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If I recall, it's the only way to actually kill them. lol

It's been a while since I've worked on this one, but it goes on forever and there's a point where you can't win.
The gun was anti air and it's an equip, not a turret. You can use it on the ground guys, but it's not worth. Only for air.

These are things I plan on adding/changing.

Adding a wider variety of Cards that do special things.
My take on them is applying TCG-style mechanics to the current base mechanics of the game, with a focus on affecting the Basic cards.
If a Card idea doesn't involve the main Basic Cards, then it needs to affect something around them.

Some of these may be allocated into other types of Cards and/or changed

::::::::::::| Current Ideas |::::::::::::

Tarot Cards - Wilds that are added to the Deck that, when drawn into the hand, activate immediately and have an effect based on whether they are drawn Rightside or Reversed.

Mythology & Astronomy Cards - Mind Cards of the planets of both Greek and Roman, where one does the opposite of the other.

Trait Cards - Basic Cards with special traits that have bonuses.

Hat Cards - Power Cards that affect the Dummy, giving it different effects when Exorcised.

Dredge Cards - Special Cards added to your Deck by Residents with negative effects.

Cryptid Cards - Wild Cards that have negatives when drawn, but have bonuses while in the Deck.

Zodiac Cards - Wild Cards that Chain to Basic Cards. (Select a Basic Card. If that Card is Used, you get a bonus)

Animal Charm Cards - Cards held in the Deck that affect things in the Shop.

Gem Cards - Wilds that affect Basic Shop Cards or Packs.

Bosses: Unique styles of bosses with different effects and ways of fighting.

::::::| Below Added with v. 0.5.24.0! |::::::

::::::| WILDS |::::::
A special kind of Card with abilities to help change Cards, strategize, and synergize. with other Wilds and Cards.
These will add a randomness of variety to the game and let you focus on strategies.
They will go directly into the Deck, and you must draw them to use them. (Some are 1-use, and others have multiple)

::::::| CHIPS |::::::
You'll put Coins into a special Coin Slot for the Shop, converting them into Chips.
Chips will be the currency you use for the Shop.

::::::| SHOP |:::::
As you play through the game, a Shop will pop up from time to time.
Here, you'll be able to buy Cards, Wilds, and Special bonuses using Chips.

Buy Life: Gives you more life.
Buy Space: Gives you more Cards. (Basically the "Space" slot in the current version)
Buy Coins: Buy some extra Coins if you're running low.

Buy Cards: Replace Cards in the Deck with other Cards.
Buy Wilds: You can Buy/Sell the Wilds in your Deck.

Change Suits: You can permanently change the Suits of Cards.
Increase/Decrease Values: You can permanently change the Values of Cards.

Reshuffle: Reshuffle the current Deck to reset it. (Else it will Reshuffle once the Deck runs out of Cards)

"Turn" will become it's own separate coin slot and changed to "Skip" with an always 2-coin cost.

Feel free to post any quick questions here, or start a new Discussion!

Yeah. Tutorial came last, so wasn't able to get it in a great spot. Though, everyone so far has understood it eventually.
I'm working  on the tutorial and new mechanics for a full version, so it shouldn't be an issue in the future.

Thanks for playing! :D

I've actually ran into a good number of puzzle games in this jam.
I guess that's close enough. lol

Thanks for playing! :D

Part of it's my fault. The onboarding is like a slap to the face with info.
But glad you liked it even if it wasn't your cup of tea! :D

Yeah. The tutorial came last on the docket once I had the mechanics in, so I ended up doing a no-no with tutorials, and hit the player with a bunch of info at once due to time. I'm currently working on it further, and am gonna tackle that stuff in smaller bites though!

The -99 energy was a bug caused by the KING. If you used a normal attack with it, it would take away from your energy and not the attack GRIT, which meant that attacking with it a lot meant you went into the negatives, which meant you couldn't deploy since they all needed energy to deploy. lol

I'll have the tutorial say they're the enemies. It shows them in the tut, but I don't think it directly says the dots are the monsters.

Thanks a ton for playing, and thanks for the feedback! :D

Yeah. I'm currently working on the onboarding. I might go the roguelike-unlock route, where you unlock them over time. Maybe a free-play mode too. Plans for the future! :V

You didn't miss anything, that's on me. lol I forgot to say you could buy more dice.

Thanks a ton for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D

The lightning bolt was Energy, and was used for Abilities. You hold Right Click on a Metal and it activates it. Some target a tile, and some activate right away. It's the most unintuitive control I have in the game, but since I wanted to stick to just the mouse, it was difficult to make a way to use the ability without a popup menu every time.

SHOT's just way too OP and the others are too underpowered right now. I'm currently changing them for a full build, so the issues should be fixed by then.

Thanks a ton for playing and enjoying! :V

The onboarding's a bit shaky, but I'm fixing it for a full release.

Thank yuh for the kind words, and thank yuh for playing! :D

A really nice game and idea!

