March of the Mega-Machines by Arttu Halonen

[raw]
made by Arttu Halonen for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

Screenshot.png

The infinite robot army is here! You are the last line of defense against this overwhelming force. The only thing we can do is hold them off as long as we can.

Use our last resources to construct towers along the enemy's path towards our base. Whenever you destroy an enemy you gain more resources. Construct more towers or upgrade them with the resources.

Controls:

Select: Left mouse button

Deselect: Right mouse button

Pause: Esc / Ctrl / Top-right button

MenuScreenshot.png

EndScreenshot.png

Ratings

Overall 411th 3.742⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 499th 3.565⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1241th 2.613⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 580th 3.75⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 622th 3.733⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 644th 3.242⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 44🗨️

Feedback

Wizard_Frog
05. Apr 2022 · 11:39 UTC
Great game, tried a few times. One of the most important things for a game: It should be fun to play. You achieved that and added nice graphics and great sound. I love it :-)
🎤 Arttu Halonen
05. Apr 2022 · 12:58 UTC
@wizard-frog Thank you so much! Your comment really made me smile!
kromeboy
05. Apr 2022 · 16:24 UTC
Solid tower defense.
Liked the increasing price when you spam turret close togheter.

Lasted 3:25
🎤 Arttu Halonen
06. Apr 2022 · 05:17 UTC
@kromeboy Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it!
Reulan
06. Apr 2022 · 23:50 UTC
fun tower defense, i liked the double power increase glowing effect. i haven't seen the ranged based pricing which was cool to see.

incentives making far away towers and upgrading them rather than clustering bunch of low cost towers in a group :D
🎤 Arttu Halonen
07. Apr 2022 · 04:57 UTC
@reulan Thanks for playing, glad you liked it! I noticed when I was playtesting early on that I would just spam towers right next to each other, and thought that the game would be more interesting if that wasn't as easy to do.
Axelitou
07. Apr 2022 · 12:15 UTC
nice TD, triple shot too powerful ;)
Askoed
07. Apr 2022 · 12:16 UTC
Good tower defense, maybe the triple-shot is too powerful
🎤 Arttu Halonen
07. Apr 2022 · 12:23 UTC
@axelitou @askoed Thanks for playing! Yeah, there wasn't that much time to balance the towers, the triple-shot is definitely the most powerful. And funnily enough I'm pretty sure that the most expensive tower is also the least powerful, or at least it's hard to position effectively.
Alurian
07. Apr 2022 · 14:04 UTC
Love the game. Great mechanic that close towers increase the cost. Solid tower defence. I miss a simple explenation with each tower or a quick tutorial. But it took me less than a minute to figure out. Great game, always love a good ol' tower defence.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
07. Apr 2022 · 16:28 UTC
@alurian Thanks for playing, glad you liked it! I was initially planning on a small text tutorial, but sadly ran out of time.
Stefan Laimer
07. Apr 2022 · 19:55 UTC
Really well done TD, good job! As mentioned before, having the towers cost more when others are in range is absolutely brilliant and changes the way to think about tower placement completely. The only thing that would make this game even more awesome would be some kind of online leaderboard. But otherwise it's fantastic. Also I think lasting for more than 6 minutes is pretty good :D

![Unbenannt.PNG](///raw/b24/22/z/4d6c7.png)
Biku
07. Apr 2022 · 20:07 UTC
Tower defense! I missed that one! Good game here :). Maybe some info about the stats of the different towers would be nice tho
halflemonstudios
07. Apr 2022 · 20:35 UTC
I really like towrer defense games. The way the prices increased was really interesting in this one. It's a fun problem how to spend the least amount to get the most power on the map. I tried placing them in groups in a way two group doesn't effect each other prices. The more groups I could place like this the better. Actually it was a bit fustrating I couldn't use the area under the UI elements, I really wanted to. Also it was hard to place turrets behind existing turrets at the back. In the end my best was 10 min. It was fun. The effects, and the graphics were cool too. Good job!
Helzinko
07. Apr 2022 · 20:35 UTC
really fun game, lasted 02:54
ZaBenderman
08. Apr 2022 · 00:09 UTC
Great tower defense! The concept of tower defenses fits perfectly with the theme, and it had me trying a few times to get a better time. The only thing that confused me was that towers cost more when you placed them next to others. It took a bit for me to figure that out.
Simon Rahnasto
08. Apr 2022 · 21:00 UTC
I was actually also considering a tower defense when I saw the theme, it really fits the genre quite well. This is by far the best TD I have seen in a jam, incredibly polished. My record was just shy of 5 minutes. Great job balancing the game around a jam, since the difficulty is high the rounds are "faster" and I could try multiple different strategies, instead of playing 1 time for like 30mins.

Oh and the sound effects are incredibly satisfying!

Hyvä peli! :smiley:
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:00 UTC
@stefan-laimer Thanks for playing, that's a solid score! I've been toying with the idea of making an online leaderboard for a few Ludum Dares now, but I haven't had the time to learn how to do that.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:02 UTC
@biku Thanks for playing! I was initially planning on having a pop-up menu for the towers where you could see the upgrades and other stats, but ran out of time.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:03 UTC
@halflemonstudios Thanks for playing, glad you liked the game! Maybe it would help if the player could move the camera, that way the UI would not be in the way so much.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:03 UTC
@helzinko Thanks for playing! Glad that you liked it!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:05 UTC
@zabenderman Thanks for playing! Yeah, I had initially planned to have some UI effect showing the nearby towers more clearly when you are placing a new tower. Also I had planned to do a small text tutorial that would have explained the variable cost. Just ran out of time, as it tends to go with game jams.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
09. Apr 2022 · 10:09 UTC
@simon-rahnasto Thank you for the high praise! Even though the scope for this game was too big for a three-day jam, I'm still glad I was able to get the visuals and sound effects to this level in time. And yeah, I tried to tune the game so that playing wouldn't take too long, as most reviewers don't spend that long on a single game.

