A 2D game where tower defense collides with roguelike and shoot 'em up action. Featuring over 50 unique power-up cards, a talent tree with 4 branches and up to 15 unlockable talents each, and 12 buildings that let players create countless strategies.
Face 4 challenging bosses with distinct mechanics and explore a variety of scenarios that make every run feel fresh and unpredictable.
It features a unique hand-drawn art style, with visuals and animations crafted entirely with pencil. The world itself reflects the story's context: the protagonist sketches and writes his daily struggles inside a diary, and the game unfolds within the pages.
I wore many hats during development: programming, game design, sound FX, animation, QA, and marketing, working almost as a solo developer, with the support of a fellow artist and a music composer.
One of the biggest technical challenges was making so many gameplay systems interact seamlessly, so every run feels different and players can discover powerful synergies among their choices. To achieve this, I built systems that are simple on their own but create rich, unpredictable gameplay when combined. Some players have already logged 16+ hours of playtime, and counting.
"Systems simple on their own. Endlessly rich when combined."
Enemy AI Architecture
I developed a flexible state machine framework to drive enemy behavior, ensuring that each enemy archetype could share a common backbone while still supporting unique mechanics.
The system was built to be data-driven, allowing designers to define behaviors such as patrol, chase, attack, or retreat through configuration rather than hardcoding. To keep gameplay challenging without overwhelming the CPU, I implemented decision-making on staggered update cycles, preventing performance spikes while maintaining responsive enemy reactions.
This architecture streamlined the creation of new enemies and ensured AI interactions scaled smoothly as units on screen increased. I also evaluated an ECS-based approach, but determined it was unnecessary since the game doesn't feature the massive enemy counts of a survivors-like.
Recognition
The game has already earned recognition, showcased at the OTK Games Expo and the Latin American Games Show, and featured by leading media including IGN.
That's exactly what makes roguelikes endlessly replayable. So far, the results are promising. You can play it now on Steam.