Bony Barricade by Philocode

[raw]
made by Philocode for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

Dark times lie ahead!

The peaceful lich king inhabited his lands, joined by his undead family, for centuries. But now, puny humans have decided they need it for expanding their kingdom! Hold out against the onslaught of humans by summoning restless skeletons, that will surely bring an end to their foes. Advance through the ages, unlock new units and face new, dangerous foes. All while enjoying beautiful voxel graphics.


Enjoy this tower-defense and offense game inspired by the classic Age of War. I would be curious if you managed to beat the game and how long it took you to do so!


Controls

  • WASD: Move camera
  • Scroll wheel: zoom in / out
  • E / Q: Rotate camera
  • R: Reset camera rotation
  • Ctrl + R: Reset camera
  • Escape: Pause
  • Space: Jump to damaged gateway

Known Issues

  • Zoom is to quick in the web version
  • Ctrl + R is a bad shortcut for web versions
  • Weird shadow behaviour, especially in the web version

Ratings

Overall 880th 3.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 602th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1040th 2.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 693th 3.525⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 736th 3.5⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 913th 3.211⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

omphh
16. Apr 2024 · 11:23 UTC
Nice game! Pretty tough, ran out of money fast and the enemies stacked up and couldn't get enough bones in time haha. Wish I could buy the upgrades from wherever I am though so I could watch the fights.
Good job though!
roburab
17. Apr 2024 · 00:00 UTC
I had a lot of fun with this one. Good job.

For those having trouble, here is the winning strategy: never age up. Sent only enough skeletons to defeat the enemies. When you get to 1000 bones (which would get you only 6 knights on a higher age) unleash the horde of skeletons for 15 bones each. You probably won't be able to click fast enough to get to 0 bones, once they trample over your enemies.
MartenJ
17. Apr 2024 · 10:11 UTC
Nice little kind of tower defense game. I personal think you could add some more vibrant colours to the game, because now it's a little bit dull. Or maybe bright the colours up on the human side and more dark mat colours on the player side. The balancing was pretty good! So it was not that easy to win. And I think it would be good, if the melee people could pass the own range units. Becaouse I had the problem, that I build the big skelotton and that could not get to the enemies for some time because of my archers.
GRaAL
17. Apr 2024 · 14:52 UTC
I like the idea! I had troubles when my castle is attacked by dozen of archers - even if I summon some spearmen they was not able to kick archers. BTW, are big ballistas on castle towers supposed to shot?
It is not clear how the resources appear (I mean "bones") - from enemy bodies?
I like the art style. Maybe with more time there would be good animations and sounds. Good luck!
jordantanner
19. Apr 2024 · 18:41 UTC
Cool implementation of a tower defense! Once I figured out the basics, it worked pretty well. If you get behind at ALL, it seems almost impossible to catch up. Maybe that's part of the challenge, or maybe it could use more difficulty balancing. LOVE the voxel graphics -- very nice work!
pres2300
21. Apr 2024 · 17:41 UTC
Nice game! I like the graphics. I did @roburab's winning strategy which ended up being way too easy, so perhaps some balancing needs to be done there, but this was fun nonetheless. Nice work!
CiaranW
21. Apr 2024 · 20:38 UTC
Nice game! At first, I didn't realise the 'age up' button existed, and I found I won twice really easily within a couple of minutes without really trying. Then I read the comments and realised there was more to the game that I was missing, so I replayed it 'properly' making my way through the tech tree - nice variety of units! That took about 7 minutes, and I had to try quite hard to make sure I didn't accidentally win before completing the tree, so I think some extra balancing is required, so that you actually need the higher level units.

It would also be great to have a bit more feedback, so for instance you could see when your ranged units are attacking, and maybe a bit of sound too. I'm also not sure what was causing my resources to go up, so maybe some extra info there would be nice.

I did enjoy it though, the voxel style looks really nice, the enemy progression feels good, and the goal is clear. Nice entry!
VaustXIII
21. Apr 2024 · 20:40 UTC
Ooh I love those "Age of war" type of games. I think your take on it is pretty good!
Was a bit too easy imho with towers doing so much damage. I just created basic skeletons to "tank" enemies while towers decimated them. Then just rush giants. Still, it was pretty fun!
yule4ka
21. Apr 2024 · 20:44 UTC
simple and cute game, i won finally among other games!!
ValentinWB
24. Apr 2024 · 10:14 UTC
Cool twist on the tower defense genre ! For now the game does not have many mechanics there is room for improvement so thats promising ! Good job !
LDJam user 243193
24. Apr 2024 · 11:55 UTC
Nice defense game. I think bones counter would be better be placed on left up corner while timer on right up corner so I could see how much I could spend and how much I should spend. And I wish I could refund my skeletons so I could safe bones for next waves.
KrummSakura
24. Apr 2024 · 14:02 UTC
It is a well crafted game with a nice variety of units and aging up mechanic. The voxel art style is a nice touch. I am not sure if it is a balancing issue or intentional design choice, but it was a little challenging for me. On the other hand, I am not experienced in tower defense games, so it is probably me. Good job!