Consider making a steam "playtest" build instead of a demo initially. Since steam changed demos recently, they now can be used as a means of notification to current wishlisters, but only once. So launching a demo too early means that potential may go to waste since you won't have many wishlisters yet. Chris Zukowski has a blog post about it with more details. "The new demo strategy"
A cluster of islands is called an Archipelago so throwing that out as a different name idea! Another idea that sprang to mind was instead of the troops jumping up and down over cliffs and obstacles they could use a ladder to climb up and down which would slow them and could be an interesting tactical consideration. Great video and really cool to see your early process!
I like what you're doing. You want people to enjoy this game genre and trying your best to iterate to improve it. I hope it turns out well, many good games start out like this :)
Cool! I made a game similar to this once, was hard to find interest for it on Steam. But then I later put the RTS soldiers in a civ style game I had, and that game got pretty popular.
What about "Bridgeborn"? And then transforming the game mechanic... 1. More about building bridges to expand your empire and/or controlling and maintaining your bridges to defend your empire. 2. You are met with choice, expand your empire or build your existing base. 3. As you're doing this the enemy is doing the same. 4. It's about balancing exploration while maintaining what you have with bridge control being a key battleground.
Tiny war tactics, tiny tactics, tactics island, tiny royal i thinks something with tiny in name would be great, because your troops are so tiny in the island. Keep the good work and good luck ❤
if u wanna double down on the cutesy look you can round all your edges so instead of these very straight lines and corners on the art and on the bridge turns/ island corners they round and curve a little visually
You could make the upgrade shop look like a little hand of cards as if you were playing UNO, and hovering over a specific upgrade would enlarge that card. Also upgrade ideas: a path to make pawns move faster in specified areas, walls of varying materials like wood and stone per upgrade, posts for archers that give them slightly longer range, shieldsmen to tank blows, and axemen that would deal more damage to shieldsmen and wooden walls. A decent name I've come up with is Strategisle (strategy isle)
I find myself faced with the "work on aesthetics or gameplay" conundrum all the time. Happen to be working on similar stuff right now too (economy and shop UI). It's tough to balance making something that's functional for playtesting, looks decent enough to show, but also isn't so polished that it's a big waste of you need to change/scrap it in response to playtesting. Good luck!
How do you get new land to add? Don’t remember if you said? Is it random? Would maybe be interesting if you were adding the islands that attacked you. That way they could have resources on them to use (defensive structures that unlock new troop types, mines for resources, a wizard tower that does AOE defence etc.). Plus it’s fun at a story level.
As i have not played it yet ..just a hunch. but i guess it would be good if the "corner islands" are sometimes just reachable via the straight islands so you need to advance your troops in stages (?) element of choice or conquering islands in a certain order unlocks things idk,
I think the poll is largely biased by the level of graphic polish between the prototypes =/ . IMO you should continue just for a bit to improve all prototype gameplay with no graphics and redo a playtest and then make polls for each game to find the most fun experience. But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be a lose of time. But after seeing multiple gamedev do this and the jonas tyroler video that you also talked about, I think you're jumping on a conclusion.
It's funny how a few small bugs can ruin the intended gameplay loop. I can't wait to play it again soon!
Consider making a steam "playtest" build instead of a demo initially.
Since steam changed demos recently, they now can be used as a means of notification to current wishlisters, but only once. So launching a demo too early means that potential may go to waste since you won't have many wishlisters yet.
Chris Zukowski has a blog post about it with more details. "The new demo strategy"
A cluster of islands is called an Archipelago so throwing that out as a different name idea!
Another idea that sprang to mind was instead of the troops jumping up and down over cliffs and obstacles they could use a ladder to climb up and down which would slow them and could be an interesting tactical consideration.
Great video and really cool to see your early process!
I can't wait to see the game and also your updated research
The gameplay loop looks promising with some tweak and stuff
That's a lot of progress in a short period of time! Super nice!
shoutout to the warriors trying to jump into a tree (5:44 bottom right corner)
haha!
