Sorry for the delayed response! I've been absolutely swamped with work.
It's great to be back at Trendy. I came back because I missed the Dungeon Defenders community like crazy. There was a community management position available, and they came to me and wanted to know if I would like to work at Trendy again. It was an absolute no-brainer. Prime World was fun, but ultimately, I prefer cooperative games to competitive games. I went to Nival because I wanted to challenge myself with a MOBA community, but there comes a point where personal happiness has to take over for personal ambition. (Though I'll say that DD2 is no slouch when it comes to ambition. Can't wait to share those details next year.)
Dungeon Defenders II is shaping up to be the sequel that I wanted ever since the team first talked about making a sequel internally. I wanted a sequel where the moment-to-moment combat was engaging. I wanted a coherent interface/UI. I wanted to take the community designs to 11. The MOBA was fun before it went 3rd person (probably spent about 100+ hours in the isometric DD MOBA), but it wasn't what I wanted from DD2. I wanted my TD/A-RPG loot fest, darnit! And I'm incredibly glad that I'm working on the sequel to one of my personal favorite games.
Sorry for the mini-rant. It's been a long, long day.
By the way, here's a new video of one of our DD2 maps. All of the water in the game is hand-painted. DD2 feels like you're walking around in a living, breathing Disney cartoon. Our art team is insane (and super talented).
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Sorry for the delayed response! I've been absolutely swamped with work.
It's great to be back at Trendy. I came back because I missed the Dungeon Defenders community like crazy. There was a community management position available, and they came to me and wanted to know if I would like to work at Trendy again. It was an absolute no-brainer. Prime World was fun, but ultimately, I prefer cooperative games to competitive games. I went to Nival because I wanted to challenge myself with a MOBA community, but there comes a point where personal happiness has to take over for personal ambition. (Though I'll say that DD2 is no slouch when it comes to ambition. Can't wait to share those details next year.)
Dungeon Defenders II is shaping up to be the sequel that I wanted ever since the team first talked about making a sequel internally. I wanted a sequel where the moment-to-moment combat was engaging. I wanted a coherent interface/UI. I wanted to take the community designs to 11. The MOBA was fun before it went 3rd person (probably spent about 100+ hours in the isometric DD MOBA), but it wasn't what I wanted from DD2. I wanted my TD/A-RPG loot fest, darnit! And I'm incredibly glad that I'm working on the sequel to one of my personal favorite games.
Sorry for the mini-rant. It's been a long, long day.
By the way, here's a new video of one of our DD2 maps. All of the water in the game is hand-painted. DD2 feels like you're walking around in a living, breathing Disney cartoon. Our art team is insane (and super talented).
(Do you guys want me to keep you updated on new DD2 info? If it's annoying, I'll stop. I just like seeing your feedback on our new reveals.)
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
If you're a solo player, I think you'll especially appreciate these changes.
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
So Steam is constantly saying that the first game has a download queued(That's seriously how you spell it? huh.) But it isn't downloading anything. What's up?
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I have to agree. DD was a wonderful game, but the grinding wall and getting kicked for placing a tower in multiplayer (or placing it in the "wrong" spot) killed it.
Getting rid of the shared point pool for towers seems like an easy fix for the second problem, though...
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
Definitely. There were a lot of little things (why am I zoomed in so much I can't see how far my tower can shoot?!) but the grind is what got me to quit.
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
There are some things at the moment to counter-act this. Keep in mind that nothing is finalized and everything is subject to change.
At the moment, there are no "hosts." The game will find matches for you. You select the map and the difficulty, and the game will place you into a match. This means that you are not at the host's mercy. (You'll be able to party up with friends and play around.)
We're focused on the core mechanics of the game at the moment (combat, towers, abilities), but we're keeping in mind the major community issues of the first game. There are some designs that we've been kicking around that should help solve them.
