Gaming: Hero Defense – Haunted Island

1. The player has a series of maps
2. The maps spawns creatures/enemies (bad stuff) off some sort in waves
   1. the spawning comes from 1 or more locations on the map
   2. the waves increase in difficulty on each map
   3. earlier maps have fewer creatures, less variety
   4. maps and creatures increases in complexity and variety respectively
3. The bad stuff walks/runs/flies/glides or otherwise moves along that map to some destination
4. The player wants to stop the bad stuff from getting to the destination (wait, why do i like these game so much?) as getting to the destination represents something bad for the player e.g. losing a life or life point or something of value
5. Losing all the life points means the player loses the game and has to start the level over (or maybe  even the game)
6. The maps progressively increase in difficulty
7. Destroying bad stuff gives game currency to the player
   1. Tougher bad stuff leads to more currency upon destruction
8. The player may place items (good stuff) on the map to eliminate the bad stuff
   1. Generally these are some kind of tower (thus the name, ‘tower defense’) notice how “Hero Defense” calls out, in the name that this is not a “Tower” game, but a hero game.
   2. Like the bad stuff, the good stuff starts simple and increases in complexity
   3. The good stuff generally costs something (currency) to place on the map
   4. Enabling more levels/abilities/features on the good stuff also costs currency (example, place an arrow tower for x currency.  upgrade arrow tower for faster firing, upgrade arrow tower for wider range, upgrade arrow tower for additional damage, — each upgrade being increasingly expensive)
   5. Generally there are specific locations where good stuff can be placed
9. If player’s tower placements and upgrades are sufficient to destroy all bad stuff on a map, player rewarded with… another map/more currency/new type of good stuff/new possible levels for good stuff
   1. Countering these rewards are the items mentioned above. namely more enemies/tougher enemies/faster enemies/
10. Each new map generally contains no towers and player has to start anew
11. Generally player is presented with some storyline describing why the bad stuff is making it’s way to destination and how reaching destination is bad.  often this is secondary to the destruction of bad stuff

• You may replay levels to earn bonuses or coins on increasingly difficult settings
  • You may select not only difficulty in terms of creatures but also select options like only having a single ‘life’ or playing the level with only one of the characters.
• Maps have several routes that creatures may take and as you replay levels the creatures will travel down these different paths
  • Multiple paths means the player has to move heroes rapidly around the map and/or strategically build shrines based on upcoming creature type
• If you fail a map level, you still gain hero experience
• The Town holds 4 different buildings that are related building skills, exchanging coins for gems, upgrading weapons/runes and information
  • Town Hall – info about the game, shrines, characters, bad guys, etc
  • Academy – upgrade skills
  • Forge – upgrade weapons
  • Bank – exchange gold for coins
• Story line featuring 5 different character/heroes, each having their own back story.  Check out the game itself for more detail.

Jack Sanders, Vampire Slayer – Main character, you start with this guy. shoots crossbow bolts, moves at moderate speed.  He’s a vampire hunter and.. his father is a vampire.  Pops is the main bad guy in the game.

Barrows, Gravedigger – boosts other hero abilities, slows down bad guys, runs slow.  seeking revenge for loss of his wife

Samantha “Sam” Hain, Don’t call her “pumpkin” – blows stuff up, has area attacks, moderate speed, raised by the zombies who killed her parents.  crazy.

Jane Doe, Reanimated bride – also slows down bad guys, knocks them back, moves really fast.  Corpse creation of one of the minor bosses.

Wylde Halfblood, Human/Werewolf hybrid – throws boomerang type projectile, moves fast.  Half man half wolf all aggro.

• good value at $14.99, early access game on steam plays like a finished product
• replay-ability – maps are replayable and as seen in the next bullet, you almost have to replay to gain gold, experience
• good balance of difficulty. early maps are pretty easy to start but (obviously) the higher the difficulty level the harder the level and I would think most players have to replay levels in order to earn gold so they can upgrade various items.