND LEARNING.
1. The Hippocampus increased, an area which assists with learning, and converting short term memory to long term memory. (The Hippocampus grey matter is reduced in people with depression or PTS (Post- traumatic stress.)
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
2. The Temporo-Parietal Junction grey matter is thickened. This area is responsible for perspective taking, empathy and compassion.
RESILIENCE
3. The Amygdala became smaller, this is the centre for activating stress responses, ‘fight or flight’. Meditators decreased the size of their amygdalae, not because of reducing stress in their lives, but because they deal with stress differently.
"Meditators feel better, not just as a mood change, but because there is actual neurological change in their brains that makes them feel better." Sara Lazar, Neuroscientist
RODENT EXPERIMENT — ENLARGEMENT OF THE AMYGDALA IN RESPONSE TO STRESS, Chattarji et al.
Rats were exposed to stress for 2 hours a day for 10 days, afterwards, the size of their amygdalae were found to be substantially increased; with increased abilities to produce the stress response. The rodents were then treated well for 21 days in a non-stressful environment. And here’s the really interesting part, 3 weeks after the stressful stimulae their amygdalae were still enlarged.
WE DON’T NOTICE INCREASING STRESS, BECAUSE WE SIMPLY GET USED TO IT.
Stress doesn’t naturally settle down once exposure stops and may rack up through our lives. As each small increase in stress exposure is maintained we get used to it as a new normal.
In meditators amygdalae shrinkage allows increased stress resilience taking individuals further & further away from feelings of overwhelm.
AND WHO WOULDN’T WANT THAT?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thoughtwavespro
https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/thoughtwaves-pro/id1114514007?mt=8
https://thoughtwavespro.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameclubsite.shockerball
A huge asteroid which was approaching very fast from the sun and Perseus side was noticed already too close to Earth.
It did not belong to the solar system, otherwise its orbit would have been changed a long time ago. But now it was impossible to avoid a collision.
The Calculations showed that the blow would be in the north-eastern part of the
Pacific ocean and giant tsunami would destroy everything that have been created by people onall the continents.
A thermonuclear blast would not have caused anydamage toa giant stone block. It was decided to try to use its tremendous speed and to split an asteroid by a mechanical shock.
They had time for only one attempt. And it turned out to be very successful.
The asteroid split into two big splinters that dispersed in a slow way and only struck the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere and then they continued their journey in the space.
But it happened too close to the Earth. Many small splinters struck coveringnot only the ocean, but also the continents and that lead to the big destructions. But the survivors did not know that the main blow to the humanity was made not by the asteroid but by the people themselves. One of the fragments destroyed the secret underground laboratory in which they tried to create the immortal soldiers. Frankenstein virus broke away.After a while the dying people began to turn into unkillable zombie killers. The authorities did not report the laboratory and announced that the virus was brought in by an asteroid. It got the name of Perseus virus.
While the humans were alive, the virus had no form and disguised itself properly - it could not be detected in the organism.Theimmunity did not react to the virus because it did not notice it. No drugs could affect the sleeping virus either. It activated only when a person died and then a zombie appeared, the on purpose ofwhich was to kill people. The speed of the expansion was huge and the epidemic quickly covered almost all the areas of the Earth.
Only in places with a dry and hot climate, the probability of the infection was low. Only one way not to become a zombie after a death was discovered. The human should die of the powerful electrical discharge. This did not have the impact to a zombie. There was nobody who wanted to die quickly at that moment not to become a zombie, but there were many people who thought thatthe best way was to kill as many people as possible so that no more zombies appear.
There was useless to fight with the unkillable zombies - as a result there was more dying people and more living zombies.Zombies did not have super power and super speed, but it was difficult to run away from them. The only way to be saved for those who saw a zombie was to hide behind the solid walls. To avoid the encounters with zombies, people used the microdron swarms, that who informed the owner about the presence of people and zombies in radius up to 200 meters.But they could not distinguish the hunters of people. Life has become extremely dangerous. People run away from the cities in panic. Those who had such an opportunity built the bases in the desert and hired the guards, armed with electro-shock weapons, which were called Shockermen. The solid fences protected the bases from zombies, theconnection with the world was possible only via the helicopters. But there were also the raids on the basesby the people hunters and on their bases there were retaliatory attacks. And very soon no one knew who was a friend and where there were the enemies -everybody has become enemies.
Shockermen used the uncommon weapons because it was forbidden to use firearms or knives -the killed enemy could turn into zombies and destroy everybody, strangersor not.The shot of this special weapon at the first three ricochets accumulated an electric charge andstruck a human with a powerful discharge.Only state bases remained not hostile -there it was possible to buy food, fuel, weapons, hire people. But they were also attacked by human hunters, and in these cases these bases needed to be rescued by sending a troop of Shockermen to the to the captured base.
The owners of the bases hired the scientist to gain an advantage over the opponents, to improve the existing weapons and to develop a new one and to have workers for its production. It was probably the last war in the history of humanity.
Features:
- Build and strengthen your base, seize others;
- Hire and pump shockermen for battles;
- Hire scientists and explore trophies and new technologies;
- Hire technicians and produce the best weapons;
- Seven types of missions;
- Mission against the computer;
- Mission against other players;
- 256 technologies;
- Economy;
- 17 ranks for seizing bases of other players;
Battles with unusual weapons. A shooting weapon shoots a high-tech ball that, with the first three ricochets, accumulates an electrical charge and, if it hits a non-solid object, hits them. An uncharged ball is reflected from all objects, charged only from solid ones, not more than six times. Accuracy of shooting depends on the type of weapon and the ability to aim the player.
Version 1.1