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
Like the first game, Dungeon Defenders II is designed as a cooperative tower defense game, which means that the game is designed/balanced around having multiple heroes in a match. We have redesigned some heroes to help solo players, though. For example, the Monk and the Huntress both have towers now. I've been fairly successful in using their towers as blockades during my solo-hero runs (not switching my heroes out to complete maps).
Our F2P model isn't finalized, but we're taking feedback from our community to guide us. If there's something that you feel strongly for and against in F2P games, please let me know so I can pass it along to our team.
(On vacation at the moment, so I'm sorry for the short answers.)
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
There are some things at the moment to counter-act this. Keep in mind that nothing is finalized and everything is subject to change.
At the moment, there are no "hosts." The game will find matches for you. You select the map and the difficulty, and the game will place you into a match. This means that you are not at the host's mercy. (You'll be able to party up with friends and play around.)
We're focused on the core mechanics of the game at the moment (combat, towers, abilities), but we're keeping in mind the major community issues of the first game. There are some designs that we've been kicking around that should help solve them.
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
Like the first game, Dungeon Defenders II is designed as a cooperative tower defense game, which means that the game is designed/balanced around having multiple heroes in a match. We have redesigned some heroes to help solo players, though. For example, the Monk and the Huntress both have towers now. I've been fairly successful in using their towers as blockades during my solo-hero runs (not switching my heroes out to complete maps).
Our F2P model isn't finalized, but we're taking feedback from our community to guide us. If there's something that you feel strongly for and against in F2P games, please let me know so I can pass it along to our team.
(On vacation at the moment, so I'm sorry for the short answers.)
My two cents on f2p models is thus: I don't mind cosmetic stuff like player skins or weapon skins(with or without the ability to earn them in-game, either is fine by me), experience boosts, and things of that nature. I'm not a fan of locking essential abilities and gear behind a huge wall of xp/cash that requires a ton of grinding to get with the option to unlock it easily with real money. Oh, and I also don't care if there are extra bank/character slots for sale, as long as there isn't an anemic number of default slots (something dumb like only two or three.)
My plan for this game, since it's f2p, will be to spend what I would spend on a full-priced game if I think it's good to great (about $60). If it's decent to poor then I'll probably throw $30-40 at it, and less if it's poor to shitty. I will also most likely pick up any starter packs you guys may offer on Steam, since I loved the first game so much and y'all did such an excellent job supporting it post-release that I feel y'all deserve that much at the least.
First, we revealed plenty of concept art on a new map (internally called "Ruins"). Our council got to play it this week, and the feedback so far is positive. It's a tough-as-nails map at the moment, so if you were worried that the chaos or the challenge of the first game would be missing, you won't be sad.
Second, we posted our first public loot concept art piece, and we're asking our community to give it an official name.
Our team is taking a well-deserved break until the first week of January. Next year, we'll begin to reveal the details everyone has been dying to hear about.
I'm very proud of our Trendy family. Cutting the MOBA was no small decision, but we believe we've made the right decision. There's still plenty of work to be done as we approach our soft launch date of spring 2014. Thanks to everyone in the Dungeon Defenders community for supporting us. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love the most.
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
First, we revealed plenty of concept art on a new map (internally called "Ruins"). Our council got to play it this week, and the feedback so far is positive. It's a tough-as-nails map at the moment, so if you were worried that the chaos or the challenge of the first game would be missing, you won't be sad.
Second, we posted our first public loot concept art piece, and we're asking our community to give it an official name.
Our team is taking a well-deserved break until the first week of January. Next year, we'll begin to reveal the details everyone has been dying to hear about.
I'm very proud of our Trendy family. Cutting the MOBA was no small decision, but we believe we've made the right decision. There's still plenty of work to be done as we approach our soft launch date of spring 2014. Thanks to everyone in the Dungeon Defenders community for supporting us. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love the most.
Unrelated to the DD2 stuff, but I reinstalled DD1 and have been leveling some new characters and I'm having a blast relearning all the maps. Mostly been using a squire and monk with some EV stuff as well.
