Wicked Defense v1.1 is out!

[LP]

We are proud to announce the release of Wicked Defense v1.1, being a vastly improved successor of the original game.


The new version comes with many improvements, including:

- New Last Stand gameplay, making infinite replayability of individual maps.
- An intuitive Map Editor, so you can make your own maps in minutes!
- A beautiful soundtrack, provided by Sonic Brilliance and LPChip Interactive.
- Interactive Ingame Instructions, so you can learn how to play in no time.
- MP3 playback, so you can listen to your favorite MP3 music while playing the game.
- 9 brand new maps for you to enjoy!
- Improved visual effects and many other minor improvements.


You can download the new version here (http://www.wicked-defense.com/download/WickedDefense11.exe).

[User137]

Sounds great! Screenshot please :P

[Huehnerschaender]

Congratulations Yuriy :)

[Traveler]

As said earlier, nice job! :wink:

Bumped to news!

[LP]

Sounds great! Screenshot please :P
Yes sir. :)

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6537/screen05dz0.th.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen05dz0.jpg) http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4263/screen06hj4.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen06hj4.jpg) http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/1198/screen07dc2.th.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen07dc2.jpg) http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7402/screen08ze7.th.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen08ze7.jpg) http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/2533/screen09in6.th.jpg (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen09in6.jpg) http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7404/editor00ub5.th.png (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=editor00ub5.png)

(The last one is game's map editor)

[arthurprs]

as i said before AWESOME :shock:

[WILL]

Wow, looks great Yuriy. Glad to see you really put the polish on the menus and tutorial. Smart choices all!

btw, like the new sig graphic. ;)

[arthurprs]

Shadows will be great :)

[Mirage]

Menus looks great.
After such polished menus these abstract monsters on abstract maps are looks strange. Very strange.
Which setting was used for this game?
Particle GFX looks good too.:)

Probably, you heard about Master of Defense - a game which has the same gameplay as yours but has a clear fantasy setting and plays very well.

[LP]

After such polished menus these abstract monsters on abstract maps are looks strange. Very strange.
Not strange, it is WICKED! :D


Which setting was used for this game?
What do you mean?


Probably, you heard about Master of Defense - a game which has the same gameplay as yours but has a clear fantasy setting and plays very well.
Are you sure it's the same gameplay? I have yet to see multi-category customizable towers, enemies with special abilities and casting spells in Master of Defense. :)

[LP]

The game has been updated to version 1.2.



Additions in this version are:

* Multiple targeting strategies for Tower AI: tell the tower what enemies you want to shoot!
* New background atmosphere with fancy visual effects.
* Finite number of levels, which allows you to actually win a map.
* Spell Shortcuts for the hardcore spell casters!
* Fixes in Instructions manual and other bug fixes.


You can download the latest version here (http://www.wicked-defense.com/download/WickedDefenseSetup.exe).

Obligatory screenshots:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1456/image01dy9.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image01dy9.jpg) http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5744/image02ax9.th.png (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image02ax9.png) http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/7097/image03eg4.th.jpg (http://img472.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image03eg4.jpg)

[czar]

Hi Lifepower,

I just tried your demo. Congratulations on a very polished looking game. Visually it is impressive. I hope it sells well.

Does it work with older computers?
(e.g. computer that don't have pixel shader 1.4 or better)

I find that many people have laptop computers with really poor graphic support. How do you deal with customers that buy your games but have trouble playing them on their computers because of technical reasons?

[LP]

Thank you for your comments Czar!

The game does not run on older hardware and it has "so-so" quality on pre-SM2 hardware.

In the demo we try to detect video card capabilities early on and notify the user if there is a problem. Other than that, we can't do much.

The good news is that time works for our advantage - with Windows Vista getting popular we're getting more potential customers capable of running the game in high quality settings (SM2 hardware).

[jasonf]

I'm so totally loving the music for this game :D

I mean, I really like the gameplay too, but I've got the music from the shareware version playing in the background while I'm working on Crashblock :D

In the registered version, is there more music?

[LP]

In the registered version, is there more music?
Nope. :(

But yeah, I also run the game minimized sometimes just for the sake of soundtrack. :D And sometimes even for its MP3 playback!

[Huehnerschaender]

Played it yesterday for 2 hours or so...

