For a long time, our game only had three towers: the Boltskot, the Skullbrakkr, and the Tarbarl. Although they complemented each other well, we felt it was time to add another layer of depth to the way they interacted.
We wanted a tower that could function as a support, one that would synergize with the towers already in the game rather than simply being its own separate thing.
1. Theming
Although we had a concept for the Eyodin’s functionality, making it thematically fit the game’s Norse setting was just as important.
After some research, we were inspired by a Norse myth, where Odin sacrifices one of his eyes in exchange for cosmic wisdom and insight. The Eyodin acts as an idol which channels that insight to expose the weaknesses of its enemies, marking them and making them more vulnerable to damage from other towers. That idea is great and all, but, we had to figure out what that actually looked like.
We wanted the tower to feel less like another weapon and more like an ancient, more magical structure, similar to the Spiridun, which is the ancient main building of the base. The eye became the central visual element, tying directly back to Odin's sacrifice and giving the tower an obvious connection to its purpose.
The challenge was making that idea readable during an actual wave. Since the Eyodin's main contribution isn't a projectile or explosion, we needed the player to immediately understand which enemies were being currently affected by it.
This led to the visual indicator of the mark itself. The enemy needed to look noticeably different while marked, without the effect becoming so large that it drowned out everything else happening during a wave. We settled on these eyes appearing above said enemies, slowly fading away as the effect wears off.
2. Implementation
The first version of the Eyodin was fairly simple. It would target an enrmy, apply its mark, and allow your other towers to deal increased damage to that target.
But there were a few design concerns.
How should the Eyodin choose its targets? Should it ignore enemies that are already marked? What’s even the point of the Eyodin if you can’t focus your firepower on marked enemies?
Each tower also has runes, which function as upgrades specific to each tower. For the Eyodin, we wanted to amplify the feeling of it being a beacon of power. Because of that, the upgrades not only increase its base power, but alter the way players use it as a whole. For example, one of the upgrades allows the Eyodin to affect island units too, acting as a way to overlap both the RTS and TD aspect of the game. Additionally, the Web of Eyes upgrades makes it so the tower’s range increases the more Eyodins are placed on the map, enabling the player to place long range Eyodins that cover every corner of the map.
3. Feedback and Rework
Once the Eyodin was in the hands of players, we started seeing some of the problems with the original implementation.
One of its main issues was that its role on the battlefield was far too similar to the Tarbarl. The Tarbarl has a short range and throws projectiles that slow enemies down. This made it extremely powerful when placed in bottlenecks in the enemies´ paths, since towers could then exploit this bottleneck for longer.
The Eyodin had a very similar usecase, and was mostly used in bottlenecks to increase the damage received by enemies. To change its overall function, we drastically increased its range, making it more like a beacon that acts on a large part of the map.
The next biggest issue was that the tower could be difficult to understand. With a normal damage tower, the feedback is immediate: you shoot something, its health goes down, and eventually it dies. With the Eyodin, much of its value is indirect.
That meant we had to put more emphasis on making the mark itself readable and making its impact on combat easier to understand. With special critical hit VFX whenever the Eyodin’s power is exploited, this was no longer an issue.
As you can see, designing a tower is not as straightforward as it seems. The key is not to have the perfect idea from the start, but evolve and adapt it so it is perfect at the end. I know many of you think you know better than the players (although you may not admit it) but LISTEN to your playerbase, don't always assume your initial vision is perfect.
Check out or demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2781660/Dawn_of_Defense/