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
There are some things at the moment to counter-act this. Keep in mind that nothing is finalized and everything is subject to change.
At the moment, there are no "hosts." The game will find matches for you. You select the map and the difficulty, and the game will place you into a match. This means that you are not at the host's mercy. (You'll be able to party up with friends and play around.)
We're focused on the core mechanics of the game at the moment (combat, towers, abilities), but we're keeping in mind the major community issues of the first game. There are some designs that we've been kicking around that should help solve them.
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
Like the first game, Dungeon Defenders II is designed as a cooperative tower defense game, which means that the game is designed/balanced around having multiple heroes in a match. We have redesigned some heroes to help solo players, though. For example, the Monk and the Huntress both have towers now. I've been fairly successful in using their towers as blockades during my solo-hero runs (not switching my heroes out to complete maps).
Our F2P model isn't finalized, but we're taking feedback from our community to guide us. If there's something that you feel strongly for and against in F2P games, please let me know so I can pass it along to our team.
(On vacation at the moment, so I'm sorry for the short answers.)
The main things that annoy me in F2P games are:
1) Having to buy inventory/character slots. They're just dull and unexciting as ways to spend money and wind up feeling like a tax more than anything else.
2) Subscription focused plans that leave me with nothing when they expire
The things that immediately spring to mind for Dungeon Defenders model wise are a map rotation of some sort (so paying players can play whatever maps they want and free players either need a paying friend or to grind to unlock) and a sub based thing that gives an additional loot drop at the end of missions and a small XP/Gold boost.
Maybe have it so players essentially pay for the sub via buying stuff in the store? So rather than spending $10 dollars a month they can instead pick up $10 dollars worth of map packs/cosmetics and it also gives them a month of the bonus time added on? That seems a good way to encourage repeat spenders and allow players to feel like they're getting permanent value out of their subs.
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
There are some things at the moment to counter-act this. Keep in mind that nothing is finalized and everything is subject to change.
At the moment, there are no "hosts." The game will find matches for you. You select the map and the difficulty, and the game will place you into a match. This means that you are not at the host's mercy. (You'll be able to party up with friends and play around.)
We're focused on the core mechanics of the game at the moment (combat, towers, abilities), but we're keeping in mind the major community issues of the first game. There are some designs that we've been kicking around that should help solve them.
That tower stuff sounds all good, but I still hope there's some scaling planned so that end-game of DD2 doesn't require having 6 classes capped and constant switching between them on your part in order to have anything resembling a viable defence.
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
Like the first game, Dungeon Defenders II is designed as a cooperative tower defense game, which means that the game is designed/balanced around having multiple heroes in a match. We have redesigned some heroes to help solo players, though. For example, the Monk and the Huntress both have towers now. I've been fairly successful in using their towers as blockades during my solo-hero runs (not switching my heroes out to complete maps).
Our F2P model isn't finalized, but we're taking feedback from our community to guide us. If there's something that you feel strongly for and against in F2P games, please let me know so I can pass it along to our team.
(On vacation at the moment, so I'm sorry for the short answers.)
The main things that annoy me in F2P games are:
1) Having to buy inventory/character slots. They're just dull and unexciting as ways to spend money and wind up feeling like a tax more than anything else.
2) Subscription focused plans that leave me with nothing when they expire
The things that immediately spring to mind for Dungeon Defenders model wise are a map rotation of some sort (so paying players can play whatever maps they want and free players either need a paying friend or to grind to unlock) and a sub based thing that gives an additional loot drop at the end of missions and a small XP/Gold boost.
Maybe have it so players essentially pay for the sub via buying stuff in the store? So rather than spending $10 dollars a month they can instead pick up $10 dollars worth of map packs/cosmetics and it also gives them a month of the bonus time added on? That seems a good way to encourage repeat spenders and allow players to feel like they're getting permanent value out of their subs.
Usually, this happens the other way around - subs come with bonus cash for the store.
