Capstone Game Post
Mortem: Defend Thy Castle
Brian Welch
MGMS Program
Full Sail University
October 23, 2016
Defend Thy Castle
Real Time Strategy
Android
Pay for download $0.99
Unity 3D, C#, Javascript,
Source Tree
My intended audience is 15-25
year old Real Time Strategy fans who are looking for a new approach to RTS
games
N/A
Defend Thy Castle © 2016 Gaming Chef LTD
Command the Impossible
Defend Thy Castle is a real time strategy game
that places the user in-charge of a flying castle on a quest for world
domination. The user is able to deploy troops to defend the walls, aim
cannons to combat overwhelming waves of enemies, and cast powers to even the
odds. The user must do whatever it takes
to survive and conquer the ten levels. Defend Thy Castle’s unique selling point
is that it takes the RTS genre and mobilizes it by making the user’s base fly
towards the enemy base creating a more dynamic setting for the
battlefield.
Demo Video:
My original concept was to
create a hybrid time management and strategy game drawing my inspiration heavily
from Kitchen Scramble and Diner Dash in terms of incorporating the time
management game play into a battlefield context. The final version resembles a game that fully
favors RTS game play in the same way Warcraft would with the exception that the
user’s base is flying toward the enemy base and is not static.
The scope of this project was to achieve
developmental mastery through the use of artificial intelligence. This concept has been established through the
use of an enemy algorithm to analyze and select optimal attack waves based on
line of sight and user defense information.
Once an attack selection is made, this algorithm is further augmented with
a path-finding algorithm attached to the enemy units as they are deployed onto
the map to attack the approaching Castleship.
Ideal
I was hoping for 30 levels
divided into three zones to present along with the developmental mastery. This
addition can be added through more research on the Asset Store for terrain
assets. If the Asset Store is
insufficient, a freelancer can be hired to supply the actual artwork before the
game is released. The rest of the
mechanics have gone according to plan.
The Critique: What
went right…
The three dimensional graphics that I sourced from the Asset Store
have largely been a success as they are high quality without having too high of
a polygon count to drag down my frame rate.
In addition, the particle effects for the explosions and lightning have
also been given good feedback through user testing.
The three primary user
interfaces went well. The first interface is what allows the user to deploy
troops to a wall and this is done through a radial interface that appears when
a user touches the wall and allows the user to drag their finger to select a
troop to deploy to that particular wall.
This functionality is pictured below.
The second portion of the
user interface that went well was the cannon reticle UI controls that allow the
user to drag and aim each of the Castleship’s cannons. This concept evolved throughout the course of
the project and has been the most frequently used UI control throughout
testing. Pictured below the cursor
represents finger placement as the cannon’s reticle is dragged towards the
oncoming enemy waves. Notice the cannon
rotates behind the cursor to follow the trajectory path.
The final portion of the UI that was successful was the special
character spells. These are represented
by the three icons floating around the main character at the center of the ship
and are activated by simply tapping and dragging to any wall of choice. Two of the powers are uniform throughout each
level (heal and repair) and the top power is changed every map. This particular picture shows ice as the
selected power.
The GANNT chart Milestone management through Underdog helped
facilitate productivity and the core functionality has been completed. Project Management is covered further in the
below ‘what went wrong’ section.
Unity 3D has been efficient and enjoyable to work worth. I utilized the new Unity GUI system heavily
throughout my game and I feel that this Engine specific feature really helped
facilitate the effectiveness of my overall user enjoyment and interface. The Pathfinding Algorithm has gone
tremendously well with my enemies fully able to respond to the user’s
Castleship as a dynamic obstacle. Below
the Debug mode draws pink lines to show the current paths each enemy takes to
their respecitve assigned lane of attack.
Please note that there is an ‘I’ collider over the user’s Castleship as
a dynamic obstacle to ensure that the enemies only approach from their assigned
lanes.
