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Show HN: 2d Tower Defense Mini Game in Three.js (Geodefense) (krisdigital.com)

3 points by krisdigital ↗ HN
Three levels (+random) so far - can you beat the game?

It is not polished by any means but I checked it on all devices I own (in landscape) that it is beatable :)

Tips: Move quickly and don't forget to upgrade your towers...

Geodefense was a popular iPhone game in 2008 which is no longer available (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoDefense)

I did it mostly to play with shaders and three.js.

9 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 26.2 ms ] thread
gus_massa
I beat level 1 and 2, still trying 3...

I'm not sure if you are trying to mimic the original game but ...

For me, it's too fast passed. I like tower defense games where I have time to think and place the towers and then sit back and watch the carnage.

There is too much money initially, in most games you get money for 2 or 3 towers and then collect more money during the game to place more towers. I don't like that I can't use all my money.

It would be nice that towers are sticky, so it's possible to place many "shot/green" towers without moving the mouse back to the bottom of the screen.

I'm not sure how hard it is, but it would be nice that when I'm a trying to place a new tower and the small forbidden circle of a tower overlaps the road, then the position is shifted to the closest legal position if it's a few pixels away. So it's easier to place new towers near the roads. Now if I make a mistake by a few pixels I have to go back to the bottom of the screen and pick the tower again.

Does the "missile/purple" tower cause splash damage?

krisdigital
Thank you for playing and the Feedback :) it is not a polished game and I did not try to copy the original closely, I would not know how to get it anymore… yes this game is more about moving fast, I run out of money pretty quickly ;) Downside is that one is so busy with moving and upgrading that it is hard to watch the game - though at a certain point when everything is set up you can usually sit back and relax. I may add more levels before the current ones to make the entry more smooth :) I noticed that balancing levels is not easy at all ;)

About placing the towers - this is actually part of the game and should not be too easy ;)

The purple missiles only damage the target they are hitting!

Good luck with level three! If you get stuck let me know, I can give some hints!

gus_massa
I finally got level 3!

> yes this game is more about moving fast

That's fine, if you prefer that.

> About placing the towers - this is actually part of the game and should not be too easy ;)

It's makes the game harder without adding fun. I strongly suggest to change that.

I'm using the trackpad in my notebook. Are you using a real mouse?

krisdigital
Congratulations!! Good job! I am using a trackpad but it should also work on phone or tablet, then you need to rotate to landscape :)
gus_massa
More feedback:

Laser towers are overpowered. In most random levels it's possible to place a few at the corners of the long lines, a lot of laser towers, and win without using any of the other towers.

I'd reduce the damage of the laser tower and add some splash damage to the missile tower.

krisdigital
Thank you I did not notice that, will try it out! I added a new tower according to the original game - it collects the energy and you can connect the other towers to it to get a boost when there is enough energy stored! With the laser - I am not sure if it should lose a little bit of power with distance, that could also help to balance it.
krisdigital
Can confirm the lasers are overpowered:)) I think the upgrades are too steep and the damage should fall off a little bit with distance…
MasihMinawal
played first round, thoughts: 1. its starting but what am i supposed to do? 3. i see there are towers in the left corner, may be dragging them helps 3. yes really cool! i love TD. 4. oh man i lost

would love to have 1. keyboard shortcuts 2. grid area to know where i can place the towers before dragging them

played on windowsOS laptop.

krisdigital
Thank you for your feedback! Yes the introduction is missing! There is just a little help screen that tells you to place the towers. I will add some more info! The missing “grid area” is part of the difficulty;)