Castleclysm
Developer: Fantasync Entertainment
Platform: Mobile – iOS
Genre: Action, RPG
Engine: Unity3D
Position: Game Developer, Game Designer
Castleclysm is an absurd hectic 2D side-scrolling tower-defense-like that involves being in a castle interior with the player as a magic-caster throwing objects as arsenal of defense against hordes of angry mobs. The game is level-based and challenges the player to complete levels by defending against waves of mob and taking out a boss at the final wave of the level. Intruders will enter through the right of the stage running towards the left and if they reach the left end of the stage, which is where the player is located then the game is over. Aside from using objects, the player will be able to use powerful magic that are able to take out larger areas against crowds. Casteclysm is design to utilize the games environment as a way to play and maximizing the use of the touch screen’s complete screen size.
- App Store Featured on Best New Games during release week.
- App Store Highest Gross Ranking Top 250 Action & RPG Charts in 3 countries. (CA included)
-
Challenging. – Den090909 (Canada)
This is a very challenging game. I never got bored. Keeps me busy. I play it on the bus and every free time i got. Very time consuming. So addicted
-
addicting! – BigF4tQQ (Canada)
very good game !! very addicting ! a must have game !
-
Hear me out – Sylen_T (US)
Now since I get to review this first I would like to say that before all the people who are like ” there’s one ad every 12 hours so I hate the game ” need to know that’s how the game devs make their money other than in app purchases. And Castleclysm really is a good game.
-
What? No reviews?! – DanGamesNowTV (US)
Like every game, I wasn’t planning to rate it, but, this game has no reviews! This game is amazing and deserves much more word in its step! Unique concept, upbeat graphics and characters! Enjoy these long lasting levels and the satisfaction of completing them! Outstanding game!
Camera & UI Layout
Camera
The camera in the game is uncontrollable by the player similar to games like rail-shooters. It follows the closes intruder and focuses the door to the right of the stage when there are no intruders left. If the player cast a spell, the camera will move to center where the spell is unleashed. Reasoning for this is to create ease to combo spells and for higher-level players to grab objects that are away from the camera’s viewpoint.
The Game Field Layout is the most important setup to the entire gameplay. The Game Field is a long runway and the player’s lose condition is if an intruder reaches the first step to the stairs to the left of the stage. Every Stage has larger objects known as Epic Objects. Epic Objects are powerful impacting and damaging objects. One is located in the middle and one at the left end of the stage. Every stage is separated into three floors: The ground floor, which the intruder runs down. The middle floor is where objects are mainly placed. The top floor is where mainly the primary stage objects are and moving objects (running people or creatures) are located. This layout is consistent throughout the game.
Heads-up Display
The HUD setup in Castleclysm focuses on keeping the game field as wide and open as possible. The important gameplay HUDs are located at the bottom. These buttons are center to draw attention and ease of use to the player. The game information and less accessed HUDs are located on top. The most important area is within the game field where the player will tap objects and place spells.
Controls
Castleclysm is design to best play with one finger either holding the device with the other hand or by placing it down. The game involves the use of common touch gestures of tapping, holding, and dragging for the use of specific mechanics.
Object – Player will be able to pick up environment objects (props) by tapping it on the screen. Hold and move finger to a direction to aim. While holding the object, it will charge up power making the object hit harder and faster. Release finger to unleash the object towards that direction.
Spells – Player can use magical spells by tapping a spell button located on the bottom of the screen. A Spell Aiming HUD will pop on the screen. Hold and move finger to aim the position of the spell. Release finger to unleash the spell at the Spell HUD’s position.
Goals
Mission Statment:
A tower-defense design that utilizes the entire size of the touch screen as gameplay.
Vision Statement:
A hectic struggle involving a wizard to magically throwing everything even the kitchen sink to not get caught.
Pillar 1: Background more than just a Background
The first goal for Castleclysm is to make a gameplay that involves using the game background as a defensive element. Since game backgrounds take up the whole screen, we felt like it would play an excellent aspect to a touchscreen device. Taping an object in the background and unleashing the object towards a direction was not a tough design but creating a complete game play out of it proven more difficult. What really brought this game design to work was not the objects but it was the design of camera control. Similar to rail shooters, the game doesn’t give the player any control over the position. The camera is design to lock onto the closes target towards the player (closes towards the left end of stage) and follow the target until he/she retreats or another target passes ahead. This gave the freedom for the player to just focus mainly on defending and observing the background with ease.