And I'm really glad you liked the sounds! It was a fun extra challenge for me, since I just used a microphone and some household items to create the sounds.

Kiitoksia kovasti!
smiley
09. Apr 2022 · 14:20 UTC
nice! We did a similar game for LD44: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/ticker-clicker-defence and I was actually thinking that it would fit this theme too :) well done! :) (and terveisiä from your neighbour country to the west ;) )
LDJam user 280755
09. Apr 2022 · 15:23 UTC
Nice graphics, and tower defense fits well within the theme.
LDJam user 4886
09. Apr 2022 · 17:50 UTC
I must say that the last TD I played was Ninja Town on the DS, so it's been a while. But it's easy to grasp and makes you wonder how long you will last (about three minutes and a half...) Nice!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
10. Apr 2022 · 09:31 UTC
@smiley Thanks for playing, glad you liked it! I checked out your LD44 tower defense game, I really liked it too! Tack så mycket, och hälsningar!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
10. Apr 2022 · 09:31 UTC
@daniel-username Thanks for playing, glad you liked the game!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
10. Apr 2022 · 09:32 UTC
@notnasiul Thanks for playing! Fun to bring up old memories, glad you liked the game!
DesertMaw
10. Apr 2022 · 16:24 UTC
Nice implementaion of tower defense. Nothing to complex nothing to simple. As already said, good idea with the costs. For me the price-performance ratio was not perfect, I think the Triple-Shot tower surpasses the other two in regard of price and damage (time). But might just be a feeling...
A fast forward button could make it a little bit more interesting. Still, it was fun to play.
Imaginary
11. Apr 2022 · 07:46 UTC
Smooth. Game balance could use some work, but that takes a lot of time. Great job overall.
Janku
11. Apr 2022 · 14:30 UTC
I really love good tower defense game and you have everything, that is usually missing in them on gamejams - range of towers, selection of towers, upgrades (!), fun, yet simple neon visuals that are clear to read (which one is upgraded with which upgrade). Its all really really good! Only thing I would tweak to make it more fun -> add more diverse enemies. The ones with shields are great idea, but ones that would be easier to kill, but much quicker would also be great to diversify it more. Maybe develop it further to include different levels and not only endless one(I know its for the theme, but it would be a shame to not put more content into this game, its so well made)? Keep up the great work! :D
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 14:03 UTC
@desertmaw Thanks for playing! Yeah, I agree that the comparative costs and damage outputs of the towers were not balanced, I didn't have enough time to tweak those better. Also I hadn't played a tower defense game in a while so I forgot that they often have a fast-forward feature! Glad you liked the game!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 14:04 UTC
@imaginary Thanks for playing! Yes, that's definitely something I didn't have enough time for during the jam, but would like to improve if I decide to continue this project post-jam.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 14:08 UTC
@janku Thanks for playing and thanks for the praise! Adding more variety would definitely be nice, if I decide to continue this project post-jam. It really makes me happy to hear that you feel this game is worth expanding, receiving comments like this are among the best feelings a dev can get from a jam!
Likirus
12. Apr 2022 · 16:03 UTC
I always love a well-made tower defense game and yours definitely is. It works very well with the theme and the game is very polished. The only thing that confused me a bit were the constructions prices on the buttons. They didn't match the actual prices I had to pay to build the towers. I assume the prices increase as the game goes on and you build more towers, but if so, the building buttons should reflect that. Honestly, it speaks for your game when my only minor complaint is a bit of non-matching text ;) Overall very nice game!
MishterKirby
12. Apr 2022 · 16:10 UTC
Very nice! I really liked the range-based material requirements, the visuals were quite nice, and you managed to capture the theme quite well!
Tom Kun
12. Apr 2022 · 16:11 UTC
Well done! The game is simple but fun for sure. It's pretty polished as well!
Like people mentioned the dynamic price system is a little confusing. Player has to spread out the turrets to get more value from the turrets. I am wondering what is the reason behind it. I personally love stacking turrets in a focus zone... :laughing:
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 16:12 UTC
@likirus Thanks for playing! Glad you liked the game! The price mechanic would definitely need more explaining, unfortunately I ran out of time to implement something to make it more clear. As the price of a tower increases for each existing tower inside the new tower's range, I probably should have added some effect highlighting the nearby towers affecting the price.
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 16:15 UTC
@mishterkirby Thanks for playing, glad you liked it!
🎤 Arttu Halonen
12. Apr 2022 · 16:18 UTC
@tom-kun Thanks for playing! Glad that you liked the game! I understand the confusion, that mechanic isn't explained clearly enough in the game. I ended up with the system to make the game more difficult (to make sure the game will inevitably end), as in my early tests I too ended up just spamming turrets right next to each other. I also thought that the dynamic pricing would work as an interesting additional gameplay element.