Very nice... I was surprised that its running absolutely smooth on my laptop with highest settings.

Again, great work Yuriy. How is it selling? Are you satisfied with it?

[jasonf]

I've just noticed on Bytten, the indy review site.. Wicked Defense score 92% Nicely Done Guys :D :clap:

http://www.bytten.com/gamereview.php?id=256

[Traveler]

Indeed a very nice score! It's now among the top games on that site, I see.

[waran]

I played the Demo - the game is quite nice and fun but I personally
won't pay for that. There are games which are free and equally good.

However, I hope too that you are making great sales since the
game, among others, ROCKS!

[savage]

I played the Demo - the game is quite nice and fun but I personally
won't pay for that. There are games which are free and equally good.

Does that mean you never pay for sequels to games either because "it's already been done and is old hat" and the only things that may be new are the graphics and sound? If you so you are a rare gamer.

I personally, am looking forward to Metal Gear Solid 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 and will gladly pay for the same game mechanics if it is done well.

[jasonf]

I won't buy a generic First person shooter, 'cos they've been done to death I feel.. they're like platform games in the 90's.

But I believe that Wicked defense adds something new to the genre, it's got tonnes of atmosphere for a start and it doesn't conform to the usual rules or physics we're all used to.

There are a lot of free ones and some of them are fun, but this is a different game in my opinion. it's a lot more graphically intensive than anything you can do in a flash game for a start, the weapons behave in unusual ways and you've got spells you can case to splat the baddies :twisted:

If you can find a free game which offers the same, I'd be interested to know about it and so would the author I think. If for no other reason than to alter their game to make it stand out a little more.

It's true that Indy game developers have a huge battle on their hands to get past the view which some people hold (not yourself I'll add) that anything not written by a big company is of a poor quality and therefore should be free.. I disagree with that mentality, you'll find a lot more innovation in indy games than the big names, probably just because indy developers will take risks in unproven markets whereas companies like Microsoft know they can make shed loads of money with Halo3.. so why bother innovating?.

This leaves the competition with free games to worry about, and some of them are awesome.
I guess in the end, the shareware/commercial game has to add something else which a free game either doesn't or can't. This is the tricky part.. and if someone has the answer, please let me know ;)

Sometimes free games surpass commercial games in terms of quality and gameplay, but I'd say that was the exception rather than the rule. If a small team is making a game commercially, they will pour every ounce they have into it, simply because if they don't, they will not survive. The market is too harsh and gamers are very picky.

What cracks me up is, some gamers will spend £40 on the latest EA Football cloneamattic, £4.50 on a big mac meal and will complain about spending £5-£10 on a game which is a lot of fun to play, took someone months to write and will take a lot longer to complete than the burger ever will :lol:

My 2p

[LP]

I've been looking forward Bytten's review for some time and am gladly surprised to get 92% score. :)

Thank you guys for your comments! We have planned an update for the next year introducing additional elements like online highscores, non-squared map layout and scripting.

In the meantime we're close to finishing another game title. ;)

[waran]

Ok, I read your answers and from what I understand are you taking me wrong.

First: Yes, Im a causal gamer. Because of this I generally like games like
WickedDefense.
Its right that (popular) commercial games are mostly shooters ... thats
the reason why I dont buy most of them.

However there are damned good commercial games like 'Penumbra'.
Penubra is really great and rocks about anything announced as popular Shooter.
Price is 15€ last time I checked.

Now to WickedDefense: Im not only not buying the sequel (@savage)
but the whole game. Its all about proportionality: Penumbra (hard ass
rocking, 15€) and WickedDefense (quite fun but nothing 'titanic' - 20€).

Of course this is my personal opinion; I consider buying it at the current
discount-price, maybe :)

P.S: Annother nice OSS-Game: Neverball (icculus.org/neverball)

[jasonf]

Well, I for one am quite glad Wicked Defence is nothing Titanic, The Titanic sank on it's maiden voyage.. ;) (sorry, couldn't help myself)

I hear what your saying. I don't think we took you wrong, I think we just vented a little frustration about the shareware market (that's what I did anyway, It's been a tough week, sorry about that)

On the GreatGamesExperiment, Penumbra: Overture is quoted at $23.59 and the demo is a snip at 115mb, I'm not sure if that includes the whole game, probably not as shooters tend to be heavy on the media. I've tried writing 3D stuff and it's always been in the art department where plans fell on their faces.

