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. Yeah, we know that last one’s kinda out there, but hey, we like big guns!
Flower Defense is my first game jam game ever. After many years of just creating games for fun myself and never actually getting around to publishing anything, I decided it was time to step up and participate in a Game Jam last November. With the coronavirus pandemic nearly behind us, I didn’t want to do an online Game Jam. I wanted the real deal—face-to-face, no holds barred!
My best bet was going to be the Global Game Jam, which takes place around January and February every year. In 2022, about 35 locations in Germany decided to host a Global Game Jam, so I had high hopes for 2023. But with February only two weeks away, I was shocked 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 hey, no problem! Hannover was just a two-hour drive, so I decided to go for it and sign up for the Hannover Game Jam.
On the actual day of the game jam, I checked the site again, and suddenly there were 33 registered locations in Germany, including one just 25 minutes away! Turns out a lot of places sign up last minute, but that’s not my style—I like to have a plan. So, I stuck with Hannover. And let me tell you, my good buddy Theia also wanted to get in on the action, so we hit the road together. It’s always good to have a wingwoman!
Idea
The topic for the 2023 Global Game Jam was "Roots." The topic was actually revealed a few days before the game jam, but Theia and I decided to keep the suspense and only watch the announcement video on the actual day of the game jam. On the drive to Hannover, we were brainstorming different ways to tackle this concept. The most obvious take was plant roots, but we also considered a dentist theme (root canal, anyone?), a computer science angle (root directory, root user, etc.), or even the square roots of numbers. I might’ve gone off on a tangent about Virtue's Last Reward at some point (if you’ve played the game, you know what I’m talking about ;D).
Once we got to Hannover, we teamed up with Jonas, Stefan, and Kai. Jonas is a talented musician, and it was his first game jam too. It was awesome to have him on the team since it meant we could crank out some killer tunes for our game. Stefan, I think, was a computer scientist with a focus on algorithms. He definitely helped us with some of the more complex algorithmic stuff in the game. And Kai? Kai was a game development veteran who quit his job to make his own game full-time. It was fantastic to have him on board; he’s been using the Unity Engine for years and knew all the tricks and tips we didn’t (check out his game at https://pecker-game.com/).
Together we brainstormed the game idea for a while and ended up choosing 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 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 starting piece is always an X piece so you can build in all four directions.
The robot bugs move around the map and munch on the tree’s root pieces. If a piece is eaten, it’s removed from the tree. But if other pieces were connected to the tree only by that piece, they are also removed! This means you’ve got to build a robust network so you don’t lose a bunch of roots at once.
And of course, we’ve got the option of using a Turret X-piece to shoot the bugs. We thought you’d need a more direct way of dealing with the bugs, so we added this feature. There’s only a 10% chance of getting a turret piece, so it’s a bit luck-dependent. 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. If you lose all leaves, it’s game over! You slowly regenerate leaves over time, and the rate increases if you have roots on mushroom pieces.
Have fun playing, and remember: defend that tree like it’s the last stand for freedom!