Hey Guys, I need a little help.

As you may or may not know, we (theIndieAccord) recently “soft launched” our first game, Elette.

It has been received pretty well, with a couple let’s plays, a feature on itch.io, and a review on indiestatik (http://indiestatik.com/2013/10/16/defend-notte-during-an-epic-last-stand-elette/). We spent months crafting the story and characters, focused on setting the exact right mood with music and sound, and the game’s graphics are always praised. (Rightly so, our artist is amazing!)

Some screenshots if you are not familiar:

(You basically shoot down from the tower at zombies)

But we have been plagued with one problem the whole time. As indiestatik’s Chris Priestman put it:

“Honestly, Elette is very action-packed and well put together…outside of the core gameplay. It’s just a little too simplistic to really compel you for long – tower defense with clicks and not much thought.”

Or spydoggs gamejolt review:

“The cutscene graphics are crazy cool. The gameplay, however, isn’t so great. I was underwhelmed by the click-click-click arrow-shooting action. It got repetitive very quickly”

We have heard this sentiment from many places online. It makes sense, all you really do is click and shoot. There is a bit of strategy in deflecting enemy arrows, killing the strongest enemies first, and deciding what power ups you get. However, the actual core gameplay is just aiming. You basically just do one thing.

So my question for you guys, is what would you like to see? What could we do to bring the gameplay up to the same level as the story and art? I have put a lot of effort into this game, and it is our first release, so I feel extra pressure to make a good first impression. I am nervous to keep pushing the game when everyone brings up this point.

We have thought of many ideas. These include:

• Power ups that float into the game and you have to “get” them

• Being able to move dead zombies around (stack them up to make walls?)

• Adding in some sort of “combo” and score system

• Making the user avoid zombies or something else with the mouse while still shooting

• Some sort of shooting power bar, so if you shoot a lot you cannot shoot far. and it slowly regenerates your power.

• A limited amount of arrows, maybe zombies drop them and you have to mouseover to pick them up?

Are these ideas any good? I feel like a lot of them are just the same thing as the game is now: clicking and moving your mouse in a lot of repetitive tasks.