And like some mentioned, there's a bit of tedium here with changing modes, but that can easily be fixed with some simple changes. Like a quick pop of the ghost then having the shape coming down so the ghost doesn't need to go aaaalllll the way up before you can use the blocks.

Another issue: Having to hold down to bring a block down adds to the tedium. There could  be a set of lines to show where it'll land, and then pressing like, UP can send it. Or, Up can change the speed that they fall so you can have special things that destroy the blocks on the way down, and changing the speed can "dodge" them.

X should just change the modes right away. Having to hold it down isn't necessary for a game with 2 options. (Granted. This would change as you change the control scheme, Like WASD and/or controller)

Also ran into a bug where going through a door with a block to the right of the door (Not ON the door), blocks the player from entering.

Great game though, and thanks for playing mine! :D

EDIT: Oh. You can also make puzzle areas, where you're given a specific set and pattern of blocks to use. Can restart the stage as well. This way, the blocks can actually be challenging, as opposed to their light restrictions.

Yeah. SHOT was way too OP. I've changed it some in the current build I'm working on for a full release, as well as adding some incentives and reasons for switching. You can scroll down to my longest reply (Just under yours), and I go over a lot of the changes I am planning.

Thanks a ton for playing! :D

The bug was that it no longer shot where I was pointing the mouse unless I let go of shooting for a second. I noticed that it happened right when I bought the 3rd-5th "spread".

The turrets also started doing it too; where they constantly shot in the same direction with no more tracking, after destroying a robot, but then they reset to a new target direction after they stopped shooting. So if a robot walked into the path, they'd continue shooting in the same direction.

The feedback is always useful, so no worries! But all of these things are actually being tackled. Though confirmation on the issues is helpful since it solidifies what I've been choosing to fix, and how to fix them.

KING was a bug, which has now been fixed in the full version I'm now working on.

SHOT was OP and just needs some nerfs/balancing.

I may separate the armors so each has its own, as well as other ideas I'm cooking to give more incentives to swap. I did consider just taking out the swapping altogether. But with the newer changes, as well as some stuff I'm going to test, and how the idea was to mix movement Modes with Attacking modes, I may keep it.

I need to add more details to split the undiscovered and discovered. Saw that when someone was playing, and they thought they uncovered a spot which happened to also have a Hive. lol I DO want people to miss a Hive while moving, but not because of being mistaken for a discovered tile. I want the experience to be, "I don't need to go back for that clearly undiscovered tile. It's one tile. What's the harm?" I am also adding a new mechanic to deal with the "Metal at the dead end". I am also going to MAYBE allow scrapping a Metal, but I might make it more as a way to free a slot than recover resources. But there can be strategies in gaining resources, so it might be a little amount.

HP was a side-addition due to how the design was building itself, but grew further.
The process was:
- You can move a Metal.
- Can Metals move onto the path?
- To cross the path, yes, especially since some only move 1 space.
- You can move a Metal onto the path.
- Should enemies damage a Metal if the Metal is on the path?
- Add HP so Metals can be damaged as an added risk.
- But HP doesn't feel significant enough.
- Add events that can damage the Metals so HP now plays as a new resource to keep an eye on.

The issue was more balancing the Events and the HP. The most destructive event (Scrap Storm) was actually nerfed just before the deadline because someone said it did too much damage. I ended up nerfing it too much. That'll change, and there'll be new special enemies that deal damage to Metals not on the path.

The flyers are probably the biggest threat. I even purposefully designed it to where you'd have to explore to see the other side of the wall to see them coming. But this is another balancing issue. Things like making them slower, weaker, less HP, etc to get them just right. As well as variants with better/weaker stats.

I just wanted to fit it all on one screen, so the Launch info was always there. But it's changing to a tab that you click to go between Metals and Launching, which gives me more room to add new mechanics in the menus.

Upgrades were kind of tricky, and they weren't as strong as I set out for them to be. Like fire is a joke, and though neat, is too underpowered. I am fixing that- as well as a lot of the chance stuff and all that. Although, the two main upgrades were damage and range. I am tweaking the upgrades though and making each upgrade fit their playstyle more, as someone wanted FROGs to be a viable strat, which has led to focusing each of their upgrades to cater to strategies- but not TOO much. I still want players to mix and match them.

Balancing the dice is probably one of the bigger things I didn't know how to do. I've learned a little more about how I'll change things up from watching people play and am changing some of the dice mechanics due to it. But yeah, a lot of balancing was needed, but I didn't have enough time to dedicate to it. But now I DO! :V

Rusterdax is amazing. I have so many of his songs downloaded and they work amazingly well for atmosphere. But if you wanna see more of my stuff, I have some unfinished things in my profile. I'd recommend "Knight of the Living Dead", "Medieval Dead" (Which is a full demo), and "Tim's Paradice".  Tim's Paradice is where I discovered my animation trick for dice, though all my old stuff could really go for some touching up with my current dev skeelz.

But all in all, the feedback is useful! Thanks a ton for the kind words and thanks for playing Metal Mode! :D

Got the same issue. Big black boxes making it unplayable in both versions.

