Idle Tower Survivors: Doomsday - A Unique Blend of Genres
This project, titled Idle Tower Survivors: Doomsday, was developed as a prototype as part of a duo to blend multiple game genres into a cohesive experience. The goal was to create an engaging game that combines elements of Survivors-like gameplay, Tower Defense mechanics, and Idle-game progression. Players must survive relentless waves of enemies while strategically placing and upgrading towers to maximize their defenses. Even when not actively playing, the game continues to generate resources, ensuring a steady sense of progression. While still in development, the project demonstrates strong potential as a strategic and accessible game that encourages both active and passive engagement.
GitHub repository of the project
One of the project's key strengths lies in its genre hybridization—integrating real-time combat, automated tower defense, and idle mechanics into a single experience. The seamless fusion of these elements ensures that the gameplay remains both engaging in the moment and rewarding over time. A major challenge is balancing these mechanics to ensure strategic depth without overwhelming complexity. This balance not yet achieved, can be find through a combination of progressive unlocks, diverse enemy behaviors, and an evolving arsenal of towers and projectiles.
Gameplay Design
In IdleTowerSurvivors: Doomsday, players must withstand continuous enemy assaults while expanding and upgrading their defensive capabilities. The game encourages both active strategy and long-term planning, making every decision impactful.
Survivors-Like Combat & Progression
The game's core loop revolves around endless waves of enemies that spawn from the edges of the map, constantly pressuring the player's defensive setup. Every enemy defeated grants XP, allowing for new towers and upgrades to be unlocked. This experience-based progression system ensures that players are constantly improving their defenses while facing increasingly difficult challenges.
To keep encounters dynamic, enemy types feature distinct behaviors:
Bats → Extremely fast but fragile, forcing quick eliminations before they overwhelm defenses.
Slimes → Slow but highly durable, requiring sustained damage to defeat.
Each enemy type requires specific counter-strategies, encouraging experimentation and adaptive tower placement.
Tower Defense Mechanics
The placement and upgrading of towers form the backbone of Idle Tower Survivors: Doomsday. Players begin with a set of basic towers but gradually unlock a wider variety of defensive structures, each with unique attack patterns, projectile types, and elemental effects. Although we haven't had time to code all the projectile types, we have implemented the basic code. We only need to adapt the code a little to have a fully functional projectile type.
Projectiles play a critical role in defining combat tactics, with nine distinct types, including:
Fire → Causes burn damage over time, spreading between enemies.
Poison → Weakens enemies gradually, stacking for stronger effects.
Ice → Slows down fast-moving enemies, enhancing control over battlefield flow.
This elemental variety allows players to customize their defense strategy, creating synergistic tower setups that complement each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Idle Mechanics & Persistent Progression
Unlike traditional tower defense games, Idle Tower Survivors: Doomsday features idle mechanics that allow progression even when the player is offline. XP and money accumulate over time, ensuring that players can return to a more powerful setup after a break.
This system encourages long-term engagement, as players can periodically check in, refine their strategies, and make upgrades without needing to restart from scratch. The passive accumulation of resources means that even short play sessions contribute to meaningful progress.
Enhancements & Future Improvements
While the core mechanics are in place, several key areas are planned for refinement:
Expanded Projectile System
Additional projectile types with unique mechanics can be developed.
Chain Lightning → Jumps between multiple enemies, optimizing for grouped targets.
Explosive Rounds → Deals area-of-effect damage but with a delayed detonation.
Advanced Enemy AI & Behaviors
Enhancing enemy behavior will add further depth to strategic planning. Possible improvements include:
Bats becoming immune to ground-based area-of-effect damage, requiring alternative countermeasures.
Enemies with regenerating health, forcing sustained fire rather than single powerful hits.
Save System Implementation
A persistent save system will allow players to retain progress across sessions, ensuring that investments in towers and upgrades are preserved. This will integrate seamlessly with the existing idle mechanics, reinforcing long-term engagement and progression.
Skills Gained
Throughout the development of IdleTowerSurvivors: Doomsday, our duo gained significant experience in game design, programming, and balancing complex gameplay systems.
The project provided valuable insights into:
Hybrid game design, integrating multiple genres into a seamless experience.
Tower defense balancing, ensuring that upgrades feel impactful without becoming overpowered.
Enemy AI design, creating diverse and engaging challenges.
Idle-game mechanics, implementing progression that remains engaging even during downtime.