157 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
157 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
# Squadron TD Clone — Game Design Document
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## Overview
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A 1–8 player cooperative/competitive tower defense game inspired by Squadron Tower Defense (SC2 Arcade). Players choose a **builder race**, place towers that transform into fighters during combat, manage a worker economy, and optionally send bonus enemies at opponents. Survive 31 waves to win.
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---
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## Core Loop
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```
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Pick builder race → Place towers → Wave combat → Collect income → Send enemies → Repeat
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```
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Each round:
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1. **Build phase** — players spend minerals to place/upgrade towers.
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2. **Combat phase** — towers transform into fighter units and engage the wave automatically.
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3. **Income phase** — mineral income is paid out based on cumulative sends and upgrades.
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---
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## Player Count & Teams
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- **Solo (1):** one lane, self-sends only.
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- **Co-op (2–4):** shared team security system, each player holds their own lane.
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- **PvP (4v4):** two teams; players send enemies across to opponents.
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---
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## Lanes & Security System
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- Each player defends a **lane** of creep pathing.
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- All lanes converge on the **Security System** (shared HP pool per team).
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- If the Security System reaches 0 HP, the team loses.
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---
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## Builder Races
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Each race has a unique tower roster, stats profile, and upgrade tree. All races are balanced around different timing windows.
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| Race | Profile | Strengths |
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|---|---|---|
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| Ghost | High damage, low HP (glass cannon) | Early & late game |
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| Fortress | Low damage, high HP + buffs/debuffs | Early & mid game |
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| Phantom | Evasive, mixed melee/ranged | Mid & late game |
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| Ancient | Slow, extremely high damage AoE | Late game |
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Each race has roughly **8–12 towers** in a **tier tree**:
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- Tier 1: base units (cheap, unlocked immediately)
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- Tier 2: upgrades from Tier 1 (requires minerals + sometimes gas)
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- Tier 3: capstone units (high cost, powerful)
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Upgrading a tower **in place** morphs the sprite and updates stats.
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---
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## Towers / Fighters
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Towers placed during build phase transform into **fighter units** during combat. Fighters are fully AI-controlled.
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### Tower Data Fields
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| Field | Type | Notes |
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|---|---|---|
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| id | String | Unique identifier |
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| race | String | Builder race |
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| tier | Int | 1–3 |
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| cost_minerals | Int | Build cost |
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| cost_gas | Int | Upgrade cost (0 for tier 1) |
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| hp | Int | Fighter HP |
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| armor_type | Enum | Light / Medium / Heavy / Unarmored |
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| attack_type | Enum | Normal / Explosive / Concussive / Chaos |
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| damage | Int | Base damage per hit |
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| attack_speed | Float | Attacks per second |
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| range | Float | Attack range in tiles |
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| move_speed | Float | Fighter move speed |
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| upgrades_to | String? | Next tier tower ID |
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| strong_vs_waves | [Int] | Wave numbers this unit excels at |
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### Armor/Attack Type Matrix (damage multipliers)
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| | Normal | Explosive | Concussive | Chaos |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Light | 100% | 75% | 150% | 100% |
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| Medium | 100% | 100% | 75% | 100% |
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| Heavy | 100% | 150% | 50% | 100% |
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| Unarmored | 100% | 75% | 100% | 100% |
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---
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## Economy
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### Minerals
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- Passive income per round (base ~50, slight scaling).
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- Bonus income earned cumulatively by **sending** units or upgrading the Security System.
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- Spent on: building/upgrading towers.
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### Gas
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- Generated by **worker units** each round.
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- Spent on: sends, Security System upgrades, supply cap raises.
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### Workers
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- Each player starts with a few workers.
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- Build more workers early — aim for ~20 by wave 25.
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- Workers cost minerals; balance worker vs. tower investment.
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### Sends
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- Spend gas to send bonus creeps into an opponent's lane (or self in solo).
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- Each send type adds a permanent per-round income bonus.
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- Send income is cumulative — early sending snowballs economy.
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---
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## Waves
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31 total waves. Each wave definition:
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| Field | Notes |
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|---|---|
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| wave_number | 1–31 |
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| creep_type | Enum: Light, Armored, Mixed, Boss |
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| creep_armor | Armor type |
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| creep_count | Number of units |
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| creep_hp | Base HP |
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| creep_speed | Move speed |
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| bounty | Minerals per kill |
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- Waves 1–10: economy building phase, lighter creeps.
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- Waves 11–20: increasing pressure.
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- Waves 21–30: heavy creeps, economy should be near max.
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- Wave 31: boss/final wave.
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---
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## Security System
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- Shared team HP pool (e.g. 20 HP per player slot).
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- Creeps reaching the exit drain 1–5 HP depending on type.
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- Can be upgraded for gas (increases max HP and/or armor).
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---
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## Victory / Defeat
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- **Win:** Survive all 31 waves with Security System HP > 0.
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- **Lose:** Security System reaches 0 HP.
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- Scored by: waves survived, sends sent, Security System HP remaining.
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---
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## Stretch Features (post-MVP)
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- Chaos Mode (random race each round)
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- Spectator mode
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- Replay system
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- Persistent leaderboard
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