Devlog #36 | Wave Refinements, Ramps Return, and New Deadly Traps!

Defining the Core Wave Gameplay

This past month, our main focus has been refining how enemy waves interact with player defenses. That meant a lot of cleaning up, bug fixing, and fine-tuning the systems that make waves function properly. The goal? To lock in the core mechanics of enemy waves and establish a solid lineup of defenses that showcase different strategic possibilities.

The process was something like this: brainstorm wave or defense mechanics, implement them, test, find a bug, fix it, break something else in the process, repeat. While we have a few new traps in the mix, this month was more about refining what’s already there rather than introducing tons of flashy new features.

A big part of this was improving enemy pathfinding and refining behaviors. After plenty of tweaks, bots are much better at navigating—fewer traffic jams, less aimless wandering, and (hopefully) fewer cases of them standing still questioning their existence.

Vertical Building

🚀 Ramps are back! 🚀

While experimenting with different gameplay concepts, we initially kept things simple by focusing on single-level mazes. But now, ramps are back in the build, adding a whole new layer of strategy (and a whole new set of things to break).

Of course, this introduced some new challenges—making sure bots don’t casually walk off elevated paths, ensuring smooth transitions between ramps and flat ground, and implementing an intuitive placement system so ramps don’t feel like a puzzle piece that refuses to fit.

Bringing verticality back into enemy waves adds a whole new dimension (literally), and while it introduced a fair share of bugs, it also reinforced that many of the game’s core physics are working as intended. Plus, we got some unexpected surprises along the way—some of them intentional, some… less so.

Base Enemy Types

We went back to the drawing board (again) to define the foundational enemy types that will make up the early-game threats. Here’s what we settled on:

Ground bots – The basic foot soldiers, rolling along like they own the place. Hovering bots – They don’t care about small obstacles—just casually gliding over them like smug little drones. Flying bots – Because things weren’t chaotic enough on the ground. Each of these occupies a different space within the grid, meaning you’ll need to think carefully about how to counter them. No single defense will work against everything, so get ready to strategize.

We’ve also been exploring how turrets can handle massive amounts of firepower. Instead of explaining, we’ll let the pictures do the talking. Spoiler: It involves a lot of guns.

Bugfixing

With the core ideas getting more refined, we’ve been focusing on stability before moving on to the next big phase.

Some of this month’s bug-squashing efforts included:

Updating icons (because UI deserves love too). Finalizing the concept of identity for every entity (yes, even bots need a sense of self). Fixing collision masks on traps (turns out, traps that don’t trap are just… decorations). Adjusting how walls affect pathfinding (because bots running into walls on repeat is not a valid strategy).

It’s not the flashiest part of development, but getting everything running smoothly is crucial before we start layering in more complexity.

Traps (concept models)

We’ve been experimenting with more ways to make bots suffer—uh, I mean, "add strategic depth to the game."

Acid Sprayer – Applies a lovely coat of corrosion to bots, dealing damage over time.

Acid Pool – Bots enter. They don’t leave. Simple as that.

EMP Trap – We’re not sure how it works, but it definitely makes bots take an unexpected nap.

Crusher – It crushes things. Enough said.

Rocket Trap – Ever wondered what happens when a bot crosses paths with a fully operational rocket engine? Spoiler: it’s not great for the bot. Whether they get incinerated on the spot or launched into orbit, one thing’s for sure—it’s highly effective.

Some highlights from this month’s visual brainstorming:

Variations of a defense that delivers shocky-shocky to bots.

Two different spinny traps, possibly for mining… or for when a lot of bots need to be deleted.

Astroware Outpost – A super cool design that we can’t wait to share more about.

That’s it for this update! As always, thanks for following along, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Join our Discord and let us know what you think: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg

We truly appreciate your ongoing support and can’t wait to share what we have in store next! See you next time, Defenders! 🚀

Take care, -HM Team