For years I've wanted to make a tower defense game but I've always backed down because I don't want to deal with AI or balancing or graphics or etc. But I just spent the past week playing Starship Defense (DSiWare) and it helped inspire me with a new tower defense idea, which conveniently works as a spinoff for my oldest original game which was called Solar Security (don't play it, it sucks).
So essentially, you would have a star in the middle of the screen which you need to protect from the incoming asteroids (or other debris). Asteroids would come in rounds, orbit a few times and then crash into the star. It would have all the basics of tower defense: different types of turrets, different types of asteroids, upgrades, etc. What is different is that the placement of your turrets is not static, each time a new round of asteroids comes in the game will show you the path they will take and then give you a short period of building time. You will need to rearrange your towers to match the path, if you are truly desperate you could even leave a tower in the path to sacrifice it as a makeshift wall.I think this should keep the game from becoming boring because you cant just build up the ultimate tower setup based on a youtube video guide. Not paying attention for even 1 round would likely cost you towers and health, if not the entire game.Other Random StuffMy fall semester starts in 11 hours. One good thing about this semester is that I don't have any early morning classes, so once the start of semester parking situation calms down it should be ok.I just got back home from an Indiana/Chicago vacation tonight. During the trip I got a few more cheap games for my game collection, including 2 ngage games. Ngage games are extremely hard to find in physical stores so that was a nice surprise. I've only seen maybe 5 or 6 of them since gamestop stopped carrying them years ago and I don't think I've ever seen the system itself. It might not be the greatest system ever, but its only got 58 games and they are cheap when I do find them =p I actually decided to start using my Ngage Qd as my cell phone again because the phone I was using is pretty much the same but instead of playing games it has a really crappy camera which I don't need since I got my DSi/3DS. Not that I actually every use my cell phone, its just in case my car breaks down or something =pI decided to spend the rest of my 3DS eShop money that I had lying around for who knows how long. I ended up getting Aura-Aura Climber, Candle Route and Trajectile. I've only really played Trajectile so far and its a pretty fun puzzle game. I've certainly gotten my $5 worth out of it. The other 2 games were only $2 each and I think they'll prove to be worth that much when I do play them =p
That tower defence idea doesn't sound too bad. You should try find a good balance for the micromanagement though. Half the fun of tower defence (at least for me) is building a good defence, and building on it (so you have to kind of think ahead, and know where to place towers, conserve resources, etc). Having to go back and change my configuration could get annoying if there's too much of it.
I did put some thought into that and I think the best solution would be having a traditional gameplay mode in addition to the free movement mode.
But there will still be planning ahead in the free movement mode, a couple specific towers will be stationary and you will still need to choose which towers to buy and upgrade at which times.Maybe I could also make it so the towers move like rts units somewhat, instead of just following the mouse around instantly. That way you might not have time to move your towers all the way across the map before the next round starts.*cough* random free stuff http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327113
=DI remember playing the Solar Security years ago. Heck, I think my first blog post on here was about getting a high score on it.