Wicked Defence on the other hand is (currently) listed at $9.99 on GGE (promotional offer) but then it was only $20 to start with...so we're really only haggling over change.. The file size is only 20mb, as all of the models are procedurally generated (AFAIK). I've played a few tower defence games and they mostly bored me.. this one kept my interest though, just zooming in and watching the carnage is great fun.. you can see the towers recharging and then letting loose with the mayhem.. in fact, it's a shame that it's possible to play the game zoomed out as you miss so much stuff :D

I'm downloading the demo for Penumbra right now so I'll be able to see what you mean when comparing to other shooters. From the screen shots, it looks quite nice. But then, we have been quite spoiled with the first person shooter genre with AAA titles (I lose track these days). The days of run around textured CSG level, shoot dumb monsters are long gone. Any team who can seriously compete with other games in the genre these days who aren't a massively funded entity, get my utter respect.

My frustration is that there seems to be a core of vocal gamers who believe that anything not AAA is not worth bothering with, especially with FPS games. I had kids watching me filming footage for Crashblock walk off in disbelief when I told them it wouldn't be on the XBox.. ..like I was wasting my time.

Thankfully, there are a lot of people who really don't get on with First Person Shooters who like something a little more intelligent to whilse a way the odd hour or two. In fact, I had a nice little nuggat of info from the owner of a AAA company working on PS3 titles (You'd know them If I told you who they were).. he told me that it's not the HardCore gamer who's the biggest customer... It's Granny, buying a game for little Tommy.. Seriously. get through to Gran and you're sorted.

I played Wicked Defence again today and I believe it's a game which grows on you. Personally, I couldn't play it all night, but I did lose about an hour and a half to it this evening, which I think is the market they were aiming for.

[WILL]

Hey, glad to hear about the 92 at Bytten! :thumbup:

Personally, I think that Wicked Defense is graphically, one of the most beautiful games I'd seen this past year. I've only got to play it a little bit, but is seems WAY different than most of the Tower Defense games that have been around lately. In fact, there was another one that is up against Jason in the IGF that I think (and this is only my opinion) WD would kick the crap out of visually and from a game mechanics perspective.

And seeing as the 'Sound' got a higher rating than the graphics in the review, I think that once I get the chance, I'll have to go check out the newer version just to hear the music. :)


About the price, I think that $20 might be a touch high for me as well, but thats because I don't usually have much cash for games and well I'm kinda cheap that way. What can I say. :P

It does seem to match the market prices though so I'd say it's not really bad that way.


Yuriy, this game needs to be taken to next year's IGF! Or the new version you guys are planning. Seriously! :D

[jasonf]

I've just played the demo of Penumbra, ... and I think I need to go and have a lie down for a moment...

This is what I'm talking about.. Innovation, story. Atmosphere. This is not a generic FPS, at this point I don't even have a gun.. just a hammer (as far as I can tell.. in the demo, does it end really soon for everyone or do I just suck at it?.. I might play it again to see.. 115mb does seem a lot for something so short.. perhaps there's more) Excellent physics using Newton, amazing sound track.. it's obviously put together by a very tallented team. The atmosphere is brilliant.. I can see why you singled it out as a really amazing example of an Indy game done well. This game will sell bucket loads.

However, comparing this game with Wicked Defense is a little unfair. They are completely different genres with different requirements.

Penumbra sets out to be a scary game. It can only survive by having an engaging storyline, spooky music.. It's an adventure game and they've built in a neat interraction system which works really well with the physics system. It's not a shooter as much as it is an adventure horror game. In this respect, Penumbra achieves its objectives well and deserves to be a success.

Wicked Defence can claim an equal level of success in meeting its objectives. It tries to make add a new perspective to the defense genre. All other defense games have items which the player can easily relate to, Wicked defence forces the player to use their imagination and explore a little.. "I wonder what happens if I give my Wicked Hands tower another weapon?".. the monsters are unique and don't conform to the usual known list of monster like so many other games. Placement and stratergy are very important as are upgrades. The basics are the same as all creep defense games but the way it's handled is so nice that it all sits seamlessly together.

In terms of what they were trying to achieve, they both nail the target in the bulls eye.

The rest is down to personal preference and how cheap one is ;)