Moss Light by Zykra

[raw]
made by Zykra for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

A mix of tower defence and roguelike. Defend against endless insects and expand your roots in the depths of the caves. Each room contains an item that gives bonuses to your plant army. Survive, and if you get 15 items, you'll win! The maps are procedurally generated and the enemies will get stronger over time. Other than ants, moths and beetles will try to eat you. Place the Luminescent plants to gain light and cover new caves with moss. Placing in a cave without moss cost double.

Ratings

Overall 440th 3.475⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 331th 3.5⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 404th 3.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 702th 3.1⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 533th 3.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 249th 3.5⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 480th 2.375⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Mood 556th 3.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 30🗳️ 26🗨️

Feedback

Thoastbot
25. Apr 2021 · 21:42 UTC
Sweet little tower defense.
I like the idea with the light flowers, but it needs a lot of tweaking for it to realy hook the player.
For me i basically placed a few tower up front, focused on getting more light flowers and even tho i was at ~75 light/second and no new towers build since the start i got overrun after 500 kills - no chance to survive.
Also i wasn´t quite sure what those insects were after, do they aim my towers?
Hotpaw
25. Apr 2021 · 22:13 UTC
Nice towerdefense, i did as usual and just put things everywhere, i was unsure what "moss needed" ment, but it was fun, TD's are always enjoyable!
youthfulIdealism
25. Apr 2021 · 22:45 UTC
Barely won my first round through. Learning curve was a little steep, and the difficulty curve was also a little steep--the enemies went from barely damaging my plants to totally overrunning them in a split second. I won because I got the reactor item, which meant I could place tons of lights in rooms very quickly, even though the bugs were chewing through my defenses.

I thought that this was fairly good, and I might keep playing it. I'm betting there's a surprising amount of depth in there.
youthfulIdealism
25. Apr 2021 · 22:48 UTC
Thinking on it more--I think you've chosen an interesting design space in the intersection between tower defense, roguelike, and exploration game. I'd encourage you to keep going!
Hestrateja
25. Apr 2021 · 23:23 UTC
@zykra Nice music. Entertaining tower defense. In my first game I didn't know I could scroll lol.
Hestrateja
25. Apr 2021 · 23:43 UTC
@zykra I won and couldn't click an object after hitting endless mode, don't know if that's a bug or a feature, just letting you know.
James Gillespie
26. Apr 2021 · 01:51 UTC
I like the world generation, but a tutorial or instructions screen would be helpful. Also a zoom feature so I can see everything a bit better. Always great to see a TD game though.
LDJam user 235146
26. Apr 2021 · 08:11 UTC
@thoastbot the insects do aim the towers, but i gave them low vision for performance reason (if they could see the whole map, i would have had to optimize the search).
LDJam user 235146
26. Apr 2021 · 08:13 UTC
@youthfulidealism I should have focused more on the balancing, the pace is way off. I ran out of time to do so, i should have reduced the scope of the game.
LDJam user 235146
26. Apr 2021 · 08:14 UTC
@hestrateja whops! I did not test that properly :)
IanTheBee
26. Apr 2021 · 17:55 UTC
I really like this randomly generated tower defense game.

In my opinion, the balancing could do with some work. Also, way too hard. I may have a bias against tower defense games in general, since I don't like them that much, but really good overall. I think that the graphics look great, and the music and audio sounds amazing as well.

Great game.
Panzershrek
26. Apr 2021 · 18:14 UTC
Nice tower defense ! I took some time to figure out how to play it well. It can snowball very fast for the ennemy or you depending on the strategy you choose to take. I had really good time playing it and it's kinda addictive. It's really well made for a compo game gratz !
BubakGames
26. Apr 2021 · 18:17 UTC
Great game with nice music and art. I like the tower defense mechanics.
Untitled Studios
26. Apr 2021 · 18:26 UTC
Good TD! A lot of content in this for a compo game, good job.
vrerabek
26. Apr 2021 · 18:31 UTC
Very nice twist of tower defense game and rogue like game. There is plenty room for upgrading this game and just wanna say it's really nice idea. Good job. Defeated the game btw!
squigglez
26. Apr 2021 · 19:08 UTC
i thought this was really fun! took a bit to get the hang of, but after a few runs i was able to win. some of the balancing needs tweaking, but this is a really strong start i hope you work more on :)
cppchriscpp
26. Apr 2021 · 20:06 UTC
Thanks for a fun game! You've gotten a lot of early feedback so there's not really much that hasn't been said. The music loop was nice, and the graphics are solid.

I did struggle a little bit with the difficulty curve, but you already addressed this. Great entry!
mockthebear
27. Apr 2021 · 00:16 UTC
Fan of TD here. Took me some time to figure out the stuff because of the two lines on each top and bottom, but when i got it, it ran smooth :D
Valid
27. Apr 2021 · 05:00 UTC
always enjoy TD games. Good spin and good job!
Slowfrog Again
27. Apr 2021 · 15:00 UTC
Interesting mix. Made me think of Dungeon of the Endless.

Things on screen were very small, though. Even some text was barely legible and the window in not resizable. I understand 48h is short, but maybe something to improve later or for the next game.