Pillar 2: A sense of Urgency
The next goal was to design a sense of urgency and mayhem for the player. This is an important pillar because it gave the game a sense of chaotic consistency of always having the player on their toes. To achieve this experience, one obvious aspect was to increase speed and number of enemies in which to spawn. The problem is that enemy spawn isn’t interactive but a responsive element. One of the key elements we focused on was to increase object spawn rates and to always have enough objects onscreen. This kept player having something to interact with which allow them to consistently stay engage. Another key element is to lower the object damage and increase impact (knockback and stagger) of every hit from the object. This made the aspect of using objects more like “throwing pebbles to keep away” which made the player feel more vulnerable than overly power. This experience felt more hectic and intense, especially after one retreat another will enter.
Pillar 3: Intense Final Waves
The final goal is to have the game’s final wave be something different and more intense than the basic waves. Like Plants vs. Zombie, the final wave served as an important threshold to reach and then overcome before ending the level. For this, we design a different style of play for the end of every level, which is the boss battle. The boss battle changes the usual defensive wave gameplay to become player versus boss. During the boss battle, basic intruders will become endless and the only way to win is to knock down the entire boss’s hit point. This made the final wave extremely intense since there is no end until the player wins. we balance the difficulty by lowering the basic intruder’s hit points to half and increase the mana shard (recovers mana for magic) drop rate to increase the spell usage. At end result, the final waves are the most satisfying for the player to play. we end up decreasing the number of waves per level (max 6) to prevent the feeling of grind and increase the gameplay length of the final waves (increase boss hit points).
Hightlights
Pick up and Throw Environment Mechanic
In Castleclysm, the core mechanic is the ability to pick up environment objects as weapons. These environment objects are design to feel like background props but not to blend in to background. This unique mechanic is design to utilize the complete mobile screen size. This mechanic also encourages the player to observe the overall device screen as a whole over distinct focus points.
How the object mechanic is design is that every stage have primary objects and secondary objects. Primary objects are objects that will always be in the same position throughout the stage. Secondary objects are additional objects that fill the rest of the stage’s level. Different levels will have different secondary object settings. All objects have spawn duration. The spawn duration are timers that are called when an object is missing (thrown). When the duration is up, the object will respawn into the stage. Primary objects have faster spawn duration but weaker damage.
Powerful Crowd-Controlling Magic
What is a Magic-caster without magic? In the game, the player will be able to cast four powerful magical spells that are design to hit in an area effect. The character the player is currently playing defines the four magical spells. To use these spells, the player will need to have enough mana. Mana are dropped and can be picked-up after taking out intruders.
Magic in the game is design to be reliable, instant, and excellent at crowd-controlling. What we mean by reliable is that as long the player has the mana, magic is easily accessible and positioned. Objects on the other hand is consider unreliable because they cannot pass through enemies, are weaker, and tough dealing with crowds. Magic is design to have a pull and drag control-scheme, kind of like placing something on the screen. Most commonly magical spells are set to hit a vertical space within the screen. Upon releasing the finger, the spell will be unleashed into that space. What makes magic so important in the game is that it is design to have effects when it hits intruders, example like stunning an area. Spells are commonly designed to complement the character’s other spells to create combos.
H
Angry Mobs & Level Design
Level design played an important element in exploration and discovery in the game. Since in the game many levels are based on a single stage, it is important to design interesting enemies and bosses to continue delivering refreshing and interesting aspects as the player progress. A stage, secondary objects, basic waves, a final wave, and new enemy-class are all required to build the levels.
– A stage is a setting within the game that defines the background, primary objects, and length of the field.
– Secondary objects are additional objects that are placed within the stage.
– Basic waves are the number of waves the player must defend against before entering the final wave.
– The final wave is the boss battle that the player must win before completing the level. -Enemy-class is the type of enemy class that will be introduced into the current level. Example of enemy-class is elves, dwarves, undead, etc. What makes these classes interesting is that they are design to be different in gameplay and forces the player to play different against those intruders. Like some classes are supportive classes that support other intruders.
After the level is completed, the classes from the previous levels will remain as a standard intruder for the rest of the levels and more classes of intruders will continue to grow increasing the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Different Characters, Different Experience
In Castleclysm, there are three selectable characters. These character each tell a different story, stage sets, and have completely different set of magical spells. Though gameplay are still the same, this feature offer each character a very different play style just by changing up the set of spells.
– The main character, Wink the High Wizard is a very balance character with average area effects and offense for his four spells.
– The second character, Blink the Crimson Warlock is very fast, offensive character with weak area effect spells.
– The last character, Candy the Wicked Witch is very area effect and crowd controlling character but very weak on offensive with her spells.
These changes define the characteristic of the characters and offer a very different experience when playing the game. This is made possible by the modular contents in level designs and game design.