October 1st, 2016

Happy October, everyone!

Happy birthday to Lisk, who turned 26 yesterday! We went bowling to celebrate, but don’t ask how many gutter balls he rolled. :p

If you want to give Lisk the best possible birthday present, sign up for the closed beta if you haven’t already! Closed beta launches in a few months.

New map, same gameplay!

We’re excited to finally show you the new Legion TD 2 map. We know change can be scary, but rest assured that this is still the same Legion you know and love.

When we set out to make Legion TD 2, we vowed not to change what makes Legion fun: the core gameplay. But we also promised ourselves not to be afraid to innovate. It’s easy to copy something one-for-one, but a good designer isn’t afraid to critique and improve his own game. We’re confident we can make awesome changes, while maintaining the same gameplay and feel of Legion TD.

Major changes and rationale:

All lanes face the same direction

• Improved clarity. Units now flow in the same direction for all players. Fighters move up, creatures and mercenaries move down. This is a lot clearer and more intuitive, especially for new players.
• Improved balance/consistency. In games like League of Legends and Dota 2, the side you’re on impacts your ability to win. We don’t want that for Legion TD 2. You should be able to deploy fighters how you want, without having to worry about which direction you’re facing.

Mid lanes divided from solo lanes

• Improved clarity. It’s now clear what constitutes the area for deploying together. Creatures will be visibly buffed when they reach the mid lane. There’s no confusion about whether a creature walked in or out of mid.
• Removed funkiness. Previously, the mid lane intersected perpendicularly with the solo lanes, which led to fighters being improperly aggro’dor to fighters running past enemy creatures, causing you to leak when you shouldn’t.
• We want mid laning to be a viable strategy, but it should only be optimal if you have good coordination with your ally and synergistic fighters. Most of the time, it will not be optimal.
• “Cross” is a strategy in Legion TD in which one player fights each wave individually. It’s so overpowered that it’s usually banned from competitive play. Legion TD 2 will not support traditional cross because we don’t believe it’s a healthy, fun strategy in the long run.

Arena removed

• Arena was a minigame after levels 10 and 20 in which all the fighters on each team battled in a chaotic clash royale. Sometimes your ranged dps ended up on the front lines while your melee tanks danced in the back - it was pretty random! Whichever team won was awarded a bit of extra gold.
• Arena actually wasn’t a feature in classic Legion TD but was added with the introduction of Legion TD Mega. We think Arena is cool and has a place in custom games, but ultimately, it feels kind of gimmicky and doesn’t fit with Legion TD 2.

Town replaced by UI

• In the original Legion TD, the lane was where you deployed fighters, and the town was where you hired mercenaries, trained workers, and purchased upgrades. The new UI wraps up all of this into one. Because the town no longer serves a gameplay purpose, it’s probably worth removing.
• We still think workers look cool, so we’re exploring ways to have automatic workers without them taking up half your screen.

Recent Highlights

Here’s what Lisk and I were up to in September:

• Completed 3D models and animations for the Forsaken legion
• Completed concept art and began work on 3D models and animations for the Mech legion
• Working on sound effects for the Grove legion
• Redesigned the map layout and began in-game implementation
• Continued designing and implementing the new HUD
• Designing functional prototype of Lobby UI & Menu Screens
• Starting backend code for profiles and matchmaking
• Converting gameplay systems from singleplayer to server-client multiplayer (continued) (this month we completed pathing routes, towers turning into fighters, and mercenary warps)