Grinder^2 Tower

by lazarche

co-authored: @sted

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.76

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.86

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.25

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.67

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.58

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.72

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.33

Intro

All that remains in this world consumed by darkness is the Grinder Tower. The tower feeds on the cores of the Night Ones. Collect the fallen cores and upgrade your tower, it’s the only thing standing between you and the endless night.

Description

Grinder² Tower is a castle defense game where endless waves of enemies swarm your tower. Your tower attacks automatically, your job is to collect cores and choose its upgrades. We reimagined the classic horde survival formula to fit a darker, steampunk-inspired theme. With 18 unique upgrades, 3 powerful weapons, and 4 enemy types, every run plays differently. The game leans heavily on luck, so don’t hesitate to restart a bad run :sweat_smile:

Controls

Left Click - Drag xp over tower
Right Click - Rotate Camera
Mouse Scroll - Zoom In/Out
A/S/D - Control game speed (You can also click on the UI Arrow)

Team

Game Developer - lazarche
3D Artist - SteD

Good Luck!

Comments14

alstegodev7 Oct 2025, 17:35

Looks very interesting, unfortunately it seems the embeding doesn't really work in my Browser.

MatthewDrake7 Oct 2025, 17:45

Managed to last 15 minutes! Really cool atmosphere, though it felt a little slow towards the start of the game. The ability to speed up time definitely helped a lot with that though. Good entry!

harleylikesmusic7 Oct 2025, 17:45

Really fun! Love that you ca control the speed of gameplay to grind those early levels.
Collecting the XP yourself was extra engaging.
I was a little confused as to whether i was getting new weapons or not, or maybe i was upgrading weapons i didn't already have.

lazarcheauthor7 Oct 2025, 17:53

@alstegodev for some reason embeding stopped working today, not sure what was the reason... You can still download it for Windows

Caer7 Oct 2025, 23:25

I loved the reversal of the roles of a traditional survivor game--having the player collect the experience while the AI handles the enemies. Interestingly, I tried avoiding the range increasing upgrades since it seemed easier for enemies to die closer to the center so I could quickly pick up and deposit experience...

JojoPalambas8 Oct 2025, 22:58

Neat game! Feels really good, kinda hard to tell what to do better when a game is over but great fame! Really liked the visuals also

someone8 Oct 2025, 23:46

That was great. Love the gear aesthetics of your tower.
I survived `16:30`, `Lv39`, `796 kills`. I seem to suddenly get swamped about that time.
I was a bit annoyed near the start when I was taking damage as the target was reserved by the newly unlocked super slow cannon while the rifle which would have instantly killed the enemies was completely idle.
Not a fan of the pop sound when the cannon fires. It doesn't really fit in with the rest. It took a while to figure out what it was.

Kupnu49 Oct 2025, 10:07

what a nice tower defence game! I really like the atmosphere and those dark little dudes that whant to rip me apart :D
I felt a little nausious picking up xp orbs at first, but then I got the multiple pickup upgrade and it was a big relief!
I'm sure this game has a potential and a lot of room for layering more mechanichs! Great job guys!

technical note: on 3440x1440 monitor some portion of UI creeped off the screen. It doesn't ruin the gameplay in any way, but better be fixed

NonDev9 Oct 2025, 15:04

Survived a little over 16 mins. Had fun! The idea that you need to manually collect EXP orbs is a neat one and introduces some interesting choices of damage vs convenience with the multiple grab upgrades. I need to give it another couple of goes and see if it's possible to just min max the starting rifle. Great stuff.

Custodi9 Oct 2025, 22:40

Cool game, but lack of player action, just pulling experience sphere.
Some spheres are hiding behing tower and you cannot collect them.

Eugenik10 Oct 2025, 12:58

Amazing art!!!.

iDeNoh18 Oct 2025, 12:42

I really enjoy tower defense games, it has a few areas that could use some polish but overall it was a fun entry, and I found myself playing it for upwards of 20 minutes before I had to set it aside.

Anya_Voinova22 Oct 2025, 20:52

Got to level 28, super addictive, I love games with upgrades — it's great when the game's theme is reflected in its mechanics! Pleasant visuals and sounds. It would be a bit more convenient if the download was a zip file.