I like what you're doing. You want people to enjoy this game genre and trying your best to iterate to improve it. I hope it turns out well, many good games start out like this :)
That game looks so cool!
Think this sems like a good project to carry on with! I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. 10/10 for the accent :P
Cool! I made a game similar to this once, was hard to find interest for it on Steam. But then I later put the RTS soldiers in a civ style game I had, and that game got pretty popular.
So glad you settled on this one - it definitely felt like the most interesting of your three prototypes
Those ember mug is so wonderful, as long as the stay connected to Bluetooth. My wife got me one years ago and I love it when I'm deep in programming
Can’t wait to play this game.
Looking forward to the release of this game. I really enjoy your docks & bridges game. Hope this game does well for you.
This is really neat, thanks for sharing!
This idea looks great and has a lot of potential. Will be looking forward to future updates!
Great video! A cool upgrade idea for the base could be a magical turret on the top that helps the base defend itself a bit more
What about "Bridgeborn"?
And then transforming the game mechanic...
1. More about building bridges to expand your empire and/or controlling and maintaining your bridges to defend your empire.
2. You are met with choice, expand your empire or build your existing base.
3. As you're doing this the enemy is doing the same.
4. It's about balancing exploration while maintaining what you have with bridge control being a key battleground.
cool game, good luck on your new journey
Tiny war tactics, tiny tactics, tactics island, tiny royal i thinks something with tiny in name would be great, because your troops are so tiny in the island. Keep the good work and good luck ❤
i think tiny tactics is already taken
Neat! Please add co-op and multiplayer! 1V1 would be awesome!
if u wanna double down on the cutesy look you can round all your edges
so instead of these very straight lines and corners on the art and on the bridge turns/ island corners they round and curve a little visually
Would be really interessted in an update on the market research and what you have already learned now and in the future
You could make the upgrade shop look like a little hand of cards as if you were playing UNO, and hovering over a specific upgrade would enlarge that card. Also upgrade ideas: a path to make pawns move faster in specified areas, walls of varying materials like wood and stone per upgrade, posts for archers that give them slightly longer range, shieldsmen to tank blows, and axemen that would deal more damage to shieldsmen and wooden walls. A decent name I've come up with is Strategisle (strategy isle)
Tricky tactics. Small wars. Island Royale.
maybe the game name could use atoll instead of at all in some phrase. that could also lend itself to some theming
Atoll-tal War 👀
@ oh yea that’s great
I find myself faced with the "work on aesthetics or gameplay" conundrum all the time. Happen to be working on similar stuff right now too (economy and shop UI). It's tough to balance making something that's functional for playtesting, looks decent enough to show, but also isn't so polished that it's a big waste of you need to change/scrap it in response to playtesting. Good luck!
Tiny troops. Island brawl.
How do you get new land to add? Don’t remember if you said? Is it random?
Would maybe be interesting if you were adding the islands that attacked you. That way they could have resources on them to use (defensive structures that unlock new troop types, mines for resources, a wizard tower that does AOE defence etc.). Plus it’s fun at a story level.
As i have not played it yet ..just a hunch. but i guess it would be good if the "corner islands" are sometimes just reachable via the straight islands so you need to advance your troops in stages (?) element of choice or conquering islands in a certain order unlocks things idk,
"Bridged!" 😅
what about Cozy Tactics
I think the poll is largely biased by the level of graphic polish between the prototypes =/ .
IMO you should continue just for a bit to improve all prototype gameplay with no graphics and redo a playtest and then make polls for each game to find the most fun experience.
But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be a lose of time. But after seeing multiple gamedev do this and the jonas tyroler video that you also talked about, I think you're jumping on a conclusion.
what mic is this ?
Atoll-tal War
Battle islands!
Eh, so so mame. But it's looking awesome nice stuff
Name ideas,
BoonDock Bridges.
Or with the help of chatgpt... Burning Bridges from Dry Docks.
Lol idk.
Don't waste your time on making the UI pretty. Stay focused on game design. UI is easy to fix later. Poor game design will kill your game.
First 😎🇮🇪