Taking an interesting twist on the tower defense genre, I focused on developing interesting systems that led to engaging and strategic gameplay. I wanted to find a unique way to change the way tower defense games are played, and I accomplished that by adding gravitational pull. The slightest change in formula can lead to a completely different kind of gameplay, and doing just that led us to our additional mechanics.

 

Another thing I wanted to change was the fact that in tower defense games, once you place your towers and hit go, all you do is wait. I wanted to find a way to make the player have an active role at all times. I accomplished this by letting the player control the movement of the planetary rings at any given time. This challenges the player and keeps them on their toes; they need to pay attention to where enemies are coming from, and react quickly and accordingly. I also tied the main source of currency to come from harvesting planets. The longer you went without harvesting a planet, the more it would generate every tick. This provided for constant player choice with its risk/reward system.

 

 

The other big aspect I focused on was balancing and tuning. This was my first time doing so and it was definitely a very good learning experience. I came up with a layout in excel that kept track of each change I made to any gameplay variable, such as a tower's damage or attack radius, so I could see how it's changed through each iteration. I also wrote comments after each iteration seeing how the gameplay had changed and what I needed to try and accomplish for the next iteration.