Deciding how enemies spawn in each lane requires careful planning on the part of the level designer. Each of the three lanes — ground, air, and the optional, sub-objective blocked lanes — are balanced differently, and each designer has different balance goals depending on the map being created. Ultimately, though, the goal of all level designers is to provide a fun and challenging experience for the player.

We want to avoid the need for players to build the same defensive structures in every lane, as we feel it robs them of any sense of choice or agency. Until recently, we had a limited selection of core enemies to use — just the standard Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and other monsters from DD1. To promote as much spawn diversity as possible, every ground enemy was placed in every ground lane, creating situations where you knew you were going to have a certain mix of all enemy types in each lane.

<a href="http://www.dungeondefenders2.com/enemies-and-balance-creating-engaging-enemy-encounters/">Read More</a>

<a href="http://www.dungeondefenders2.com/enemies-and-balance-creating-engaging-enemy-encounters/"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/dd2-site-uploads/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spawn-Blog.jpg"></img></a>

Deciding how enemies spawn in each lane requires careful planning on the part of the level designer. Each of the three lanes — ground, air, and the optional, sub-objective blocked lanes — are balanced differently, and each designer has different balance goals depending on the map being created. Ultimately, though, the goal of all level designers is to provide a fun and challenging experience for the player.

We want to avoid the need for players to build the same defensive structures in every lane, as we feel it robs them of any sense of choice or agency. Until recently, we had a limited selection of core enemies to use — just the standard Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and other monsters from DD1. To promote as much spawn diversity as possible, every ground enemy was placed in every ground lane, creating situations where you knew you were going to have a certain mix of all enemy types in each lane.

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In the original Dungeon Defenders, elemental weapon drops added a lot of variety to an already loot-rich experience. However, the elemental visuals were, in retrospect, an afterthought. If we wanted to convey that a sword was poisonous, we simply attached a poison idle ‘smoke & bubbles’ effect to the weapon and added a secondary noxious gas hit effect on top of the base hit effect. This method did a reasonably good job of getting the point across, but the process and the media that resulted was far from polished.

We had a simple library of about 20 VFX to represent 3 different elemental idle and impact effects (electric, fire, and poison) that could be applied to any one of the 150+ unique models for our four basic weapon types.



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In the original Dungeon Defenders, elemental weapon drops added a lot of variety to an already loot-rich experience. However, the elemental visuals were, in retrospect, an afterthought. If we wanted to convey that a sword was poisonous, we simply attached a poison idle ‘smoke & bubbles’ effect to the weapon and added a secondary noxious gas hit effect on top of the base hit effect. This method did a reasonably good job of getting the point across, but the process and the media that resulted was far from polished.

We had a simple library of about 20 VFX to represent 3 different elemental idle and impact effects (electric, fire, and poison) that could be applied to any one of the 150+ unique models for our four basic weapon types.



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Salutations! Welcome to this month’s installment of the QA Blog: Bugs, Bugs and Beyond! [Working Title]. Today, we present a look at the QA process itself via the lifecycle of the bug (to give it its proper Latin name, Qaticus Mebur Bugis).


The QA process begins when a bug is discovered:



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Salutations! Welcome to this month’s installment of the QA Blog: Bugs, Bugs and Beyond! [Working Title]. Today, we present a look at the QA process itself via the lifecycle of the bug (to give it its proper Latin name, Qaticus Mebur Bugis).


The QA process begins when a bug is discovered:



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In the first Dungeon Defenders, players could swap between an unlimited number of heroes during a match. This had several benefits, including the ability for individuals to access more than just one set of defenses. It also encouraged players to create multiple heroes -- and sometimes specialized versions of the same hero -- to use in a single match.

But this system created a few issues. Leveling multiple heroes became the only way to play -- you couldn’t complete the late-game content using a single hero. In addition to this, it discouraged true, four-player co-op in which every player has the chance to contribute to the build strategy. Instead, designated builders would bring in their heroes and tell other players not to take part in the defensive setup.



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In the first Dungeon Defenders, players could swap between an unlimited number of heroes during a match. This had several benefits, including the ability for individuals to access more than just one set of defenses. It also encouraged players to create multiple heroes -- and sometimes specialized versions of the same hero -- to use in a single match.

But this system created a few issues. Leveling multiple heroes became the only way to play -- you couldn’t complete the late-game content using a single hero. In addition to this, it discouraged true, four-player co-op in which every player has the chance to contribute to the build strategy. Instead, designated builders would bring in their heroes and tell other players not to take part in the defensive setup.



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The life of a young Javelin Thrower in the Old Ones’ army is hard work. Since birth these adorable-looking critters are told to focus on one thing and one thing only -- beefing up the strength in their right arm. All in hopes of being drafted into the army to get that one throw that might pierce through the Heroes’ defenses and shatter an Eternia Crystal. Or at least that’s how I imagine it.


The Javelin Thrower is designed to be a medium-to-long range Artillery style enemy.



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The life of a young Javelin Thrower in the Old Ones’ army is hard work. Since birth these adorable-looking critters are told to focus on one thing and one thing only -- beefing up the strength in their right arm. All in hopes of being drafted into the army to get that one throw that might pierce through the Heroes’ defenses and shatter an Eternia Crystal. Or at least that’s how I imagine it.


The Javelin Thrower is designed to be a medium-to-long range Artillery style enemy.



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