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This game is amazing, it's my GOTY or at least it's tied with Dark Souls for GOTY :P, it has everything you'd expect from a mash up like this with everything all nicely rolled up and all thought out well, not one complaint that I can think of, seriously good job Lars, and you people are crazy bitching over the style. Anyway enough with that, question to you vets here, how do you guys go about building up your Healers and Knights? I'm a min/maxer at heart and love to try and break games with the most OP/efficient builds you can do, and Berserkers, Archers, Mages, Dragons are no brainers to min/max, since they are pure DPS or CC and it's quite obvious how to max those. But with a Healer for example there seems to be many ways to build them but I'm not sure if any of it is worthwhile. Im_Special fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Dec 26, 2012 |
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Dec 26, 2012 04:11
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Ether flash, the 3 boost skill, actually increases the chance that it'll light up dark enemies as it levels up, even though the level up screen doesn't say so. I generally prioritized Inspire first, then heal, then ether flash or blindness. Heal becomes more and more important since enemies with porcupine will instantly murder your Berserkers. For knights I always go for the utility skills -- armor smash, lunge, and stun. After that I level up the first skill because it increases DPS the most when you take into account cooldowns. Very fun game and very good writing! I was expecting to write the story off, but I was pleasantly surprised
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Dec 26, 2012 05:01
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Does anyone have any tips for that Endless 2 stage in NG+? I can't seem to get past the 85~ wave mark no matter what I do. I figure it has to do with unit spec and behavior settings at this point.
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Jan 8, 2013 01:59
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@Im_Special: Here's a strategy from the steam community: http://steamcommunity.com/app/218410/discussions/0/882966056930901033/ In other news, we're on sale today on GOG for just $5.99! 24 hours only! http://www.gog.com/news/gog_gem_promo_defenders_quest
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Jan 23, 2013 18:30
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I've long since cleared that, I've even http://i.imgur.com/P5mez.png the whole thing. The biggest thing I was lacking for the NG Endless, and I can't believe I didn't to this earlier was to give Azra the Shock Lightning Book, you'll literally gain another 15 waves from that Book alone. I've even been taking screenshots of my strats for some of the harder maps on my Steam profile which caught some eyes of people on my friends list and that has convinced some others to get the game. Safe to say this is my most played Tower Defense game by far, at over 45 hours played. Hurry up on a sequel!
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Jan 23, 2013 21:42
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Quick update everyone, we put out some updates recently: http://steamcommunity.com/app/218410/discussions/0/864959336396120861/ And also there's a big Steam Linux sale going on! http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/?snr=1_4_4__118 We're taking part at 50% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/218410/
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Feb 15, 2013 00:04
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larsiusprime posted:We're taking part at 50% off: Looks like it doesn't care whether or not you have Linux, it's 50% off for everyone.  How's the sequel coming? You and your team still hammering out the details and looking to potentially hire extra people, or are the blueprints already laid?
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Feb 15, 2013 01:54
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Didn't realize this game had a thread! Anyone looking for an awesome TD (and more as the OP references) neeeeds to get this. I just rebought it on steam hehe. (because Im weird like that) ChiTownEddie fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Feb 15, 2013 |
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Feb 15, 2013 02:41
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ChiTownEddie posted:I just rebought it on steam hehe. (because Im weird like that) Where did you buy it before? If you bought it through the developer's website anytime in the past year or so, you should have had a Steam key emailed to you when it released on Steam.
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Feb 15, 2013 03:02
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@Jesto: Sequel work has basically started. We're not in full-steam-ahead mode, but we're laying a foundation. I'm tinkering with our second-game engine and UI stuff, James has been worldbuilding for our the new setting, and Anthony has been coming up with a lot of new design stuff. Once they agree on the story and new character class designs, I'll get Karen to do a nice concept art mockup and make the official announcement. I'm also doing interviews with a programmer or two to help me port the original engine to HaXe so that we can get out from Adobe's thumb. And obviously I'm still doing support for the original. Our big project is getting a translation engine in there and getting fan translations for a bunch of languages done.
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Feb 15, 2013 04:20
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Do the stats of the characters improve just by leveling up, even if you don't assign any skill points? I'm closing in on the end of the game, but I just had my first normal failure so I think I'm going to back to do some earlier Advanced and Expert levels, but all my skills are just level 1 because I'm scared of messing up the "build"  Also, how large should I be making my party by now? I'm at the mission where Ketta leaves because you decide to stay inside the Pit. The loss of the Ranger really hurt when I only have 2 of each defender class. Should I go hire and train some more? Finally, as far as training newly hired guys, will I still score experience from running levels that I've already completed cleared up to perfect Expert?
