Theory is limitless!
There could be no more exciting news than this.
This means that, as long as bandwidth allows, they can unleash their artistic talents to the fullest extent possible.
They've incorporated those fancy textures that were unthinkable in the past into the game.
As long as the loading speed is within tolerable limits given the general bandwidth available to the Volkswagen, everything is up to them to decide.
David and his group truly came from impoverished backgrounds.
We know the value of performance, and we also know the value of capacity.
For them, who had been poor their whole lives, they had never seen such a large capacity before.
For projects like this, let alone making a lot of money, even if it's purely out of love, they wouldn't bother trying it out.
Developing in such an environment is a pleasure in itself.
"Don't rush, David. This technology is just the foundation; its purpose is the key to this project."
Lin Lixin casually picked up a piece of paper and drew a rectangle on it. The meaning was simple: this was a game map.
He then clicked a dot in the lower left corner and another dot in the upper right corner.
Starting from the beginning, the route winds its way to the finish line in the upper right corner.
"This is the soul of tower defense games."
"This is...?"
"Path."
"Well?"
Although Rampart is the grandfather of tower defense games, it still didn't dare to take this crucial step.
Because it looks like a huge trap.
In traditional RTS games and many 2D games, free movement has always been one of the selling points.
The exhilarating combat experience in Command & Conquer largely stems from its fully 2D, or even 2.5D, maps.
Large-scale, multi-unit combat. Compared to the feeling of playing as a soldier in Battlefield, although the visual effects are vastly different, the sense of control in commanding an army in battle is a kind of joy that is hard to experience in other game genres.
And the path...
It's not difficult to achieve.
In fact, when Lin Lixin proposed this concept, David already had the corresponding code in mind.
It simply involves saving one or more sets of coordinate data on the map.
Simply move the enemy along the coordinates.
When combined with the map textures themselves, enemies will appear to move along roads on the map.
It requires almost no additional capacity overhead; the usage of a set of numbers is practically instantaneous for current bandwidth.
But the problem is...
Why???
Such changes will not result in any performance improvement.
Theoretically speaking, creating a completely random path isn't difficult. Many roguelike games actually have similar designs, especially survivor-based games.
Given the center, radius, and angle, we only need to substitute them into the formulas x = x0 + r * cos(a * pi / 180) and y = y0 + r * sin(a * pi / 180).
The center of the circle is the player's location or the location of the base.
A random number is calculated using the "safe distance" and "farthest distance" to serve as the radius of the circle, and then an angle is randomly generated between 0 and 360 degrees.
With just one function, you can easily obtain the required monster spawn coordinates.
By subtracting the coordinates of both sides and normalizing the resulting vector, the monster can be made to move towards the base.
This set of skills is the most basic skill for game developers; it requires almost no Kung-Fu Master at all.
The computation it requires can actually be significantly optimized.
If you're really worried about lag caused by insufficient processor performance, you can simply switch to a lookup table.
By pre-storing a set of data and offsetting it with the coordinates of the base itself, all of this can be achieved using only an adder.
There is absolutely no such thing as "wasted performance".
So why cut it? If we change it to a path, the performance won't change at all, but the degree of freedom will decrease significantly.
Players must design all their "towers" to follow a specific path...
"Oh... doing subtraction? Right?"
Thinking of this, David slapped his forehead, and several clumps of hair fell out.
He looked at Lin Lixin and suddenly understood what was going on.
"The essence of the puzzle?"
"Unraveling the mystery of its essence."
Lin Lixin smiled and nodded.
The path is a seemingly crippled but actually very ingenious design.
There has always been a problem in traditional, old-fashioned tower defense games like Rampart.
Enemies will come from all directions.
Players need to react quickly to respond. (First release) [d][e][q][i][x][s][.][o][r][g]
Unable to determine the enemy's true offensive strategy or predict the situation in advance, the only option is to utilize space as much as possible for defense.
This approach is very similar to the foundation of RTS (Real-Time Strategy).
However, it is not suitable for tower defense.
"Tower defense games don't need randomness, they need determinism, David. Only when the path is determined, and even the size of the enemy is determined, does the game have true 'strategy'."
Or rather, strategic depth.
The designer sets the questions, and the players solve them.
Once the path is determined, the design of a tower is essentially about devising countermeasures.
This tests decision-making ability, not traditional adaptability.
This level consists mainly of heavy units, but there aren't many of them. Should we allocate more resources to Wizard Towers and reduce the use of area-of-effect (AoE) attacks like bombs?
