Defend the tree from robot invaders by spreadin' its roots, eh! Rotate the roots to attach 'em to already placed roots, gather nutrients from mushrooms to grow the tree faster, and place laser turrets to destroy the bugs. Sorry about that last part, we know it's a bit out there, don’t ya know :D
Flower Defense is my first game jam game ever, eh. After many years of just creatin' games for fun meself and never actually gettin' around to publishin' anything, I decided to look into participatin' in a Game Jam last November. With the coronavirus pandemic almost fully contained, I didn't want to participate in an online Game Jam, so I started lookin' for a game jam in my area. Sorry to say, I realized that this would be harder than anticipated, since apparently game jams are not that popular in Germany and definitely not around where I live, you know? Sorry 'bout that.
My best bet was goin' to be the Global Game Jam, which takes place around January and February every year, eh. In 2022, around 35 locations in Germany decided to host a Global Game Jam, so I hoped that it would be the same for 2023. However, with February only two weeks away, I was horrified to find only six locations in Germany had signed up to host a Game Jam... and five of 'em were over four hours away by car, eh. Sorry for complainin'! Luckily, Hannover was rather close with "only" a two-hour drive, so I decided to sign up for the Hannover Game Jam. Sorry if this is gettin' long, eh.
On the actual day of the game jam, I checked the site again, and suddenly there were 33 registered locations in Germany, includin' one 25 minutes away... Sorry about that, turns out many locations always sign up last minute, but that’s too short of a notice for me, so I went to Hannover anyways, eh. Oh, and I should probably mention that my good friend Theia also wanted to participate in a game jam, so we went together! Sorry if I forgot to mention that earlier. Can't hurt to have someone you already know, huh?
Idea
The topic for the 2023 Global Game Jam was "Roots", eh. The topic was actually revealed a few days before the game jam, but Theia and I decided to only watch the announcement video on the actual day of the game jam to keep the surprise factor, you know? On the drive to Hannover, we were talkin' about different ways you could spin this concept. The most obvious take would be plant roots, but maybe you could also do somethin' with a dentist theme (you know, root canal something), a computer science theme (root directory, root user, etc.), or even square roots of numbers. Sorry if I'm ramblin'! At this point, I went on a tangent about Virtue's Last Reward, I think... (If you've played the game, you know what I'm talkin' about ;D)
Once in Hannover, we decided to team up with Jonas, Stefan, and Kai. Jonas is a rather talented musician, and it also was his first game jam, eh! Sorry if I'm gushin', but it was great to have him on the team, since this meant we could have some awesome music in our game. I think Stefan was a computer scientist with a focus on algorithms? He definitely did help us out with some of the more complex algorithmic calculations in our game, so I’m glad he was there. Kai was a game development veteran who actually quit his job to make his own game full-time, eh! Sorry if I sound impressed, but it was amazin' to have him on board as he's been usin' the Unity Engine for years and knew many tricks and tips that we didn't know about (You can check out his game at https://pecker-game.com/).
Together we thought about the game idea for a while and ended up choosin' the plant root theme. Sorry if this is gettin' long, eh.
The Game
The core gameplay consists of buildin' a network of roots to defend the tree from robot bug invaders, eh. There are four kinds of roots (well, five technically): X-shaped, I-shaped, T-shaped, and L-shaped. You can only connect roots to open connections on other roots. The startin' piece is always an X piece so you can build in all four directions, eh. Sorry if this is a bit confusing, eh.
The robot bugs move around the map and eat the tree’s root pieces. If a piece is eaten, it is removed from the tree. But if other pieces were connected to the tree only by that piece, they are also removed, eh! Sorry for the bad news! This means that it's advisable to build a network that is interconnected so you don't run the risk of losin' many roots at once.
Of course, there is also the option of usin' a Turret X-piece to shoot the bugs, eh. Sorry if this seems a bit much, but we thought that you'd need a more direct way of dealin' with the bugs, so we added this feature. There is only a 10% chance of gettin' a turret piece, so it's kind of luck dependent. Sorry about the randomness! If you get multiple turret pieces, the game gets pretty easy :D
If the bugs eat the root piece, you lose some of the tree’s leaves, eh. If you lose all leaves, it’s game over! Sorry about that! You slowly regenerate leaves over time, and the rate is increased if you have roots on mushroom pieces.
Have fun playin', eh! And sorry if it’s tough!