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Feb 15, 2013 04:58
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1. Every character has a 'Reset Pts' button near the top left of their screen, if you screw up a 'build' you can always just get the points back and rebuild them how you want. You need to boost their skills if you want to get any real use out of them. 2. 2 of each class is risky, but safe for a normal playthrough. You ideally want 3+ of each class, ideally 6 rangers and 6 berserkers for crowd control and some healers. 3. Repeating older levels still gets you EXP and Scrap for killing enemies, but you should be trying to perfect new ones on Advanced and Expert for their bonuses.
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Feb 15, 2013 05:31
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You'll want to get every character slot eventually, and level them up for the harder new game + missions. I'd also either turn off the option that prevents them from getting XP if they're not in the party, or be sure the place everyone down before the mission ends. You get a huge chunk of your experience from beating the missions, so the sooner you have everyone, the faster you'll level them up.
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Feb 15, 2013 07:51
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larsiusprime posted:And obviously I'm still doing support for the original. Our big project is getting a translation engine in there and getting fan translations for a bunch of languages done. Is there actually a large push for Defender's Quest to be in multiple languages? Because you guys spent an awful lot of time on mod support and I haven't seen any actual mods appear for DQ, which is kind of disappointing. Hopefully language support is big enough to expand the fanbase for the sequel. Also, when do you think you'll make the next Defender's Quest sales chart thing? I'm really interested to know how much the various sales across various websites helped the game, as well as how popular it's gotten since it's Kongregate days.
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Feb 15, 2013 11:25
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Jesto posted:Where did you buy it before? If you bought it through the developer's website anytime in the past year or so, you should have had a Steam key emailed to you when it released on Steam. I bought it like the day it came out, over a year ago. I never requested a STEAM code, didn't realize that you could. But really that is okay. Giving a few more $ to a dev never hurt anyone.
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Feb 15, 2013 17:33
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Super thanks, ChiTown! Feel free to email support if you still want that extra Steam key  Well, I expect mods to pick up once we actually integrate the drat thing with Steam Workshop. That shouldn't take very long. There has been a LOT more interest in languages than mods, though - I think this is because making a mod is technically AND creatively challenging. You need a good idea for a mod and also game design skills, but for a language pack you just need language skills and then it's just straightforward work. For languages, I keep getting text dumps from random people without even soliciting them. I figure this is a great way to make use of that. A lot of features like this are kind of a calculated risk - giving the game mod support means that there's a chance of it really having legs after we leave it behind, but that depends on what people do with it. We took a lot of little risks like that with various features, and not all of them paid off, but it's worth it to try and see what happens, because some of them - like the browser based demo and the gold edition upgrade - were slam dunks. As for our next sales chart, we're running an article on Gamasutra that should hit early next week, I think. It includes data up to the end of January 2013, so it doesn't cover the Linux sale, but it still paints a really interesting picture. Spoiler alert: We're doing pretty good larsiusprime fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Feb 16, 2013 |
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Feb 15, 2013 23:49
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larsiusprime posted:Super thanks, ChiTown! Feel free to email support if you still want that extra Steam key Haha maybe I'll ask around to my friends and see who wants it, but you're quite welcome. And congrats. Its awesome so see 'small' projects turn into something great both as a product and (hopefully) a financial success.
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Feb 16, 2013 00:20
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We just posted a full sales stat breakdown on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/186940/defenders_quest_by_the_numbers_.php Bottom line: Gross: $286,646 Sales: 40,451 We would never have had the confidence to do this without other developers who have shared their stats in the past, so it's only fair we share our numbers now. Chief takeaways:
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Feb 20, 2013 16:48
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Congrats! Those numbers are pretty darn impressive. I finally got my brother to try the demo and he loved it. I find it so ridiculous that my friends who like TD's and RPGs aren't willing to even try a demo. Sigh. Gotta keep working on them :P (Also where should I email you about a steam key?)
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Feb 20, 2013 17:52
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LevelUpLabs [at] Gmail [dot] Com and we'll hook you right up Be sure to send us the email address your originally ordered the game from so we can find your key in our database. If you don't have that, any information we can identify your order by will probably work.
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Feb 20, 2013 17:58
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larsiusprime posted:We just posted a full sales stat breakdown on Gamasutra: I'm really happy for you guys. Are you working on anything else? I need more crack-games, either more DQ or something new!
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Feb 20, 2013 18:04
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We're working on Defender's Quest II, and I have a "20% time" personal project called "Tourette Quest", a RogueLikeLike/ZeldaLike mashup about my experiences living with Tourette's Syndrome.
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Feb 20, 2013 18:09
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Hey, I remember reading about Tourette Quest on (possibly) RPS. Had no idea it was a project of yours, though. Definitively interested in checking it out.
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Feb 20, 2013 18:12
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It's a super lame prototype at the moment, but I've gotten some good feedback and hopefully I will have a not-terrible version of it to post one of these days You guys should have seen the first few builds of Defender's Quest.... man. It was bad.
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Feb 20, 2013 18:20
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larsiusprime posted:We just posted a full sales stat breakdown on Gamasutra: Very interesting, thanks for sharing! And thanks for DQ, looking forward to the sequel!