Was fun until I got a groove going,  then the aiming started messing up for both the mouse and turrets, then it started to lag! Kind of reminded me of a Clicker game after a while.

But was a lot of fun. :V

In a sense, I suppose it was. I used past experiences from some of my other games and I've been wanting to make a good turn-based TD game for a while. I sort of made one before, but it had very different mechanics and I didn't like how it turned out. This was just another experiment that seems to have been a success!

And yeah, it's a "Once you get it, you get it" sort of thing. Which seems to be a theme with every strategy or tactic game I make. lol

Thanks for playing though! :D

Ended up figuring out a strategy. But then it failed me a few times. But I'm sure I was close! :V

Fun puzzle game, and hope you play mine too! :D

Hmm... An invincible unit. I could make that an enemy, or at least, one that goes invincible for a short time.

And yeah. SHOT was way too broken and was the best unit. That one is definitely going to be nerfed, and the others will be buffed.

Thanks for playing! :D

Yeah. The onboarding REALLY needs some work.
But now that I plan on making a full version, I'll be able to have more time to plan it out and make it! Woo! :V

Great puzzle game. Took me a while to get them all, and I didn't need all the spaces.
Which is great! Means there's a lot of ways to solve them.

Loved it! Hope you play my game too! :D

The use of turning things off and on with the power, and THEN adding more during a specific mode was great.

I love puzzles and the game was great! Hope you play my game too! :D

Not gonna lie. At first it seemed like the normal jumping game you'd see, but then the body morph mode popped up and I started having more fun. Was also funny.

Fun play, hope you play mine! :D

One of, if not the best, use of the dark/light mode.
Really enjoyed the puzzles and the ending was a great touch.

A platformer that uses light, with a dark ending. :P

Loved it and hope you can play mine too! :V

Fantastic puzzle game. Reminded me of an twist on "Baba Is You". Though it took me a while to get how some of the mechanics worked, especially running into your own line- I think. Still not sure on that one.

Mind explaining how the mechanics work on the page?

And hope you check out my game! :D

Hell yeah! :V

I plan on it, so be on the lookout! :V

Thanks a ton for playing and thanks for the encouragement!

I forgot to put the Core HP indicator, though a part of me kind of wants to keep it like that. lol
I'll probably change it though.

And yeah, the KING is a known bug. I'll have to fix it. Until then, just call it KING mode and see if you can beat it with just a KING. :P

Thanks for playing!

Those two games had some influence on this game! As well as a bit of Into The Breach and Chess.

I'm big on UI myself, so I always try and make sure navigation and using the UI feels good.
I'm also big on sounds, so I took extra care to get the Dice right and get them to feel weight.

The lightning (ENERGY) wasn't explained all too well, and it used an input that wasn't intuitive. (Hold Right Click on a Metal)
Each Metal had an ability that used ENERGY, and helped mitigate some of the ATTACK GRIT.

Had a ton of fun working on it, and glad you enjoyed it!

A mix of knowing the engine really well, using experience on old games, and pixel art.
The systems also compound on each other, which adds to the complexity.
It was a somewhat happy accident that it all worked well together when I was designing it.

Thanks a ton for playing!

That last one was a bit of a stumper too.
Took me a good while to figure it out.

Yeah. Them being so far away makes the threat less of an issue near the end. I'll have to figure out a solution for that one.

I'll probably do a little more with revealed tiles so they differ more from the black background.

Thanks for playing!

Is 4-7 the last puzzle? I got through them all, but 4-7 just repeats.

Very fun game though! I do love me some puzzles!

Had a lot of fun doing the gamble.

The dice animation did take too long after a while, but just clicking should skip to the results.

And some of the enemies were a slog to fight, specifically the ones that disabled attacks.
By disabling them, you give the player less options. And in a strategy game of sorts, giving the player less options means less tactics and limitations. Especially when they are constantly being negated.

But regardless, it was a lot of fun and I spent a good chunk of time playing it.
Would love to see something like this pushed further and made into a full game!

This game was stressful and anxiety-inducing at first, but once I got the hang of it, I replayed it a few times to get the different endings.

Was fun to play and hope you play my game too!

I loved the concept and can see something like this being used to make something bigger; with platforms and tasks for the blobs to do. Like "stand on button for a time while surviving", or using them to climb up to reach higher platforms.

A fun game and idea, and hope you try my game as well!

The concept was pretty great. I can see other TDs using this kind of concept as well.With some polish and further development, this could be pretty fun.

I also made a TD game for the jam, and kind of wonder if this sort of mechanic could help add some new enemy types for a full version.

I put a lot of time and focus on the sounds as they are one of the most important parts of a game in terms of "support polish"; to me at least. And with all this feedback I've gotten, which convinced me to make a full version, I'll try and make it even more perfecter. :V

Thank you for playing!

I do indeed have plans to make a full version!
And I'm going to simplify some stuff while keeping the core idea intact- that's the hope at least.

Also, not many beat it without focusing the wrenches.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for playing!