When a big juicy seedling sits in the middle of the green grass, it's juts natural that bugs will come after it! Now only the vital forces of those mysterious mushrooms can save it...
Mechanics
The game is a tower defense in which the towers grow and can be harvested for resources that can be then used to grow new towers.
To add a new tower, click on an empy spot and click the button corresponding to the tower you wish to add.
To harvest a tower, click on it and then on the "looping arrows" icon under it. Check if it's fully grown yet, and how much resource it'll actually yield before!
Towers
- Shroom Tower: the basic tower, slow and not very strong... but you have to start with something! - Rapidberry Bush: rapid firing, but slow to grow. - Shrieker: able to attack all enemies in its range of attack, it takes a while but can be worth it! - Crimson Cranium: damages anything in its vicinity, continuously. It also yields a lot of resources, if you have the time to wait for it to grow!
Running the Game
The ZIP files provided contain self-contained executable files that should run in your OS of choice without downloading LÖVE2D.
If you prefer, though, download LÖVE2D (version 11) and run the .love package provided as *source*.
Hm... the idea is really neat. Having to wait for the better towers is good too. But I don't know if it's just me or if the game could use some difficulty balancing? Before any tower grows, the seed loses lots of HP, so I'm not sure if I should destroy the towers and move them (fewer of them, though) closer/in line, it's just a little discouraging that before I can do anything, it's half lost. But maybe there's a strategy I haven't figured out yet! Another option would be slightly slower start... but admittedly, I am the kind of person that plays on easy mode to get used to the game before upping the difficulty. :)
Then there's one more thing; I think an addition of start/end menu would really improve the experience. It would be a nice alternative to the game window just closing (I'm using regular Windows version). But I don't know if that's easy to do with the software you used.
@ynneblack You're absolutely right! Unfortunately, balancing was left to the late stage of development, and since I didn't have the whole monday free for that, balancing on the tower powers and the critter waves was not really done. I just stuck with my initial loosely defined assumptions.
Still, letting the player take some hits before the towers get competent or they can generate some decent resources was intentional. The intention was showing that if the bugs reach your seed, that's bad. :P
And yes, the lack of a menu or game over overlay was another oversight. It really wouldn't be that hard, I just put way too much focus on the core gameplay and left that for the end (and then never did it)
Tower defense in a jam? Sure, why not. It is simple and functional every time.
I really like the idea of continually growing and selling towers to buy new ones, leaving the base exposed while planting and nurturing new saplings. This idea would be more interesting if enemies also attacked the towers, and not only the center stem. Building defenses for the money making, less powerful, plants, sometimes having to sacrifice powerful towers when the situation calls for it, would be intense.
Currently recycling a tower is an economical choice rather than a sacrifice. Sacrifices are about risk, giving away something valuable for an uncertain benefit. If you are forced act in a certain way to strive forward, then it is hardly a sacrifice. I didn't get this aspect right either, so...
I haven't run the numbers, but Shriekers seem like the most cost effective unit. The Craniums only receive a dmg bonus after a lengthy growth period, while the Shriekers get their damage up quickly and yield a tidy profit of 100 on lvl.3: a safe investment.
The enemy wave balancing is off; I left my Shrieker fort running for a while:
There is no challenge, i.e no fun, after about 5 minutes.
The visuals are nice. The plants have character to them; animations would improve matters even further.
@huvaakoodia I very much appreciate the in-depth commentary. Here are a few responses...
The game was poorly balanced and polished, yes. The idea took me a night of sleep to finally come, and I missed most of monday due to work, so I did it all in around 48 hours. I left polish and even basic interface (like a main menu) for later. This is not a defense, just maybe a statement of self-awareness, I suppose :P
My thought of "sacrifice" is that selling a grown tower means resources, but also means having to rely on weaker towers for a while, which can be devastating. Of course, as you've shown there are strategies that minimize the impact of the sacrifice. My personal one while play-testing was to sell two shrooms and replace them with 3 new ones until the base was surrounded and then start to work on the Shriekers.
