Hey everyone!
Welcome back to the third dev blog for Wave Defense: Trappist. Today, I want to take you behind the scenes of development and give you a glimpse of the redesign process that’s currently underway. As a solo developer, I’m constantly iterating on ideas, testing mechanics, and rethinking how the game plays to ensure it’s both fun and challenging. Lately, I’ve been focused on redesigning one of the game’s core mechanics: base-building.
The Old System: Limited Placement
When I first started working on Wave Defense: Trappist, the base-building system was fairly rigid. The player could only construct buildings in specific locations that I had predetermined. I would place markers across the map, and each marker had a designated building type that could be constructed there. While this gave me a lot of control over the layout and pacing of each level, it also felt a bit restrictive for the player.
Many of you have expressed an interest in having more freedom to choose how and where you build your base, and I totally agree that this would add a whole new layer of strategy to the game. After all, one of the joys of a game like this is the ability to experiment with different setups and playstyles.
The New System: Player Freedom with Base-Building
So I’ve been hard at work redesigning the base-building system to give you more control. In this new version, you’ll be able to build any facility—whether it’s a Power Plant, Trade Post, Droid Factory, or Manufacturing Plant—wherever you see fit. This gives you the freedom to craft your own strategies based on the situation at hand.
Want to create a heavily fortified zone around your Mission Control Facility? Go for it. Prefer to spread out your structures and create smaller, more specialized outposts? That’s also an option! The choice is yours, and I can’t wait to see the creative ways players will experiment with base layouts.
Challenges: Pathfinding and Balancing Freedom
Of course, with more freedom comes more complexity, and this redesign isn’t without its challenges. One of the biggest hurdles I’m facing right now is enemy pathfinding. In the previous system, the AI always knew exactly how to get to your buildings because they were in fixed, predictable locations. Now that the player has more freedom to build anywhere, there’s a risk that enemies might not be able to find their way to certain structures, making them impossible to attack.
This would create an unintentional loophole where players could potentially place important structures in “safe zones” that are unreachable by enemies, breaking the balance of the game.
The Current Solution: Restricted Building Zones
To solve this, I’m implementing a system where areas that enemies can’t pathfind to will be marked as restricted zones for building. These zones will appear as visually distinct areas, and the player won’t be able to place any structures there. Outside of these restricted zones, though, you’ll have complete freedom to build anywhere you want. This way, we maintain the challenge of defending your base from enemy attacks while still giving you a lot more flexibility in how you set things up.
Iterating and Testing
This kind of redesign is an iterative process, and I’m currently in the thick of testing different configurations. I’m tweaking the AI to ensure they can still navigate the environment and attack effectively, while also fine-tuning the balance to make sure that base-building feels fun and strategic without giving players too much of an advantage.
Another thing I’m focusing on is making sure the user interface for this new system is clear and easy to use. Building should feel intuitive, and restricted zones need to be obvious enough that players can immediately understand why certain areas are off-limits without disrupting the flow of the game.
What’s Next?
Moving forward, I’ll be continuing to test and refine this new system, but I’m excited about the direction it’s heading in. Giving players the freedom to design their base layouts opens up so many new strategic possibilities, and I believe it’s going to make base-building one of the most engaging aspects of Wave Defense: Trappist.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback! How do you feel about having more freedom in base-building? What challenges or opportunities do you think this will present? Let me know in the comments or on Discord—I’m always eager to hear your thoughts!