Defend the tree from robot invaders by spreading its roots! Rotate the roots to attach them to already placed roots, gather nutrients from mushrooms to grow the tree faster, and place laser turrets to destroy the bugs. Yes, we admit that last one is a bit eccentric, but let’s have a bit of fun, shall we?
Flower Defense is my first game jam game ever. After many years of simply creating games for my own amusement and never actually getting around to publishing anything, I decided it was high time to participate in a Game Jam last November. With the coronavirus pandemic nearly under control, I didn’t fancy an online Game Jam. I wanted the real thing—face-to-face, in the thick of it!
My best bet was the Global Game Jam, which takes place around January and February every year. In 2022, about 35 locations in Germany hosted a Global Game Jam, so I was hopeful for 2023. However, with February only a fortnight away, I was dismayed to find only six locations in Germany had signed up to host a Game Jam... and five of them were over four hours away by car. But no worries! Hannover was a manageable two-hour drive, so I decided to sign up for the Hannover Game Jam.
On the actual day of the game jam, I checked the site again, and lo and behold, there were suddenly 33 registered locations in Germany, including one just 25 minutes away! It seems many places sign up at the last minute, but I prefer to be organised, so I stuck with Hannover. And I must mention, my good friend Theia was also keen to participate, so we embarked on this adventure together. It’s always splendid to have a familiar face along for the ride!
Idea
The topic for the 2023 Global Game Jam was "Roots." The theme was actually revealed a few days prior to the event, but Theia and I decided to maintain the element of surprise and only watch the announcement video on the actual day of the game jam. On the drive to Hannover, we discussed various ways to interpret this concept. The most obvious approach was plant roots, but we also considered a dental theme (root canal, anyone?), a computing angle (root directory, root user, etc.), or even the square roots of numbers. I might have digressed into a chat about Virtue's Last Reward at some point (if you’ve played the game, you’ll understand ;D).
Upon arriving in Hannover, we teamed up with Jonas, Stefan, and Kai. Jonas is a talented musician, and it was his first game jam as well. It was marvellous to have him on the team, as it meant we could have some splendid music in our game. Stefan, if I recall correctly, was a computer scientist with a focus on algorithms. He certainly assisted us with some of the more complex algorithmic calculations in our game. And Kai? Kai was a seasoned game developer who had left his job to pursue game development full-time. It was fantastic to have him on board; he’s been using the Unity Engine for years and knew all the clever tricks we didn’t (do check out his game at https://pecker-game.com/).
Together we brainstormed the game idea for a while and ultimately chose the plant root theme.
The Game
The core gameplay involves building a network of roots to defend the tree from robot bug invaders. There are four types 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 starting piece is always an X piece so you can build in all four directions.
The robot bugs traverse the map and feast on the tree’s root pieces. If a piece is consumed, it is removed from the tree. But if other pieces were connected to the tree solely by that piece, they are also removed! This means you must build a robust network to avoid losing multiple roots at once.
And naturally, we included the option of using a Turret X-piece to shoot the bugs. We thought you’d need a more direct method of handling the bugs, so we added this feature. There’s only a 10% chance of acquiring a turret piece, so it’s somewhat luck-dependent. If you get multiple turret pieces, the game becomes quite manageable :D
If the bugs eat the root piece, you lose some of the tree’s leaves. If you lose all the leaves, it’s game over! You gradually regenerate leaves over time, and the rate increases if you have roots on mushroom pieces.
Enjoy playing, and remember to defend that tree with all your might! Cheerio!