The next level is all flying units, but they're very fragile. Would it be better to build some arrow towers?
All the information is given to the player at the start of the game: where the enemies will come from, where they will go, and which path they will take.
Everything was known in advance.
What we need to do now is to lay in ambush in advance and use the best defenses to deal with them.
"Remember what I said in ' Papa's Pizzeria ' about the design of negative feedback?"
Lin Lixin continued,
"A defined path means that experience can be reused, games can be reviewed, and every mistake is meaningful."
Once the path is randomized, the enemy's state becomes completely randomized.
That's a completely different matter.
The player may have decent skills, but due to bad luck, they might get wiped out in one bad draw.
Even if you lose, the experience from the previous game is almost impossible to reuse; you can only try to get a lucky draw again and again.
Put everything on luck.
In a sense... this design isn't wrong. However, it's a completely different path.
For tower defense, the benefits of certainty outweigh those of randomness.
"Try again, this time I know how to do it!"
This idea is key to maintaining player interest.
This is also the core principle that makes negative feedback easier to accept.
Tower defense games are not strictly speaking casual games.
Compared to a completely slapstick comedy like " Papa's Pizzeria," this one definitely requires some brainpower.
Controlling negative feedback is relatively much more difficult.
"So, going back to the core gameplay loop, what do you think we're still missing?"
"Positive feedback."
This time, David didn't need Lin Lixin to guide him at all; David understood on his own.
In addition to negative feedback, positive feedback is also necessary. Negative feedback is merely a tactic used by PUA players; positive feedback is the reward that truly benefits them.
If this isn't designed well, everything else is a waste.
"Killing enemies will reward you with materials, which we can use to build our 'tower,' how about that? For example, if we get a dart as a reward, we can evolve our monkey into Dart Monkey."
"Make it even simpler."
"Uh... after popping the balloon... you get money?"
"Exactly!"
Lin Lixin snapped his fingers and nodded in satisfaction.
"Once the enemy is eliminated, we immediately receive a gold coin reward, which can then be used to build and upgrade defensive towers, allowing us to kill more targets more easily and quickly."
This dense and intense positive feedback is the key to a game's success.
Players are always having fun, yet there's always a suitable level of difficulty to maintain negative feedback.
This is practically a perfect and standard model of flow.
All of this is documented in "Lin's Game Design Guide - Psychology (Volume 1) v1.9.91". According to the goal-gradient effect, as players get closer to a goal, their motivation and investment increase.
The resource management in tower defense games is essentially a very elegant goal-gradient effect model.
Gold coins are practically worthless in most tower defense games.
As long as you eliminate enemies like mowing grass, your money will grow rapidly.
Each stage of the savings plan often features a cleverly designed "goal".
Once you've saved up 200, you can deploy a new Dart Monkey.
But if we save just a little more, we can buy a slightly more expensive glue monkey.
Further on, there are boomerang monkeys, cannon monkeys, ice monkeys, and even Superman monkeys.
To create more interpolation between these different objectives and make the process smoother, the game also features an "upgrade" design.
After the Dart Monkey is deployed, you can spend around 100 yuan to upgrade its power, allowing it to puncture an extra balloon each time.
In addition to delivering a leap in user experience, it also creates a new target of expectation within the 0-150 range.
Perhaps this is the significance of numerical design. Throughout the entire game, players always have something to look forward to.
It might be a qualitative upgrade, or it might be the deployment of a new tower.
These needs will become the best driving force, prompting them to keep moving towards their goals and keep playing.
The most terrifying aspect of this model is...
It is not afraid of familiarity.
Many game mechanics are actually designed entirely to bring players a sense of novelty.
The longer you can play, the more novel it becomes.
But what about this resource management model?
The more skilled a player is, the clearer their goals become.
When players see the map and the layout of this wave, skilled players will even automatically generate a goal in their minds.
In the short cycle, players build towers, kill monsters to earn money, and build even more towers.
In the mid-cycle phase, each wave represents a strategic process. In the long-cycle phase, as players become more proficient, the game gradually unlocks more towers.
"The simpler something is..."
"The more it tests your skills..."
David volunteered to answer the next question.
Lin Lixin often said this to them.
For developers like them who only make "small games," Lin Lixin has never paid less attention than he has for others.
Great works have their own ecological niche.
Perhaps David will never have the chance to lead a team to create a masterpiece like " Mirror's Edge " in his lifetime.
But they also have their own areas of expertise.
They are also an indispensable backbone of Gamenova.