Hello, we are proud to announce our second prototype of Tribute TD. After some feedback from friends, here on itch.io and as part of the Feedback Quest to our prototype number one we were exited to improve our game. And here it is, our prototype number two.

Develop and Release - Let's start with the biggest change. The Dev Studio is dead, long live the games. In the previous version, bugs attacked the developer studio, and the built games defended it. But that seemed strange to us because bugs should actually infiltrate the games themselves, and more games should mean more or more serious bugs. So, we got rid of the central Dev Studio, and now bugs target the games directly, attempting to destroy them.

With this change, some conditions have naturally changed as well. The player no longer has 10 hit points but must always keep a game in development. However, if 6 bugs reach a game, its development is completely halted. The tower and all attached modules become deactivated. Weapons no longer attack. However, the structure still blocks paths.

It's possible to release a game. This means it will be attacked by bugs one more time in this wave, but not afterward. The game itself is then safe but cannot be further expanded. Consequently, games now have 4 states: In Development, In Releasing, Released, and Abandoned. The player stays alive as long as they have at least one game in development.

We hope this mechanic adds more tactical depth and meaningful choices. Previously, the best strategy was to build a maze around the Dev Studio, and other options worked less effectively. Now, you need to think more carefully. If you start in the middle of the map and build outward, your last towers that get attacked will be on the perimeter. If you start with your towers further out, you might have a tougher start but can lead the creeps through a maze inward during the late game.

At the beginning of a run, the player now always receives a free tower. As usual, they can purchase more towers or modules during the shop phase. Round by round, new games can be started and old ones expanded until the player decides to release a game. In the following rounds, the game will no longer be attacked, but you can't attach additional modules during the subsequent build phase. Instead, you receive royalties round by round, representing sales revenue.

Creep Progression - With the new "Develop and Release" mechanic, the question arose: how will players use it to their advantage? Was the expectation that players would build one tower after another and release fully upgraded towers justified? That was the initial idea. However, in the first attempts, it seemed much easier to leave a tower unreleased forever and surround the path to it with a maze. This would have made no difference from the previous game, where the Dev Studio was the central tower. It was also not a problem to play an entire run without releasing a tower. In fact, it was more advantageous because all creeps split up to the towers, and some would have to walk longer paths.

So, we introduced a progression for unreleased towers. The longer a game remains in development, the more the source code erodes, and the bugs become stronger. The player can still choose one of the mentioned playstyles, but it becomes significantly more challenging.

New Modules - Matching the new Develop and Release mechanic, there are also several new improvement modules. There are 4 test modules that indicate which type of test covers the game: UX tests, performance tests, unit tests, and gameplay tests. Each of these 4 modules prevents creeps from attacking the tower from a specific direction. This allows you to place a tower on the left edge and use the gameplay test module to prevent bugs from spawning directly next to it and infiltrating the game.

Furthermore, there are modules that affect the bugs. Since each bug is primarily associated with a tower now, modules of the tower can alter the bug. A complex skill tree makes a game much better, but it also introduces many different combinations that need to be considered, increasing the risk of bugs. Bugs attacking such a tower have 50% more hit points. However, a simple puzzle mechanic weakens attacking bugs but doesn't provide any other advantages to the tower.

Since towers can't be further built upon after release, we introduced a module called "DLC." When attached to a tower, it allows you to add another module to that tower, even if it has already been released. This way, we aim to ensure that towers that had to be completed to prevent bugs from becoming too strong can still receive a suitable expansion later on.

In addition, each weapon now comes in 3 quality classes, so that weapons that appear in the later rounds have a better quality class and therefore have better stats such as more damage or more range. This also applies to the new weapon, the Tesla coil.

Further changes

• We added some sound effects to the game, like for "Button Pressed", "Bug got damaged", "Game was aborted
• We made a full UI overhaul for a cleaner UI
• It is possible to select a targeting behaviour for a weapon now. You may choose between the strongest, the weakest, the closest, the most far away or as before a random creep.
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• All Stats are now 10 times higher. For the gameplay it doesn't mean anything but the numbers are easier to read than floating point values.
• The game is now way more easier. The first draft was very hard for players who are not involved into the mechanics.

From now on we want to put a new version on Itch.io at regular intervals

From now on, we change our release format. We used to plan the new increment, with major and minor enhancements, and only uploaded a new version to Itch.io at the end. From now on we want to upload a new version at regular intervals so that new features can be tried out more quickly.

Thanks for reading this post. We always welcome feedback so feel free to leave it here or just play Tribute TD. Let us know how far you've progressed or if you were able to recreate your favorite game or pay tribute in your own way to the greatest games in video game history with Tribute TD.

Cheers.