LORE BLOGS
"At the Gates of Dragonfall" -- Writer Courtney Keene takes you on an exploration of the first moments of DD2.
"Hero Lore Process" -- Keene talks about how we've created lore for our heroes using the Squire as her example.
QA BLOGS
"Stacking Shields and Rowdy Ramsters" -- QA Tester Patrick Scalan shows off an amusing bug with the Squire's shields and displays an unusual flying air unit.
"The Puzzling Paralleltress" -- QA Tester Dani Moore reveals a strange bug that makes the Huntress a killer limbo player.
"A Slow Months for Bugs Means..." -- QA Tester Levi Fink shows off the Rainbow Cat Flask. Must watch.
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
That's a fairly unreasonable amount of awesome right there.
Sounds to me like you guys should just package up what you've got and give it to us now!
Yep, that's exactly what it sounds like to me.
You'd be pretty awesome folks if that were to happen. I'm certainly very intrigued to give this game a try. I spent many an hour defending dungeons in the original.
Lots of goodies on the way, but there's still a ton of work left to do.
Tell your wife that her tears sate the development demon. Please send bottled tears to:
Trendy Entertainment
Gainesville, Florida 32601
Hitmonchan107 on
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Unfortunately I can't send fluids with alcoholic levels that high across state borders (She's an elementary teacher, don't judge until you have 30 4th graders).
Also @Hitmonchan107 , not sure I've seen mention about this particular thing that I mentioned in previous post long ago.
Can the time-limit between rounds be separated from the difficulty level, aka, make time-limits some separate option that if on you get better rewards, but I could still choose to play with out it and have nightmare difficulty.
This was the biggest road-block to the harder difficulties for my wife, as she would become either lost, or spend all her time trying to perfectly place a tower as she's a bit ocd about that. We had a great time playing until we hit the difficulty level that added the time limits, then she just had a hard time dealing with what seems to be an unnecessary option when all we wanted was harder waves. Survival turned off the time limit which was nice, but it was a bit repetitive (30 minute long waves...ugh) and the end game grinding was just too much.
DD1 is probably the gold standard for starting out casual friendly and then building up a players abilities and skills so they become gamers who understand the characters and abilities and really move to the next level. I'm really hoping DD2 does this and gives us more options for various play styles as the difficulty progresses.
At the moment, we do not have time limits between rounds on any difficulty. That may or may not change between now and the final release.
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
We're putting the finishing touches on our PAX build this week. I hope you'll enjoy what we have to offer. The plan is to offer multiple experiences for players, so your first trip to the booth shouldn't be your only trip!
iamisom, Community Manager for Dungeon Defenders Twitter:@iamisom Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
We're putting the finishing touches on our PAX build this week. I hope you'll enjoy what we have to offer. The plan is to offer multiple experiences for players, so your first trip to the booth shouldn't be your only trip!
It never is! I look forward to getting my grubby little hands on it.
Well, I didn't get to say hello to our own @hitmonchan107, but I did get to spend some time with the game everyone wants to get their hands on.
I know they were showing it off on super PCs, but the game looked amazing, and buttery smooth. They were showing off 2 maps, an easy "introduction" to the Dungeon Defender's playstyle that we are all used too and a medium level map for those people more familiar with it. Well, the people I played with were all extremely experienced from DD1, but we got rocked on the 3rd wave. We just didn't have good defenses setup.
My two favorite additions:
Combos - both towers and other hotkey abilities can be combined to cause special effects. The Apprentice has a cyclone ability that knocks mobs into the air; which deals smashing damage when they fall, and he also has a freezing tower; which causes mobs to take additional damage.
Build Cap - each player has their own individual build allocation. No more worrying about someone building too many of the wrong tower, you can build up to your cap, as long as you have the mana.
Build Cap - each player has their own individual build allocation. No more worrying about someone building too many of the wrong tower, you can build up to your cap, as long as you have the mana.
Build Cap - each player has their own individual build allocation. No more worrying about someone building too many of the wrong tower, you can build up to your cap, as long as you have the mana.
