Development Update: Cards and Tokens
about 6 years ago – Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 03:41:21 PM

Hi, everyone!

At every moment, we’re grateful that you’ve given us this opportunity to live life with Defense of the Citadel. We’ve been taking extra care on this journey, so as to realize this game in high quality. Let’s look at our progress!

Cards

Arts and Details

We have re-worked on each card to improve the graphics and game mechanics, making each of them more unique and fun for the game. Remember we have elite versions of the enemy units now? That silver icon on the right-hand side of each enemy unit card represents the elite version.

The Boss Cards

The semi-boss and boss cards (i.e. Terror Slayer, The General, Naga Witch and Knight Dragon) have a wide range of mechanics and skills that can change the situations of the battlefields completely!

The elite versions of bosses are the greatest challenges to the players of Defense of the Citadel! Please have fun with these cards!

Tokens

Besides the damage tokens, we have the first-player token, poison tokens, curse tokens and event tokens.

First-Player Token

This token is used to decide which player should take his or her turn first. After every phase the first-player token is moved onto the next player.

Damage Token

This token is used most frequently in the game to indicate how much damages an enemy unit has taken. For normal enemy units it is stacked underneath the miniature model; for bosses it is placed onto the boss cards. When the damage token is equal to the HP of that enemy, the enemy unit and all the damage tokens assigned to the enemy unit are removed from the game.

Poison Token

Poison is a powerful weapon that can be applied to both the player characters and enemy units. Every turn it takes away 1 HP until it is removed. Only 1 poison token can be applied to a given unit.

Curse Token

Similar to the poison, a cursed player character will be taken away 1 EP per turn. When it is applied to an enemy unit, that enemy unit becomes limited to moving 1 square and 1 attack per turn. Like poison, only 1 curse token can be applied to a given unit.

Event Token Red, Blue, Green and Orange

These tokens can be used for multiple purposes, depending on the scenarios. Sometimes it will be placed on a tile to indicate a treasure or switch. Sometimes it indicates an invasion event or a location to reach.

We hope to share more about our production progress in the next update! Thank you for being here with your kindness and patience! Before we speak again next time, please take care!

Development Update: Enemy Units & Combats
about 6 years ago – Wed, Mar 07, 2018 at 02:59:46 PM

Hi, everyone!

We are grateful to reach you and speak to you again!
This time let us get closer to the enemy forces and combats in Defense of the Citadel.

Enemy Units

In Defense of the Citadel, actions start with brutal enemies marching into the Citadel. Invasions are what you need to overcome. By default, all enemy units can move two squares per turn. Each can attack one hero which is within its specific range per turn. The specific ranges are indicated on the relevant enemy unit cards, which also specify the unique characteristics and abilities of the enemy types.

Enemy unit card (standard version): Skeleton Archer
Miniature: Skeleton Archer

For each type of miniature units, we will have one enemy unit card. Below is an explanation of what each section on the card means:

a) The name of the enemy type.
b) The portrait of the enemy units which corresponds to the miniatures.
c) The HP of the enemy type, indicating the amount of damage tokens it can take.
d) The attributes of the enemy type. From left to right the symbols represent: strength, agility, magic, range.
e) One of the attributes is highlighted with a red number in a black background. This is the primary attribute of the enemy type.
f) Special rules and conditions attributed to the enemy type. In the sample above, the “Undead” takes extra damages from certain skills.

Enemy unit cards are printed on both sides. One side represents the “standard version”, and the other side represents the “elite version”.

The elite versions are much stronger. As a scenario or campaign develops further, the enemy waves would build up with more elites. The enemy units (elite version) are represented by the same miniatures as the standard version – either one version will appear in a scenario or campaign. Below is the elite version of the Skeleton Archer, namely the Skeleton Sniper.

Enemy unit card (elite version): Skeleton Sniper

Combats

Player Attacks

You can attack one enemy unit at a time. You can attack enemies in three ways: through using class skills, items or performing a basic attack with your weapons. In most cases, an attack is determined by the attributes of the player and the enemy type. For example, in a basic attack, you can choose a target within range. Then, you can select one of the three attributes the attack is made with. After selecting the attribute, you must roll a D6 dice and beat the number shown on the enemy unit card (taking into account any positive or negative effects).

If you succeed, you can inflict certain damage to the enemy unit. This is indicated by placing the damage token underneath the enemy miniature. When this damage token equals the enemy unit’s HP, the enemy is defeated and returns to the side of the board. 

 An example of damage tokens

Although this rarely happens, when the difference in attributes is overwhelming and greater than six, you can skip the dice roll step, and go straight to the results.

Defending Enemy Attacks

During the enemy phase, the table turns and the players are then on the defending side! When a player is within the range, the enemy would attack him/her with its primary attribute.

Similar to attacking, the player must roll a D6 dice and beat the number shown on the enemy unit card (taking into account any positive or negative effects). If the player succeeds, he/she has deflected the attack and remains unharmed; otherwise the player takes damage and loses 1 HP.

Incapacitated and Assisting

If the HP is reduced to 0, the player is “incapacitated”, and can no longer take any action. The miniature is placed sideways on the spot, and remains there until another player character enters the same square and assists that player to get back up.

