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A collection of 21 posts

Steamy Bees -- Defender's Quest 2 Progress: September 2019

Steamy Bees -- Defender's Quest 2 Progress: September 2019

Let's talk about angry intelligent bees in Defender's Quest 2 in this month's progress report!

Wash your game's windows

design Featured

Wash your game's windows

Ever played one of those games where you have no clue what any of the mechanics actually do and you just kind of muddle through? Playing this kind of game is like peering through a dirty, smudged window. What a game like this needs is some Windex.

MAKING A VIDEOGAME COVER THAT DOESN'T SUCK

MAKING A VIDEOGAME COVER THAT DOESN'T SUCK

We just made a new cover for our game's upcoming console release [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/defenders-quest-for-ps4-psvita-xb1/], and that got us thinking about making covers in general. Ooooooh so shiny! There are many ways to design a videogame cover. Most of them suck. We stumbled across one that didn't. Here

Oil It or Spoil It

Oil It or Spoil It

"Juice" is probably a game design term you've heard before. By Agricultural Research Service [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=457010] Public Domain It was first coined in the seminal article How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130848/how_

defender's quest

Optimizing Tower Defense for FOCUS and THINKING - Defender's Quest

The design philosophy for Defender's Quest [http:www.defendersquest.com] boils down to two guiding principles that play to the Tower Defense (TD) genre's strengths: 1. Let the player FOCUS 2. Test the player's THINKING Note the verbs. We don't want to TEST the player's focus (ie assault them with

defender's quest

The Quest to Upscale Pixel Art

Hey everyone! So, we are currently looking very seriously at a console release for Defender's Quest II [http://www.defendersquest.com/2/]. Of course, PC is our top priority, and don't take this as an official statement of specific platform choices or anything just yet, we still have a lot

On Procedural Death Labyrinths

A few weeks ago Tanya X. Short said, "Never Say Roguelike. [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TanyaXShort/20131119/204988/Never_Say_Roguelike.php] " I usually shy away from vocabulary fights and let smarter people than me hash it out [http://lesswrong.com/lw/od/37_ways_that_words_can_be_

Tourette Quest - Media, Magic, and Nostrils!

[http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/tsquest_002_leif.gif] The reaction to my super-dinky "Tourette's Quest" prototype has completely floored me. For those of you just joining us, a few weeks ago I wrote a blog post [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/2012/11/tourettes-quest.html]about a new game project

Tourette's Quest

Ever since we launched Defender's Quest [http://www.defendersquest.com/] on Steam [http://store.steampowered.com/app/218410/], GOG [http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/defenders_quest], and other [http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DQCF/defenders-quest-valley-of-the-forgotten] fine [http://www.desura.com/games/defenders-quest-valley-of-the-forgotten] stores [http://impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W3777] two weeks

Freeloadable content - an alternative to paid DLC

Cross-posted [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120717/174286/Freeloadable_content__an_alternative_to_paid_DLC.php] on gamasutra.com [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/dlc.jpg] A lot of developers/publishers sell expansion packs and other discrete add-ons to their games as "downloadable content," or "paid DLC." This model

The Holy Grail of Digital Distribution

Cross-posted on Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120607/172033/The_Holy_Grail_of_Digital_Distribution.php] . Twitter handle: @larsiusprime The challenge of being an independent developer is that so much of your game's success is out of your control. There's no Department of Internet Money [http://en.wikipedia.

Pay What You Want and the Four Currencies

Cross-posted on gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120322/167131/Pay_What_You_Want_and_the_Four_Currencies.php] [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/pay_what_you_want_purchase.png] [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/pay_what_you_want_purchase.png]Today I'd like to apply my "four currencies"

Piracy and the four currencies, part 2

Cross-posted on gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120228/163145/Piracy_and_the_four_currencies_part_2.php] . My previous article, piracy and the four currencies [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/2012/02/piracy-and-four-currencies.html]seems to have caused a bit of a stir, so I'm going to make this

defender's quest

Defender's Quest Deployment Strategy

We just launched our new game, Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten [http://www.defendersquest.com/], for PC/Mac/Linux, a few days ago, and have been pretty surprised at our initial success. Only time will tell if that trend continues, but for now we've seen both brisk sales and

defender's quest

A Status Effect Stacking Algorithm

(Cross-posted on my Gamasutra blog [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20111101/8786/A_Status_Effect_Stacking_Algorithm.php] , which usually gets more comments) [http://files.fortressofdoors.com/images/poison.png] Status effects are a cool way to add strategic depth to both Tower Defense games and RPG's, and since

Designing an Anti-Incest Algorithm

(Cross-posted on gamasutra.com [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110914/8440/Designing_an_AntiIncest_Algorithm.php] ) Once upon a time I was designing a game called Trondheim. [http://www.files.fortressofdoors.com/images/trondheim_title.gif] In Trondheim, you would guide a small group of nomadic fairy-folk, the "Tronds,

defender's quest

RPG's, challenge, and grinding.

Cross-posted on gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110822/8248/RPGs_challenge_and_grinding.php] . As part of an ongoing series on our upcoming tactical RPGDefender's Quest [http://www.defendersquest.com/], I'd like to talk about RPG's, challenge, and "grinding." Let's start withaccessibility. Accessibility Accessibility is about expanding your

defender's quest

RPG's and Suckage

(Cross-posted on gamasutra.com [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110412/7413/RPGs_and_Suckage.php]) As part of our ongoing series on our new game Defender's Quest [http://www.defendersquest.com/], I'd like to talk about suckage. When you say "This SUCKS!" you're usually not saying "I hate this.

defender's quest

Upgrades, Equipment, and Skill Trees

Cross-posted on gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110401/7351/Upgrades_Equipment_and_Skill_Trees.php] . As part of my continuing series on the design of our new tactical tower defense / RPG hybrid Defender's Quest, I'm going to talk a little bit about upgrade systems, equipment, and skill trees.

Don't mess with RPG's

Cross-posted on gamasutra.com [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110311/7208/Dont_mess_with_RPGs.php] [http://www.files.fortressofdoors.com/images/simpsons_mob.jpg] So, based on the great responses from the last article over at gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110309/7182/Rebooting_the_RPG.

defender's quest

Rebooting the RPG

Cross-posted on gamasutra.com [http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20110309/7182/Rebooting_the_RPG.php] [http://www.files.fortressofdoors.com/images/rpg.png] In the Beginning Many indie game developers start with RPG’s, and thirteen years ago, I was no exception. With hundreds of hours of classic RPG