The ice retreats. The old machines wake.

A fantasy mountain village stands in the shadow of a thawing glacier. Beneath the ice lie ruins from a forgotten technological age. Put their discoveries to work before the goblins arrive.

The Last Thaw is a compact real-time village-management and defense game for Ludum Dare 60: Old Tech.

Grow, discover, defend

• Start with one villager and recruit more by completing tasks.
• Assign workers to gather wood and stone, investigate ruins, and defend the settlement.
• Deliver research to the warehouse to unlock ancient tools and devices.
• Build walls, upgrade defenses, and combine archer towers with rediscovered old tech which is actually what we call sci-fi technology.
• Protect the warehouse through three escalating goblin raids.

Controls

WASD / arrows or middle-mouse drag to pan; mouse wheel to zoom. Open Worker Assignment and drag worker cards onto jobs. Open Building and choose a construction site. Click a ruin’s research control to choose a discovery. Resources and research become available once delivered to the warehouse.

Follow the task list to recruit villagers. Pause or adjust game speed as needed; open Help for guidance.

Versions

Web version has some visual and scaling issues, windows is preferred.

Credits & disclosure

Created by Ausstein in Unity. Uses third-party art, animation, UI and effects assets, including Synty and Modular Fantasy Hero, and Kenney CC0 sound effects. AI tools assisted development, including code and text generation. Graphics and audio were not all made from scratch during the jam; this entry should opt out of Graphics and Audio ratings.

Screenshots

Gameplay in motion

Ancient tools at work

Protecting the village

Defend against the goblins