As the launch date for Defender Chronicles is near, there are few things that Im still not sure if we have made the best decision or not. Thus, I have to return to the wise council of TA for advices Here is the dilemma. One of the tester reported that kids (around 10 years) can actually enjoy the game. We have then tested the game on several more kids and they can actually enjoy and win the first few maps; but none is able to win the entire campaign (this is on the easy difficulty). To quote him: "It wouldnt be fun if only older players would enjoy the game. I know a lot of times kids enjoy playing with the games on my Touch and it wouldnt be fun for them if it was too hard." One of solution that we can think of is to add Kid difficulty level. But not everyone likes the idea. Having a Kid mode in a strategy game (a TD exactly) seems like a bad plague to avoid. Potential buyers will doubt the strategic aspect of the game and it will hurt sales. How about you?
why not just adjust the difficulty levels on the game so easy is the "kids" difficulty, having been a kid a long time ago, I definitely wouldn't click on the "kids" level ( kids want to act tough and be like adults ). Its simply a cosmetic thing.
I'm sure there are kids in this world with iPhones/iPod Touches that would buy this game. To appeal to all audiences, I think that you should have an easy difficulty for kids. I'm pretty sure there are some adults out there that will need that easy difficulty to beat the game also
I voted other, but it's a variation of: Make the kid level, call it "easy" now make your old "easy" called "medium" your old "medium" now called "hard" and your old hard mode "insane", "difficult", etc... So basically add the mode but call it "easy" and shift down all the mode names. Making the hardest setting, a new name. So have four modes (assuming before it was just the three easy, medium, and hard)
I agree with the sentiment of just making the easy easier. A "kid's" mode just seems out of place for a strategy game, even if you are going to let the kids play it. The hardcore players won't touch the easy mode anyway, so you won't have to worry about that, and reviewers that aren't so skilled at playing games (like myself) can use the easy mode for the purpose of reviewing so that they can complete more of the game before writing their review (though hopefully they'll try more difficult modes before saying something stupid like "that's too easy"). I think you're right to say that for many people, having a mode labeled "kid's" would diminish any perception of challenging game play.
dogmeat, thanks for the suggestion. You can vote on the second option. Its what you are referring to. Sorry if its not clear. The vote option is limited to 100 chars so I have to cut some words. theone1007, shigzeo, I understand. The question now is if we should add a new difficulty level or should we just make the current easy even easier (but beware that this may bore the experienced players if we do this). Burton, can I prohibit you from using the kid mode? LOL PointOfLight, yes, thats my concern. Lets see what the vote result says. Zincous, as of now, there are 4 difficulty levels: - Casual: designed specifically for casual players. - Veteran: designed specifically for veteran TD players. - Master: designed for those who want the extra challenge. - Heroic: this is for those masochists out there who would like to be punished again and again Each difficulty is designed so it can be won with perfect score and without selling any tower. But just for a note, only one tester so far has been able to win Heroic level and its only on the first map. So, the game is already leaning toward the hard side.
i say yes. why? it's a nice add for a real beginners. almost every tower defense (or a similar to this genre game) is not the easiest for amateurs - for example i thank God that someone created the creeps, cause they learned me how to play this kind of games. but maybe an easy mode with a GREAT tutorial would be better (check out Build-A-Lot to see what i mean)...
Ok so call it "beginner" mode. But I'm against using the word "kid" mode. I think you should cover the ranges of difficulties (looks like you have the hard modes down )
I've seen it Seriously, though, it makes sense in a way. He's trying to make sure they have certain bases covered before the game is released to minimize "new game grumbling". If I were to wager a guess I'd say most of the people on the beta team would feel the same way about this topic, so maybe he just wanted a broader opinion.
I like this idea...it gives you the widest range of difficulties to cover all bases because, yes, it won't just be kids that want or need an extra easy level. And I bet some kids would play on the harder difficulties. Plus you could include maps/scenarios that are just included in a specific difficulty level.
Haha I was that tester! I'm sure you already know where I stand on this Gimka. My suggestion if a new level was added call it Novice.
Yes, Spartan. But, we won't add another difficulty level. 4 is already too many. We'll adjust the difficulty as needed.
