Tetrash is a tower defense game where players place towers to heal (not destroy) the pieces as they move along a path. There are enemy towers already placed that are trying to destroy the pieces. The whole premise is that your Tetris game is corrupted and you are trying to salvage the pieces of Tetris blocks before malware destroys them. Before the pieces start moving to their desired location, players must choose which powerups to give themselves to help boost their chances of winning. They have to beware, however, because while they’re helping themselves out, they are also determining which powerups the enemy malware has as well. The game was made for the 2020 Ludum Dare Discord Jam #4.
What I did
Working solo on the game, I made all the art, music, design, and programming. I took a stab at making actual 3D models by using the MagicaVoxel maker. The only thing I didn’t create myself, besides the fonts, was the space background/skybox.
What I learned
Having felt displeased with the lack of knowledge gained from the previous solo game jam, I used this one to learn new skills and incorporate it into making a new game. I decided to follow a tutorial series on how to make a tower defense game, where I learned about pathfinding through Breadth First Search algorithms, instantiating objects, and having towers focus on the moving objects. It was nice to see how the algorithms I learned in my Data Sets and Algorithms course could be implemented into an actual game, and it also made me curious about all the different ways Unity offered pathfinding. I also learned productivity tools where things would update within the editor, like the different location of the blocks and the blocks snapping on a grid. I also learned more about art and 3D modeling by making my own models for the game.
One of the things I wish I focused on more was the design of the game. I was so focused on getting all the pieces working together, including the powerups, towers, and path of the pieces, that I didn’t have a clear plan on what the most effective level layout was, and I wasn’t even sure if the game could be beaten by the end (which it can). I think for future game jams I want to start creating design documents for each one. Even if it’s just a one page document, I think having a solid plan can keep me on track for what I want for the jam.