Assisting can only be done on a square with no enemy unit by using 1 EP. After the player is assisted, he/she recovers back to 1 HP and can resume the battle against the invasion.

Defense of the Citadel is a cooperative game. Players will soon realize that they are overrun by enemy forces if they try to do things alone!

We hope to share more about our progress in the next update! Thank you so much for being here with us!

Development Update: Box and Tiles
over 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 10:06:23 PM

Hi, everyone!

We are especially excited, since this is to show you the prototypes of our game box and game tiles! We feel so good about the touch and quality of these prototypes! 

Box

The game box will carry Defense of the Citadel to your hands!

Tiles

All your hero and monster miniatures will be starting real battles on these tiles! These are some of the tiles in the game.

The tiles are double-sided, with a unique game environment on each side. You can design your own combinations and specializations with these, and customize your own citadels for the battles! 

Chinese New Year is coming next week, and we will carry along our spirit to the Year of Dog! We hope to share more of the gameplay about combat and enemy units next time!

Thank you so much for staying with us on this wonderful journey! 

Wish you all a prosperous Year of Dog! 恭喜發財!

Development Update: Characters and Classes
over 6 years ago – Sun, Jan 07, 2018 at 06:54:14 PM

Hi, everyone!

Happy 2018! We couldn’t wait to come back to you with an update to the game! As mentioned, this time we would look into characters and classes.

Characters

The customization of this game starts with your selection of a character from one of the races in the world of Defense of the Citadel. As we all would place our character sheets in front of our eyes, they should look great and be easy to read. Here’s the new look of one of the character sheets:

Let’s have a look at what each section represents:

(a) The racial name.

(b) The portrait of the character, with a miniature representing the player.

(c) HP: this bar represents the health of the character. A red wooden cube is used to keep track. Different races have different maximum HP levels.

(d) EP: this bar represents the energy of the character. A green wooden cube is used to keep track. Different races have different maximum EP levels.

(e) This section represents the attribute bonuses the character receives on various actions throughout the game.

(f) & (g) The racial traits of the character are passive bonuses. This is a condition that would apply to players throughout the game.

(h) & (i) Areas for the player to place the first and second sets of class-skill cards (facing up).

(j), (k) & (l) Areas to display weapons, armors and items respectively. The player can only place one card per section.

There are five races (six if including the add-on) to choose from. Each has specific HP/EP values, attribute bonuses and racial traits.

*Exclusively for the Kickstarter version, the character sheets will be double-sided, with one side showing the male version and the other side the female version. Character statistics of both versions are identical. It’s up to players’ aesthetic preferences to select either version each time.

Classes

To turbo up the level of customization, “classes” allow players to gain access to all sorts of powerful skills for the battles in Defense of the Citadel. Each scenario in “scenario game mode” determines the number of “expertise points” each player can be having each time. Players can use these points to learn the skills from up to two classes.

Let’s have a look at what each section represents:

(a) The name of the class skill.

(b) The energy needed to use this skill.

(c) The range that this skill can be used. The first number is the minimum range and the second number is the maximum range.

(d) The attribute type of this skill. It means that the damage this skill deals with is of that type. If there are multiple attributes in display, the player can choose to use different damage types for this skill.

(e) Class skill’s special rules.

(f) The number of expertise points you need to acquire this skill.

Each class skill can only be used once per turn. When it’s used, the cards should be turned sideways to indicate that they have been used in that turn. In the next turn, the player can straighten the cards to indicate that the skill can be used again.

We hope to share more about our production in the next update!

Thank you so much for being with us! Let’s have a wonderful 2018 together!

Development Update: Gameplay
over 6 years ago – Wed, Dec 06, 2017 at 05:01:04 PM

Hi, everyone!

It has always been a great pleasure to connect with you! We’re so grateful to have heard from some of you telling us about how we are liked because of the two key aspects of the gameplay: crafting and game modes. Let's look into more details.

Crafting and Customization

One key element of Defense of the Citadel is to let players craft the game environment and customize the gameplay according to their own styles. Through keeping track of the “resource points”, which are represented by hammer icons on each tile and item, players can create their own customized game world in the Citadel according to their preferences. We hope that this part of the game will increase the enjoyment of the gameplay so that every time you play, you find yourself being new to such environment and can always find new elements throughout the gameplay.

The below are examples of hammer icons as “resource points” on tiles and item cards:

In the examples, you will have to use two resource points to create the Frost Circle tile and one resource point to create the Arcane Wand. (Note: a flask icon indicates that you need the Arcane Lab unlocked as a prerequisite to create this tile/item.)

Likewise, the Arcane Lab is a tile you can craft using resource points. There are three types of such facilities: the Arcane Lab, the Forge and Workshop. Most of the higher tier items require two or even three facility combinations which force you to be specializing on using the resource points.

Game Mode: Scenario

In Scenario mode, players are given a pre-set scenario with specific conditions. Each scenario has no impact on other scenarios. Together with the customized game environment created with the tiles, players can have a unique experience in the gameplay each time.

The tile setup comes with some rules as follows:

• 1. Each square in the tiles must have a path to the heart.
• 2. Tiles' entry/exit edges must match: you cannot have a blocked entrance on one side! 

Each scenario will define the number of resource points available for each player. It’s up to the players how they use the resource points to achieve the scenario goal.

Here is an example of a scenario: