Work Post
8:28pm - So I'm thinking more seriously about that Open Source Tower Defense game project idea. I still don't know if it's a good idea given that I'm already working on a different game project in all the work-time I can manage. I'm not sure that I'd be able to do both projects at 100% efficiency. In fact I'm sure I wouldn't be able to. But on the other side, I'm only working for myself so I can and should work on whatever I feel like and whatever inspires me.
So I'm going to consider the Open Tower Defense project for now. Not entirely sure what to call it for a start though. There are already a couple of Open Tower Defense games if you search for them. They're pretty old and not what I'm trying to accomplish, though. I could probably take the name anyways and nobody would complain. I don't think it's trademarked. In fact I just checked and I'm pretty sure it's not. So maybe I'll do that. But I also have to be careful becuse OpenTD or OTD is very similar to OpenTTD or OTTD, which are short forms of Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe, a popular open source transport management game.
So, to start with, I should consider what sort of game Open Tower Defense should be. I know that I want to make it an HTML5 based web-game so that anybody can play it in a web browser. Do I want to make it mobile friendly? Maybe. Even though it's an online game I don't want it to use any online features like easily hackable high score tables or easily hackable multiplayer. Ideally the user should be able to download it and play it in a web browser locally, just like online, but offline.
I'm kind've split between making it a 3D tower defense game or a 2D tower defense game, but I'm probably going to make it a 2D game with minimalist graphics. I've considered making the game easy to mod with fancy graphics but that's kind of a pipe dream at this point. Making it 3D would allow for some interesting gameplay but it would complicate everything, not only the development but the gameplay as well as the custom map design.
Because this is an Open Tower Defense game, I want to make it so that the user can pick and choose their challenges, and that takes the form of an in-game level editor. I've got a few ideas on that as well. For starters I'll make the maps grid based, and let the player choose where the walls will be. Either playing on a collection of basic pre-set maps or creating their own challenge map. But I also want to allow players to be able to mimic other styles of Tower Defense, like the popular Kingdom Rush games, where the paths are round and only a few tower locations are valid. That's kind of a mid-range goal. I think I'll put it in the Future Goals section, actually, for after the game gets released.
I don't want players to have to depend on me for balance either, so I'll make the towers and enemies editable also. It'll be a real sandbox, but with presets for those who don't want to tweak things themselves.
Now I want to examine some tower defense games and comment on features I may or may not include in Open Tower Defense.
Desktop Tower Defense - This is the one I'm taking the most inspiration from for a minimalist tower defense game. It's very simple, straight to the point, and fun. The main problems with it are its limitations. So, I seek to surpass them.
I'll make it possible to have bigger maps, and more variety in planning them out. But a lot of things will be very similar. I'll probably start with the same basic towers and mob types. I don't think there's anything exceptional about this game that sets it apart from others apart from its simplicity.
Bubble Tanks Tower Defense 2 - This game is another that I'm taking a lot of inspiration from. It's a very simple, straightforward tower defense game with a lot of options and towers. It also has the feature to combine towers into bigger towers. I like that feature but I'm not sure if I'll be able to include it in Open Tower Defense or not. We'll see...
The other feature of Bubble Tanks Tower Defense 2 is that all the towers are upgrade trees of a single tower type. I don't think I'll do that but it's not a bad idea.
11:52pm - I need to stop for now, but I'll continue this later on when I'm less distracted.
So I'm going to consider the Open Tower Defense project for now. Not entirely sure what to call it for a start though. There are already a couple of Open Tower Defense games if you search for them. They're pretty old and not what I'm trying to accomplish, though. I could probably take the name anyways and nobody would complain. I don't think it's trademarked. In fact I just checked and I'm pretty sure it's not. So maybe I'll do that. But I also have to be careful becuse OpenTD or OTD is very similar to OpenTTD or OTTD, which are short forms of Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe, a popular open source transport management game.
So, to start with, I should consider what sort of game Open Tower Defense should be. I know that I want to make it an HTML5 based web-game so that anybody can play it in a web browser. Do I want to make it mobile friendly? Maybe. Even though it's an online game I don't want it to use any online features like easily hackable high score tables or easily hackable multiplayer. Ideally the user should be able to download it and play it in a web browser locally, just like online, but offline.
I'm kind've split between making it a 3D tower defense game or a 2D tower defense game, but I'm probably going to make it a 2D game with minimalist graphics. I've considered making the game easy to mod with fancy graphics but that's kind of a pipe dream at this point. Making it 3D would allow for some interesting gameplay but it would complicate everything, not only the development but the gameplay as well as the custom map design.
Because this is an Open Tower Defense game, I want to make it so that the user can pick and choose their challenges, and that takes the form of an in-game level editor. I've got a few ideas on that as well. For starters I'll make the maps grid based, and let the player choose where the walls will be. Either playing on a collection of basic pre-set maps or creating their own challenge map. But I also want to allow players to be able to mimic other styles of Tower Defense, like the popular Kingdom Rush games, where the paths are round and only a few tower locations are valid. That's kind of a mid-range goal. I think I'll put it in the Future Goals section, actually, for after the game gets released.
I don't want players to have to depend on me for balance either, so I'll make the towers and enemies editable also. It'll be a real sandbox, but with presets for those who don't want to tweak things themselves.
Now I want to examine some tower defense games and comment on features I may or may not include in Open Tower Defense.
Desktop Tower Defense - This is the one I'm taking the most inspiration from for a minimalist tower defense game. It's very simple, straight to the point, and fun. The main problems with it are its limitations. So, I seek to surpass them.
I'll make it possible to have bigger maps, and more variety in planning them out. But a lot of things will be very similar. I'll probably start with the same basic towers and mob types. I don't think there's anything exceptional about this game that sets it apart from others apart from its simplicity.
Bubble Tanks Tower Defense 2 - This game is another that I'm taking a lot of inspiration from. It's a very simple, straightforward tower defense game with a lot of options and towers. It also has the feature to combine towers into bigger towers. I like that feature but I'm not sure if I'll be able to include it in Open Tower Defense or not. We'll see...
The other feature of Bubble Tanks Tower Defense 2 is that all the towers are upgrade trees of a single tower type. I don't think I'll do that but it's not a bad idea.
11:52pm - I need to stop for now, but I'll continue this later on when I'm less distracted.