Comments on: Straco: Episode One Review

By: Not Very Original

Not Very Original — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:44:05 +0000

Two weeks? More like 2 months!

Anyway, the new version is available now on the Marketplace!

By: NotVeryOriginal

NotVeryOriginal — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:21:20 +0000

That’s funny, my current direction to fix my game is the EXACT OPPOSITE: focus more on the twicks and less on the TD. Hopefully I didn’t make a huge mistake. I should definitely make the first real mission longer and less devastating to new players…

Changes so far: 6 tower limit, you no longer need to be in a helicopter to manage towers, towers have persistent upgrades, player unit also has upgrades that use the same resource as the towers so the player can pick if they want more twicks or more TD, um… other stuff… My ETA of 2 weeks was probably a little optimistic. I’m not saying I won’t be done in time, but I probably won’t

Hey! I have Dungeon Defenders from HIB7! Sweet! Too bad I missed that sale on Sanctum…

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:25:07 +0000

Sanctum is on sale for $2.50 right now if you want to check it out. http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SANCTUM/sanctum
Dungeon Defenders generally drops down to $3.75 on steam on sale, and it’s been indie-bundled before.
>ok just watched a gameplay video of the first stage<
I think there are some key differences between Straco and those three games – and the reviewer alluded to this. OMD, DD, and Sanctum all worked rather well because they were primarily tower defense, but forced you to be active during and between the waves to maintain your towers and clean up creeps that get through the cracks. There's a very rhythmic flow – build, watch incoming waves attack, maintain & hold off, repair, repeat. From what I'm seeing of Straco, and I applaud you for it, is to get away from the rinse-repeat formula, and to keep the mission fresh. I think that ends up being tough for players, as the tower defense + twin stick shooter genre isn't at all established, so there's that steep initial comprehension curve. Without giving them a chance to really settle into a groove, you're not allowing them to really develop tactics before throwing in the twists.
One way to ease people in would be to start the first mission, and focus on a traditional tower defense, and have the stage completely playable without the use of direct combat. In fact, keep the player underpowered as to discourage direct combat. Increase the difficulty, and focus on strategic tower placement solutions for the remainder of the first "world". Once in the second world, then you could start to tighten up resources, and force the player into direct combat. I think that would help clean up the flow of the game. As it stands, the 8 minute gameplay demo i watched was very hectic.

By: Not Very Original

Not Very Original — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:58:15 +0000

@Ken – I honestly haven’t played any of those games, I’ll definitely check them out to see how they handle everything. Funny thing: I actually have Orks Must Die… just never played it. Oh so many games on Steam that I’ve purchased but not played…

There’s no PC release because I’ve been focusing on fixing up the XBLIG version. As is it works 100% on PC with both controller and keyboard mouse support. In fact, my primary test environment is PC with KB/M :). I also want to include my game editing tools in the PC release, and they aren’t exactly user friendly just yet…

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:11:32 +0000

The concept sounds terrifically interesting to me.

We’ve seen a handful of 3D tower defense x aRPG/3PS games in Dungeon Defenses, Sanctum, and Orcs Must Die. Straco seems like it would a natural extension of that.
In fact, I imagine that any of the games mentioned could be turned into a top-down 2D tower defense x aRPG.

I wonder if any UI elements from those 3 games could be used to significantly improve Straco?

Also, why no PC release?

By: Not Very Original

Not Very Original — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:59:58 +0000

I’d say it’s about 30% tower defense right now, but I’m trying to push it up to 50% for the next release.

By: Little Tower Games (@LittleTowerGame)

Little Tower Games (@LittleTowerGame) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:02:18 +0000

How much % tower defense is the game? We might do a review!

By: Not Very Original

Not Very Original — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:27:35 +0000

Thanks for the review! I’m stuck at 100 sales so any additional sales I will attribute directly to this review .

You compared STRACO to FTL! I feel so honored! Even if I don’t “hold up well”, being compared to such a high profile kickstarter success story is pretty sweet.

With that all out of the way: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo….. I’m SOOOO CLOSE to being done with the next version which (hopefully) addresses almost all of your issues with the game (you can see some of the changes on my website : http://www.notveryoriginal.com). Hopefully you will give STRACO a second chance when I’m done with it. ETA, 2 weeks… probably…

Thanks again for the review!

By: Brandon Schmidt

Brandon Schmidt — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:44:14 +0000

Being a fan of tower defense games, I kept meaning to get around to trying this one, but never have. I wonder if this is one of those games where you just have to keep practicing at it before it finally clicks. I was ready to write off the shmup Aeternum last month, but eventually broke through that barrier of figuring out where to look while the chaos was going on.

I’m really curious to see if they do eventually come out with a 2nd episode for this.

By: Alan Charlesworth

Alan Charlesworth — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:35:54 +0000

Fair assessment, I think. The review might benefit from a bit more detail about the strengths and weaknesses, though – something illustrate how Straco’s hybridisation of genres fails where other games succeed. You state that it does fail, but don’t really explain why or how.