Overview
Brink of Reality is an action tower defense game, or “power defense” as we like to call it, set after a catastrophe that has warped the very fabric of reality. The player must protect his large, immobile character (ie: the entire left side of the screen) from advancing hordes. The key difference between this and more traditional tower defense games is that everything is done manually by the player. The player fires every projectile, lays every trap, and cleans up any monsters that get too close.
Gameplay
The player has access to six “powers” at a time out of a possible eight. Powers range from standard projectiles to shock waves that knock enemies backwards and even the power to temporarily stop time. Each power is associated with a timer which must count down before the player is able to use that power again. Longer timers are associated with more powerful abilities and so the player must choose carefully.
Two powers remain constant regardless of the player's choices: the basic close-range and projectile attacks. Out of the remaining six, four are chosen by the player between rounds. The player is given a hint in advance of what kind of enemies he will be facing in the next round, and can thus adjust and experiment with his power set accordingly. The player only begins the game with the two constant powers, and more are added between rounds.
Building the Game
Brink of Reality was coded in XNA, an extension of the C# programming language designed to facilitate 2D and 3D game development. Much of the data in the game is not tied directly to the source code, instead, all enemy, ability, level, and player data is stored in a separate file, allowing for easy tweaking to balance the game. The game also includes a save system that allows players to keep their chosen power set and level progress between game sessions.
Artwork for the game was sketched out by hand and drawn in Adobe Flash and Photoshop. Characters and monsters were drawn in pieces so that various parts could be moved independently during animation. Animations were done in Flash and then converted into a set of stills used to create sprite sheets (similar to the cells in film stock).
Inspiration
Tower defense games have been around since 2005, and they have changed little since then. The player creates AI controlled “turrets” that automatically attack enemies in range, and the enemies follow a set path. If enough enemies reach the end of the path, the player loses, if all the enemies are destroyed, the player wins.
Unfortunately, this means that player input is sporadic since the player rarely gets the opportunity to build new towers once the game is started. Power defense was created as a way to involve the player more. While the player does wait for the occasional timer, he has access to six different abilities each with their own timers. Furthermore, the basic projectile attack gives the player the means to constantly chip away at incoming enemies a la Space Invaders.
Power defense also draws inspiration from, and attempts to correct, the skill bars in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (commonly referred to as MMOs or MMORPGs). In games such as World of Warcraft, the player has access to upwards of 20 abilities, each with their own timer before reuse. Given that many of these abilities have short recharge times, players often select the next ability that is available rather than making tactical decisions about what ability would work best in a given situation.
For this reason, we capped the player's abilities at six, with the four “slottable” ones having noticeably longer recharge times. Under this restriction, players cannot simply “mash” the next ability that is available, as they will quickly exhaust all of their slotted powers. Instead, players quickly learn that the best strategy is to save their powers either for emergencies or situations in which they are ideal. Adding to this is the power design; only half of the selectable powers actually harm enemies, the others are used only to modify their movement in various ways.
Proof of concept for power defense was achieved at the 2010 Global Game Jam. The game Cloudy With a Chance of Pain, which shares a programming team with Brink of Reality, was well received, taking two local honors. It also outlined room for improvement: abilities needed more variety in effects (not just dealing damage), the number needed to be further reduced to avoid mashing, and enemies needed more variety. We hope that our latest experiment improves not just on its predecessor, but on some of the weaknesses of its inspirations while offering players a fresh, new gameplay experience.
Brink Team
- Jonathan Merkle – Project Lead, Programmer
- Matthew Song – Programmer
- Kevin Kemp – Artist
- Justin Wall – Artist
- David Carls - Music
Special Thanks
Kevin Goodson - Website
The rest of the GGJ 2010 team, Concerned Citizens for Clouds
- Alex Sperr
- Joel Bowers
- Arthur Gould
- Lesa Wilcox