Hurgh! So hype! Especially when we get stuff like the twitter pic of jesus playing it. I cant wait to be able to play this.
I tried to go back and play the original for a bit, but I just cannot get into it anymore. I think it's because of the absurd jump that happened from the end of the story to all the optional stuff. I really hope that's not something that carries over to DD2.
Posts
Even though I've played a bunch of LoL since I fell off the DD wagon, I still love me some Tower Defense games.
It's great to be back at Trendy. I came back because I missed the Dungeon Defenders community like crazy. There was a community management position available, and they came to me and wanted to know if I would like to work at Trendy again. It was an absolute no-brainer. Prime World was fun, but ultimately, I prefer cooperative games to competitive games. I went to Nival because I wanted to challenge myself with a MOBA community, but there comes a point where personal happiness has to take over for personal ambition. (Though I'll say that DD2 is no slouch when it comes to ambition. Can't wait to share those details next year.)
Dungeon Defenders II is shaping up to be the sequel that I wanted ever since the team first talked about making a sequel internally. I wanted a sequel where the moment-to-moment combat was engaging. I wanted a coherent interface/UI. I wanted to take the community designs to 11. The MOBA was fun before it went 3rd person (probably spent about 100+ hours in the isometric DD MOBA), but it wasn't what I wanted from DD2. I wanted my TD/A-RPG loot fest, darnit! And I'm incredibly glad that I'm working on the sequel to one of my personal favorite games.
Sorry for the mini-rant. It's been a long, long day.
By the way, here's a new video of one of our DD2 maps. All of the water in the game is hand-painted. DD2 feels like you're walking around in a living, breathing Disney cartoon. Our art team is insane (and super talented).
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
(Also, those glimmering valve wheels are hella tantalizing.)
I cannot wait to see it in action again in a few month in Boston. Unless I somehow see it in action in person before that...
(Do you guys want me to keep you updated on new DD2 info? If it's annoying, I'll stop. I just like seeing your feedback on our new reveals.)
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Twitch/Mudzgut
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
If you're a solo player, I think you'll especially appreciate these changes.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
One of the problems I had in the first Dungeon Defenders was that, although playing with other players was great fun, I didn't often get to do it at higher levels. With the shared defense pool and a player's ability to switch characters an unlimited amount in the prep phase, having other tower-specced allies often seemed like a detriment. Most times, taking a tower-specced hero into someone's game and trying to put down some defenses was greeted with a swift boot, not a 'thank you.' It was go Hero spec or go home, which is why I feel most players stuck to soloing.
Are there any plans to make multiplayer more palatable in DD2?
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
DD was great and fun and free until suddenly you had to grind the shit out of classes in order to do anything. There was a brick wall of access you'd hit after hard difficulty and pretty much any of the DLC content, where it wasn't viable to do, alone, without an unreasonable amount of investment on an individual players part.
I'm not against the investment, inherently, but there was no curve in the first game it was "this is going great, I love squire" to the next map being all "no, fuck you, go level apprentice and monk to the cap or gtfo"
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Getting rid of the shared point pool for towers seems like an easy fix for the second problem, though...
Oh, I should probably update the OP sometime.
I doubt the new F2P model is going to discourage them from making the game incredibly grindy. If anything, there's money to be made in providing the player shortcuts...
Let's see if DD2 allows players to progress painlessly without spending $$$.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
There are some things at the moment to counter-act this. Keep in mind that nothing is finalized and everything is subject to change.
At the moment, there are no "hosts." The game will find matches for you. You select the map and the difficulty, and the game will place you into a match. This means that you are not at the host's mercy. (You'll be able to party up with friends and play around.)
We're focused on the core mechanics of the game at the moment (combat, towers, abilities), but we're keeping in mind the major community issues of the first game. There are some designs that we've been kicking around that should help solve them.