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Feb 20, 2013 18:34
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The demo sold me on the game, that's for sure. Still, if you are going to be switching engines, will that mean there is going to be no browser-based demo for the sequel?
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Feb 20, 2013 19:20
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There will absolutely be a browser-based demo. That's what's awesome about Haxe - it lets you export to both flash and C++ from the same codebase. It's kind of like an open-source Unity, with a heavy focus on 2D games.
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Feb 20, 2013 19:29
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In various back channels people have asked why we went with up-front pricing rather than the trendier F2P model. Here's some thoughts on that: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20121115/181659/Free_2_Play_and_the_Four_Currencies.php
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Feb 20, 2013 19:43
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larsiusprime posted:We're working on Defender's Quest II, and I have a "20% time" personal project called "Tourette Quest", a RogueLikeLike/ZeldaLike mashup about my experiences living with Tourette's Syndrome. I think I read the developer notes for your prototype, I think it's interesting to represent self control as a limited resource. I think people learning to understand the condition will value that mechanic as a way to help the explain the situation to other people.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:10
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larsiusprime posted:We just posted a full sales stat breakdown on Gamasutra: Since it's not listed, I'm assuming being featured on SteamGifts didn't do anything for exposure for you? I saw 25,000+ entering the giveaway, I thought that might have spiked sales at least a little bit. Though maybe that would have worked better if it were on sale at the time. 
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Feb 21, 2013 01:30
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SteamGifts probably had an effect, it was just mixed in with the Steam launch itself so I didn't think to look for its signal in all that noisy data. If it coincided with another spike it'd be almost impossible to determine the individual effect.
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Feb 21, 2013 16:16
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I like the new ad banner, Larsius. You even linked this thread!
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Feb 23, 2013 02:15
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Oh, did that go up already?
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Feb 23, 2013 06:43
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larsiusprime posted:Oh, did that go up already? http://forums.somethingawful.com/adlist.php You can see yours down at the bottom. 4 copies means you spent at least $120 to advertise on SA?  I hope this thread has given you guys a lot of clickthroughs / sales to make up for that.
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Feb 23, 2013 07:13
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Well it managed to snag me at least so at most they lost 114 bucks on the ads.
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Feb 23, 2013 08:49
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We're experimenting with ads in various channels. One month of 4x SA ads costs about as much as 7 days of google adwords at our current bid rates, and I figure this is a chance for a laser-targeted audience. And judging by the above post we have one confirmed conversion already And as always, I'll be posting a full write-up on whether advertising has been worth it, and what's the best approach. So far it seems effective advertising is all about breaking through the "advertiser is an impersonal douche" barrier, and picking where NOT to have your ad shown. That's the tricky bit with google adwords - Cliffski of positech games (Gratuitous Space Battles, Democracy series) has a lot of success with advertising but it requires you to be a huge data nerd and slowly narrow down exactly where your audience is. larsiusprime fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 23, 2013 20:21
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Was on the fence on buying this game, then I saw this thread. It's fun, but I'm only ~1.5 hrs in. Hope the whole thing was a success for you!
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Feb 25, 2013 03:30
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larsiusprime posted:And as always, I'll be posting a full write-up on whether advertising has been worth it Speaking of advertising, did you ever try to court youtube game reviewers as a part of your marketing campaign? I'm just curious if you ever emailed OMFGCata (Jesse Cox) or TotalHalibut with a description of who you were, what your game is like and a Steam key to try it out. It might be worthwhile to drawing up a list of 10 appealing, popular youtube gaming channels that feature indie content, tossing a Steam/Desura key their way and seeing if even one of them bites. It might be worth including a link to a savefile with plenty unlocked as well, so they can skip the tutorial and see what the game has to offer if they prefer. The initial two tutorial battles tend to suck up almost the entirety of a 10 minute review, I find. If people are going at x2 or x4 speed, they might get far enough to meet Ketta before the first impression review is over.
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Feb 25, 2013 03:54
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That's a good idea! Pixel prospector just posted a big link dump of popular youtuber's. They really are this generations main influencers, above and beyond journalists at major publications even. I've already contacted TotalHalibut/Biscuit several times already, got through to his business person once, she said she's pass the game along but that was as far as we got I'll try again with some of the others.UPDATE: Whoa. 9 confirmed conversions from Something Awful ad-viewing customers so far. 2 more sales and we break even on this advertising thingy and it's been less than 3 days. So apparently this is a great place to advertise! larsiusprime fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 25, 2013 |
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Feb 25, 2013 18:21
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larsiusprime posted:UPDATE: I probably bought the game before you bought the banner ad, but it was talk here that made me aware of it. I've just fought the Left Hand of Etzli and have managed to get 3 perfect stars on every battle up to this point except for the sheep one. Game is addicting as hell.
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Feb 25, 2013 18:29
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