In addition, the Enemy AI Analysis algorithm successfully cycles
through each lane and is able to dynamically determine the user’s defenses
based on the line of sight of the enemies on the screen. In the below picture the LOS of the enemy is
represented by the green collider and the eyeball is the notation that the AI
uses to track which lanes can be analyzed.
From this information the AI is able to determine the best wall to
attack.
A good portion of testing was informal and done to see how natural/intuitive
the UI controls were. This testing has
led to the current UI system as the troop deployment UI has been drastically
changed several times throughout this development cycle. I feel that the final UI has been a direct
result of the testing done to ensure that the interface controls were user
friendly.
Once the new levels have been
completed, I have decided that my game is not suitable for interstitial ads and
have decided to opt for pay for download option with the price of $0.99. My
marketing plan will consist of the following elements when I release my game to
Google Play:
- App Store Optimization (ASO)
- Google Adword Campaign
- Press Releases
- Game Reviews from Sites and Blogs
- Youtube Influencer reviews
- Forum Posting
- Social Media presence – Twitter , Facebook, Pinterest, Stumble Upon, Youtube, and G+
The two main elements of my
Aesthetics that have fallen short are the cloud background and the general
center of the ship. As seen in the below
picture, the clouds are a bit blurry and are often mistaken for static waves
and the center of the ship only reinforces this obscurity. These elements will have to be revisited
before the game is actually released.
I need to, also, design 20 more levels to organize into three zones.
Since, I will be charging $0.99 for the
game I will need to ensure that there is at least an acceptable base amount of
content to justify the expenditure.
My project management has suffered many delays. I had to do two Green Light Presentations, I
was hospitalized and set back two months, and I had to repeat one month in my
development phase due to a complete lack of progress. I need to be better organized and have a
better handle on my time. The GANNT
chart was helpful for keeping me accountable, but it still was unable to break
me of my last minute tendencies.
There could be more choice given to the user for defending the
actual walls. This point would also help
show how dynamic the analysis algorithm is because it could successfully show
how the computer is able to read and respond to the current defensive situation
on the user’s wall. This issue can be
resolved with the addition of new units.
However, the models will have to be of the same quality of my pre-existing
units and it will be difficult to add more than 1 unit with current radial
selection UI.
X X
I need to have more focused testing on my graphics as I feel that my
background graphics have let me down.
This testing will be done through a couple rounds of A/B Testing through
Preapps and Facebook, which will hopefully give me a better solution.
I
have changed the business model to a paid game instead of a free game because I
didn’t feel that ads were suitable for my game. In addition, because I
currently have no in-game currency for promotional video ads or any type of
in-app purchases to offer, the paid direction seems the most economical.
Though my project has evolved significantly from
the original concept, I feel all the changes have been beneficial and have massively
helped improve the overall project. The
main trade-off was switching from time management/ strategy to real time
strategy as this changed my core game play focus. From this experience, I have learned the
importance of articulating my ideas from the beginning of the project and,
also, the importance of doing thorough research on my assets before I begin
coding. However, if I had to do the
project again, I wouldn’t change anything, as each milestone was an essential
part of my learning curve.
I
am currently paving the way for this game to be released in January of next
year with several other game releases to help establish my brand and market
presence before Defend Thy Castle is released.
In addition, I will be using the revenue generated from these other
games to go with a reputable marketing agency to help promote my game correctly
from the onset. I have already
experienced how quickly a poorly marketed game can end up in the app graveyard
and I will not be making these mistakes for Defend Thy Castle.
SourceTree. (n.d.). A free Git & Mercurial client for
Windows or Mac. [OSX Application]. http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/
Welch, B.
(2016). Defend Thy Castle [Android Application]
Assets
Airship
Archer
Bats
Big Dragon
Cannon Design
Castle Design
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7669
Character Design
Gargoyle
Griffin
Level Design
Mage
Music
Pathfinding
Small Dragon
SFX