Like the first game, Dungeon Defenders II is designed as a cooperative tower defense game, which means that the game is designed/balanced around having multiple heroes in a match. We have redesigned some heroes to help solo players, though. For example, the Monk and the Huntress both have towers now. I've been fairly successful in using their towers as blockades during my solo-hero runs (not switching my heroes out to complete maps).
Our F2P model isn't finalized, but we're taking feedback from our community to guide us. If there's something that you feel strongly for and against in F2P games, please let me know so I can pass it along to our team.
(On vacation at the moment, so I'm sorry for the short answers.)
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Everything is right with the world again. I'm getting hype.
My two cents on f2p models is thus: I don't mind cosmetic stuff like player skins or weapon skins(with or without the ability to earn them in-game, either is fine by me), experience boosts, and things of that nature. I'm not a fan of locking essential abilities and gear behind a huge wall of xp/cash that requires a ton of grinding to get with the option to unlock it easily with real money. Oh, and I also don't care if there are extra bank/character slots for sale, as long as there isn't an anemic number of default slots (something dumb like only two or three.)
My plan for this game, since it's f2p, will be to spend what I would spend on a full-priced game if I think it's good to great (about $60). If it's decent to poor then I'll probably throw $30-40 at it, and less if it's poor to shitty. I will also most likely pick up any starter packs you guys may offer on Steam, since I loved the first game so much and y'all did such an excellent job supporting it post-release that I feel y'all deserve that much at the least.
First, we revealed plenty of concept art on a new map (internally called "Ruins"). Our council got to play it this week, and the feedback so far is positive. It's a tough-as-nails map at the moment, so if you were worried that the chaos or the challenge of the first game would be missing, you won't be sad.
Second, we posted our first public loot concept art piece, and we're asking our community to give it an official name.
Our team is taking a well-deserved break until the first week of January. Next year, we'll begin to reveal the details everyone has been dying to hear about.
I'm very proud of our Trendy family. Cutting the MOBA was no small decision, but we believe we've made the right decision. There's still plenty of work to be done as we approach our soft launch date of spring 2014. Thanks to everyone in the Dungeon Defenders community for supporting us. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love the most.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
@hitmonchan107
Its been 2 months; do you have any updates for those of us waiting ever so unpatiently for the chance to dive back into Eternia?
Follow-up question: Will TrendyEnt be back at Pax East this year? I'd like to get some hands on time with it!
The main things that annoy me in F2P games are:
1) Having to buy inventory/character slots. They're just dull and unexciting as ways to spend money and wind up feeling like a tax more than anything else.
2) Subscription focused plans that leave me with nothing when they expire
The things that immediately spring to mind for Dungeon Defenders model wise are a map rotation of some sort (so paying players can play whatever maps they want and free players either need a paying friend or to grind to unlock) and a sub based thing that gives an additional loot drop at the end of missions and a small XP/Gold boost.
Maybe have it so players essentially pay for the sub via buying stuff in the store? So rather than spending $10 dollars a month they can instead pick up $10 dollars worth of map packs/cosmetics and it also gives them a month of the bonus time added on? That seems a good way to encourage repeat spenders and allow players to feel like they're getting permanent value out of their subs.
Usually, this happens the other way around - subs come with bonus cash for the store.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Oh yeah, I've got some updates for ya. Since my last post:
HERO PREVIEWS
Monk!
Huntress!
Squire!
DEV BLOGS
"Relics: A New Way to Progress Your Hero" -- Lead Designer/Creative Director Daniel Haddad reveals our new stat progression system for armor.
"The New and Improved Ogre" -- Community Coordinator Laura Muriel shows off the new Ogre. And he's all kinds of wicked.
"Combat Improvements" -- Haddad showcases improvements to our melee and ranged combat systems.
"Using Sub-Objectives to Encourage Better Cooperative Play" -- Level Designer James Brawley goes in-depth with our new sub-objective system in DD2.
"How Your Feedback and Suggestions Affect Dungeon Defenders II" -- Studio Director Dave Loyd talks about how we're going to integrate community feedback into our game.
