Author Topic: Bloons Tower Defense - Very Well Done (Read 34,969 times)

mouser · « **on:** August 19, 2007, 02:46 PM »

This is a nice example of the Tower Defense genre, which I am a huge fan of.

It's nice to study these games and learn what works and what doesn't, which ones are fun and which aren't. From a game design perspective it's fascinating to see how authors work within the constraints of the basic paradigm.

For aspiring TD designers, Bloons has an extremely clean and elegant interface (the upgrade system in particular in fantastically intuitive). The game itself also seems to be very well balanced and challenging. The only thing perhaps lacking is that the enemies aren't very motivating.

http://ninjakiwi.com/bloonstd.html

from http://flash.plasticthinking.org/

Veign · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2007, 03:11 PM »

Checking it out now but this is the one I am currently playing in my free time:
http://onslaught.playr.co.uk/

(I like the Classic level since I like to try and perfect my games so I tend to play the same games over and over)

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2007, 03:19 PM »

Onslaught was first posted on the forum back in April: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=8183.0

It may be the best Flash Tower Defense game in existence.

Ampa · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2007, 05:46 PM »

All these tower defense games suffer from the same inherent flaws...

1 - it takes far too long to play
2 - the start of each game is dull

For me the only real interest comes late on when you start to see the repercussions of your early decisions, 20 or 30 levels down the line; but by then I have lost interest!

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2007, 08:35 PM »

I made it to round 40.. never got the hypersonic monkey though

p3lb0x · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2007, 08:47 PM »

i dont really like this one.... its too slow, my favorite TD so far is VectorTD i think http://www.candystand.com/uk/play.do?id=18048

Veign · « **Reply #6 on:** August 20, 2007, 01:01 AM »

That's the one I was looking for. Vector has some of the coolest graphics for a TD game.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #7 on:** August 20, 2007, 10:50 AM »

Quote from: mouser on August 19, 2007, 08:35 PM

I made it to round 40.. never got the hypersonic monkey though

You should!

I sold a bunch of stuff and and bought one monkey! It was damn fast.
Then i sold everything else and got myself another monkey.
3 rounds after that, i lost

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** August 20, 2007, 11:45 AM »

Quote

I sold a bunch of stuff and and bought one monkey! It was damn fast.
Then i sold everything else and got myself another monkey.

put that on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt and confuse all your friends

Ampa · « **Reply #9 on:** August 20, 2007, 02:52 PM »

As an experiment I tried Onslaught again...

I bought one tower (the cheepest) and placed it at the center of the screen (on the classic map).

Then I followed a simple rule, I would buy upgrades for the tower as soon as they became affordable, alternating between Damage and Rate, until those were maxed out. Range was upgraded less consistantly - more when I remembered!

I made it to Level 76, which took about 30 minutes

It all felt rather pointless.

Where is the skill? Decision making? Challenge?

Veign · « **Reply #10 on:** August 20, 2007, 03:37 PM »

Try making to level 225 (thats my high).

TD games, by their nature, are easy in the early levels.

KyleLanser · « **Reply #11 on:** August 21, 2007, 10:58 AM »

Quote

1 - it takes far too long to play

your making an assumption that duration is a flaw...

vixay · « **Reply #12 on:** September 02, 2007, 05:18 AM »

I won! Finally! There are 50 Levels! I won with 4 Hypersonic monkeys in the end!

The important tricks were, the two tack towers in the beginning (to explode the white & blacks)
the two at the end to catch the remaining black and whites

plus the freezing on the bottom to slow down the games....

and getting the SuperMonkeys... they are essential after level 40!

In the beginning, i had monkeys where the supermonkeys are.

I LOVED this game, was quite challenging but doable!

Hope this helps people!

katykaty · « **Reply #13 on:** September 02, 2007, 08:23 PM »

But it cost you 15 lives

Here's a shot just before the end of the last stage - obviously no danger of any of the remaining bloons getting past the tack towers at bottom left (i'd post the final shot but the congratulations message covers the locations of my defenses).

And don't click below if you don't want to know how I did it

Click for proof :)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Didn't use ice or supermonkeys - in fact, didn't sell anything- what you see is what i bought.

The trick was to build up the monkeys first, then the tacks, then the bombs.

Concentrate on locations which cover parts of the track that are actually far separated from each other, that's why the central column is so useful, and the north regions are useful because you hit bloons early but still have a lifeline for any that get through.

When you build your monkeys, go west, central, north, west, central, north.

With the monkeys, don't be tempted to upgrade them until you've got all 6. Then upgrade monkeys. Once you're on to the tacks upgrade as you buy, though you don't need the extra range for some of them.

I thought it was a pretty good game, though it'd be nice to have an expert mode. Wasn't keen on the other bloon games though.

Good find

Edit: resaved with the image in spoilers - thanks hamradio

hamradio · « **Reply #14 on:** September 02, 2007, 09:13 PM »

Here is my final look at how I did it back on 08/20/2007 and only lost 3 lives.

Click the spoilers tags only if you want to see.

Click for a simple description of how I did it!

All I did was use monkeys and later on added in super monkeys by selling a few of my monkeys to help with the cost and then creating a super monkey.

Click for a resized screenshot of the final screen.

katykaty:

[spoiler=YourText][attachimg=#][/spoiler]

Where YourText = what is placed on the button as you see in mine.
Where # = the # of the attachment.

katykaty · « **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2007, 09:20 PM »

Interesting approach hamradio

How did you get the image in the spoiler section? And how did you rename the button labels?

mouser · « **Reply #16 on:** September 02, 2007, 10:02 PM »

Here's a spoiler solution i call "the gauntlet"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

vixay · « **Reply #17 on:** September 03, 2007, 03:59 AM »

Quote from: mouser on September 02, 2007, 10:02 PM

Here's a spoiler solution i call "the gauntlet"

OMG!! I can't believe that worked! hehe

especially considering the in-game message, which said you can't win by just using tacks!

Anyway ... sigh... you all are a bunch of show-offs

, including me

Makes for good interesting strategies though.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #18 on:** September 04, 2007, 01:12 AM »

Quote from: mouser on September 02, 2007, 10:02 PM

Here's a spoiler solution i call "the gauntlet"

Now that's a crazy solution!
You should send that screenshot to the author, so that he knows it's possible to finish the game with only tacks

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** September 04, 2007, 03:33 AM »

Quote

You should send that screenshot to the author, so that he knows it's possible to finish the game with only tacks

well i had some monkees initially and sold them (early), so technically i uses something other than tacks along the way.

vixay · « **Reply #20 on:** November 01, 2007, 11:44 AM »

Loved the first game! So here's the 2nd in the series ( I assume

)

http://www.ninjakiwi.com/bloonstd2.html

Haven't been able to beat it in hard yet... found some strategies online, but what do DCers have? Any ideas?

Renegade · « **Reply #21 on:** November 01, 2007, 03:45 PM »

AAARRRGGGHHH~~~!!!

2 hours later...

I don't know how I always let myself get sucked into these TD threads!

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** November 01, 2007, 05:00 PM »

hehehehehehehehehe