Glad you had fun, and also glad to see a screenshot of a game I made posted by someone else. That's really satisfying. :)
Nice concept, but the game would need a bit more polish. I didn't find out how to check how much something costs and overall didn't quite get how the individual towers worked.
Really neat idea! I included it in my compilation video series of games from the Ludum Dare, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/o0MHxxyY-UU
It's a fun tower defense game. I had a good time tinkering with the different tower types but got nowhere near the fortress @huvaakoodia built. My best try ended at Level 49 I guess. I don't see the theme since it's not really sacrificing something if you get rewarded instantly for it but thanks for the great game nonetheless!
The idea to combine plant growing with tower defense is nice! But... I have no idea how win this... I don't have any resources at the beginning, so all I can do is destroy some of the towers, which aren't even able to defend the first wave of enemies by themselves. I managed to replace some towers with more expensive ones, but they didn't seem any more effective. Am I missing something? Maybe I'm just stupid... :sweat_smile: Anyway, some more graphical feedback about how much damage my towers are doing would be great. Also, I don't know if that's a bug, but my game just crashed whenever my base died. I like the graphics and perspective a lot! And with some relaxing music I'm sure this would be a great casual game!
Comments12
Then there's one more thing; I think an addition of start/end menu would really improve the experience. It would be a nice alternative to the game window just closing (I'm using regular Windows version). But I don't know if that's easy to do with the software you used.
Still, letting the player take some hits before the towers get competent or they can generate some decent resources was intentional. The intention was showing that if the bugs reach your seed, that's bad. :P
And yes, the lack of a menu or game over overlay was another oversight. It really wouldn't be that hard, I just put way too much focus on the core gameplay and left that for the end (and then never did it)
I really like the idea of continually growing and selling towers to buy new ones, leaving the base exposed while planting and nurturing new saplings. This idea would be more interesting if enemies also attacked the towers, and not only the center stem. Building defenses for the money making, less powerful, plants, sometimes having to sacrifice powerful towers when the situation calls for it, would be intense.
Currently recycling a tower is an economical choice rather than a sacrifice. Sacrifices are about risk, giving away something valuable for an uncertain benefit. If you are forced act in a certain way to strive forward, then it is hardly a sacrifice. I didn't get this aspect right either, so...
I haven't run the numbers, but Shriekers seem like the most cost effective unit. The Craniums only receive a dmg bonus after a lengthy growth period, while the Shriekers get their damage up quickly and yield a tidy profit of 100 on lvl.3: a safe investment.
The enemy wave balancing is off; I left my Shrieker fort running for a while:
There is no challenge, i.e no fun, after about 5 minutes.
The visuals are nice. The plants have character to them; animations would improve matters even further.
If you've never tried Harvest: Massive Encounter, you should. I get similar vibes from this one.
Ok work in all; testing, balancing and polish needed.
Overall: *Above average (3.5)*
Fun: *Above average (3.5)*
Innovation: *Above average (3.5)*
Theme: *Terrible (1.5)*
Graphics: *Good (4.0)*
Audio: *N/A*
Humor: *N/A*
Mood: *N/A*
The game was poorly balanced and polished, yes. The idea took me a night of sleep to finally come, and I missed most of monday due to work, so I did it all in around 48 hours. I left polish and even basic interface (like a main menu) for later. This is not a defense, just maybe a statement of self-awareness, I suppose :P
My thought of "sacrifice" is that selling a grown tower means resources, but also means having to rely on weaker towers for a while, which can be devastating. Of course, as you've shown there are strategies that minimize the impact of the sacrifice. My personal one while play-testing was to sell two shrooms and replace them with 3 new ones until the base was surrounded and then start to work on the Shriekers.
Glad you had fun, and also glad to see a screenshot of a game I made posted by someone else. That's really satisfying. :)
I also created a tower defense game. Please check it out here: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/castle-defense
Anyway, some more graphical feedback about how much damage my towers are doing would be great. Also, I don't know if that's a bug, but my game just crashed whenever my base died.
I like the graphics and perspective a lot! And with some relaxing music I'm sure this would be a great casual game!