"The Perils of an Uneven World" -- VFX Artist Brian Goodsell talks about the changes to auras and traps to make them fit better in DD2.
"Enriching Map Interaction with Environmental Traps" -- Brawley talks about the unique traps you'll find on each map.
"Creating Enjoyable, Cohesive Maps in Dungeon Defenders II" -- Lead Level Designer Ben Burkart talks about the new design principles we're using for map design in DD2 compared with DD1.
"Conceptual Level Design: Symmetry vs. Asymmetry" -- Brawley details why we're focusing on asymmetrical map design for DD2.
LORE BLOGS
"At the Gates of Dragonfall" -- Writer Courtney Keene takes you on an exploration of the first moments of DD2.
"Hero Lore Process" -- Keene talks about how we've created lore for our heroes using the Squire as her example.
QA BLOGS
"Stacking Shields and Rowdy Ramsters" -- QA Tester Patrick Scalan shows off an amusing bug with the Squire's shields and displays an unusual flying air unit.
"The Puzzling Paralleltress" -- QA Tester Dani Moore reveals a strange bug that makes the Huntress a killer limbo player.
"A Slow Months for Bugs Means..." -- QA Tester Levi Fink shows off the Rainbow Cat Flask. Must watch.
And, hot off the presses:
DUNGEON DEFENDERS II AT PAX EAST 2014
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Sounds to me like you guys should just package up what you've got and give it to us now!
Yep, that's exactly what it sounds like to me.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
You'd be pretty awesome folks if that were to happen. I'm certainly very intrigued to give this game a try. I spent many an hour defending dungeons in the original.
Tell your wife that her tears sate the development demon. Please send bottled tears to:
Trendy Entertainment
Gainesville, Florida 32601
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
Can the time-limit between rounds be separated from the difficulty level, aka, make time-limits some separate option that if on you get better rewards, but I could still choose to play with out it and have nightmare difficulty.
This was the biggest road-block to the harder difficulties for my wife, as she would become either lost, or spend all her time trying to perfectly place a tower as she's a bit ocd about that. We had a great time playing until we hit the difficulty level that added the time limits, then she just had a hard time dealing with what seems to be an unnecessary option when all we wanted was harder waves. Survival turned off the time limit which was nice, but it was a bit repetitive (30 minute long waves...ugh) and the end game grinding was just too much.
DD1 is probably the gold standard for starting out casual friendly and then building up a players abilities and skills so they become gamers who understand the characters and abilities and really move to the next level. I'm really hoping DD2 does this and gives us more options for various play styles as the difficulty progresses.
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
We're putting the finishing touches on our PAX build this week. I hope you'll enjoy what we have to offer. The plan is to offer multiple experiences for players, so your first trip to the booth shouldn't be your only trip!
Twitter: @iamisom
Currently Playing: Dungeon Defenders II (PC), Warframe (XO), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii U)
It never is! I look forward to getting my grubby little hands on it.
I know they were showing it off on super PCs, but the game looked amazing, and buttery smooth. They were showing off 2 maps, an easy "introduction" to the Dungeon Defender's playstyle that we are all used too and a medium level map for those people more familiar with it. Well, the people I played with were all extremely experienced from DD1, but we got rocked on the 3rd wave. We just didn't have good defenses setup.
My two favorite additions:
Combos - both towers and other hotkey abilities can be combined to cause special effects. The Apprentice has a cyclone ability that knocks mobs into the air; which deals smashing damage when they fall, and he also has a freezing tower; which causes mobs to take additional damage.
Build Cap - each player has their own individual build allocation. No more worrying about someone building too many of the wrong tower, you can build up to your cap, as long as you have the mana.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Wisdom
I tried to go back and play the original for a bit, but I just cannot get into it anymore. I think it's because of the absurd jump that happened from the end of the story to all the optional stuff. I really hope that's not something that carries over to DD2.