I enjoyed the premise and the idea you’re building here. The design is cute, and the music fits well, but I feel like some ideas might look better on paper than they play out in practice. Here are a few points:
- Collecting the potions feels inconvenient. It’s not engaging or practical—it’s just cumbersome. I get that the goal might be to combine the strategic aspect with some reflex-based motor skill, “speeding up” the player, since enemy troops have predictable attack and action intervals. But this could use some rethinking. One idea is to have the mini-game for collecting potions pop up every X amount of time or after defeating a set number of enemies, each stage havind a pre set points to first wave of defense. This way, you’d have dedicated moments for the mini-game and moments for defending, instead of having to juggle both, which isn’t as enjoyable. Finding a way to make this fun would be ideal.
- Positioning on the grid: Since it’s possible to place units anywhere—even on the enemy portal—it might be worth considering using square grids with “broken” or asymmetric rows, where you place a troop on G3 but they’ll attack on H1 or B1, perhaps indicated by arrows or lines. This could add some variation by making precise positioning less crucial.
- Color swap: If you’re sticking with a single enemy/aly model, adding an automatic color swap for variation would be a good touch. Honestly, having them all look alike actually has a certain appeal, giving that “pawn army” vibe. Using just one model with different color swaps could help create distinct groups without necessarily designing entirely new units.
- Portal feedback: The portal mechanic could use some additional visual or audio cues to convey damage status. Whether it’s a changing sound effect, a sprite that cracks the ground or wears down as it loses health, or something similar, having a way to tell if it’s getting close to critical (or if it’s relatively safe) as the phase progresses would be really helpful for gauging which areas to prioritize.
English isn’t my first language, and I’m sharing this because I really appreciate what you’re doing here. If any part of my message sounds blunt, that’s not my intent; I genuinely want to help, sharing both what I see as issues and my thoughts on possible solutions if you find them useful.
P.S. See you soon!
